CURDLE POV, 8 YEARS AGO

I walked down the halls of my school, holding a bunch of books to my chest as I quickly made my way to my class, which I was already ten minutes late for. By the time I had made it to class, everyone was already working while my teacher stared at me and then the clock "Only 11 minutes late, Curdle. This is record time for you. What was it this time? Got lost? Missed the bus? Or are you finally ready to admit why you are always late to MY CLASS and ONLY my class?" he said very passive-aggressively. A few of the students chuckled to themselves, probably because they already knew why but wanted to keep it away from teachers.

"I'm sorry, sir," I said quietly. The teacher groaned and motioned for me to take my seat. As I sat down, I noticed a note on my desk signed to 'Freak' who was clearly me.

Don't worry. We won't tell if you don't.

Those words rocked me to the core. I looked around the class and noticed several students looking at me but hiding from our teacher. Questions spiralled in my mind. Who did this? Was it him? Or her? Why is it me who has to go through this torture? As the questions keep coming, faint sounds of a pony trying to get my attention kept playing in the background.

"...Curdle?"

"Miss Curdle?"

"Doctor!" the voice finally became clear to be the new assistant Noire and Cadence recruited, Ayra. I snapped out of my thoughts and focused on the reformed changeling. She had come in for an injury she got on the way to her duties. However, from the appearance of the large bruise on her thigh, it appeared to be intentional.

"I'm sorry about that, just zoned out is all. Now, tell me how you got this injury," I asked as I began administering a pad to the wound. Ayra flinched momentarily but still responded.

"I was on the way to see Cadence for her court when I bumped into a guard and fell," she said.

"Really? From the size of the wound and how quickly it has swelled, this must have been made intentionally. So I will ask you again, dear," I put on my scary face which caused Ayra to stiffen "How did you get that?" She took a deep breath and tried to resist my stern gaze but ultimately failed. She spilt the beans about how she bumped into a guard and he got quite peeved and kicked her to the ground. As I heard about the cruel words that were said to her, I felt my anger rise. How dare a guard do this to an innocent maiden like her?! However, I had to remain professional.

"You do know I have to report this to the princess, right? I cannot overlook this, Ayra," I said as I went to my cabinet and got a small bottle of pills "Take two of these and the pain should subside within the hour," Ayra accepted the bottle and stood up but failed due to the pain. I caught her before she fell "You should stay here for the hour so you can heal up," Ayra nodded and took a seat on one of the beds.

The next five minutes were complete silence as she sat there silently while I was working at my desk. It was when Ayra asked me a very sensitive question that the silence was broken, although initially, I wished it had remained for a while longer "Um, Doctor Curdle? I'm sorry to ask but when I told you about my injury, I felt a lot of anger and... a sense of familiarity. May I ask why you were upset about this?"

"Why do you care?" I answered coldly, trying to avoid the conversation.

"Well, I'm a changeling. Not a lot of ponies know about it except for Noire, the princesses and you so why would you help me even after what my kind has done?"

"......" I wanted to block the memories but failed. They all just returned, playing briefly in my mind but long enough for a drop of blood to fall from my finger. I had pierced my finger with the pe I was writing with. I was tipped over the edge by the sight of a single drop of blood falling from my finger and landing on the counter "I may not be a changeling but I am still a freak..."

CURDLE POV, 9 YEARS AGO

I was with a group of classmates on a field trip to the Everfree. Our teacher reminded us beforehand our task; to split up into groups of three and collect a poison joke flower safely for an experiment involving how irritability affects the poison joke's effect on the victim. I was in charge of collecting the flower because the rest of my group were too scared to pick it and I was the stereotypical, weak, submissive, nerdy girl in glasses and a sweater vest. "Keep up, Curdle or else we'll never find the damn flower," Rain Drop, one of my group members, said from in front of me, beckoning me to move faster," It had already been 30 minutes since we had split off in search of the flower and it was starting to get late. As the sun began to set on the horizon, my anxiety only proved to rise.

"Don't you think we should head back? It's getting pretty late," I said but nobody was listening to me. They were all too busy talking about what to wear to the next party this weekend while I was dreading for my life inside a forest of unpredictability and danger. I tried to catch up to my two teammates but they had already faded from view, leaving me alone. I was alone in the Everfree, lost and scared for my life "Rain! Where are you!" I called out but to no avail. I was starting to lose hope when I saw a pair of eyes watching me from the darkness. I slowly turned around to see what it was when I was tackled by something large. I was pinned to the ground by a manticore. Once I saw the giant beast above me I began squirming, trying to find a way out of this. The beast opened its maw, ready to devour me but I gave a loud scream and blasted the beast straight in the face with a magic blast. The attack did little to harm the creature as I barely flinched and still growled as it tried to eat me again. I had used most of my magic in the attack and in my young, weak and inexperienced self, I had no defence against it.

