She stood up and motioned for me to do the same. “You stink.” She said bluntly, her voice strangely emotionless, as she cracked one of the windows open the tiniest bit. “This room is much closer to the front of the house. I'll have to aerate it out slowly, or else the Vamponies outside will take notice”

For a second I heard a sliver of irritation, and her shoulders were tense, but it dissipated quickly. She pointed to the bathroom, and I obediently went to it and climbed in the tub. It was pretty big, and could easy fit two ponies lying side by side. I expected her to climb in next to me, which she did, but instead of starting up the shower, she put the cork in the drain and opened the faucet fully.

“We’re taking a bath?” I asked.

She gave me a wordless nod and hopped back out, taking a package out from under the sink and dropping some beads in the tub before returning it to its spot and climbing back in. “Those are some very strong smelling bath salts. It’s a good a time as any to test how well they camouflage your scent.”

I looked at her from the corner of my eyes as I took my glasses off and tossed them over to the sink. “Why would you need to cover my scent anymore?” I asked. “You’re going to keep me locked up, aren’t you?”

To my utter amazement, and joy, she shook her head. “You’re depressed because you think you’ll never get a life, and that’s reasonable. So I’m going to give you what you want. A life for a life. You can live yours, and I get to keep it. Think about it; you’ve already told me how much not having a husband or a family is bringing you down. The only thing that’s changed at this point is that now you’re my slave. But…” She paused, and looked me in the eye. “You lost your freedom, but I’ll give you something in return. I can become the one thing you could never have before. I’ll be your friend. I’ll be that pony you can go to in times of need. I’ll be your reason to keep living. You might never have a family, but this must be better than what you had before, right?”

She stayed there for a second, watching me as it slowly sank in. I reached out to her and touched her with my hoof, which had stopped bleeding again but still had some crusted blood along the sides. She didn’t stop me, nor did she start licking it, but instead she waited to see what I would do. With another rush of tears, I embraced her. I started crying like a foal as she held me and whispered about how my life was better off now.

“And you can do that?” I said between sobs. “You can treat me like a friend, when I’m your slave and your food?”

“I’m best friends with Brandon and Mark. It may not look like it to you, but we’re very close. They just get cold and distant when I have company, because it doesn’t show proper status between me, the mistress, and them, the servants.”

“But what about the food part?”

“I’ll do my best to be your friend, Vinyl. I really will, but in the end there will be that distance between us, and you will always belong to me. If push comes to shove, I will eat you. But if we hope that it never happens, then I think we have a good chance at being actual friends.”

I nodded. She was right. I may have lost one of the most important things in the world, but I had the potential to gain something even better in return.

“Oh, and this?” She said as she ran her hoof over my nethers, causing me to gasp and squirm uncomfortably. "I’ll take care of this for you too.” I pulled away, my tears slowing, and looked at her. She smiled cockily and added. “Unless, of course, you’d rather go the rest of your life without somepony in your bed? I promise we’ll wait until it’s perfectly safe, with no chance of me suddenly ripping your pussy apart.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so I turned away and changed the subject. “And the fruit?”

Her face hardened to a mask, hiding her emotions. “We’ll see. You should have enough for a week at least with the amount Brandon and Mark are bringing, so that’ll be the trial week.”

I nodded. “The leash?”

“Same idea. A trial week with it, and then we’ll see.”

“The ring?”

“Don’t push it.”

I sighed and nodded. “I guess it could be worse…”

The bath was almost full at this point, and pleasantly hot. I sat down in it, letting out a sigh of joy as my muscles relaxed after all the stress of the past two nights. Next to me, Octavia did the same, a small smile gracing her lips.

‘My first friend in 8 years…’ I thought to myself.

The next hour passed slowly. We soaked in the tub until I my body felt like jelly, and then Octavia started washing me down like she had yesterday. I might have imagined it, but it felt like she was being a touch gentler than last time. After another half hour of vigorous coat and mane scrubbing, she let me out and toweled me off.

“The smell is gone, completely, but I’m still going to have you re-cast your spells. And I think we’ll go back to your house and get your cologne and anything else you might need.”

I nodded, and she bandaged my hoof back up before removing the ring. Within minutes I was done, and we were trotting across the city, leash on, to get the few articles I needed from my house.

