Autumnal trees lined a surprisingly clean and quiet Manehatten side-street, a juxtaposition of nature and development that nonetheless pleased the eye. The leaves were being swept up in tiny whirlwinds as a television blared on somewhere, something about disturbing recent events.
'Early this morning, several unidentified male bodies were discovered in the Aqua Building, a commercial facility in Manehatten's 20th Ward,' the news channel clinically droned as somebody somewhere set their coffee down on a table.
On this side-street stood a quite hidden and charming cafe known as Anteiku. The television continued on, now with one or two customers and maybe a member of staff paying attention to it, 'What is believed to be saliva belonging to Ghouls was retrieved from the bodies...'
And yet, still the place held its comforting and peaceful tone, even if it did have--
An white unicorn mare with an unkempt, blue mane was in hysterics, mockingly laughing at whom she shared her table with, quite loudly, too.
"It's not that funny, is it?" asked the dark grey mare at the table as she lifted her coffee cup, a book lying next to the saucer. The unicorn mare was calming down a little, but only just enough to speak, still giggling.
"Hahaha - I'm just saying, you can't have a first date at a bookstore, right?" the unicorn kept laughing, interrupting the grey mare's drinking.
"W-Whyever not? She could be thrilled, you know?" she retorted, raising an eyebrow at her friend opposite. She had a black mane, and was wearing a pink bow tie and a short, black dress, honestly quite overdressed for just a casual day out, or a first date.
The unicorn mare was wearing a white jacket and jeans, a pair of headphones around her neck, too. And she seemed quite resolute in her objection to the dark grey mare's date plans. "I'll state for the record, it won't happen. Case dismissed," she grinned, waving away the thought in an exaggerated manner.
While another person would surely have been quite offended and become impatient, this particular mare wasn't the kind to do so. "Eh..? Then first, I'll take her down to Big Filly, just the two of us, and we'll get a burger," she suggested, half to herself, a light blush showing on her face. The unicorn simply startled sniggering again, quite amused.
"I-I'm giving you a serious answer--"
"No, it's great! It's great, just like you," the white mare chortled, as the dark grey earth pony began to get more embarrassed - humiliated, in fact. "But, as a date, it'll be a flop," the unicorn decided.
The grey earth mare had just about enough. "What, is everything I do wrong? Vinyl, what would you do?" she finally asked, scowling as much as she could, but all that did was make her look slightly concerned.
"Listen up. You have to choose a place where a mare will be please to be when making a date," Vinyl stated, matter-of-factly.
"Such as?"
That caught Vinyl out. "Huh? S-such as..."
"Vinyl, you don't even know, do you," the dark grey mare asked, rolling her eyes.
"If I knew it, I wouldn't be spending my afternoon off like this, out having a date with you," Vinyl sighed, leaning on the table.
"I guess that's true..." the other mare agreed.
The news was still going on about Ghoul-related murders. '..These last few days have seen a string of predatory ghoul attacks on the 20th ward, and according to CCG's 20th Ward Branch, they are investigating the possibility that the incidents are the actions of the same culprit. In other news...'
Vinyl turned to look at the TV, her previous fit of giggles gone, now quite a serious look in those red eyes of hers. "That's pretty close, huh..." Just as the dark grey mare was sipping her coffee, Vinyl leaned in very quickly, inches away from her friend's face, startling the mare. "So? So-so-so?? Who is she," Vinyl whispered, holding back laughter and shielding her mouth, "the cute mare you mentioned?" However, Vinyl's attention was quickly drawn to a grey mare with a purple mane, a waitress having a conversation with a customer. She did look quite pretty, but was not the mare in question.
"Oh, it's her, right~?" Vinyl winked.
"No, it isn't. Sure, she's cute too..." she was cut off by Vinyl once again.
"Excuse me!" Vinyl called out to the mare, getting her attention. "One cappuccino, please! And you, Octavia?"
"I'm not done with mine yet," she replied as the waitress noted down Vinyl's order.
"Also, what's your name?" Vinyl asked the mare, smiling.
"Vinyl!" Octavia harshly whispered, not wanting to get thrown out on Vinyl's actions.