However, before it could finish me off, its arm twitched and pulsated before exploding violently. The manticore fell on top of me and roared in pain. The manticore's leg then began bubble like it was in a cooking pot and exploded as well. By now the beast was dead but the process still continued until its torso was all that was left. I pushed the manticore body off of me and looked at myself, completely drenched in blood. I looked around me and saw the whole area looking the same as me, covered with blood and small remains of the manticore's body.

"Hey Curdle! Where are you?! We already found a poison joke so stop being so usele-AHHHH!" Rain was about to finish her sentence when she was greeted by a blood-soaked battlefield where only I remained. She looked at the manticore torso and then to me "YOU MONSTER!" she said as she ran away screaming in fear. I was still in shock of what had happened to understand as I was greeted by many emotions; terror... and glee? As if the scene around me was a candy store instead of a war zone. I grabbed whatever resources I could find and made my way back to the base camp, where everypony was probably being told of my exploits.

"But that wasn't your fault! You were attacked and you defended yourself!" Ayra yelled out in anger. I could understand why she felt that way. To be honest, I felt the same but nothing was going to change anything now. The deed was done.

"That's what I wanted everypony to know but society doesn't work that way What they believe first is more likely to be the more accepted truth than what they know second. Such is the case with me," I replied, emotionless.

"Wait? Does this mean you are the same as the generals?" Ayra asked. I guess it kind of made sense. Burning Fist has his pyrokinesis powers even though he is an earth pony, Windy Wing has absurdly strong wings which he uses to create large tornadoes and Tidal Horn has her inherited Wave magic so I guess I am special like them. Although, unlike them, If I were to use my powers, I would be feared more than praised by my peers. Just like with my school. The ENTIRE SCHOOL.

9 YEARS AGO, AFTER THE INCIDENT

When I had arrived at the base camp, it was already too late. Our teacher was consoling a hysterical Rain Drop while others looked at me, drenched in manticore blood and laughed at me. Some looked at me in disgust and tried to keep their distance as I stood there, silently taking the abuse. Our teacher took a moment away from Rain to direct me to the nearest shower in the public bathrooms so I could clean myself off. I thanked him and left but as I made my way there I felt a tingle on my left shoulder. Confused as to what was happening, I pulled down my sweater and saw a cutie mark. While one would often squeal in the delight of gaining a cutie mark, this was less than a joyful moment. Three drops of blood were present on my left shoulder, reminding me of this disgusting power I have. I continued walking and soon the laughs died out in my ears.

When I made it to the public bathroom, I went into a very small shower and turned on the water, washing the blood off of me and my clothes. I didn't care how wet I got, I was already accustomed to being covered in blood so the water wasn't that uncomfortable for me. My thoughts of the incident stopped as soon as I saw the blood trickle down my skin and onto the shower floor. At the time it was hard to describe what the sight was to me; sickening, traumatizing, disgusting. However, as I remembered the feeling of being covered in blood, it became clear to me. I was mesmerized by it. I quickly gathered as much blood as I could with my hands and drank it. It tasted wonderful! I had to have more but when I looked down, I saw the blood had already been washed away "No... I must have more!" I thought to myself when I remembered something that sickened me at first but now I wanted to take full advantage of. The manticore torso I took.

Ayra looked like anypony I would expect to look like after hearing that information and gaining a minuscule amount of understanding as to what happened next "Don't tell me you..."

"Yes, I pocketed the manticore torso with a small pocket dimension spell. You know what happens next but I still feel like I need to tell you the full story" I said quickly cutting her off "You did ask after all," a weak smile appeared on my face momentarily before I continued with my recount.

