You came to slowly... the sleep fading from your body like water draining out of a tub. With an annoying glugging sound and entirely too much speed. The aforementioned sound came from your mouth in this case, on the tail end of what might have been a snore. You couldn't exactly be sure, but there was drool running down your chin and an annoying wet noise emanating from your voice-hole, so the odds were good that you'd been snoring in your sleep... As if there wasn't enough wrong with you already.

You sighed out heavily, eyes still closed. You didn't want to wake up today. You were tired. TIRED. Your muscles were SORE. Maybe you healed wounds like a Superpony, but right now you just felt like a sack of wet potatoes. Why were the potatoes wet? Buck if you knew, but all you wanted to do was drop everything and sleep in... But with the sleep already drained from your body, and your recent inclinations towards insomnia, it was highly unlikely that that was going to happen. So with a heavy drool-laced sigh you resigned yourself to the world of the awake and opened up your eyes.

Alright Slate. Lets take a look at how you left things before going to sleep. Mud and dirt literally everywhere in the hut. On the floor you're currently sleeping on. All over your tied up zebra. In your really really comfy bed. In the chests from looking for the rope. Even on the countertops from searching for that sedative.

Then that little purple fire you started before going to sleep. Not sure if anything will come of that, but it sure would be a shame, and quite alarming, if found itself somewhere you didn't put it. especially if that Joke found its way out of the cage and wandered to close.

Finally, the conditions your soon-to-be-slaves will wake up to. Zecora, finding herself caked in dried mud and bound. An empty sedative bottle that you may or may not have completely forgotten about after using it. A nice bump on her head when she hit the door coming in, along with whatever other aches she has from being dragged through the Everfree. And then of course the lightning burns. She's certainly not going to be waking up in a good mood. Expect a rude awakening.

Only to have the image of your dirty, powder-caked, rope-bound zebra fill your sight, her raggedy mud-plastered face inches from your own. Your eyes shot wide, all thoughts of sleep vanishing from your mind as you instantly and unpleasantly recalled the events of the past night that had reduced your zebra to this state, and your rather direct hoof in them.

Your other senses snapped their flanks into motion with this remembrance and, after a brief consultation with the rest of your body, went ahead and let you know that things were worse than they looked. And no offense to Zecora, but they looked pretty bucking terrible right now. You, your zebra, and the entire hut, stunk of mud and soil. You were stiff and even more sore than you'd thought from sleeping on the floor. Your entire back felt lightly sunburned beneath your fur, and birds were chirping like it was morning, with morning light coming through the windows of the hut.

And Rarity was coming today.

You bolted straight up to your hooves, ignoring everything else your senses had just told you as your eyes went even wider and your jaw dropped open. Rarity was coming! THE BUCKING UNICORN WAS COMING! BUCK!!! You snapped your head to look about the hut, your eyes zipping all around, taking in every flawed detail of the interior.

Muddy chests, muddy floor, muddy table, muddy shelves, muddy fur, muddy zebra, muddy rope on a tied up zebra who looked like Tartarus had come out and kicked her in the bucking chest! Buck, buck, double-buck! There was even mud in the bucking bed! And on Trixie! Oh, and a bucking cut on her bucking leg! Buck! ... ... You needed a better curse word than buck because at some point it just stopped capturing the level of how bucking SCREWED you were.

A pair of thoughts entered sideways in the middle of your mud and zebra-based panic, causing you to snap your gaze up to the planimal. It was awake. And glaring. At you... ... You glared back. The little three-headed abomination was still tiny and still trapped, but judging by the teeth-marks on it's bamboo bars, it had very evidently been gnawing on it's cage at some point during the night, trying to escape. It didn't look like it'd made much progress, but still... that was a bit of a red flag. And that it was just silently glaring at you instead of screeching like usual. That might have been a warning sign to. A warning sign that it wanted you to NOT notice it, so that it could secretly escape and chomp your throat in your sleep! The last thing you needed was that... THING loose. You'd have to keep an eye on it, think of some way to keep it imprisoned without having to worry about it.

Unfortunately at the moment you did have that, and more, to worry about. And on the subject of more things to worry about, things that could potentially get loose and out from under your control... You slowly turned your gaze to the cauldron, focusing your eyes on the- ... The burnt and charred remains of the kindling beneath it where the purple flame used to be. While it had apparently lasted long enough to lightly cook your back while you slept, it hadn't stayed forever, and died like any other fire. That was a HUGE relief to you... thank the bucking stars that you didn't have to worry about an undying freaky purple flame along with everything else.

But you did have to worry about everything else, and a very real very urgent PANIC that was gripping your chest! There was just so much shit to deal with! Mud, and unicorns, and zebras, and planimal abominations! How the buck were you going to get out of this mess!? No, no, no panicking, you could fix this! You could! Granted, the situation was... difficult... And when Rarity walked in on it she was more likely to go running for the royal guard than stop and calmly talk things over, but, uhmm... Afternoon! Rarity was coming in the afternoon instead of the morning! Right?! Maybe!? Anyways she wasn't here yet! And Zecora was still asleep, Trixie to, judging by the lack of screaming. You had time! ... But time to do WHAT!? You'd just, everything was just... ... SHE HAD JUST CLEANED THE BUCKING PLACE!!!!