The waitress looked slightly flustered, despite her stony grey appearance. "It's Maud Pie--"
Vinyl got up from her chair rather quickly. "Maud-san! Are you seeing anyone?!" she asked, quite out-of-the-blue, getting the waitress visibly flustered. Maud just ran away, not wanting to deal with this at all.
"Stop that, you idiot!" Octavia berated her, but Vinyl just ignored her protests.
"Hmm, how lovely," Vinyl beamed, decently amused.
"If I get kicked out of here, then what will I do?!" Octavia complained. "This shop is the one place where she and I both--!"
But she was cut off by the bell that chimed whenever the door opened. But it was more the pony who entered, not the bell, that got Octavia's attention. She stared, open-mouthed yet not looking gormless. "She's... the one."
Blue high heels, a long, white skirt and a blue blouse were what the pony who just came in wore, a pair of red glasses perched just below her eyes. She was a very lovely looking mare - a purple unicorn with at least three different shades of purple in her mane and tail, her mane coming down to her shoulders in length. In fact, to Octavia, she seemed to brighten the tone of the coffee shop just by being there. She held a quite decorative beige handbag, which seemed to be filled with nothing but books - chock-full, in fact, as evidenced by quite a few corners and spines of books jutting out from her bag.
As Octavia was watching the purple mare, Vinyl simply sighed and sat back in her chair, arms crossed and eyes closed. "Girl, forget it. You and her would be Beauty and whatever."
"Ugh, the Beast!" Octavia sighed, infuriated by Vinyl's lack of general literary knowledge. In truth, all this afternoon off yielded was Vinyl being annoying, so Octavia was understandably ticked off, in the very least.
Vinyl, seemingly oblivious to Octavia's annoyance, stretched and got up. "Ah, well then - Now that I've seen you lovelorn, I think I'll be off." With that, she stepped away from the table after forking out a few bits to pay for her coffee.
"W-Wait, Vinyl..." Octavia began, but didn't get the chance to finish her sentence as Vinyl walked off towards the door.
"See ya later, Maud-san," Vinyl winked to the waitress. Octavia cringed with embarrassment, beginning to turn her head to the eye-catching purple unicorn mare, who had taken a seat near the back of the cafe. But she was startled - and interrupted - once again by Vinyl.
"Good luck, delusional Octavia!" Vinyl called to her as she exited the cafe, trying her best to refrain from laughing more, even though the subject wasn't really that funny anymore.
Now that Vinyl was gone, Octavia sighed with relief as she picked up her book - Egg of The Black Goat, by Takatsuki Sen, her all-time favourite author. She flicked through the pages of the book until she reached the bookmark, calming down from Vinyl's obnoxiousness - it was annoying, but welcome; that was Vinyl in a nutshell, to Octavia.
Slowly, Octavia turned her head to look at the purple unicorn. The mare in question had just been served her coffee, and as the waitress left her presence, she reached into her bag and--
She took out the very same book Octavia had - Egg of The Black Goat. Octavia gasped quietly at this coincidence.. and was quite astounded that the very mare she had her eyes on shared her interests. What luck! The purple unicorn got to the page she was on, looking very studious as she was reading, her glasses only enhancing her intelligent beauty. Octavia smiled, her spirits soaring and with pleasant excitement filling her - yes - for once in her life, she really did have a chance here.
An errant lock of hair dropped down from the unicorn's mane, which she brushed away - and looked up at Octavia, now aware of her staring. Octavia, red with embarrassment, gasped and nervously tried to hide the fact she was staring by pretending to go back to reading.
A few seconds passed before she steeled herself and looked back up at the mare... mercifully, she hadn't minded in the slightest - she smiled, not minding, maybe even liking the fact that she caught Octavia's eye.
"Mm - I guess you sometimes get lucky," admitted a full-mouthed Vinyl into her phone, conversing with Octavia while eating a bit of cake. She was on her bike, not really a smart thing to be doing while speaking on the phone, but she was stopped at a crossroads, so she was fine to have her phone out. There seemed to be something going on where she was involving the police stopping the traffic momentarily, but nothing serious could have been happening, despite the police lights and sirens everywhere...
