I've been drunk before.

I once got so plastered I couldn't feel my hooves on my face, and ended up tricking several handsome stallions into sleeping with me. To this day I still have no idea if that would be considered rape or not, or who raped who for that matter. I don't remember much from that night, except of course for what I felt like in the morning. Save for a pleasant ache in my rump, I felt exactly how I feel right now.

Pounding headache, non-existent energy, and blurred vision as I wake up in a strange place that I don't remember going to. Oh, Luna fucking damnit, I have such a bad case of deja-vu right now.

I weakly move my head, and carefully begin to stand up. What in the seven names of Satan was I thinking going near alcohol again?

“Oh, crap! It's waking up! Scootaloo, get over here!”

Then again, I don't think hangovers are supposed to vanish into thin air. Nor should they restrain you from moving your legs. I look down and see several thick strands of rope bound tightly around my ankles. Before I can recover from this shock, I feel a pointed edge jab at my shoulder. I flinch, look up, and am greeted by my two best friends glaring at me with an unnerving mix of fear and anger in their eyes. Scootaloo is holding a sword at my shoulder, and Applebloom is gripping a lance in her hooves.

“Not so tough when you can't chase us anymore, huh?” Scootaloo spits.

“What are you girls doing? Why did you tie me up, and... and where did you get those weapons anyway?”

Scootaloo's face makes a slightly discomforted twist; Applebloom's shudder is much more noticeable. I remain confused, until I suddenly remember we're trapped in a cave with a dragon horde. I look around, scanning the area a bit until... yep, there it is: a large pile of skeletons, decaying away with several tattered weapons at their sides. I cringe as the image of my friends looting those corpses slithers into my brain.

“It doesn't matter!” Scootaloo proclaims, “And I'll be the one asking questions! Now be truthful with me, monster! What did you do with Sweetie Belle?”

My head snaps up at her. “What do you mean? I'm right here?”

“Oh, no! We're not falling for that again!” Applebloom states. “We saw what you did in the forest, if you think this... disguise, or trick, or fancy magic, or whatever it is, is gonna fool us, you are dead wrong, miss.”

I let my head fall limp to the floor, smacking my horn against the stone. With a half dead expression, I look up at them. “No, you don't understand. I am Sweetie Belle.”

“Quit your lying! If my sister were here right now, she'd beat you to a bloody pulp!”

“Look, just let me explain, and it'll all—”

“The only thing we want ‘explained’ is where you took Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo shouts.

“Well, if you'd just let me—”

“Did you hurt her? Is she safe? Answer me jerk face!”

It’s one of those moments where I briefly contemplate suicide. “I didn't do anything to her, because I am her! Seriously, does it look like I'm lying to you?”

“You're a monster,” Scootaloo says. “Monsters lie all the time... right?”

“Well, yeah,” Applebloom answers. “Queen Chrysalis is a monster, and look at what she did at that wedding.”

“Yeah, you're not gonna fool us that easily! We know you're lying, so tell us what you did to Sweetie Belle! Did you hurt her? Kill her? Eat her?”

I growl so loudly my throat gets a little sore. “So, just because you think I'm lying, that automatically means I ate your best friend?”

“You ate Sweetie Belle!”

“What? No, I didn't say—”

“You monster! You evil, evil, monster!” Tears leak out Applebloom's eyes and she degrades into weeping husk on the ground.

Scootaloo has a much more intense expression on her face. “I should've known! Monsters are always born killers, why did I expect anything else?”

“Uh... girls?”

“She never even got her cutie mark. We were supposed to find them together!” Apple Bloom sobs.

“Girls?”

“I should gut you! Sweetie Belle deserves a better grave than your smelly stomach!”

“Girls!”

“Say your prayers monster!”

Scootaloo swings down with the sword. The blade hits me in the chest, and promptly snaps in half like a twig against a stone. My face is twisted with so much anger I think I'm about to pop a blood vessel.

“Right! That's it! I'm done!” Without so much as trying, I snap the bonds off my legs and jump up to meet a confused—and now terrified—Scootaloo. “For future reference, it takes a lot more than a rusty iron sword to hurt me.”

I don't think my words get through to her. At least, that's what I take away from her screaming at the top of her lungs and rushing to hide behind a trembling Apple Bloom.

“St-stay back! I'm warning you, I'll use this thing!”

“Apple Bloom,” I say, my tone matching the deadpan look on my face, “if getting lit on fire, having my face smashed in a dozen times against solid stone, and being eaten alive by a dragon didn't kill me, then what makes you think poking me in the eye with a stick will?”