Then there's also how you left Trixie. Lying in a now dirty bed with a fresh wound that definitely wasn't there last night. She's certainly going to notice the state you left the rest of the hut, and Zecora in as well. Expect some questions from her, and have a few answers ready.

You're "definitely" sorry for what you've done to Trixie last night. But you were panicking. Your marefriend that you love so strongly and deeply was freezing to the point of convulsions! You had to get warmth going as quickly as possible, and that was the only way you could think of. If it weren't for these powers, you fear that you would have lost her last night. You'd do anything to keep her safe, and these powers are the only way to do that.

For Trixie, that means continuing to show her proper guidance. You are going to treat your property a little better from now on—and whatever you do, don't openly say she or Zecora are your property, even though they totally are. It would be impolite to do so. Wait until they are ready to breach that subject from their end, and keep nurturing these feelings when they sleep. Sweet dreams are made of this...

Before that, we really should clean the blood, spit, and teeth off of our illusionist...that's it for now.

Nomad

Before you do anything else, clean up the Illusionist. She's still covered in blood, which if you remember, was what made Zercora want to take your superpowers away in the first place. What neither of them know, can't hurt you.

TRIXIE!!! You could start with Trixie! After all you'd given her a wound last night! Mud could be explained away, maybe, but blood on fur was much harder to dismiss. And you'd left your bloody teeth near her to! ... You'd... left your bloody teeth... next to the mare... on the comfy bed... where you would spend your future nights... ... ... uuuuuuggggggggghhhhhhhhhh... ... ... After taking a moment to fight back the sudden wave of revulsion that came with that uncomforting realization, you shook your head, and took a deep calming breath.

Right, one thing at a time. Start cleaning with Trixie. Every project started somewhere and this one would start with a prissy unicorn bi- ... No. No, you weren't going to do that. You'd put Trixie through a lot recently. Like cutting her and drinking her blood for a quick power-fix, for example. Whatever venom her bad attitude had earned her early on, you'd paid that back way over by now.

And, while you were being all magnanimous towards the mare, if it wasn't for your powers, most notably the direction sense and fire lighting, then Zecora might very well have died last night. Unconscious in the Everfree at night during a storm? What were the odds a pony could survive THAT without succumbing to the cold and wet of nature's unbridled fury? If you hadn't gotten charged from Trixie then you wouldn't have been able to use your powers. Well, the fire-lighting part of the powers at least. In a way, Trixie was at least partially responsible for saving Zecora's life... so, you'd try to treat her a little better from now on. After all, she was your unicorn, and there was nothing wrong with treating your things well... ... And that started with getting her cleaned up.

You nodded to yourself, firm in your conviction, and a little less firm in something a bit more crucial. How? You'd need to scrub and wash her and you were pretty sure that there wasn't any more water in the hut. Zecora seemed to... well, make the water or something, summon it maybe. You weren't sure, you had no bucking idea how zebra magic worked. There was the river where Zecora had taken you to bathe at early on though... It was close by, and you'd be able to find your way to it easily enough. Now granted you wouldn't be able to get MUCH water from it. Zecora had bowls not buckets. It'd be just enough to clean off the blood from Trixie's cut but it wouldn't be enough to clean...well... ... everything else.

You shook your head. One potentially life-ruining problem at a time. You looked up to Zecora's little side-cauldron table, scanned it with your eyes, and picked out one of her wooden bowls. You started to move over to it on your three sore legs, while sincerely wishing that you could use your fourth. How long were you supposed to keep the bandages on anyways? Well you didn't know because you couldn't ask the damn healer because she was unconscious and you'd fed her a sedative to keep her that way! ... So, really, you didn't have much right to complain in this case as this was kind of your buck-up. Uggghhhh... You were so tired of screwing shit up...

But anyways, bowl, river, water, Trixie! To be addressed in that order!

You reached the table easily enough and leaned down to take one of the wooden bowls in your teeth, having to grip it at a slightly awkward angle to avoid shoving your fangs into it, using your lower jaw for most of the support. You gave it a quick glance-over to make sure it didn't have mud or anything else on it. Satisfied with the absence of ooziness and mud you lifted it up, turned, and moved towards the door out of Zecora's hut, eyeing the planimal beast as you moved past it's cage, the little monster watching you with it's beady red eyes... Buck you hated that thing...

It wound up being a hassle to actually open the damn door. You couldn't use your teeth and your muscles were too sore to stand on your hind-legs without fear of collapse. You had to sit down on your flank right in front of the door, reach up with your right foreleg to the knob, turn it awkwardly, and push the door open. Then you had to slowly, laboriously, get back up to your aching three legs, and step forward out of the hut. A mouthful of steps to accomplish one task. Sometimes you wondered how anypony got shit done without magic.

You did not, of course, remember that you had a horn and magic-cache to go with it until AFTER you got out the doorway. The internal groan you unleashed would have made a moaning ghost proud. But you had things to do other than wallow in self-pity, and those things involved getting down to a river to get water to clean the blood off a unicorn! And that was, apparently, going to be a bucking chore.