'Yeah - Imagine, liking the same novelist I do!' came Octavia's reply over the line. She was in her apartment, tucking into her favourite brand of vegetarian burger.
'Yeah, who was it again? Takasaki Sen?' asked Vinyl, though she was a little hard to hear due to the sound of traffic and sirens.
Octavia gulped down her mouthful before correcting Vinyl. "No, Takatsuki Sen!" she replied through another mouthful of burger. "We're going to go to the bookstore this coming Sunday," she smiled, brimming with anticipation for her date.
"Oh, yeah? I'm not too sure how good a bookstore date would be, but have a good time," Vinyl said before she ended the call, put her cell phone in her pocket and rode off.
The source of the disturbance near the junction, and the reason why the traffic had been stopped was because of one thing - a crime scene investigation. Four bodies, concealed under a blue plastic sheet, lay on the sidewalk, surrounded by blood. This was part of the wave of increased attacks, so it didn't bear thinking about what the bodies looked like - but it was a given that it wouldn't have been a pretty sight, nor would the bodies be intact in any sense of the word.
"I have to say, this is getting ugly," a stallion in a suit - an investigator - mentioned to his colleague, who was just stepping under the yellow tape that surrounded the murder scene.
"Yeah," the other investigator agreed, adjusting his round, opaque glasses.
"Word is that eating one person is supposed to last them a month, but these binge eaters are something else," the stallion stated, surveying the sheet under which the bodies - or what was left of them - lay.
"Write them off as animals, and they'd eat any number of people, wouldn't they?" the glasses-wearing investigator wondered, reaching into his pocket.
"Ghouls as animals, huh?"
"They're worse than livestock, since they're not good for anything," the other investigator explained, producing a dark blue handkerchief from his pocket, wiping his hands.
"Heh, that's true."
"Octavia-san, what's your favourite work by Takatsuki?" asked Octavia's date, the purple unicorn she met in that cafe. She was wearing a white blouse today instead of the blue shirt, and Octavia wore the same black dress she had worn in the cafe. They had been and visited the bookstore Octavia wanted to go to, and were now having a meal together - a veggie burger and fries for Octavia and a salad sandwich for her date.
"Oh.. it'd have to be his debut work," she replied as she tucked into a slice of her burger.
"It was a breakout hit, after all. The delicacy amidst all the extremeness, you might say," the purple unicorn added.
Octavia was beginning to get excited. "Y-Yes, exactly! To have that much talent in writing, and still be in his teens when it came out--" She choked and gasped - something was stuck in her throat.
"Are you alright?"
She was fine; whatever was caught in her throat was dislodged... but due to the way her date was leaning towards her, she got a good look down the purple unicorn's blouse at her breasts, reddening Octavia's cheeks. "I-I'm fine... Er, I mean... t-that is.." She was increasingly flustered - not only was she already anxious from being on a date with her idea of an ideal mare, but now she needed a new topic to talk about.
Octavia quickly looked down, seeing that her date had barely touched her food. "Oh, Twilight-san.. you don't eat much, do you?" she casually asked, changing the subject and calming down.
"Huh? Oh... Actually, um, I'm on a dietary regimen," she bashfully admitted in her quiet voice, putting a hand to her lips. "Excuse me - I need to use the restroom," she said, getting up and leaving the table. Now that Octavia got a closer look at Twilight's food, she could see that her sandwiches were completely untouched. Must be a very strict diet..
"Thank you very much for today," Twilight smiled, now with quite a few shopping bags on her arms. It was a lot later in the day by then, with many people just making their way home, the city luminous with fluorescent light, as per usual.
"No, thank you. It--It's been fun," Octavia replied, giving a very slight bow.
But now that Octavia got a good look at Twilight, something seemed slightly wrong. She looked concerned, with gaze directed downwards and her hands close by her chest.
"...The truth is, I... I live near where these recent incidents have been..."
"Oh, you mean the Ghouls?" Octavia asked, somewhat bluntly.
