Prologue: Off to Ponyville
Prologue
The train tracks gently click-clicked underneath me. I was sitting on one of those train seats that they have on the Equestrian trains. Nopony else was in the cabin with me, thank Celestia. She had bought me a private cabin due to my... confidence, actually, that’s not the right word, and I did in fact have quite good confidence. However, I tried to stay away from other ponies. I looked out the window and saw my reflection. I was a bulky pegasus stallion with a dark green coat and deep purple eyes. My mane was a stylishly scruffy shape with the same purple as my eyes. Around my neck I wore a small amulet, it looked like a snail shell. A grey snail shell on a black cord that went round my neck. That was where the normalities stopped. I had cat-like eyes, tufted ears, short fangs in my upper jaws and my wings were most definitely like a bat. I continued to stare at myself like this for a couple of minutes.
If only I could just be a bat pony. If only that’s where it stopped. I thought somberly.
Eventually an earth pony mare came in. Oh, I can’t remember their names, but they, like serve you and stuff... Assistants? Maybe. Anyway she interrupted my staring.
“Oh hi here!” I turned round towards the talking pony. There was standing in front of me, was a bright pink pony with a very formal and flat white mane. Looking up at her eyes I noticed that even her eyes were bright pink. I think that that was the moment she noticed my ‘difference’.
“Oh, um... Ah!” That was all she could say, she had flinched back and was trying to use her metal trolley as cover.
Ugh, why!? WHY DO PONIES THINK I’M A VAMPIRE!? WHY!?
“You can stop, I’m not a vampire.” I had quite a strong voice, but I always had it under control, making me sound very calm.
“Prove it.” Oh for crying out loud. I noisily sighed then went through my standard routine.
“I don’t have long enough fangs and my eyes are purple. Vampires have MUCH longer teeth and they’re eyes are always red. There, you happy?”
The mare slowly came back round the trolley and then seemed to relax when I smiled honestly at her.
“I’m sorry, sir. Is there any way I can help? Or make that up to you?” A couple of thoughts crossed my mind. No. NO. NO!
“Yes, you could sit and talk to me, if you want, I don’t usually get other ponies to talk to.” She practically bounced into the (bench? Are they benches? I guess... Like really comfortable benches.) in front of me. She obviously didn’t get ponies just want to talk with her. Trust me, much more devious things crossed my mind than just talking, but I’m not that kind of pony.
“I’m really sorry about that.” Oh god she looked cute when she looked apologetic.
“Don’t worry about it, I get that reaction a lot. Trust me.”
“Heh thanks.” She seemed to be looking me over. Then her eyes fixed on my flank.
“Oh, I wear the amulet to cover that old thing up.” She looked shocked. I merely smiled.
“What! Why? I was SOOOO proud when I got mine!” She stood up and showed hers off, it was a silver plate...
“Umm... I hope I’m not being rude, but what does your mark mean?” Perfect question dodge there!
“Oh, well it means that I can serve really well. I know that it’s not very good, but hey! Answer my question!” she pouted at me. I knew that I couldn’t have much longer of this guilt tripping so, after hesitating, I explained. Dammit!
“Okay, okay. I feel that my mark is a hindrance, not an indication of where my true abilities lie. So I bought an amulet off a zebra in Manehatten which covers up my ‘mark’ and makes it so ponies don’t automatically assume things about me due to it.” I hated having to explain it. I noticed how she had almost... Admiration in her gaze now. She’s trapped by her job and her cutie mark, I’m not, and it’s that simple. I wasn’t held down by even my cutie mark. I looked around, quickly trying to find a subject change. A newspaper in the trolley caught my attention, including the headline.
“So, um, what do you think about the killing in Manehatten?” Bit of a sensitive subject for me, but hey, everypony was talking about it, and it would certainly grab this mares’ attention for a bit of gossip.
“Oh! I think it’s terrible! Twenty ponies dead! Absolutely horrid! And the way they died...” She actually physically shivered. “I just can’t imagine anypony doing it, let alone to twenty ponies in one night! The drained blood, the fang and claw marks, the slashes and the tearing. And you know what?” I leaned in. This was going to get interesting.
