Manehatten Ghoul

"Hey... Octavia? How are you feeling? Uh, I was at the bookstore in front of the station, and Takatsuki what's-his-name was doing a book signing event. Thought you should know... uh, call me back when you feel better."

The voicemail sent from Vinyl stirred Octavia from her sleep. The alarm clock read 12:36 - Octavia's usual waking hours were firmly within the 6-to-8 A.M. bracket, but understandably, it had been a rough night. With shaking, tingling arms, she pushed herself up, and switched off her smartphone.

If anything, Octavia was going to go to this book signing. She felt that as long as she had at least some energy, then she'd expend it going to see her favourite author. At least she didn't feel overly sick any more.

"The Takatsuki Sen book-signing event is now over," the information board read as Octavia came up to the book shop. What a disappointment - not only was Octavia feeling queasy, but she was now heartbroken - the chance to see her idol was long gone.

Sighing with melancholy, Octavia pulled up the hood of her blue jacket, reluctantly turned around and headed home. If only she'd been out earlier, then perhaps she wouldn't have missed the event.

The traffic lights turned red as Octavia stepped onto the street, the city abnormally quiet as she walked slowly though the crowds of ponies making their way in the opposite direction. The amount of people here began to feel overwhelming to her, but Octavia didn't care very much. Not much really had an effect, thanks to her sheer disappointment and melancholy. She stopped, the crowd simply continuing to flow past her and giving her a mercifully wide circle around which it passed.

So many were heading home at that point - it was around midnight by then, anyway.

Octavia's stomach let out a hungry growl, which only served to bring her mood down even further. She wondered how she could eat anything, what with her current situation--

ドキ

Octavia was mildly startled by the sudden increase in noise from her heartbeat - and whatever that smell was, it was quite appetising, to the point of her mouth watering very slightly. Her vision blurred very slightly, only for a moment, but what was happening to her wasn't quite obvious.

'Ponies...' she thought, looking around at the crowd. Her mouth watered, the smell becoming stronger, almost pungent yet pleasant, like the scent of her mother's home cooking. None noticed her gaze, thankfully the crowd still gave her a lot of space.

'Ponies...' A young couple were holding hands, laughing, a perfect relationship that would surely--

'Ponies...' A young colt, smiling innocently, vulnerable and free for the--

'Flesh...' The scent grew stronger still, and it prompted her to swallow the wad of saliva that had flooded her mouth--

'F--Flesh....'

'PONIES--'

FLESH

FLESH

FLESH

FLESH

Octavia averted her gaze before anyone could notice. She tore herself away from the incomprehensible thoughts and memories, a bead of sweat traced its way down her forehead as she bit down onto her hand and was taken over by a minor trembling fit. Tears had already traced their way down her face, the stony grey, thin fur quite soaked with her fear, saliva in danger of flowing out of her mouth and tracing its path down her chin.

"Hey, what's with her?" somebody in the crowd wondered out loud.

"Ugh, don't get involved, just keep walking..." a stern reply came.

The door to her apartment was thrust open, followed by Octavia herself stumbling through, unable to balance let alone stay calm. She was doing all she could to stop herself from screaming in fear - the fear of what was happening to her, the fear of the uncertainty that gripped her. Octavia tripped up as she tore off her shoes, skidded a little as she stumbled through the spacious yet cramped and shadowed apartment to her bathroom. She tugged on the door before pushing it open instead, shattering something on the other side, but that wasn't of any concern to her right then.

Switching on the light, Octavia tried her best to stop hyperventilating, to stop panicking too much, but it was in vain - all for nothing as she dared herself to look up at the mirror in front of her. Her worst fears were realized.

Through the tears streaming down her face, it was clear that no matter how hard she tried to ignore it, no matter how much Octavia tried to pretend that it wasn't real, her left eye was black and red, with dark blood vessels streaming out from it and running onto her face, tears streaming from it. The full force of the fear took hold once again as she placed a hand just under the red-and-black eye - just affirming it was, in fact, real, was enough. Her reflection stared back at her with the same fear and horror as Octavia's, her hands shaking violently as her pupils dilated.