Apple Bloom freezes up. I can almost see her mind through her face, calculating the math like some chugging machine. She raises her hooves up, letting the lance clatter to the floor. “Okay, maybe we can't fight you, but come on? You don't need to eat us. We're too young to get eaten.”

“Yeah, w-w-we don't even taste that good.”

“That's the truth.” Apple Bloom licks her hoof. “Yuk, it's like rotten apple cores! And I'd imagine Scootaloo's nothing but a week old, dried up, half eaten chi—”

“You finish that sentence, and I swear to Celestia, I'll shove you forward.”

“Would you two just shut up for three fucking seconds?!”

I feel like my head is about to burst open. I need to breathe out, to release the pressure inside it. I rub my temples to get my temper adequately controlled, then speak to my frightened friends as calmly as I can. “Look, I know this is a lot to take in right now, but I am Sweetie Belle. I am the same filly you girls have hung out with for years now.”

Scootaloo manages to mutter out. “Yeah, right. Why should we believe you?”

“Don't you remember everything we did together? The... the day we formed the crusaders, after we showed up Diamond Tiara? Or when we put together that stage show that totally bombed, but we got awards anyway? Or the Hearts-and-Hooves Day fiasco? The cockatrice in the forest? The camp out with our sisters? Don't you remember any of that?”

Their fear retreats, forced back by my knowledge. It looks like I'm starting to make a break through with Apple Bloom, but Scootaloo...

“No, you're lying! Sweetie Belle isn't a monster, Sweetie Belle would never attack us like you did!”

My anger flares up again. “Damnit, I didn't have any control over that! That thing that flew over us earlier, that's what you should blame! It messed with my mind! I didn't want to come after you like that, I didn't mean to...”

Whatever was about to come out of my mouth just then falls flat on my tongue. It didn't fully hit me until right now: I attacked my friends. No, worse, I tried to kill them! Two of the best fillies I had ever met, the greatest friends I could ask for, and I just tried to rip them apart.

I feel numb, like part of my soul has been taken away. My legs give out from under me, and I collapse to the ground. I lower my face to the floor, incapable of looking them in the eye. My breath shudders with each intake, and I shiver from a sudden coldness. The dams in my eyes strain to contain the flood waters, but eventually burst under the force of the storm. I cry. I bury my face in the hard stone floor, and cry.

Idiot! I'm such a fucking idiot! All this time, I had been so careful, so cautious, to make sure that my urges never got the best of me. Then just when I begin to think I've got them under control, I go on a rampage through Everfree, and almost kill my best friends! Who the hell was I fooling to begin with? I'll never control these cravings. My friends are right, I'm a monster. I was born one, and I'll die one. There's no use trying to deny it.

I continue to inject my despair into the ground. Through the tears, and sobbing, I hear a muffled argument in front of me. I never look up, though; I'm too lost in my own sorrow to notice anything else. It's not until I feel a trembling hoof on my shoulder, that I'm pulled from my shattered state. I look up, and see Apple Bloom standing above me.

Her lips tremble with terror, but her eyes are full of sympathy. “S-S-Sweetie Belle?”

That look, that one bit of compassion, is too much. I burry my face at her hooves. “I'm sorry! I am so, so, sorry.” My voice can barely formulate the words. “I didn't mean for this to happen! I didn't mean to attack you! I just... I just... Oh, dear Celestia.”

I descend into tears again, my voice cracking with each wail. At some point I wish that my friends would just go, leave the monster alone to her own grief, and never look back. They remain though, and it looks like they have no intention of leaving.

“Hey... come on, it's alright.”

“No, it's not alright!” She jumps back when I look at her, moisture burning in my eyeballs. “I tried to kill you! You're my best friends, and I just tried to kill you! How is that, in any way, alright?”

Apple Bloom recovers from her fear, and looks sheepishly around the room, as if the answer to my question was hidden somewhere within it. “I... I... Look, we'll get over it.”

“Oh come on, you're seriously buying this?” Scootaloo interjects. “You saw what she did in the forest! For all we know she could turn and eat us up right now!”

My heart cringes, the words are lethal to my ears; but nowhere near as lethal as the gaze that Applebloom shoots at her. “Scootaloo, if she really wanted to eat us, I think she would've done that already. At the very worst, she'll probably just try to stick her tongue in your mouth again.”

Scootaloo's face goes a deep shade of red. “Sh-shut up. Look, if she is Sweetie Belle, then can she tell us what the hay just happened? And how she managed to make it happen for that matter?”