The ground was still wet from last night's storm. You could smell it in the air, the sweet strong smell of grass after rain, and see it in the glistening remnants of water where the light caught the green blades. The dirt beneath was sure to muddy your hooves all over again, and between having only three legs to work with and the soreness in your muscles, you were almost certain to slip and muddy your whole body. As if you weren't already mud-caked enough... ... Still, couldn't be helped. You needed to wash a unicorn and for that you needed water from a river and to get that you needed to get your hooves dirty. Literally. So with another resigned sigh, you stepped down the stairs from Zecora's hut, let your right forehoof touch the ground, and sink into the mud... And then you just kept on trucking forward.

You almost had another panic attack when you realized that you didn't recognize any of the forest, or the path to the river from last time. But fortunately a soft whispering in your ears quickly dispelled that worry. You cocked your head to the left, bowl still in your mouth, and listened to the air... no, not to the air, to the trees. The trees of the Everfree. The sound of whispers just on the verge of hearing, mixed with suggestions just at the edge of being thoughts, and you found your gaze drifting to a singular shadowed spot between the trunks of the ancient vegetation... Without hesitation, and absolute certainty that you weren't going to get lost on your way, you faced towards that small gap in the trees, and walked forward.

And shit did NOT go to Tartarus in a saddlebag. The Everfree led you straight down to the river and despite your muddied hooves you DID NOT slip on the rocks by the riverbank and crack your skull open. Which was something you were quite frankly expecting, considering the numerous environmental factors plus your general level of luck. You approached the water the stream seeming a bit wider, a bit deeper, and a bit faster, then when Zecora had taken you to bathe in it. You supposed that it had drunk it's fill of the rainwater and was now flaunting it's new-gained girth. Perhaps it was just as well you weren't there to wash the stink off your body today. So, leaning down, you dipped the bowl along with your nose into the river and just held it there for a second, keeping it in your teeth against the pressure of the stream. It was actually pretty awkward the way you were holding it, and you got a bit of the water in your mouth, seeping in through the sides. Still, it didn't last long, and you lifted the bowl out open-side up, excess water sloshing over the brim on both sides and your nose twitching slightly from the cold.

Quick. Easy. Clean... Unlike just about everything else in your life as of recent... And ever. You were about to turn and move back up to Zecora's hut when a glint on the water caught your eye, coming from upstream. You felt a familiar dread building up in your gut as an unfamiliar object, catching light from Celestia's rays, bobbed down the stream and into your sight. But as you focused on this foreign intruder in the stream's current you were surprised to see that it wasn't a monster, or some new threat of the Everfree ready to jump out and chew your face off. Instead it was what appeared to be a big purple scale. Shiny, reflective, glinting brightly and almost cheerfully as it floated down the river, seemingly without a care in the world... You blinked... ... Then shook your head and turned to go back to the hut. Nope. That wasn't the weirdest thing you'd seen in this forest by a MILE and you had shit to do. Pretty shining scales could wait.

You made your way back up to Zecora's hut on three sore legs with a bowl full of water in your mouth. Naturally, some of it sloshed out on the way, causing you to let out muffled curses and exclamations around the bowl. But to your immense gratitude and surprise MOST of it stayed inside. And you didn't collapse and spill it all out even ONCE! Also when you got back to the hut this time you remembered that you had a damn horn. While it was still difficult and kind of made your head hurt, you had enough juice in you to engulf the door knob in your shiny purple telekinesis, turn it, and push it open, with minimal fuss and hassle... ... MAGIC WAS BUCKING AWESOME!!!

Grinning around the bowl, basking in what felt like one of the only legitimate accomplishments you'd had as of recent, you made your way into the interior of the hut, tracking in more mud, fresh and wet, to go with the dried and caked mud already scattered throughout the rest of the abode. You trudged over to the eating table and set the bowl down carefully, gently, as though it was a bucking glass vase, trying to make damn sure that you didn't spill out any of the precious water within. The task accomplished, you let out a HUGE sigh of relief, before raising your gaze back up from the bowl and looking about the hut, trying to ignore the mess and creepy bucking Planimal monster, as you scanned your surroundings for a wash cloth.

You spotted a white and black striped towel, small enough to do the job, folded up neatly on the table by the cauldron. Taking only a moment to wonder if you'd ever actually seen that one before you trotted over as quickly as you could manage and grabbed it by your teeth, being careful to not let the fangs pierce through. You brought it back over to the bowl and dipped it into the water, draping it over the side of the bowl and letting half of it soak while the other half kept dry. Washcloth acquired, you scanned the room again for the other necessary part of operation "Pull Your Flank Out of the Fire", Zecora's little soap rocks, and found them in a small woven basket on one of the shelves. Actually, the one that you'd first seen Zecora use, that kind of looked like a pretty bird's nest. Luckily, it hadn't gotten muddy in your earlier escapades.

You went over to the pretty little basket and once again looked down upon the little rough lime-green rectangles with the tiny blue spots. You couldn't help but find them amazing... If you hadn't seen it yourself, you wouldn't have believed that one of these things could burst up into a huge clingy-foam-wave thing just from touching water... or some less weird way of saying that. Of course, you also wouldn't have believed that you could start growing shit out of your body, wake up in the Everfree forest with no idea how you got there, rut a zebra, or start casting unicorn magic from a horn in your noggin... Life was full of surprises. You shook your head, then reached down, and lightly plucked a single soap rock from the basket. Then you turned around, calmly walked back to the water bowl, and plopped it in.

