Feral

"The most difficult character in comedy is that of the fool, and he must be no simpleton that plays that part."
-Miguel de Cervantes

The warm fire from inside the furnace crackled, giving the dimly lit room a very lazy yet comfortable atmosphere. The red carpeting and light oaken furniture was elegantly displayed throughout the large room. Paintings lined the walls, depicting some the finest Equestrian artwork, both abstract and highly detailed. In the middle comfortable room there was a large, plush chair that matched the Victorian style of the rest of the room perfectly. In said chair sat a large, pale Vampire wearing a long black overcoat that hung open in the front, leaving his chest somewhat exposed. The Vampire held a wine glass in his right hand filled with blood and draped his right arm over the arm rest.

The large Vampire smirked as he lightly sloshed the crimson liquid in his wine glass.

"Greetings, humans," he spoke to you, as you sit reading these very words.

"It is my understanding that you have enjoyed this little tale so far. If that is the case, then I am here to speak to you about several things: One, I would like to thank you for-"

"Mari'!" came the whining scream of a filly, cutting the Vampire off. Said filly quickly trotted next to the chair he sat in and looked at him with pleading eyes.

Marius let out a sigh.

"Yes Sweetie?"

Joined soon by two other fillies, they all looked up at the Vampire with quivering lips and eyes that imitated a new-born puppy's.

"You said that you would take us out for ice cream," Scootaloo spoke.

"Yeah, ya said ya would take us down to Prancin' Treats and get us all ice cream before we go to the park," Apple Bloom piped up.

Marius looked down at all three fillies with a smile before bringing the wine glass to his lips, taking a small sip from the lukewarm blood that he had emptied out of a blood bag and into the glass. It was very pungent and also had small amount of tart to it, like a vintage wine ironically.

"I'll take you in a bit, girls. I never break my promises, but you have to wait until I'm done alright?" Marius asked them.

They looked to each other sadly, before looking back up at the Vampire.

"But we want to go nowwww!" the Crusaders screamed in unison, causing Marius to almost drop his glass on the floor. After catching it before it could spill, Marius looked down at the fillies crossly. They still stared up at him, putting on their best guilt trip faces while their eyes began to water.

Marius raised an eyebrow and put on a smug smirk.

"Fine, I guess we could but," Marius spoke and sat half full glass down on the short oak table right by the chair.

"If we go now, I just won't make that peanut brittle later that I had planned on making," he spoke sinisterly.

The three filly's expressions changed to shock. He was actually blackmailing them into waiting longer with peanut buttery deliciousness. They looked at each other curiously, silently assessing whether the wait was worth the brittle. Reluctantly, they all nodded in agreement and looked up at the incredibly wicked Vampire who had the nerve to threaten them one of their favorite confectioneries. They all sighed.

"We can wait," Sweetie spoke softly.

Marius put on a large grin which bored his long fangs.

"Good. I'm glad my three favorite fillies can listen to reason. Now, don't you have Cutie Marks to be getting? Standing here isn't going to do you any good," he spoke to them. All three girls broke out in a huge smile.

"Yeah! Scoots had this really cool idea with a hoof glider!" Apple Bloom squealed.

Marius put his hand to his mouth in fake surprise.

"Well why aren't you on such an amazing Crusade, then?!" he asked.

Sweetie, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo were all hit with the realization that they had been wasting time up until now, before rushing out the wooden double doors leading out of the room, leaving it nice and quiet once more.

Marius smiled to himself.

"I love those girls," Marius spoke.

"I guarantee that they'll be back in half an hour, though."

Recomposing himself, Marius leaned back in the comfortable chair once more, before recomposing himself. He cleared his throat before speaking,

"Now, as I as saying; I would like to-"

"You passed go! Collect two hundred bits," spoke Twilight in a happy voice. Marius' left eye twitched out of frustration and he looked to his right. Sitting on the floor around a game board were all of the Elements of Harmony, Spike who sat very close to Rarity and held her hoof in his left claw, and a cloaked figure who sat cross legged on the ground in between Fluttershy and Pinkie.

"How wonderful!" announced Marius' master while she grabbed her fake bit salary with a blue aura and shuffled it neatly in the air. "Where on earth did you get this marvelous game, Twilight? I simply must get one for the shop."

Twilight turned to her friend before speaking.

"It's called Monopony! I just recently found out about it, but I figured we could all get together and play. Isn't it fun?" asked Twilight giddily. The cyan pegasus across from her rolled her eyes.