I grabbed my cologne and dropped it in the saddlebags first. I followed it up with moisturiser and eye drops. Vamponies have soft skin, where the fur is thin enough to feel it, and the eye drops would help me keep the veins subtle. I reached over for my first aid kit, if for no other reason than because it made me feel safer to know I had it with me.

While I thought about anything I could be forgetting, I ate an apple, followed by and orange, and a banana. They went down quickly, but for some reason I was still hungry, so I added a kiwi to the mix. Oh, that’s what I forgot; my Ipone. And I grabbed my sack of bits too. Good thing I hadn’t bought that turntable; I would never have managed to get it across town. I took a few vinyls while I was at it. The good ones, with rock and electronic and dubtrot.

“I think that’s about it.” I told Octavia, who has been watching me zip around my apartment. “If I need anything else, we can always come back, right?”

She nodded, and after I cleared the smell of fruit from my breath with a lion blood-mist breath freshener, which I added to my saddlebags, we left. The trip back went just as smoothly, and I dropped my stuff in her room, which was now starting to feel more like our room.

Day was approaching. Brandon and Mark made it back with under an hour to spare. As soon as they returned, they stored the fruit in Octavia’s cold storage basement, which would keep it fresh for a good month.

Once that was settled, Octavia turned back to me, giving me the tiniest of sheepish smiles as she held up the cuff. I rolled my eyes behind my shades, but held out my hoof, which she tied to the bedpost as usual.

“One day I’ll let you roam the mansion 24/7, if you’re good, but for now…” She said.

With that, she quickly locked the double doors to her room and rushed off. I reached into my bad to pull out my Ipone, and then cried softly in my mind when I saw it was completely out of power, and that there were no outlets around my bed. Looks like I was in for another boring few hours of waiting for her to come back, with cum dripping out of her neither lips and that smell that would keep me up for an extra hour.

And so she did, although she had done me a kindness by eating first, so she wouldn’t have to leave again. She also un-cuffed me before taking her shower, and I quickly plugged my Ipone into the wall, so next time I wouldn’t have to deal with a solid hour of silence.

Her shower finished much quicker this time, probably because there were no cries of ecstasy, which means no solo play. She trotted out, refreshed, and climbed into her bed after re-fastening my hoof to the bedpost.

“I think we’ll skip school tomorrow. I want to be ready for… whatever is going to happen.” She said.

I nodded gratefully. No matter how much I thought about it, wearing a leash to school would be humiliating. Still, it was better than sitting in a room for the whole night. At least, that’s what my brain was telling me.

To my amazement, I felt really tired. It was that kind of tired where you just know that sleep is right around the corner, and you’ll get it real quick-like. I eagerly closed my eyes, hoping the world of dreams would have a special, fun place to carry me off to tonight.

It felt like barely a second has passed when I felt hooves shaking me awake.

I turned over groggily to see Octavia’s eyes staring back at me. They were wide with fear, and I don’t mean like a Vamponies would be. Her eyes were way too big for regular Vampony fear, which could only mean something very serious was going down.

“Get up.” She hissed. “We need to get out.”

I rubbed my eyes blearily. Through the shutters I could see the tiniest, most infinitesimal glow that signified it was probably high noon.

“What do ya want Octavia? It’s mid-day; we can’t leave ri-”

She shushed me by slapping a hoof across my lips and whispered. “Brandon suspects something. I know he does. And I think he’s told Mark. I can hear them on the other side of the door, pacing up and down the hallway.”

That woke me up. I joined her in her whispered tone, so as not to alert our hunters. “What do we do? They’re unicorns, and they probably have keys. Even if they don’t, we have to go out eventually…”

Octavia nodded and pointed to her bathroom, continuing her murmuring. “There’s a secret exit in there. They don’t know about it because it’s supposed to be in case of emergencies. MY emergencies. Hurry, but keep quiet.”

She slid across the floor, absolutely soundlessly, and opened the door to the facilities. I followed much more slowly, making sure to spread out my weight and tip hoof as much as I could. And, of course, I completely forgot about my bound hoof, which threw me off balance and caused me to slam into the ground.