"Wh... What is t-this..?" She whimpered, once again trying her best to calm down, in one final, futile attempt to do so.

Her eyes widened and a gasp escaped her lips as she saw the most dreadful reflection possible in the mirror behind her. The smiling, beautiful yet terrifying profile of Twilight hung behind her, a very faint echo of a giggle bouncing off the walls of the bathroom. Overtaken by rage, Octavia growled and punched the mirror, shattering the glass, the metal, and impacting the wall behind it.

"I--I just KNOW what's causing it!" Octavia panted, running out of her bathroom and reaching for a knife.

Transfer her organs!

Blades such as knives or kitchenware cannot hurt them

"If-- If that's true... if that's true," Octavia muttered to herself as she pulled up her jacket, exposing her flat stomach, as well as the scar left over from the surgery.

"THEN THIS--!"

*snap*

The knife simply broke in half upon touching her stomach, the blade bouncing off to the left. Octavia dropped the handle and fell to the floor in despair.

"What... what am I supposed to do now?!"

In a quiet side-street somewhere, a purple-haired earth mare switched off the light that illuminated the small, pillar-like billboard that advertised the  Anteiku Cafe.

Something made the mare pause. Hair covering one of her eyes, she looked out into the night, her expression stoic, quite unlike the manner she carried herself in that morning.

The familiar and painful sight of the construction site loomed into view as Octavia walked zombie-like through the gap in the concrete wall that surrounded the still-under construction building. The scene of the 'accident' had been cleared away by now, the spot in which Octavia came close to death in cleaned of blood and bodies. The piles of steel rebar and cable had been cleared away as well, and there was not a single implication that there had been any sort of incident.

"K--kill a pony... TAKE THEIR FLESH!!" Octavia laughed to herself in a ragged, breathless tone, her left eye black and red for just a moment as she looked up at the building, clenching her fist and baring her teeth, chuckling to herself--

"Wh-- What am I..? It's almost as if I'm..." Octavia trailed off, not talking to anyone in particular as she looked down again, her eye returning to its normal white and lilac. She sat down, her head touching her knees as she sighed, wondering why she was even out at this hour. Octavia never remembered walking here, let alone going out of her way to return to her near-death scene.

Her nose caught a scent - a delicious scent that filled her mouth and made it water. Octavia got up, her head inclined upwards slightly so as to better sample the air and better draw more of this delicious, hunger-inducing scent. She turned to look down a nearby alley, her eyes widening as she sensed that the smell was stronger towards her left.

"That scent..."

Octavia began to pace towards it, going further down the alley and going faster by the second, a thin smile appearing on her lips.

"It's the first time I'm smelling it, but it seems so familiar... A sweet aroma, just like Mom's home cooking--!" She gasped, slowly breaking into a run as more of the scent filed her lungs, her mouth slowly widening as a small drip of saliva traced its way down her chin.

"Y--Yes... There's something down here that even I can eat~!" Octavia breathed, her left eye becoming black and red once again, leaving a trail of red light on the air as she increased her speed even more. She was famished, hungry beyond belief as she sped down the alleyway, turning left, right, right again and then left, all the while chuckling a little as she asked, over and over, "Where is it.. Where is it? Where is it?!"

Octavia crashed into a pile of boxes and recycling trash, spilling over the mound of refuse. She picked herself up, swallowing her spit before breaking into a smile again. "I--it's close..." she breathed, slowing down as she approached a corner.

Around this corner was the source of the oh-so-appetising and tempting smell that attracted Octavia. Hunched over something was a dusky-yellow coloured stallion, trembling slightly. A quiet tearing and slick noise came from the corner, and as Octavia crept around, what the source really was came into view...