The question barely registers in my head, and as it slowly processes, my crying degrades into a gentle whimper. My tears refuse to dry up, however. I manage to look at them, only to turn away in shame ridden guilt. “You're gonna be scared if I answer that question.”

Apple Bloom scoffs at the remark. “Come on, I doubt we could be any more scared than we are already. Just tell us.”

I remain on the ground a while longer, then I slowly put energy back into my hooves and sit up, facing my friends with sunken, tear stained eyes. “Okay... so you know that Rarity is my sister, right?” They nod their heads. “Well, technically, that's only half true. You see, Rarity's mom is my mom, but her dad... isn't my dad.”

I'm silent. My words meet a wall in my throat that they can't break through, only freed by the prodding of my friends.

“Well, if he's not your dad, then who is?”

Sweat pours out my skin, and I have to mentally kick myself to get the words out.

“My father is a demon.”

It's one of those rare silences that seem louder and more noticeable than any noise could ever be. My friends stare blankly at me, their faces shifting and moving as if their brains are having difficulty deciding what expression to put on them.

Apple Bloom is the first to speak. “Okay, that is pretty scary.”

Scootaloo keeps her gaze trained on me. “So, does that make you like, some sort of hell spawn, or devil's daughter, or something?”

“The proper term is half-demon, and yes, that's exactly what I am.” There’s a fluster in my chest with each word I speak. “I've been hiding it ever since I showed up in Ponyville. I couldn't risk the others finding out about me. That doesn't mean I like hiding it though. Hell, I hate hiding it! It's just that I was so scared of how everyone would react, and I was terrified of how you girls would take it.”

I lower my head, shaking it as I stare at the ground. “I'm sorry, I should've trusted you more.”

It looks like Scootaloo's eyes soften for just a moment, but she quickly regains her defensive stature. “If you're a demon, then what are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be out... I don't know, eating newborn babies, or plotting the downfall of Equestria?”

Anger bores into my head like a parasite. “It's not like that Scootaloo! Just because I'm demon, doesn't mean I'm pure evil!” I breath in a few deep breaths to regain my composure. “But if you must know, I came to here to hide out, away from any guards or demon hunters. Demons are usually attracted to big places with lots of horrible ponies to blend in with, so a small town like Ponyville is probably the last place you'd expect to find one.”

“But I thought demons were like, the most evil beings in existence,” Applebloom states. “I mean, hay, they practically invented evil, didn't they?”

“That's what I heard.” Scootaloo adds.

“Well, technically yes, they were the world's first trouble makers, but that doesn't mean we can't try to be good.”

Scootaloo narrows her eyes. “Then what was up with that stuff back in the forest? Why did you just jump on us all of a sudden?”

“You remember that creature that flew over us earlier?” They both nod. “I'm not sure what it was, but it did something to me. It released some sort of... weird energy that messed with my head. The second that thing passed by, I lost control. My demonic energy just went wild, and I had to kill something. Thankfully, this dragon was here satisfy me, or else... well, lets not think about what might have happened.”

They both seem content to skip over that subject. Applebloom in particular seems a little anxious to get away from it. “You don't sound like you're very safe to be around. Does stuff like this happen all the time?”

“What happened just now was a special circumstance. Usually I can control my appetite. Hell, I've lived in Ponyville for two years and nopony has seemed notice.”

Applebloom seems content with the answer, unlike Scootaloo. “What do you mean by appetite? What does food have anything to do with this?”

Fuck! Why did I word it like that! “Well… basically… demons need the blood of other living creatures to stay healthy. We don't need it to survive, per se, but it does keep us in control of our powers. And lets us keep our sanity.”

“Wait, so you mean you actually... kill, other—”

“I never hurt any innocent ponies!” I shout desperately. “You-you know how our parents and sisters always tell us about those bad ponies out there, who try to act all nice to you, just so they can take you away and hurt you? Those are the kinds of ponies I hunt, those are always the kinds of ponies I go after. I've never harmed anypony who didn't deserve it, I swear!”

I can feel the breath rattle in my chest. The temperature of my body has dropped several degrees. My heart is a constant drum beat when Scootaloo, eye wide with fear and... something else, finally replies. “But, you still... kill them, right?”

I swallow my breath like a vile medicine. I close my eyes and lower my head, unable to look at them when I give my answer.

“Yes, I kill ponies.”

The words hang in the air, swaying back and forth through the room like a vessel caught in a storm. I still can't look at them, so I can only imagine their expressions. Shock? Horror? Repulsion? A mixture of all three? I'm too terrified to look.