You needed to carry the whole thing over after all, and the way Zecora's soap worked made the whole thing bubble with soap on the top, removal by scrubbing with the water beneath. Perfect to scrub away the muck on Trixie's coat. With the washing apparatus prepared, you lowered your mouth to the bowl and gripped it by the rim, being careful as you couldn't prevent your newfound fangs from digging into the wood a bit. You got some foam in your mouth from that, bubbling up against your tongue. It tasted like what mares washed colt's mouths out with. You grimaced, but dealt with it, and lifted up the bowl before turning, and moving towards the bedroom doorway, blinking and stopping occasionally to look over the foam as it gathered.

You got to the doorway and tried to see Trixie over the rising foam. That didn't work well. With an internal huff you leaned down and placed the bowl down on the floor in front of you, before looking back up to see Trixie on the bed, bathed in streams of golden light as they flitted through the window above, the morning's rays casting themselves down across her sleeping form... ... She looked pretty terrible. Her coat was covered in mud from the prodding you'd done last night, and there was a deep red stain around the upper part of her right foreleg where you'd made the cut. There was also a little blood on the sheets, as apparently she'd moved around a bit during the night. She was now on top of the covers completely, most of them kicked off, her body curled into itself slightly, facing away from the doorway.

You were pretty sure she was still asleep. You couldn't imagine her waking up to find herself in that kind of state and keeping quiet about it. Hopefully Zecora's sedative from last night would still be in effect and keep her from waking up while you scrubbed her clean of blood. You might be able to get the mud off her to, you probably had enough water and soap for that, though probably not given that you were on a deadline. With another sigh, you leaned down and picked up the foaming bowl in your teeth, resuming your careful walk up to the bed, peering barely over the foam again. When you reached the bed you set down the bowl, gently, as far inwards on the bed as you could manage by stretching your neck. Then you, once again slowly, mounted the bed, carefully climbing up with your three unbound legs and getting up on top before looking back down to the unconscious unicorn mare.

As you looked upon her you felt a twinge of... pity? Remorse? For how you'd treated her... All she'd done is go to bed after all, and you'd messed her up rather thoroughly... she'd had a tough time of it recently as well hadn't she? ... Some more kindness from you was probably in order... ... Shaking your head free from thoughts not useful to the immediate situation, you bent down to the bowl and got to business. The water was cold, and the foam was soapy, but you dealt with it and gripped the cloth carefully in your teeth, still avoiding the use of your oversized canines, before bringing it up to Trixie's foreleg and pushing it to her bloodied fur. She shivered at contact with the water and you froze, wondering if she was going to wake up... fortunately for you she didn't and after a few moments of tense waiting you pushed the cloth more firmly into her fur and started to scrub.

Goodness, Slate. You're creepy. I can already tell that you're going to have a rape dungeon the moment things get moving. That's fine. Be rapey. Rape is a great way to psychologically break people for giggles. Just take care not to make it a central aspect of yourself... much like with rage, lust has a way of making people exceptionally stupid. Believe me Blankey, you're stupid enough as it is. The last thing we need is your supercharged hormones amplifying the stupidity you already exhibit.

A thought, Dear Blank. You have fangs, you drink blood, and everytime you ingest something wierd, you grow more powerful....you are a freakin' vampony. What do we know of vamponies? Let's see: they feed on blood, blood from various species carry traces of their power, those the bite...aren't they supposed to fall into the control of the biter? This could prove useful in gaining a herd...you didn't actually Bite Trixie, you just drank from her cut. We should test this theory out on our slave in training, Trixie. If it works, we might just have what we need to better...influence our zebra.

Nomad

Now, lets see, fangs? Check. Compelling voice? Check. Preternatural connection with the Haunted Woods(tm) that form your demesne? Check. Command of the wild animals that inhabit the Haunted Wood(tm)? Well... we'll work on that. Hmm, a trenchcoat and fedora, while awesome and perfectly suited for slumming it in town, don't really have the flair or glamour for the future Vampony-Prince of the Everfree, so when Rarity shows up later with you clothes, stay on her good side, because as soon as you have the funds for it, we need to get something more suited to our station.

Which leads to, how to get said funds? We know that there are Diamond Dogs running (well tunnelling) around, and their not called "Diamond" Dogs for nothing, so that implies there are gemstones under the forest. The old castle would likely have some valubles left in it as well. Of course, you may want to leave that more-or-less intact so you can do it up later.

Archivist

You scrubbed away the blood easily enough. Zecora's special soap-mix thing stuck to the fur around the cut and foamed up, and you took the towel, suds and all, and proceeded to wipe at the spot. Red blood stains disappeared from blue fur with a bit of scrubbing. And as they did so your heart was slamming in your chest. Trixie was making little grunts and groans with every rub, and you couldn't help but think that at any moment she might wake up. You were tempted to go slower, or stop altogether, but the thought that you needed to get this done before Rarity arrived filled your mind and kept up your tempo.

As you kept thinking of Rarity you actually paused in your ministrations for a moment, a certain train of thought entering into your mind. A trench coat was good and all for hiding yourself from the puny pony townsfolk but it wasn't exactly the most... regal of outfits. Not really fitting for wear in the Everfree, around your territory. And it was that wasn't it? Your territory. After all it now spoke to you, guided you, accepted you as it's lord and master! ... Maybe. The trees were being cooperative but the actual life within was... less so. Perhaps you could work on that...