“What?”
“Apparently there was an acid burn on one of the victims! And another had severe poisoning!” Fuck. I was hoping that Nopony would talk about this. Time for subject change number 2!
“Who do YOU think did it?” I asked. Multiple theories were going about ranging from Nightmare Moon, to some kind of mass suicide. I knew the actual truth, but wasn’t going to share it anytime soon.
“Well, you know there was a survivor?” I nodded “Well, me and a couple of my friends think that that it was him!” Now it was my turn to flinch. There was no stopping her now, she looked as excited as a certain pink party pony I knew a while ago. “I mean, he was a bat pony, and there were definitely tooth marks! He was covered in all of the victims’ blood! They couldn’t see the colour of his mane or his coat. He also refused to speak until Princess Celestia herself got there, and then only talked to her in private. If I was Celestia, and I knew who did it....” She leaned forwards like she was sharing a conspiracy. She was. “I would have them killed.” That last whispered sentence almost make me just want to fly to Ponyville.
“Oh, heh, really? Well... Um...” She leaned back like she had just won some kind of argument.
“And because we think the survivor did it, we think he should get the chop!”
OW! OW! OWWWWW! That statement physically hurt. A thought then popped into my head. She didn’t recognize me. I smiled.
“So, when they finally got the blood off of him, what did he look like?” This is going to be good. The mare got up and went over to the newspaper. Coming back to the... I’m going to call them sofas. She sat next to me and opened up the paper and shuffled a bit closer. Maybe a bit too close for comfort, but I’ll survive. Whilst I had already read it, and basically memorized the thing, I let her read it anyway. A couple of seconds later and she lifted her head towards me with that glint in her eyes of sharing gossip.
“The reporter did get his name, says here that his name was ‘Evo’. He had a deep green coat and dark purple eyes! Is that common with the bat ponies?”
“Not really.” Looking back to the paper she continued.
“Anyway, says here that he had no cutie mark, a scruffy purple mane and...”
Ah. The beautiful dawn of realization.
“Do. Continue.” I made a rolling action with my hoof.
“Umm...” I raised an eyebrow, that’s all it took. “That he had a small... snail... amulet...” It took a full minute for me to stop laughing from the look of horror on her face. I still find it funny to this day.
“OH SWEET CELESTIA I’M SO SORRY!!!” I looked back up, odd, I had somehow ended up on the floor. She was hiding behind the trolley again.
Oh god, she looks too. Bucking. CUTE! But no. Be nice Evo, be nice. I slowly got up and walked up to the trolley.
“It’s fine. I’m sure a lot of other ponies think the same.” I offered a hoof. She took it and I led her back to the sofa. After 5 minutes of apologizing and me having to tell her that it was cool she finally carried on the conversation.
“So, you’re trying to get away from the city where...” she hesitated “That happened?” I sighed.
“Yes. I just want the quiet life for a bit. Hopefully should calm me down.” Or I’m just running from my past.
“So, Urm. You’re moving to Ponyville?”
“Yup, should be quite interesting.”
“Have you got all your stuff moved?” I noticed how she was yet again very close to me. Hm... Weird.
“Yup.” The conversation carried on for another twenty minutes. Most of it was just stupid ramble. Eventually she remembered that she needed to get going. She was working after all. Just as she got up I lightly tapped her on the leg. She turned round.
“I’m sorry, I never got your name.”
“Oh, sorry, I’m Silver Platter!”
“Well, Silver Platter, I hope we meet again!” She smiled sweetly at that.
“Oh yes! I live in Manehatten but occasionally I stay in Ponyville. Hope to see you around!” Waving a hoof she left.
I slowly relaxed and chilled. Extending my fangs a couple of times in my reflection, always retracting them after. They were a vampire’s length. Only problem was, I wasn’t a vampire. I slowly went to sleep on the sofa, making sure to tell my body to wake me up when the train stopped. My last thought before I went to sleep was this:
Let’s hope meeting everypony again goes well, especially with none of them recognizing me. Oh sweet mother of Celestia this is going to end badly, I can already tell.
My eyes closed, and I began my blood-filled nightmares.
