"Octavia...what are you?"

She couldn't look me in the eye. We both sat on opposite ends of the room, her on the couch and me on a lounger, still not too comfortable. It gave me a chance to study her new form up close. I saw her hooves, shaped more like paws than anything now, sets of four claws hidden, ready to unleash and shred whoever had the misfortune to be her prey. I saw her sharp teeth, poking out of her mouth like fangs, sharp enough to tear flesh. Her coat was thicker, longer, and much softer. Muscle rippled underneath. Her mane and tail had also grown longer, and much more disheveled. Her ears were much more attentive, reacting to sound with twitches and perks. And of course, she also had the most adorable nose on her snout!

"A lycanequus," she growled.

It wasn't a mean kind of growl, it was just how she talked.

"Half-wolf," Octavia choked. "Half-pony."

"Okay."

Her canine ears perked. "Okay?"

"Yeah," I swallowed. "Okay. You're sitting there, aren't you? You're real." I traced a hoof across the seat awkwardly. "I just can't believe it's real."

"Neither can I," Octavia rumbled.

"So...how?"

"How what?"

"Are your parents lycans? Are you a descendant from a long lineage of lycans?"

"W-What? No!" she barked, laughing. "No! My parents aren't lycans. Just me."

"So what happened?" I suddenly blurted, quieting down. "I mean, if you want to tell me. You don't have to."

She shook her head. "I'll tell you." She took a deep, shuddering breath, as if she was telling this story for the first time to anypony. "I was born in Ponyville, yes?"

"Yeah. You told me."

"Well, when I was...seventeen, I-I... was so stupid! I went into the Everfree Forest." Her claws dug into the couch as her lips trembled. She hunched her body. "I don't even remember why. I think it was a stupid dare. I..." She sniffed.

I didn't want to approach her. So I stayed quiet.

"I remember it like it was yesterday. I had slept underneath the statue of Nightmare Moon and...it..."

"It's okay."

"It attacked me."

"What?"

"What do you think?!" she wailed, wiping at her face. "It b-bit me! A-And I ran away, and I went to Ponyville Hospital...I...they patched me up, made sure I didn't get rabies." She sniffed, laughing a little. "I remember how mad my parents were. Mum nearly had a heart attack when she saw me all bandaged up. And that was that."

Octavia paused, taking a moment to compose herself. Her face went dark.

"A few days later, on the night of a full moon, I changed. The very first time, I changed into...this," she spat, sounding disgusted with herself. "I woke up later in the Everfree again, only this time I had...blood all over my face and hooves."

"I'm...sorry."

"I couldn't tell anypony! I was so scared, and I didn't know what to do! S-So I kept going to the Everfree every full moon, just to make sure I didn't hurt anypony."

"So how come you're still wolfy?"

She fixed me with a glare. "I can change whenever I want. But on full moons, I have no choice." She sighed. "Vinyl, how did you notice?"

"Well, it's kind of hard not to notice that your roommate is scratching like she's got fleas," I snapped.

Octavia sat next to me on the couch, content and calm to study her music sheets on the coffee table in front of us. It was unofficially "quiet time" in the Octavia/Vinyl Scratch residence, where we simply sat in silence, working on our own little projects. Me, I had my signed headphones around my ears, a DJ set in front of me. All was calm and all was right in the world, until...

"Octy, what the hay are you doing?"

Octavia kicked her hind leg furiously at her neck, scratching like she had ants in her pants. Or fleas.

"N-Nothing!"

Two weeks later, she left for her vacation.

"Did I really do that?"

"Yes. And you wagged your tail everywhere you went."

Octavia looked positively giddy as she skipped across the streets of Canterlot. Her long, silky tail bobbing up and down, swishing side to side, a pair of saddlebags on her back. I trailed after her, gazing at her soft, firm, squeezable...

...new pillows that she just bought!

Sickos.

"Octy, are you wagging your tail?"