That made Twilight visibly shudder from the very mention of the term; it could do that to a person, especially if they lived in one of the more high-profile Wards of the city. "I'm awfully bad at handling this - Just thinking about it even now, I can't stop trembling..." There was very genuine fear in those violet eyes of hers. Of course there was; living in such an area meant a very high risk of death - it nearly brought her to tears.
"That's all right," Octavia said, as she tried to reassure Twilight - an upset mare was a sight nobody really wanted to see. "Please, rest assured - I'll see you home," she offered.
Twilight responded with a small, meek smile, giving a sigh of relief.
The lighting was quite different in this part of the city - it was the soft, yellow light of strings of lightbulbs wrapped around rows of trees, as opposed to the pure white, fluorescent light of the busier parts.
"...Yes, so then Vinyl asked me, 'Which do you like better, me or novels?'" Octavia was trying to make small talk, in order to pass the time if anything - of course, she was nervous as all hell, but still, Twilight took it with a good heart.
"She sounds like a funny mare," she smiled. The two would make their way through the city, talking all the way.
"Yes."
...
"Was there something that turned you onto books?" Twilight asked.
"My dad left a lot of books in our house," Octavia replied. "I lost my father before I can remember.. but I liked the books he left and while my mother was out working, I'd spend my time reading them. Then... ever since my mother died..." she trailed off. "You know, Vinyl is the only other person I've told this to.."
"Is that right? Ah..."
Twilight stopped walking, then pointed to an alternate alleyway. "It's this way," she said.
As the two went down that alleyway, the mare from the cafe - Maud - walked by in the opposite direction with a friend of hers. She paused, and looked down the noticeably darkened alley, and at the two mares who just went down there. She stared, deep in thought.
"Hey, Maud - is something wrong?" Her friend asked.
"...Hm, not really..."
"Well, I'm right over here, so..."
Octavia and Twilight came to a stop in an alley quite near to a construction site - odd, but perhaps she lived nearby, thought Octavia.
"Thanks again for today, Octavia-san," Twilight smiled, about to turn away and walk home.
"T-Twilight-san..." began Octavia with a blush colouring her otherwise grey cheeks, thinking through what she had to say as Twilight stopped walking and turned back towards her.
"Um... is it okay if we see each other again?"
Twilight paused before answering, brushing some lilac mane out of her face. "...We do have similar taste in books, and we're around the same age - there's a lot we have in common, huh?"
A train rumbled by on elevated tracks somewhere, casting halogen light over the two as they stood in a brief moment of silence. Twilight's purple eyes glinted, that glint visible even from the distance Octavia was standing from. "Octavia..." she began.
"Y-Yes?" answered an obviously nervous Octavia.
"The truth is, I noticed you. The way you were looking at me," she said, coming up close to Octavia, gently pulling her into a hug and nuzzling Octavia's shoulder.
"Hm--? Then, you mean, you, too..."
"Yes... I, too, happen to be interested," She lifted her head up to whisper to Octavia. "in you..."
Octavia's heart raced, a light red hue to her cheeks flared up and a look of pure joy was in her eyes as she quietly, happily gasped, when--
Oh, no.
Oh, no.
Red, grainy smoke began to rise from Twilight's back, growing in intensity and in concentration - reaching a point at which it coalesced into... a red, scaled tentacle pointed right at her eye. It was now far too late for Octavia to realise her mistake, let alone run--
She suddenly became aware of a paralyzing, unreal pain in her shoulder and a loud, wet tearing noise as well as a sensation of warm liquid spilling out as another train thundered over the two mares once again. Trembling with a horrendous mixture of pain, fear and horror, Octavia slowly turned to look at her left shoulder, at which point Twilight drew away from her.
Twilight's lower face was covered in blood, her lips dripping with the stuff as she smiled and opened her eyes... which were now pure, luminescent red with jet black sclera - Octavia had been mortally tricked...
Dropping her bags, Octavia stumbled backwards and fell down, still half-paralyzed with shock as Twilight stood above her. Twilight smiled wider as she swallowed down what Octavia could only assume to be a bite of her flesh. "Ah... Delicious~!" she sighed, dropping her red jacket as she took a few steps towards Octavia.