"Pfffft, you just like this game because it involves you doing math all the time! No wonder you wanted to be the banker," spoke Rainbow. The farmpony beside her gave a smug look from under her Stetson before speaking,

"And Ah suppose yall like it because ya don't have to break into a hospital ta' read it. Am I right, Rainbow?" Applejack spoke to her marefriend. Rainbow began to break out into a sweat and her cheeks became a light red at being embarrassed in front of everypony. She looked at her loving marefriend before speaking nervously,

"Sh....shut up!"

Pinkie broke out into a fit of snorting giggles.

"Heeheehee*snort*hahaha*snort*haha. Woooow Dashie, I didn't think you could blush that much!" Pinkie pointed out. Everypony around them giggled under their breath.

Applejack leaned in and gave a sultry look to Rainbow, who stood mere inches away from her.

"Are y'all gunna make me...sugarcube?" Applejack asked seductively.

Rainbow's wings shot up like she was about to take flight.

"Uhhh...s...sure I will!" was all that Rainbow could reply as she gave a sheepish smile to AJ.

They stared into each other's eyes for a moment and gazed, basking in the other's presence. This prompted Rarity and Spike to smile and look into each other's eyes dreamily before moving in to lightly caress their lips together in a kiss. Applejack and Rainbow soon followed, only theirs was much more aggressive and passionate. Twilight and Fluttershy merely stared at the ground with a blush on their cheeks while Pinkie was leaning down and trying to discern how her game piece looked exactly like her. She had her tongue sticking out of her mouth, and no one noticed that when she touched her identical game piece with her hoof, it sprang to life before cartwheeling off of the game board.

"Not that this isn't absolutely cute, but how about we get on with this damn game. Sound like a plan? Great. Now, who's turn is it?" sarcastically spoke the hooded figure with a relatively disdainful voice. This caused the loving couples to slowly stop their kissing and turn their attention back to the game while laughing to themselves.

"Umm...I think it's my turn. If you don't mind, that is..." spoke the timid yellow pegasus next to the man who was being so rude.

Marius looked curiously at the bunch who sat huddled around the game, but mainly on the hooded figure in a black leather outfit who sat on the floor and played Monopony with them.

"Lyre?" spoke Marius with disbelief.

Lyre dropped his black leather hood, revealing his mismatched blue and orange eyes and his short, ruffled blonde hair.

Marius sat and looked dumbfounded.

"How did you get here?! You aren't even awake, yet!" Marius yelled at his brother.

"Marius, relax!" Lyre spoke with a wide smile on his face, bearing his fangs. "This isn't canon," Lyre spoke. Marius could only blink before asking,

"How in th-"

"Cannons! I love cannons! I have a party cannon and I use it to decorate parties and *GASP* OH MY GOSH WE HAVE TO THROW LYRE A WELCOME TO PONYVILLE PARTY!" Pinkie yelled cheerfully.

"No Pinkie," Twilight corrected her. "Canon is the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe's fanbase. In this case, the fans of the story," she lectured. Twilight's eyes then widened. "Wait...does that mean I'm not real? Am I just a fictional character made up by someone else and put into their story? Or...maybe I am real, because enough people believe in me in said story, so I could actually exist out of the realm of space and time itself!" Twilight shook nervously. "Maybe that means I never even graduated from Magic Kindergarten! Do you know what that means?! I'D HAVE TO GO BACK TO MAGIC KINDERGARTEN!" screamed the lavender mare in desperation as she began to hyperventilate. All her friends watched her with concern before Pinkie leaned forward and patted Twilight on the back,

"Silly Twilight, that's only what the writer wanted you to say. Besides, fans don't have cannons!" the party pony spoke comfortingly while giggling. "They don't even have thumbs to use them!" Applejack raised an eyebrow.

"Ah thought we didn't either..."

Twilight slowly began to calm her breathing down and return it to normal.

"So...is it the yellow one's turn, or not?" asked an annoyed Lyre.

"Umm, yes it is Mr. Lyre," softly spoke the pegasus who had half her face hidden by her mane.

Lyre winced.

"Do not, I repeat; Do. Not. Call me Mr. Lyre again. It's Lyre, and anything other than that bugs the living shit out of me. Understand?" Lyre asked rudely to the timid pegasus. To his shock, she only giggled softly under her breath and didn't back away from his blatant rudeness.

"Alright Lyre, I understand. Whatever you want to be called is fine. You know...I don't know why, but you remind me a lot of my Angel bunny," she spoke with a sweet and kind voice to him.

Lyre raised an eyebrow.