In any event you needed something a little fancier in your wardrobe besides just a trench coat. Maybe a cape! Yes, capes were what vamponies wore and, well, you did rather like vamponies didn't you? Of course you did, they were bucking awesome! And maybe some kind of silk, something fancy and old-styled... Old Canterlot nobility fashion perhaps? Classic and impressive? Or maybe just some regular formal wear, suit and hat perhaps. How much did a good suit cost though? You really wouldn't know considering you'd never had enough bits to find out, but you couldn't imagine it being any less than exactly 'more than you've got'.

That was before though. In your previous life. Now you were living your new one, in the Everfree, the Everfree where there were Diamond Dogs and Diamond Dog tunnels, and where Diamond Dog tunnels appeared there were gems and mines for said gems, which meant that the riches of the Earth ran beneath the Everfree... And you could find them. With the Everfree guiding you, you could find the tunnels and gems and dogs and all. And closer to home there was the collar you'd taken from that dog you met, the one you'd given to Zecora. She probably still had it around the hut somewhere... And actually, come to think of it, there was still the old ruined castle you'd taken shelter in the first night you were here. Something so ancient probably had valuables of some kind, maybe you could go back and-

Trixie shifted underneath you, moaning lightly. You looked back to her, cursed yourself under your breath, and resumed scrubbing quickly. Right, cleaning the mare, trying to fix your mess, trying to not di-

Trixie shifted again, this time turning over onto her back and throwing her hind legs open, almost knocking over the foamed-up water-bowl in the process. Quickly you shoved the bowl aside with your right forehoof, sloshing some of it out onto the bed but stopping the whole thing from getting knocked over by the mare's leg. You breathed a sigh of relief, counting one wet spot instead of a full-spill as a lucky break, and then looked back to the sleeping mare and- ... ... Your blood ran cold in your veins as you gazed not upon the face of the sleeping mare, but upon the pretty little slit that she'd revealed by rolling onto her back and kicking her hind-legs open, the small passage in a mare's groin that ruled the hearts and minds of stallions, well most stallions and some mares, her precious marehood, fully in your sight...

You gulped, staring at the little slit. Trixie was asleep... Possibly sedated... it wouldn't be too hard, not very hard at all to just... stick it in. She'd never be the wiser. Even if she was a virgin you'd be able to clean up any blood or cum with the soap rag. BUT THAT WOULD BE WRONG! That was rape wasn't it?! And that was one of the worst possible crimes a pony could commit! That was crossing the damn line! ... Wasn't it?

To be honest you had committed some forms of violation already. Taking her blood when she was sleeping for one, hadn't exactly asked her permission there had you? You'd also tied up a zebra, shot her with lightning, whispered into and licked at ponies ears during their sleep with the hope of influencing their waking thoughts... you weren't exactly mister innocent. So would it really be so much worse to take advantage now? And you didn't need to just stick it in right away. A touch here, a lick there, maybe just burry your muzzle into her cunt and start lapping until her pretty pussy lips were wet enough and then... ... Your best friend began to rise at the idea...

NO! No you were not going to lose control damnit! Your body was yours! Not your cock's, not your brain's, and not some strange malevolent entities from beyond this temporal plane! You were in control and damnit you had things to do! Yes, yes that was it, you had things to do! You needed to get the blood off and try to fix things before Rarity got here! That was what needed to happen. Panic beat out lust anyday! So, focusing on that desperate need to fix things and stave off your coming destruction, you resumed scrubbing, quick and hard, getting the blood off as fast as you could.

And really so what if you drank blood, and did things in the night, and cursed Celestia's sun, and grew fangs, that didn't mean you had to go and rape ponies! Those things didn't really make you a bad pony they... they kind of made you a night-owl with fangs that drank blood... or a night bat... they made you a night bat with fangs that drank blood and that was just another way of saying vampony... ... They made you a vampony... ... ... YOU WERE A BUCKING VAMPONY!!!!

You stopped mid-scrub, eyes going wide and jaw dropping open. Holy buck that explained everything! The nighttime activities, the advanced regeneration, the blood-drinking, the fangs! Even the crazy mutations were just a manifestation of vampony power. All of this started at the ruined castle the night you woke up in the Everfree... it must have turned you into a vampony! Or maybe a vampony bit you and dumped you in the Everfree!? However it happened there was no doubting it, you were a creepy trenchcoat-stalker, sleep-molester, unkillable, super-powerful, blood-drinking creepy as buck vampony! Wow... that... ... that was actually kind of reassuring...

It was still freaky! Of that there was no mistake but... it felt good to finally have an explanation. A real explanation beyond just 'it's a illness of some kind'. Sure not everything was completely explained by the Vampony theory, the metal lightning/tuning fork things on your back being one example, but that theory had the most pieces matching up to it and even the changes that didn't really fit in with the template didn't exactly deny it either. You had yet to develop photosynthesis and shoot sunbeams out of your flank, for example. And it was also... identifying? Yes, yes that was the word for it. You'd never had a Cutie Mark, never had the 'this is what you're meant to be' emblazoned on your flank for all to see like other ponies. And then you'd grown a bucking horn in the Everfree, taking away even the 'I'm an Earth Pony' identity that you'd at least been able to hold onto. To have the identity now of Vampony, something you could hold on to despite these changes was... comforting. And kind of hot.