Instantly, I heard the sound of tumblers creaking. Octavia was back in a flash, managing to break two of the locks and force them to stay closed. She jumped to my side as I heard magical sparks fly. I could only assume the servants were trying to cut the locks.

Octavia tore off my hoof-cuff and the leash, and all but shoved me across the room. I saw that a panel had been perfectly concealed behind the bathroom mirror, and Octavia tossed me into it.

I fell straight down, and only years of training stopped me from shrieking in fear. Vamponies don’t shriek. Still, it was a terrifying few seconds of free fall. When I finally hit the ground, I bounced back once and landed softly on the mattress that had been placed at the bottom of the shoot. Of course, the first thing I did was roll out of the way, and a good thing too, because Octavia was seconds behind me.

She hit the cushion and bounded past me in an instant, moving it as she did. “That won’t confuse them for long. They’ll track one of our scents and be down here soon. Come on.”

I saw she was leading us down a tunnel and followed. Anywhere was better than staring down two hungry Vamponies. Behind us, I heard the telltale sounds of bodies smacking against the floor, followed by grunts of pain and then pounding of hooves. Just by the sound, I could tell. They were on the hunt, and we were in deep trouble.

Until I felt Octavia flip me onto her back. Our speed doubled, maybe more, and I realised she was doing something that our teachers had taught us was impossible. She had entered the hunt, but she wasn’t hunting me. A Vampony on the hunt cannot stop him or herself from feeding on the pony they’re stalking. It was a physical impossibility, until today.

Up ahead, I saw an open door. And it wasn’t just any door. We’re talking a massive, steel, anti-magic door. It was probably a foot thick, and I could see the runes carvings that marked it as having magic resistant properties. Octavia dove through it and hit a button on the other side. A moment later, we were sealed in darkness.

On the other side of the door, I heard hooves slam against it. It was a loud boom that caused me to jump back, and it was followed by several rapid, much smaller smacks, which must have continued on for a whole minute before finally stopping. I heard aggravated snarls and howls of fury as they realised I had escaped them.

“We made it… Octavia, thank you! You saved my life again.” I said, blindly reaching out for the Vampony in question. “I can’t see a thing, can you turn on some sort o- eek!”

She had bowled me over, in what I had assumed was a tackle hug. I wrapped my hooves around her neck and hugged her close, smiling and half crying at the close call.

That is, until I felt the fangs rip into my shoulder.

I let out a piercing shriek of pain and smashed my hoof against her face. I’m pretty sure I broke something with that move, but I didn’t care. She let go for a brief second as I felt the numbing pain that signalled the venom had been injected. I had less than 6 hours left as a pony.

Octavia didn’t intend to wait it out. She struck her own shot, causing my head to smash down on the ground. Strangely, it didn’t hurt much more than the venom had. I didn’t know it was so fast acting. My body froze up, and she reached back in and tore something off. I could tell by the ripping sound that it was probably my whole left hoof.

She ate it with a maniac look in her eyes. Weird, where had the light come from? While she was eating, my brain went into a sort of sleepy, half-awake state, and I realised that she HAD been hunting me, only her goal had been to get me away from the others, so she could eat me alone…

When she finished, she looked up at me, grinning and showing off bloody teeth. He sauntered back over and lapped at the blood flowing down my stub of a hoof onto the floor.

“W-what happened to ‘friend’?” I choked out. My mouth was going numb too, and my whole body wasn’t responding. It felt like the venom was putting me to sleep.

She tittered manically. “You didn’t actually believe that, did you? I only wanted to make you feel better. I mean, come on, did you actually believe a Vampony could be friends with one of your kind? That’s so pathetic.”

She began biting off chunks of muscle, bone and flesh, speaking between bites. The only reason I could tell she was eating me at all was because of the ripping sounds. “I wanted to keep drinking from you for as long as I could, but you left too many clues. The boys just couldn’t help but figure it out. Poor dears; can you hear them?” She paused, and I heard whining and scraping from the other side of the door. “They sound like lost dogs. Fuckers, trying to steal my kill.”