Her smiled faded, and she was overtaken by dread. What she saw before her was terrifying, unsettling and gruesome. The stallion was, in fact, a Ghoul, hurriedly tearing off chunks of flesh from a singular pile of body parts - a pile that used to be one pony, but as of now, it was a disfigured, bloody and torn pile of bone, flesh and blood, lying dead and lifeless as the stallion continued to tear chunks off of it.

'A... Ghoul... a pony! How--- how could I have been drawn here... by the scent of a *corpse?!* Octavia thought as she trembled in fear, her mouth open in a silent gasp as her knees gave way, making her drop to the ground with a thud, sitting up on her knees and sobbing.

The Ghoul that was just eating gasped at turned to look at Octavia, surprised at first by her presence, but also by her singular kakugan. His brown mane swished as he turned suddenly to take in the sight of the one-eyed mare, but his fear soon faded as he heard the soft cries coming from the mare.

"You... you're a Ghoul, right?" he asked, trying for a friendly approach. After getting no answer, he began to grow concerned for the mare. "What's wrong? Are you OK?" he asked again. It wasn't often that a Ghoul would help another, as they were usually extremely competitive. Octavia sniffled and looked up at the Ghoul, her single kakugan unfocused, yet glowing in the darkened alley.

"My name's Caramel," the stallion smiled, his voice reassuring Octavia. He then turned his attention back to his kill, looking over the flesh pile for any spare bits of meat that would go spare. "Uh - it's been a little while since I've eaten, so I can't share much with you," he said apologetically, tearing off a chunk of flesh. He then held it out to Octavia, offering it with good intention.  "But here, eat thi--"

He was cut short by his head swiftly detaching from his body, his head flying off into the distance as it sped by Octavia, who was stunned at the sudden turn of events. It seemed that his head had simply been kicked off, like a soccer ball. Behind Caramel's now headless body stood a ginger-haired brown stallion, his glasses reflecting the light from the fluorescent lamps around him. "Sheesh... don't go plundering my feeding grounds," he sighed, as if this was simply a mild, daily annoyance. He then noticed Octavia still kneeling in front of the corpse pile as he adjusted his glasses.

"Hmm? I've never seen you before," he observed, taking a step towards the kneeling mare.

"For that matter, why is only one of your eyes red? That's nasty..." he trailed off, scratching the back of his head. A sudden movement from behind his back alerted Octavia, and she was about to run away there and then before something all too familiar happened once again, just as it had a month ago.

A blue and green singular tentacle had erupted from the stallion's tail, flying out and grabbing Octavia by the neck, slamming her into the concrete behind her. The stallion drew closer, both of his eyes black and red and a menacing, yet stoic look on his face as he clenched his fists. "You know what you get for looting someone's territory, right..?" He growled, his tail-tentacle tightening around Octavia's neck. It was clear enough that he had every intention to kill and walk away, though it was quite surprising how calm he carried himself.

"I--I wasn't... I didn't know.. I was just passing by--" Octavia gasped, her vision darkening rapidly as the air available to her slowly diminished under the crushing pressure the tentacle was exerting on her neck.

"OK, imagine this," the stallion said, cutting Octavia off. "Your girlfriend is lying on the ground, naked - and somepony with his pants down says to you: 'I wasn't doing anything. I just happened to be here'. That's the same as what you're telling me. If it were me, I'd kill that motherfucker." Meanwhile, the pool of blood was growing gradually, the body slowly letting go of its remaining tension and spilling all that was left. "That's why I'm killing you - as punishment for trespassing on my feeding grounds--" The stallion was cut off by a voice behind him.

"Whose feeding grounds, did you say?" came the demanding, forceful voice of a mare, drawing the stallion's attention.

A mare dropped down from the rooftops, landing with the grace and skill of a feline as she landed without making a sound, crouching. "Since when were these your feeding grounds, Trenderhoof?" As she stood, it became clear to Octavia who she was - that was the waitress in Anteiku - Maud.