You looked again to Trixie's pretty pony cunt, a sort of calm falling over you. Vamponies drank straight from the source, didn't they? Dug their fangs right in to take the blood of ponies? Chomped and drained, until they were either dry or enslaved? Mesmerism, dark power, binding rites, mental manipulation, and blood mixing... Enslavement of ponies, binding of service... ... It seemed so... tempting... What would it be like, to dig your fangs right into that pretty pony cunt, and suck until Trixie was yours and yours alone? ... Your tongue ran along the edge of your lips...

RARITY WAS COMING!!! GET SOME BUCKING CONTROL YOU DAMN BUCKING CUNT!!!

You blinked, and then jerked back sharply, heart slamming in your chest. Buck! With your identity establishment you'd almost forgotten! You didn't have time for this shit you had to hurry! You leaned forward over Trixie, her pretty gash ignored, and picked up your bloodied teeth with your right forehoof from the bed... It was disgusting, having to pick them up, and sent waves of revulsion through you. But you couldn't leave those... THINGS in your bed... As it stood you might already have to wash the sheets.

Fighting a shudder you dropped the teeth into the foamy bowl before grabbing the rag and plopping it back in. Not daring to take the time to even think about cleaning off the mud you gripped the edge of the bowl with your still-present teeth and lifted it up. You flinched slightly as your fangs dug slightly into the wood, forgetting caution in your panic, before adjusting your grip again to keep your fangs safe and turning, awkwardly, to get off the bed and leave before you did anything mind-blowingly stupid.

I wish to give you a gift a book the Liber Chaotica a book of great power, the power of the Chaos. Allow yourself to be possessed.

And for Everfree's sake, practice your speech! Vamponies might be cool, but you don't want ponies to laugh at you when you open your mouth and sound like a skill-less third-rate understudy auditioning for lead role in Horseferatu.

Even with all the things happening you mustn't forget the training regime you wanted to start, Blank Slate. Trixie will certainly be pleased that she can help you with magic. Ultimately she is a walking failure and needs to be given purpose by you. Tell her this and compliment her from time to time to show her how good she can be if she is given guidance.

Make sure to get a good grasp at illusion magic to hide your mutations. And considering that we don't have the time you would need to become proficient enough with magic we need to cheat a little.

You trotted back into the main room, breathing heavily, trying to put the thought of... an opportunity not taken, behind you. You shook your head, the fleeting images of Trixie's prissy pony cunt filling your mind, and fought back your rising stallionhood, your best friend's presence most certainly NOT required at the moment. Putting the bowl down on the table you shook your head again, harder this time to help with the thought clearing, and breathed in and out heavily, deeply, fear and nervousness bringing new and far more useful thoughts racing into your skull.

Alright... alright Trixie was cleaned of blood... but there was still mud everywhere... You'd... you'd need to be able to explain that.

"And whight now ayemth not twalking two gwood..." You spoke aloud, confirming your fears of your own lack of vocalization ability. With a sigh you worked your jaw, right and left, back and forth, before speaking again.

"I'll nw-need... to practice how to spw-speak... So that I can s-sound proper when Rwa- Rarity... arrives." You spoke, slowly and carefully, moving your tongue around your fangs and vocalizing properly. You could work on that but... but would that be enough? ... Yeah, sure, just tell her that the tied up zebra and mud is kinky roleplay, she'll definitely buy that and just go on her merry way and OF COURSE THAT WOULDN'T BE ENOUGH!!! Buck! If only you knew how to do illusion magic so you could just hide everything for the meddling bitch!

... If only...

You blinked and furrowed your brows. Well, you did have a horn now, though it mainly seemed concerned with lighting things on fire... And Trixie was a showmare if ever there was one. If anypony knew how to cast illusions to obscure and mystify it would be her! But... there was the small matter of her currently being both asleep AND sedated. Kind of difficult to ask an unconscious mare for magic lessons.

There was Zecora though... Or rather her library. Zecora was wise, mystical, and well-read. There was every chance that one of her books might have a crash-course on illusion magic! Heck, they might even teach you so much so quickly that you'd be able to cast an illusion to hide all of this and make everything look normal before Rarity arrived! ... Not really, if it was that easy than no unicorn would get caught doing anything. But buck it, fruitless searching was better than doing nothing!

So with an action to distract you from your impending doom selected, you moved over to the bookshelves while going-

"She swells- she sells seashwell-seashells by dwe-the seashore. Shw-she sells seashells by dw-the seashore. She-" Again and again, muttering it constantly to practice speaking around your fangs while you searched for illusions, hit two birds with one stone so to speak. The fact that you must have looked and sounded absolutely and completely bucking ridiculous while doing it, was quite frankly irrelevant.

You ran your eyes over the books looking for titles that stood out, something that suggested illusion or mind-spells. Preferably illusion AND mind spells. Something you could use at any rate. Your eyes scanned rapidly, finding many books in Zebrican that could contain all the illusion spells in the world for all you knew and still wouldn't be any use since you couldn't read bucking Zebrican. Most of the books in Equestrian seemed to be either medically related or involving pony culture and history. You supposed that was to be expected, given that Zecora wasn't exactly native. She would have read up on ponies as much as she could to be prepared for the culture differences.