Whoa, that came out of left field. I though she loved those two, like brother… lover things…? Another maniacle laugh filled the room as she shouted “Fuck you! She’s MINE!” To the door. I didn’t take her for a vulgar Vampony either. This must be what being on the hunt did to them…

She turned back to me and smiled before going in for the prize. Her teeth sank deep into my chest and ripped my heart right out of my body. I didn’t feel a thing anymore, but I’m sure my eyes must have widened, although it felt like they were getting harder and harder to keep open. It was probably the blood loss, but I wasn’t having trouble breathing. And I should be; she just tore through a lung…

“Now, before you die, you’re going to do me one last favor, okay?” She said as she tore my heart apart, shuddering in ecstasy.

I tried to spit a “buck you” at her, but my voice had failed me. My whole world was starting to spin, and I felt as if she was flying away from me. At the same time, I heard the strange shuffling of sheets, and I heard her hiss “Vinyl! Wake up!”

My eyes snapped open. I sat straight up and overbalanced, falling forward until my hoof caught and yanked me to the side. I ended up awkwardly splayed sideways, with one hoof reaching forward to stop my fall while the other was being yanked backwards by the cuff. After taking a brief moment to pull myself out of my painful position, I heard Octavia say “If you’re done fooling around…”

I turned towards the voice and saw her pressed to the far side of the room, breathing trough her pillow case, which was pulled over her lips.

“…What?” Was all I could manage to come up with.

“You were tossing and turning in your sleep like a crazy pony! And now you’re sweating like a… well like a pony. And I’m hungry, not to mention that your blood is addicting, so it’s more tempting then ever! This is NOT a good combination, and I it’s all I can do not to jump you right now.”

“Okay… what do I do?”

“Stay still, don’t move, and wait until I can get out of the room and to the kitchen.” She said. “And try to stop smelling so mouth-wateringly good, if that’s even a thing you can do…”

We waited there. A quick glance told me the light was still strong, but beginning to wane. It was probably afternoon, and that meant Octavia’s belly had had time to empty. I was obviously in danger, again, so I sat stock still. She slowly made her way over to the door, which meant coming closer to me. I saw her pupils slowly dilate and retract as she fought her urge to hunt, and I held my breath as she slowly unlocked the door.

It wasn’t until she was safely outside that I dared relax. That had been a close call.

Then the dream came back to me. What could it have meant? I wasn’t big on the whole dreams are all subconscious and stuff, but this one seemed different. Was I scared of being found out? Or maybe of being betrayed? Or maybe I was just scared of being eaten in general. All seemed plausible.

As I lay flumped down on the bed, puzzling, I heard the door unlock again. Octavia came in quickly; shutting the door behind her and locking it back up. I felt a small twinge of fear, and I had to remind myself that it was just a silly dream. I was safe, so long as I kept my cool and didn’t buck up.

“Alright, up. You need another shower.” She barked, annoyed, as she herded me off to the shower. “What happened to you spells and cologne?”

“I have no idea. I mean, I guess it was pretty hot under the covers, and the dream I had probably overrode my spells and pumped my body full of adrenaline. I can do a lot with magic, but I can’t control my body’s last-resort defensive mechanisms.”

She rubbed me down with her soap, getting all the sweat off my body. I let her do it without complaint, mostly because I knew she wouldn’t have it anyway, but also because I knew it would be faster this way. As she scrubbed me, I turned at looked at the mirror. Could there really be a secret passage there, or was my imagination just to biased by all those pre-conversion stories?

Once I was all cleaned up and had applied a healthy dose of cologne, she took my sheets and tossed them into a fresh bath, dropping some of those special bath salts in with it before returning to her bed, after she had cuffed me of course. “Go back to bed, and TRY not to do that again. I need my precious sleep or I get… edgy.”

Since I didn’t, indeed, feel the need to see her being edgy, I complied. However, I would be examining that mirror on the next opportunity I had.

Oddly enough, despite the terrifying dream, the vigorous washing and the lack of a bedspread, I felt completely exhausted, almost as if I hadn’t slept at all...

Author's Notes:

Hello again my pony loving friends. Another chapter, straight from Mavinator5.
I will leave you with the usual request for criticism, or just comments in general. I love me some comments.
I've given myself a 500 word a day minimum, so expect at least 2-3 more updates over the course of the summer for both stories, assuming I follow my self-imposed rule.
I love all of you, leave me comments!
-Mavinator5