"Take...Your...Damn...Turn..." he spoke angrily.

Fluttershy giggled again before leaning forward and moving a card off of the top stack with her hoof.

Marius watched the entire scene unfold between them with disbelief. He shook his head slowly.

"This is just getting odd."

Two ponies trotted through the double doors of the elegant room.

"Hey everypony!" spoke a beige-furred unicorn with a blonde mane and an orange phoenix for a cutie mark. He was joined by a mare that was an earth pony who had a tree with half of its leaves as her cutie mark. She perked up as she saw what her friend Fluttershy and the rest of the Elements were playing.

"Oh, Monopony! Can we join?" she asked in a cheerful tone as she stood beside the unicorn. Pinkie happily greeted them,

"Hiya Phoenix! Hi Forsythia!"

Phoenix's eye twitched.

"It's Prince...Phoenix. Could you at least try to address me like everypony else, Pinkie?" he asked.

"Ohh!" Fluttershy spoke, happy that her friend made it. "I'm sure nopony minds if you join, right girls?" she asked her friends. The girls all shook their heads and spoke comforting words welcoming Phoenix and Forsythia.

Lyre sat and watched them curiously.

"I thought that," Lyre looked into the unicorn's eyes and smiled. "Prince...Phoenix was a villain in this story. Why is he here? Also, Forsythia hasn't even been announced yet. Why the hell is she here also?" the short Vampire asked.

Rarity rolled her eyes.

"Lyre, darling, you did say that this was not canon, yes?" his brother's master asked. Lyre threw his head back in laughter.

"I guess I just didn't expect it to be quite as ridiculous and moronic as this! Hahaha!" the Vampire cackled.

Applejack frowned.

"So, wait...does that mean that none o' this really matters to the story? It's just some big joke?" she asked.

Rarity smiled at her while she leaned down and nuzzled Spike's cheek affectionately.

"Not necessarily. This could have had ulterior motives, such as Marius speaking to the audience," Rarity explained to Applejack, who seemed to be slowly understanding.

'Which I am trying to do, master. None of you will silence yourselves for five minutes, though.' Marius told every single pony and Vampire in the room telepathically.

Everyone all of a sudden fell silent and looked at the large Vampire, who sat in the chair with an utterly unamused expression on his face. They all quietly went back to their game. The Element of Kindness picked up the dice with both hooves and rolled them quietly on the board. One displayed a single black dot, while the other diplayed two.

"Umm...it says I get to move three spaces," Fluttershy softly spoke before moving her game piece and looking at her card.

Phoenix and Forsythia walked over towards everyone sitting on the red carpet by the fireplace, joining them for a game of Monopony. Marius now had his palm firmly pressed to his face, thankful that he couldn't die from a brain aneurysm.

"Anyway," Marius continued his earlier statement. "I would like to thank you for joining us in this journey so far. That, was one. Two; I understand that many of you have questions about my heritage, abilities, and umm..." Marius laughed under his breath. "Weaknesses. I promise that these will be answered in due time. Patience is a virtue for every living creature, my young friends. Keep that in mind. Third; what has happened so far...hehe."

Marius moved his arm to pick up the wine glass he had sat down earlier and brought it to his lips.

"It is nothing compared to what is to come," he spoke before taking a lengthy drink of the blood in the glass, slowly emptying it as he savored the delicious and bitter aftertaste. After finishing the glass, he smacked his lips together and sat the now empty glass down on the table once more.

"So make sure you stay tuned and enjoy. Who knows? You might find these surprises," Marius gave a fanged smirk, his seething red eyes pulsated and they were completely covered by a foreboding darkness merely for a second before returning to their glowing red state.

"...to die for," he spoke with utter finality before letting out a low chuckle with his deep, ominous voice.

"Well Lyre," Twilight spoke. "It looks like you're out of bits and you don't have any more Fillydelphia properties left to sell. It looks like you're out of the game," Twilight spoke.

Lyre narrowed his eyes.

Suddenly, the Vampire grabbed the game board and flung it in the air, scattering the fake bits, cards, and properties everywhere in the room.

"This fucking game is rigged!" Lyre screamed in furry before storming over to the double doors and kicking them open, or shattering them into splinters, rather. He then walked down the hall whispering profanities to himself. Everyone except Marius had a look of shock on their face for a while. Pinkie was the first to break the silence.

"Well, somepony needs a party AND a hug!"

I thank you from the bottom of my heart if you have read the story so far and are enjoying it. Expect the next Act to be up soon. All of my love!
-Chain