So the search was, for the most part, completely fruitless. One title however caught your eyes... Liber something-or-other, a brown leather-bound book on the shelf. And you weren't sure why but something about it just kind of... drew you to it. With a curious look, and still doing tongue-twisters for speech practice, you trotted over to the bookshelf, standing up shakily on your hind legs and reaching up towards the book to take it from the shelf.

We are in agreement! Blank, you will show your herd you are sorry for what happened. It's not your fault, though, none of this is your fault. You are only trying to protect those dear to you, but your mares don't need to be burdened with that truth. You will act in a way to regain their good graces. For Zecora, that means acting a little more like when you met. Assuage her fears. You will manage! Tying her up? Well, she was hit by lightning, you were scared she would suddenly spasm and injure herself! It wasn't because you enjoy seeing other ponies, mares especially, helpless. You do enjoy it, but that wasn't why you did it!

Now then, here's an idea Blankey-spank. Instead of waking up and yelling at her with righteous indignation, how about you instead rub some dust in your eyes to simulate tears and beg for her forgiveness? Throwing a tantrum at her after striking her with lighting is a surefire way of telling her all she needs to know about you. If she wakes up, sees you dirty and tearfully sobbing, and sees that she's been taken back to her home and cared for, you could guilt trip her into believing that she made you do it and it's tearing you apart. Say a bunch of stuff about how she's the only one who's ever cared about you and how you love her and you regret everything so much, etcetera etcetera. Tug at her heartstrings; make her feel bad for you. Make her feel crappy about what went down, and she'll be wrapped around your fing- I mean hoof.

If that doesn't work, you could always tug her heartstrings. As in literally tug the heartstrings out of her body.

XOXO, Seth Speth of the Death Neth

Now that is a good plan Slate my friend. Show your pet that you're "sorry" with some tears of the crocodile variety.

There is a silver lining though. A good chance with all this damage that she doesn't remember the little confrontation of last night correctly. Perhaps you can "help" her remember the details better.

Perhaps some of those answers help Zecora remember the events of last night better.

Perhaps when you went out to search for whoever screamed, you came across Zecora after she was hit with some freak stray lighting. Perhaps when you got back, she started to have convulsions from the cold and trauma of being hit with a lightning bolt. So of course you had to tie her up and give her a sedative so she wouldn't hurt herself. And well, you had to get a fire going quickly, or she might have gotten Hypothermia. And the quickest way you could have gotten one going was to get more magic from Trixie.

And stopped in your bucking tracks as you heard a groan coming from the tied up form of your zebra. You slowly turned your eyes to the mare watching as she shifted against the ropes and muttered something under her breath, shifting position... She was WAKING UP!!! BUCK!!! What the buck did you do wrong!? Didn't you give her a damn sedative!? Was it the wrong type, was it not enough!? Well it didn't matter now because she was going to wake up and be bucking pissed!

Okay! Okay you could get out of this! Somehow! You just had to think of a way to deal with things before she woke up! And think you did. You thought quickly. Rapidly. Fast as bucking lightning. Lightning! You were protecting her from the lightning! By tying her up. She could have spasmed and hurt herself, so of course you tied her up like that, you had no choice, that was sound reasoning right?! And the lightning hit her without your help! And the strike would probably have scrambled her brain, just a little, so she probably wouldn't remember the part where you directed the lightning. The lightning hit her without you helping it while you and her were arguing!

And, um, remorse, sadness, sympathy, tears, you needed tears, you needed to cry! She had a kind heart so if you were sobbing she'd probably not get as angry. Oh! And say how much you loved her! And say how sorry you were! And do it in a way that doesn't sound horrible because you still hadn't gotten your speech right and- BUCK!!! How were you going to cry!? Only like, actor ponies could just cry on command, how could you just start bawling unless you were in pain or there was something in your eye?! ... Something in your eye, that was it! But what?! You didn't know what shit Zecora had in her bottles, you didn't want to risk rubbing something unknown into your ocular orbs and you didn't exactly have time to search out which ones were safe! You needed something fast and there wasn't anything around except for all this mud! ... ... Which was just dirt when it was dry...

Scrambling, panicking, breathing faster than you knew you possibly could, you grabbed some of the caked mud from the floor in your hoof, wrenching it off the floor, cracked pieces falling and shattering into dirt. Still too large though! You stumbled over to the eating table and shoved the dried caked mud against the edge, rubbing it hard to break it down into dirt against your hoof. Good clumps of dirt acquired, you brought your hoof up to your face and kept your lids open wide as you shoved the brown glob straight into your right eye.

You teared up immediately, a biting pain stinging through your eyeball, eliciting the response of- ouch, ouch, ouch, bucking ouch! In your brain and keeping it going for what felt like millennia to your poor little sensitive seeing-orb. Yeah, yeah that would get you to bucking cry! Irritate the buck out of your eyeballs to! But you didn't have time to complain or be a little bitch about this, you could already hear movement coming from your zebra as she stirred. You quickly rubbed another batch of caked mud into a clump of dirt and shoved it into your left eye, gritting your teeth and almost inadvertently puncturing your inner-lip in an effort not to yell out as the dirt dug in deep into the sensitive tissue.