Trenderhoof dropped Octavia's body to the ground, his singular tentacle unwinding from her neck and letting her fall to the ground, leaving her to sputter and gasp for air as her windpipe recovered.

"I know she's dead - the binge-eating mare, am I right?"He asked, his tail-tentacle poising itself rather like a scorpion's tail, pulsating slightly.

"And that makes these your feeding grounds?" Maud asked, straightening up and folding her arms. She then looked at the body - or at least, what was left of the victim that lay on the street. It was hard to label the pile of flesh and blood as a pony now, as all it resembled was torn fabric and simple meat, nothing more or less than just that.

"The task of redistributing the feeding grounds that Twilight stole from weaker ghouls, and otherwise managing the 20th Ward... belong to us at Anteiku," she said in a roughly monotone voice, her eyes filling in with red and black as she spoke.

"Oh?! A bunch of fence-sitters like Anteiku have no right to go picking over every little thing!" Trenderhoof growled, his tentacle seemingly sharpening itself to a point. He began taking steps towards Maud, cracking his knuckles. At the same time, the blue and green mottled tentacle wrapped itself around his leg. "This was MY feeding ground in the first place, before Twilight came in--"

"Because you were weak."

"Being insulted by a smart-ass punk is something that really pisses me off," Trenderhoof stated matter-of-factly, the blood vessels around his eyes growing red as his anger grew, in turn.

"Is it really?" Maud challenged, holding her ground.

Suddenly, Trenderhoof moved at lightning speed, creating a brief gale-force wind around him as he whipped around, launching himself into a flying kick directed towards Maud, his leg encircled by the tentacle, which glowed blue as he closed in. "ENOUGH!!" He yelled, speeding towards Maud with enough force to take her head off as well.

But that didn't succeed.

The next thing Octavia saw was Maud skidding to a halt behind Trenderhoof as the latter's kick missed completely. A trail of red light followed Maud's red pupil as she landed in front of Octavia, followed by Trenderhoof skidding to a stop much further away, dust billowing out from under his shoes and from his hands. A few cuts and gashes were visible on his body, prompting his single tentacle to sink back into his body.

"Ugh... you'll have to cut deeper than that, Maud!" He retaliated, still up for a fight, apparently.

"Will I?"

A series of deeper cuts appeared on his legs, gushing open with blood. He was wreathed with pain as the cuts seemed to progress further up his limbs, covering his arms and chest as well. Trenderhood's legs gave way a little, forcing him to hunch down and clutch his injuries, one of his eyes closed as a gash appeared over that.

"Can I go even harder next time?" Maud asked in jest, yet her expression hardly changed. No blood was present on her whatsoever, instead her clothes remained clean and her body free of injury.

Trenderhoof fled, his footsteps becoming fainter as he ran away down the remainder of the alley, the wounds obviously not fatal, but they were certainly bound to sting even more in the morning. Maud stayed stoic, turning to look at the fortunate, still-breathing Octavia. "You're not eating?" Maud asked. To her, it would seem that only a very stupid mare wouldn't eat her fill after having her throat nearly crushed like that. However, Octavia showed a decent level of regeneration, as her throat had quickly healed, no signs of crushing present.

"H--Hold on... You were with Twilight that day, weren't you?" Maud asked, her eyes widening as she put two-and-two together. Only one red eye, and after what should have killed her, this mare was still alive - and newly a Ghoul?

Octavia simply got up and ran, now not hungry enough, not wanting to risk anything else happening. Her eye returned to normal as she fled, going back the way she came with more haste than she ever thought her legs could supply.

Maud was left standing there. Left to process what just happened, and what that could have meant. A Half-Ghoul? After being caught up with a Ghoul such as Twilight, there was surely no surviving, much less news of her death following the week after... and now this?

"...A half-breed, huh?" Maud thought. She turned her attention to the corpse, kneeling down and breaking off a piece of flesh. She disregarded the thought for now, settling for a meal instead of pursuing that half-breed.