A DAY AFTER THE INCIDENT

I had gotten as much sleep as I could, given the pure trauma of what I had done and the pure ecstasy that came from the experience, and continued my daily routine; brush my teeth, eat breakfast, leave my house and went to school. The only difference was the new taunts such as how bad my 'period' (which mares can't have) was or the less popular students who kept their distance as to not be associated with me. However, I wasn't bothered much by it. I had another thought running through my mind which was, in my opinion then, much more important; making it to lunch. My first two lessons went as normal; Maths put everypony to sleep and physics made me want to defy the laws of gravity and float out of the classroom but soon they were both over and I went to the one place I wouldn't be caught or interrupted- the abandoned science lab. It had been abandoned because of funding and power was damaged beyond repair so everypony stopped using it except for me when I wanted to be alone. Fortunately, it had been unlocked today so I could spend the entire lunch with my new 'experiment'. I cast a spell, summoning the corpse back and setting it on a table

"Finally, I've been waiting all night for an opportunity like this to strike and I'm not letting it slip through my fingers. I have big plans for you, big boy. Now, May I have a little sample of your blood, please?," I asked the lifeless, limbless and decapitated corpse. No response. In my delusional state, I gave an unnerving chuckle as I went into my bag and fished out a syringe "Why thank you, my kind patient! Don't worry, it will only sting a little," I said as I dug my syringe into the manticore's chest and pulled the plunger back, collecting as much blood as possible. I took out the needle and inspected the vial of blood in the syringe with delight "Oh look at how much you bled for me, my sweet! I thought you would have gone dry after a whole 14 hours but I guess the pocket dimension kept you preserved for me. The more you know, I guess," I said as I held the syringe over my face, right above my muzzle and pushed the plunger back down. Blood poured out of the syringe and into my muzzle as my cheeks flushed and my panties became wet from the juices I leaked. I looked down at the tiny hole my needle made in the manticore's chest and saw a tiny trickle of blood drip from it. I eyed the small stream hungrily and leaned down until I was millimetres from the trickle. I licked the blood off of the chest, putting my finger in my mouth to get a second taste " Who knew manticore blood could taste so good~ Its a shame I can't get any more of this in Canterlot. Oh well, I guess I have to make do with what I have here~" My lips touched the furry chest of the manticore and...

*SUCK*

I began sucking away, draining as much of the manticore's blood as possible. A little voice in my head begged for me to stop but the urge was too powerful. I continued until there was nothing left to take, leaving only an empty husk behind. I wiped my muzzle clean of any excess blood and licked the excess of my wrist. That was when I heard the life-changing sound.

*CLICK*

I turned around and saw a student with a camera pointed at me at the door. Before I could even act, they sped off down the corridor and out of site. I paused in terror of the consequences of the act I had just committed. I had been caught drinking the blood of a manticore on camera. This was bound to make the school newspaper- no- the city of Canterlot would probably know within a day. I would probably have to leave the city for fear of being chased out with pitchforks and torches. I collapsed onto the floor and cried my eyes out, fearing my bleak future that lied ahead.

"So that was why you were so interested in mine and Noire's blood. I thought you were just the creepy, mad scientist who was making their own Frankenstallion," Ayra said, looking less terrified but much more creeped out. However, she seemed quite calm about the issue now. That brought me some sense of relief. I turned around fully so I faced the changeling, sorrow evident on my face as my expression held a sombre tone and a sense of regret and shame.

"Yes, after that the whole school found out and I decided to leave as soon as I graduated and went to Ponyville to try to sate my urges there. However, manticore blood didn't seem to do the trick anymore so when I heard of the new Crystal Empire, I just had to go there. Cadence accepted me as a nurse here and the rest is history. Right now, you are the only one here who knows about my... sanguinarian appetite so I can hope you don't tell ANYONE about this- not the princess, not Noire, not the generals. No-one," I said sternly.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. Besides, you're not the only one who has to hide their appetite so I guess we can be... friends?" Ayra asked nervously. She awkwardly held out a hand for me to shake. This was weird for me; nopony had offered to be my friend ever since the incident. Even when I met Noire and Cadence, it always felt like an unspoken friendship but with Ayra, I felt like she genuinely wanted to be my friend. I awkwardly accepted her hand and shook it.

"Friends..." I said, smiling at her warmly "Now, what's your story if you don't mind me asking?"

Author's Note

For the lack of a chapter last month, I decided to grind out another chapter for all of you. The next chapter will follow soon so keep an eye out.

Also, I have had a lot of ideas for other stories circling around in my head and I have to get one out of there before my head explodes so I will be releasing another story alongside Grim Noire although it will be only a shorter story; maybe 10 to 20 chapters. It is still in its early stages so don't expect it coming out until my summer break in a couple of weeks.

Hope you enjoyed this side chapter and provide all your criticisms as well as what you liked!

Stay dizzy. Wuzzy out