"Octavia-san... there's something I like more than reading. Know what it is?" she asked, as Octavia clutched her blooded shoulder and stared up at Twilight, shivering with fear, her body not responding as desperate thoughts of running away shot through Octavia's mind.
"...I'll tell you - It's pulling out all the organs of someone who isn't running away from me!!" she laughed maniacally. That quickly turned from crazed laughter to moans of pleasure, "Oh, that expression! It's fantastic!" Twilight cried as she stooped over, her hands coated in blood too. Twilight fell silent as she licked her lips, slowly drawing in closer to Octavia, removing her red glasses as she did so.
"Mm... Would you let me... THRILL MYSELF EVEN MORE?!"
A red light grew from her back as glowing, red tentacles extended from her upper waist. She jumped backwards as more scaled, red tentacles erupted from her back with a burst of blood, all the while she was laughing and screaming, her red eyes leaving trails of crimson light in the air as she thrashed and writhed about in hysterics. Now there were four red-scaled and glowing tentacles jutting from her back, and had ripped through her white dress, though that didn't bother her - the thrill of the hunt overpowered every concern she could have had.
Finally, Octavia got to her feet and ran, nothing but the instinct to run going through her mind, adrenaline overpowering common sense and rational thoughts, instead a steady stream of no way no way no way no way no way no way *no way, no way, no way, no way, NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY NO--***
She tripped and fell, her legs curiously bound together. Only just realizing what was happening, she was dragged back, her world literally turned upside-down as she was held up by the foot, a tentacle wrapped crushingly tight around her ankle as an upside-down Twilight stood before her, still laughing.
"I caught you~!" she giggled as a tentacle of hers whipped around, smashing Octavia through a ferro-concrete wall, generating a huge cloud of opaque dust as Octavia smashed right through it.
Octavia shakingly picked herself up from the ground, now inside the construction site itself. She was, somehow, not as hurt as she should have been, but it was difficult to get up and walk, but the threat of ending up as Ghoul food was enough to keep her alive. Blood was streaked down her face, streaming from her eyes and her mouth as she walked forwards in a daze - understandable after being thrown through a wall.
"Oc-ta-vi-a-saaaan?!" came the dementedly happy, playful call of Twilight, who was surely looking around for her meal, but most probably knew exactly where she was. Twilight leapt out of the immense cloud of grey dust, soaring through the air before landing behind Octavia.
Twilight continued her crazed, ironically playful laughter as she landed on her tentacles, ensnaring Octavia with a few with crushing pressure, stabbing right through her with another. Multiple times, the scaled tentacle ripped through her abdomen and out the other side, making Octavia throw up blood and to leak it from places it really shouldn't, namely from countless holes in her middle. She didn't have time to scream, or even think as her vision began to blur and fade, her sense of hearing leaving her ears as unconsciousness began to take its hold - its last hold.
"I'm going to... gently scramble up your insides for you now, okay, honey~?" Twilight grinned, a blood-soaked tentacle poised to do so. "Oh, did you die?" she asked nonchalantly, not getting any reaction from Octavia's unconscious body. "That's too bad... I really did like you," she sighed.
Far above, steel ropes unravelled and snapped...
"Ohh, there's just the right amount of fat on you; you look nice and soft, easy to eat~" she sniggered, her eyes glowing brighter red.
More steel ropes disconnected and broke, dangerously close to unfastening and letting go of whatever they were carrying. And they did; steel bars, girders and cinderblocks fell down from the incomplete building, hurtling towards the ground - and at the wrong time, the wrong place - was Twilight. The last thing she would--
*SMASH*
The payload of the steel ropes fell to the ground with an almighty smash, sending dust flying... and crushing Twilight underneath a pile of steel and concrete. Red tentacles began to dissolve and fade into the tiny red and black particulates they were made from, 'bleeding' the smokey substance that made the organs. Twilight was still - barely - alive, just enough to speak for the final time, draw her last breaths - it was fortunate that her body was not visible under the pile of steel and rock; it certainly wouldn't have been a pretty sight.