She stopped, laughing nervously. "Of course not! Don't be ridiculous."

Still, her tail continued to wag, as if she had no control. She stomped a hoof on her tail, making sure it didn't move, giving me an extra cheesy grin with a side order of macaroni and cheese and nachos.

"Or that time you started drooling at that restaurant?"

"Okay, okay, I get it! So I was acting a little strange. But that doesn't explain how you figured out I was...this."

"You know me, I'm—"

Octavia suddenly coughed. "—stupid!" She noticed my glare and flicked her eyes back and forth.

I glowered at her. "I'm observant. Not to mention you're an awful liar—"

"Hey!" she barked.

"We've been together, err, living together for six months. You, you're always going to work from eight to five and me, I'm gone from seven to four. You're sleeping when I get home, and I'm sleeping when you get home. We only see each other when we eat. You're eating dinner when I'm eating breakfast. So I did the math," I counted on my hoof, "for the past six months, we've only seen each other forty-eight days, now that I think about it even more, only on the weekends when we go out and do stuff. And sometimes we don't even feel like getting up on the weekends and we both kind of just sleep or do our own thing!"

"You did math?"

Her being in her furry state didn't stop me from punching her playfully. "It's funny. Six months and we still barely know anything about each other."

"We work too much," she admitted.

"What do you even do from eight to five on weekdays?"

Octavia huffed. "Vinyl, we have jobs every day! Almost everyday! Weddings and—and royal parties, and birthday parties! And when we aren't going to an after party we're rehearsing every day! And concerts," she blushed, "well, we haven't had too many of those."

"You mean 'cause of the Grand Gallop—"

She clamped her hooves over my mouth. "I thought we agreed never to speak of that again."

"Well, I mean, we know a little about each other. I know you were born in Ponyville. And you went to Celestia's School for Gifted Musicians in Canterlot on a scholarship."

Octavia traced a hoof across the cushion sheepishly. "And I know you were born here, and your parents are Hoity Toity and Photo Finish, and you...dropped out of Celestia's School for Gifted Musicians because you hated playing the..."

"Piano," I grumbled. "You like...classical music."

"And you like," Octavia paused, "whatever that is."

"Hey!"

"You also have a large collection of sunglasses," she added, "still growing. And you have lots of vinyls too."

I thought for a bit. "Um, well, you told me you really hated mushrooms."

"You secretly can't stand drinking alcohol," she told me.

"I told you that?"

"A long time ago, I recall."

"Well, you talk in your sleep!" I said.

She paused. "I do?" She huffed. "Well you snore. Really loudly, I might add."

"And you take a really long time in the shower!" I shot back.

"Because I have to deal with all this fur!" she cried, practically nose and nose with me.

We snorted. We laughed and shoved each other.

"You had a huge crush on your pianist, Frederic Horseshoepin," I teased.

She cocked her head. "I never told you that."

"Oh I read your diar—"

"COME BACK HERE VINYL SCRATCH!"

"HELP! HELP! MY ROOMMATE'S A—"

She tackled me, sending me flying clear across the room. The living room was in complete disarray, with cushions torn and lamps knocked over. She and I rolled a few feet before she came out on top, looking positively ferocious.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I wailed.

"YOU READ MY DIARY!" she howled. She narrowed her wolfish eyes. "There's only one thing left to do now."

Meep.

"Read your diary!" she hollered.

My eyes widened. My pupils shrank. Oh no no no no. She could not see my diary! There were very secret, dangerous, secret things that nopony could see except me on the last page! Mainly my very steamy fantasies of Octavia and I making music (if you get my drift) and our names in hearts!

So I'm a sissy. And a lesbian deep inside the closet!

"Octy, NO!"

"Look what I've got!" she sang, my black book between her teeth. "Time to see what secrets Vinyl Scratch has been hiding!"

I charged her, biting and yanking the book away. Nearly making my desperate escape, she yanked my tail and pulled me back.