You closed both eyes, letting the dirt sink in as you lifted your right foreleg up to wipe away the specks around your eyes, hopefully helping to prevent Zecora from seeing the real source of your tears. Your eyes were stinging, definitely irritated, probably even red. Tears were pooling out from beneath your lids and running down your cheeks, the water mixing in with the dirt as you heard a groan and a voice start to speak-

"OH ZECORAH!" You shouted as soon as the rough, ragged voice of a mare who has had a VERY rough night started to sound out. You whirled around to face towards her, or what you hoped was towards her as you couldn't bucking SEE at the moment because of the dirt in your eyes. Regardless of whether you actually got the right direction or not you felt a full show of repentance was in order, so you threw yourself upon the ground, dropping to your hind legs then falling forward instead of full-on throwing as you weren't a bucking idiot, and proceeded to blubber.

"I wash so worried! You've been ashleep fhor so long!" You were having a bit of trouble with the fangs, big surprise. You couldn't keep your speech perfect and keep up a rapid groveling pace, and right now groveling was more important than sounding nice. Hopefully it would just add to the pathetic tone you were trying to set, what with the sobbing and crying and your generally unkempt appearance instead of making it impossible for Zecora to understand a word you were saying... one could only hope...

"We were arguwing in the forest, and you where mad and callwing me a monster, and the lightning was stowming, and it came down and hit you, and you were thrawshing so I had to tie you up so you wouldn't hwurt yourself and dwen I had two get you back here! And it was dwark and raining and I didn't know what two do! And I was so scared of losing you! I'm still scared of losing you! I'm just so scared now!" And that wasn't even actually a lie... the scared part at least. You were terrified. Your eyes were hurting, your heart was slamming away in your chest, and you could swear that perspiration was forming on your flesh and coat. You were on the edge of losing everything, and for the first time in your pathetic excuse for a life you actually had something to lose... you'd have to be crazy not to be scared at this point. And you were most definitely not crazy! ... Just a little desperate from time to time.

"You were the only pony who was evwer nice to me and then you started yelling at me and saying those mwean things about me, and then the lightning and the dragging through the dark night, and I didn't know how to get you in safe and I didn't know if you'd be okay and I didn't know if I'd be okay and it was all just so horrible! And everything go messed up and Trixie wouldn't wake up and I'm just so sorry! Whatever I did I'm sow-ow-wheeee!" Repentance and remorse... Sorrow and heartache. You hoped you were selling those things... Partly because despite how logical this flow of thought had been, you were feeling them. Mainly you were sorry... sorry that things went so far, even if it wasn't really your fault. Sorry that you'd lost your cool and struck her with lightning... Sorry that you hadn't been able to talk her down. It was your job to take care of your mares, and by hitting her with lightning you'd kind of done the opposite of that... And you were sorry. And right now, you were showing it.

Mainly with sobbing. Letting out unstallionly, pathetic, and outright embarrassing sobs to broadcast how you felt. Granted the source of these sobs was the pain in your eyes, but once you got started you threw your full gusto into them, crying hard to make sure she saw your apology written on your face. Though you couldn't see her because of the dirt and tears in your eyes, making it far too blurry for you to be able to see anything clearly. And you couldn't hear any reaction from Zecora right now... it was more than possible that she was still in shock, or remembering what happened. You could however hear the sound of knocking at the door, followed by a bright and cheerful-

"Yoohoo darlings!" From a very specific, very possibly life-destroying unicorn. And you couldn't even see if your sobbing ploy had worked. You honestly felt like panicking again. Like maybe bolting up and out the window, or feinting, or playing dead, or-

So listen to the whispering in the corners of your mind and let yourself be guided by us.

After all, you will never be alone again, Blank Slate. You don't need to be a hero, you don't need to be a genius or powerful. We are ... No, I am here and so I will let you sense what I feel for you. Caring, genuine and pure. Let it flush away your insecurities and doubts.

Aedin the mage

No... no this would work. Even as you cried a calm centered in your chest and stomach. You were cared for, you were watched, you were protected, and you were secure. You had something here, Zecora cared about you, she was there for you, she was yours, this was your place, and you didn't need to fear here. This would work. You would get back your zebra. You would get your trenchcoat. You would keep this home and you gain importance and power in the world. You would...

Author's Notes:

Well, after innumerable delays, headaches, rewrites, corrections, moments of complete writer's block, and the occasional desires to violently murder the chapter for not doing what I wanted it to, the chapter is here! And I'm still not satisfied with it! Dagnabbit! ... Well, better late than never is a phrase for a reason... and something that was said by an unnamed extra in Ghost Buster's 2, I think it was, when the ghost titanic showed up... For some reason that's one of my favorite little moments in the movie.

Anyways, satisfied or not, this is way overdue, and I am exhausted with it. I hope it brings you all some pleasure. And on a lighter note, because I'm aware I can be a downer unfortunately, here's a direct response to something awesome that one of the awesome participants in this story posted. A reference I got, and thought was cool. Couldn't find a good video version, but I hope you'll like it anyways even if you don't know what this is from. Enjoy...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_q1SdaWLlw

Oh! And if the Character Sheet is above the post, I haven't edited it yet, so it'll be a little behind. There's a personality trait that I figured that the character should have/have had already and I need to put there, in addition to the general editing I usually do. However I'm tired right now, so won't be editing immediately... Anyways, be well, thank you for reading.