"How... could this... happen..."
Octavia still retained her last dregs of consciousness to hear and see Twilight befall a grizzly fate, her final moments spent gasping for air and questioning how it was possible that she could die... ambulance sirens came into the last of Octavia's earshot before everything faded to black.
we'll begin operating immediately
where am i
Her internal organs have almost all ruptured..
what is happening
"Prepare for organ transplant!"
"Without consent of next of kin?!"
organ? next of kin?
what are they talking about?
i was on a date with Twilight-san... wasn't i?
"Ryuzaki-hakase--!"
"I will accept all responsibility - transfer her organs into the other one..!"
it's warm...
is this...?
"Patient is confirmed stable..."
...
That night, a mare lay still and near lifeless, on a hospital bed in the dark grey-green of one of the quieter sections of a hospital somewhere. She lay stagnant under a thin white sheet, shivering with the after-effects of the anaesthetics. Tubes that came out of her wrists and forearms had granted her life-giving, much-needed blood. An oxygen mask covered her muzzle, its inside clouding up with each shallow rise and fall of her chest. She was coming around, only gradually, though, after an operation of the type she'd been through. The mare shifted, and opened one softly-coloured lilac eye... then the other.
The other eye opened much wider. It was barely her own, however - her own sclera wouldn't be jet-black, her normal eye colour definitely wasn't neon red and glowing dimly, with similarly red veins running out from it and down her cheek. It twitched sickeningly, blankly staring up at nothingness on the ceiling.
A few hours had passed before Octavia woke up - it was at least the middle of the day before she regained consciousness. In fact, she was remarkably fine for someone who barely survived Ghoul predation - no fractured bones or brain injuries - but her vital organs had taken the heaviest toll.
It may have explained why she couldn't enjoy any food.
Indeed, just as she was eating lunch, Octavia felt incredibly sickened, even nauseated by the taste of the food she was given - a tiny forkful of a simple lettuce sandwich made her gag, even though she was perfectly fine with eating one under any other circumstances. Even for hospital food standards, it was quite terrible.
'That's strange... what's going on here?' she thought, setting her fork down on the small table propped up on the rails of her bed.
"Octavia-san?" came the voice of a nurse, who was just entering to check up on her. Octavia herself just didn't want to deal with it, so she pulled up the sheet over herself and pretended to be asleep.
The nurse approached Octavia's bed, noticing the complete lack of missing food. "Is this all you're going to eat..?"
She got no reaction from the supposedly asleep patient. "Oh, right - your friend came by again today," she mentioned.
Under the sheet, Octavia opened her eyes, made uncomfortable by the prospect of Vinyl being turned away again. It just wasn't fair, what with nobody being able to visit her, for whatever reason that may have been. She really did want Vinyl to visit, but alas, she wasn't allowed any visitors.
The nurse took the plate and mini-table away, and was about to leave when a doctor entered.
"Ah, Ryuzaki-hakase..." she smiled, then took her leave of the room.
"How are we feeling today, Octavia?" the grey mare heard. It was the friendly, quiet voice of Doctor Ryuzaki, the very same doctor - and surgeon - who was instrumental in saving Octavia's life; she never expected to be saved by a kitsune, of all the species that had quite recently immigrated to Equestria - the non-equine species were a minority in the medical services. Octavia came out from under her covers, knowing full well that she'd be required to be examined.
She was greeted by the sight of an anthropomorphic, red and white-furred fox sitting by her bed - a kitsune, as evidenced by the seven-or-so tails the doctor sported that poked out from under his white medical coat. The doctor was quite young - only about thirty, at the most, with tamed black hair, just about long enough to require tying back. Oddly, he possessed mismatched eyes; one a normal yellow, the other in the shape of a medical cross, most likely to be an implant, or a product of aesthetic surgery on a blinded eye.
"I'm.. feeling okay, Doctor..." Octavia trailed off, quite tired and sluggish - understandable, given the nature of the surgery, as well as the recoil from the accident that made her require it.