I opened the book and tore out a page, shoving it in my mouth.

"What was that?" she hissed, pouncing on me.

I swallowed, putting on a big grin. "N-Nothing."

"Are you afraid of me, Vinyl?"

After a bit of rearranging and reading out of my diary, which Octavia found to be incredibly dry, seeing as I was savvy enough to fill a bunch of pages with the words "wub" written over and over again as a deterrent to any snoopers!

Hah! I'm a genius.

"No," I lied. "You're still Octavia, aren't you?"

"Please don't lie to me, Vinyl. I hate it."

"...Yes. You do. A little. Not a lot. You're just a bit...intimidating."

Even the way she moved had changed. In a single bound, she leapt off the couch, slinking toward me rather quickly. It was enough to make me flinch a bit. In a show of friendliness, I scooted toward her on the couch, trying to put on a brave face and a smile. She smiled back, showing off her rows of teeth.

"Eheh."

Octavia slumped, bowing her head slightly. "I'm afraid, Vinyl," she admitted. "My cravings are getting stronger! Sometimes I feel like I can't even control my own body!"

"That's called puberty."

She didn't groan or even get mad at me for cracking a joke. "I don't want to lose myself."

I hugged her again. "I'll help you."

"You will?"

"Sure! You're my best friend." I squeezed her.

My only friend.

But I wanted more. Oh, so much more than that. For some reason her curse made her seem even more attractive. Exotic, even. A part of me buried long ago reminded me how wrong it was to be attracted to a mare, but the forbidden nature of it made it seem even more appealing.

"We can start today!"

"Are you even a trained psychologist?"

"Nope!"

"Alright, I'll say a word, and you say whatever comes to mind."

"Yes." She nodded, scratching at her neck.

I cleared my throat, reading off the list. "Cat."

"Nemesis," she replied with a venomous tone, growling lowly.

I looked at her worriedly, arching an eyebrow. "Squirrel."

Her head suddenly darted off into space as she barked, "Squirrel!" She got her bearings, flushing, and settled herself. "Ahem. Sorry. What was the word?"

"Squirrel."

"Eviscerate."

I scooted a little farther from her. "Bunny."

"Food."

I frowned. Well this isn't going well at all.

"Blood."

"Warm."

"Home."

"Territory."

"Territory," I repeated.

"Marked."

"With?"

Octavia paused. "Never mind."

"DJ-Pon3."

"Obnoxious."

"Vinyl Scratch."

She leaned in with a wicked grin.

"Eat."

"Vinyl—"

"GO AWAY!"

My bedroom door was currently barricaded with my bed, my desk, my bookshelf, and just about every conceivable thing that could be used to deter a raging lycan, including socks and dirty laundry.

So maybe I'd overreacted.

"Vinyl, it was just a joke—"

"IT WAS TOO SOON," I cried.

"Too soon?" she huffed. "You've got to be joking." She sighed, and knocked on the door. "Vinyl, please come out. I didn't mean it."

"NO!"

"You know, I could just break down this door if I really wanted to."

"STAY AWAY!" I screamed, brandishing a set of vinyls, ready to slice her to ribbons with them. "I've got Sapphire Shores, and I'm not afraid to use it!"

In the darkness of the night, I sat, unable to close my eyes. Don't you hate that? You try your hardest to go to sleep, but your brain won't let you. There was a burning question in the back of my mind, a question that would plague me in my sleep and in my dreams until it was finally answered. It was a desire, to want to know. I had to know what those cryptic words meant.

What the hay did she mean, "marking her territory?"

The words clicked inside my head.

...

"Oh."

Two past midnight I bucked her bedroom door open and charged in, shaking Octavia awake. She arose drowsily, rubbing at her eyes, her hair a mess.

"Bluh? Huh? Vinyl, w-what is it?"

I smacked her.

"That is DISGUSTING!" Next Chapter: The Part With Neon Lights Estimated time remaining: 10 Minutes