After the longest few seconds of my life, Scootaloo finally breaks the silence. “So, just to make sure I've got this straight. You're a demon from Hell, who hides out in Ponyville, and occasionally travels out to find bad ponies and criminals, so you can murder them and drink their blood?”

Words get stuck in my throat, but I manage to give a stiff nod in reply.

Silence reigns like a tyrant yet again, but is quickly dethroned by Scootaloo's swift response.

“That... is... awesome!”

My eyes fly open. The tears I just threatened to produce dry up. I look up at my orange-coated friend, who is grinning from ear-to-ear. “So, you're like a superhero then, a totally wicked, badass, superhero! That is so cool!”

I'm in such shock, it’s a miracle I can even formulate a response. “I... don't think heroes are supposed to brutally tor... wha—wait, so you're telling me you're... okay with me killing ponies? Killing ponies, and drinking their blood?”

“Are you kidding? Hay yeah! What do I care if a bunch of kidnappers, and murders, die every now and then. Dear sweet Celestia, why did you not tell us this earlier! You should be famous, you should be big, holy crap I am best friends with a superhero!”

“I'm not sure you should be so proud of this, Scootaloo,” Applebloom states. “Even if she does only attack bad ponies, I've heard a lot of spook stories about what demons do to their victims.”

“Wait, you have? From where?!”

“My second cousin Apple Tart has been into the occult for a long while now. She told me, at the last Apple family reunion, it'd better to just kill yourself than let a demon get its hooves on you.”

I shrivel back again, but thankfully Scootaloo comes to my rescue. “Oh, come on Applebloom! If the ponies she goes after are evil, then who cares what she does to them? Hay, it's probably better she killed them so they don't go on to hurt anypony else.”

Applebloom takes a deep breath. “Point taken, but I'm still a little uncomfortable with this. I mean, if what she's saying is true then she's basically been lying to us since the day we met her. What's there to say she's telling the truth this time?”

Scootaloo opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. She's stuck with an argument she can't answer.

“Because you're my friends.” They both look back at me as I speak. “I know I've lied a lot since we first met. But it's not like I liked lying to you girls, I just didn't know you'd be okay with this... I just...” I'm not sure what to say. “Look, I'm sorry, and I promise, no more. Just give me one more chance, you can ask me anything, and I promise you'll get nothing but the truth from me.”

Apple Bloom stares at me with slanted eyes. “You swear you'll be truthful?”

“Completely.”

“Then I just have one question for you right now.” She looks me dead in the eyes, the seriousness of her glare intimidates me, and I feel like finding someplace to hide when she speaks in a blank emotionless tone. “If you're a demon, does that mean your cutie mark will be of you eating somepony?”

The weight in my stomach vanishes. She smiles devilishly at me, and I grin back. “Nah, I'm pretty sure a pentagram cutie mark would be more my style.”

Applebloom is the first to laugh, Scootaloo follows behind, and I come in shortly after. Soon we're on the floor of the cave, using our laughter to poison the last bit of tension left in the air. I stand up, wiping the tears out of my eyes, and smile at my friends.

“Thanks girls, I promise you, you wont regret this.” I pull Applebloom into a tight hug, and she's all too eager to share it, at least until she notices something.

“Uh, Sweetie Belle, as nice as this moment is, you're sorta, still... a mess.”

“Huh?” I break away from her, my face warped with confusion, until I see the blood I've smeared across her coat. With all the excitement happening after I woke up, it's only now that I realize that I'm still drenched, head-to-hoof, in dragon blood.

“Oh.” I chuckle nervously. “I guess I should wash up before we go back home.”

“I think we're all going to need a bath.” Scootaloo chides, who is also covered in blood. “And in case anything like this happens again, try not to get it in my mouth next time.”

I rub the back of my head in embarrassment. Applebloom brushes some of the blood off her coat and walks forward. “Right now, I think we should be more concerned about getting out of here before we think of anything else. The cave collapsed in during that fight, and that was our only way in.”

“No need to worry,” I state coolly, “I happen to be a wiz at tunneling.”

I face towards the blocked exit, stretch out my hind legs, and charge straight forward. I collide with the mound of stone, smashing straight through it into the darkness within. I look over my shoulder, at the newly formed cave entrance, and see my friend's stupefied faces peeking out behind the dust and crumbled rocks.

Scootaloo's slack jawed appearance quickly shapes up into a broad smile, topped with a shrill laugh. “Oh, dear sweet Luna, I can just tell this is gonna be awesome!”