Vinyl was stood outside the hospital, looking up at the room Octavia was probably in. She had been turned away from seeing Octavia yet again, much to her disappointment. Giving her a call wasn't an option either, as patients' phones were usually put away until their discharge.
Sighing, Vinyl walked away, putting on her headphones.
After the brief examination, the doctor removed the stethoscope, the examination complete.
"Well, everything seems to be in order here. I hear you haven't eaten at all since you were admitted, but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong," he commented, still in the usual friendly manner as Octavia buttoned up her medical gown again. She thought she should mention it to him now. Her eye had long since returned to normal - she couldn't remember it changing at all, but still, there was definitely something she wanted to say.
"Um - my sense of taste.. isn't right," Octavia said softly, finishing doing up her clothes.
"Sense of taste?" the doctor asked, tilting his head slightly.
"It's... it's like everything tastes, um... horrible," she elaborated.
Oh.
"Hm, that'll be psychological in nature. That was a very serious incident you were in, after all." The doctor showed no signs of confusion, having arrived at a conclusion almost immediately. "Take all the time you need to heal - there's no rush at all," he assured her, getting up from his seat. "I'll be back to check up on you later - rest assured, you're going to make a full recovery," he smiled, then exited the room.
Still though. What he said bothered Octavia a little. "Nothing out of order..?" She said to herself, deep in thought. Sure, she was fine physically, but what of her sense of taste? She hadn't heard of that happening to people before, nor had she expected it to be so intense - it wasn't that any food just tasted horrible, but it made her gag and feel ill. It couldn't have been brain damage either, so what was happening..?
いち しゅうかん ご
A week later, Octavia was discharged from hospital. Having been given a plain grey jacket and jeans by the hospital staff earlier that day, she was free to go by the late afternoon, but something was definitely bothering her as she made her way back to her apartment for the first time in a week. 'It's almost as if the events of that day with Twilight-san were things that never happened,' she thought. Sure enough, it had been a harrowing event that earned her admittance into hospital, but her recollection of said event was hazy, almost shrouded.
She tried distracting herself by reading a newspaper or two - but that failed as well, due to the fact that the events Octavia went through had made headlines in the 20th Ward news; "MARE SAVED WITH ORGAN TRANSPLANT FROM LOVER - FATAL ACCIDENT BROUGHT THEM CLOSER TOGETHER", the tacky newspapers and tabloids spouted. Thankfully, neither her name nor details had been shared by the hospital, save for an edited version of events - allegedly, it had been the steel bars that had both injured Octavia and killed Twilight, and made no mention of the killed mare being a Ghoul.
'But one thing's for sure,' she thought. 'Ever since then, something had been... something has been strange.'
Octavia had arrived at her apartment, a nice, low-cost ground-floor flat she had brought during her final years at college. On the door handle hung a plastic bag full of what seemed to be groceries and ingredients, as well as a folded piece of paper that bore a tiny illustration of a waving Vinyl - "PLEASE READ!" its caption read.
Taking this bag and putting it on the table indoors, Octavia read the note.
'Octavia!
Congratulations on your discharge! Presenting: some high-quality leftovers from my place, as well as your favorite veggie burger! I hope you appreciate it! ':)'
PS: When you feel up to it, please come on over. It's rough here on my own...'
Octavia fell down onto her bed, reading the note over one more time. Melancholy gripped her now, eliciting a sigh from her. "Vinyl... thank you so much. But I'm sorry," she said to herself before she fell asleep, oddly exhausted.
That night, Octavia sat on her bed, contemplating and half-listening to the television - a program had come on with an interview of a professor on Ghouls, or something like that. Interestingly, the guy who was being interviewed was the very same doctor who had treated - and organized - Octavia's operation; Doctor Ryuzaki, the kitsune. This particular program was local to the 20th Ward, and was put together shortly after the Binge-Eater attacks started in the Ward.
"A ghoul doesn't have any need to eat this much in this short amount of time in the first place. One dead body will allow them to survive for around a month or two," he was just explaining.
The interviewer asked another question. "Ryuzaki-san, can't Ghouls be satisfied by eating the same food normal creatures do?" That caught Octavia's attention. She was half-asleep before that came up, and perhaps she was jumping to conclusions, but...
"No, Ghouls are only able to derive nutrition from living, sentient beings..." Octavia's skin began to crawl as her eyes widened and she turned to look at the television. The kitsune continued explaining, seeming to ignore the grim nature of the subject altogether.
"Not to mention, their tongues work differently to ours. When they eat food below a specific RC cell level, it tastes incredibly awful to them," he said, gesturing to his own mouth.
Only now realizing what was happening to her (and most probably jumping to conclusions), Octavia gulped, shivering in her horrible realization as the words of the doctor echoed through her mind. 'It tastes incredibly awful to them...'
Quickly, Octavia ran to her kitchen, tearing open the plastic bag Vinyl had left her. She hurriedly shifted through the contents until she found a plastic-wrapped veggie burger - her favorite brand, too. She stared down at it, a bead of cold sweat running down her forehead. With shivering hands, she opened the plastic wrapping, and lifted the burger up. Still hyperventilating, eyes wide with fear and with a clammy face, she hesitantly tried to take a bite...
But failed to push through the fear of it tasting awful - the gravity of the situation was setting in by now, too, so...
She pushed the thoughts aside, hastily chomping down on her burger - only to be struck with absolute nausea, her mouth bombarded with the most awful tastes imaginable. Quickly, she ran to the bathroom and emptied her stomach into the toilet.
As soon as that was done, Octavia began breathing faster, even more panic and fear seeping into her as she unsuccessfully held back sobbing and tears.
"Oh, no...!" She coughed, desperately rejecting the thoughts - the very notion of what she thought was happening to her, running back to try again, to reaffirm her worst realization. to try and eat something else and to try and prove herself wrong. Again, and again she tried, stuffing herself with whatever she could find; tacos, milk, salad, but it all yielded the same result, the terrible urge to vomit and the disgusting taste that overflowed her mouth - all the same thing, every time. With tears streaming down her face Octavia tried even more, even more desperate now as she took it a step further, squirting sauces into her mouth, chugging cola --- but it all failed, and all that happened was the violent nausea attack, all but confirming her worst fears--
She fell to her knees and started sobbing, defeated by her own conscience and the stark reality of the situation, surrounded by the debris of her efforts: spilt liquids, containers strewn across the room. Just then, the plastic bag from earlier fell to the floor, and out of it spilled-
'Presenting your favourite veggie burger'
A pot of boiling water sat on the gas stove, with the little plastic bag that contained the ready-made burger in it.
"Vinyl... did you really go out and buy this just for me..?" Octavia thought aloud as she cooked the burger. Perhaps, she thought, food needs to be a hot meal before I can eat it. She was touched by Vinyl's act of buying it on her behalf, but still, she anticipated that she wouldn't be able to eat it. By now, Octavia had cleaned up, having cleared the floor of the mess she'd made.
After cooking it and putting it on a plate, Octavia cut a forkful off of it. With a shaking hand, she pushed that forkful into her mouth, and of course, it tasted horrible.
But she didn't run for the bathroom just yet. A tear ran down her face as she cupped her mouth and gagged, forcing herself to swallow at least a little bit of the burger. "T-this.. can't be real," she whispered as she slid back down onto her knees.
Vinyl cancelled the outgoing call to Octavia, the call taking more than 20 minutes to be responded to. She sighed and put her phone away, though she did have sympathy for her friend - of course she wouldn't have been feeling in any shape to talk.
"Friend of yours?" came a voice from behind her.
"Oh, yeah - she was supposed to get out of the hospital today, but I can't reach her," Vinyl replied, turning to the source of the voice. "I went to see her, like, five times, but I got turned away."
The source of the voice was a brownish stallion, typing at a desktop computer. "Hmm... If it were me, I'd cut off ties with anyone that rude," he said, not bothering to look in Vinyl's direction, his full attention turned to whatever he was typing.
"Eh, Octavia and I have been friends since we were little fillies," Vinyl shrugged, levitating several boxes around.
"...Best friends, huh?" came the stallion's reply, pushing a pair of glasses further up his muzzle.
"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.