//------------------------------// // The Day // Story: Fangs: The Order // by Sapphic //------------------------------// *~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*...Octavia...*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~* A piece of stone shattered against the back wall of where Vinyl stood, making me cringe a little at the unpleasant sound. The only reason it didn't hit Vinyl herself was because she had just so happened to stumble on another, much smaller, piece of rock and fall flat on her stomach. I began to notice, the more I watched her while she was tipsy or drunk or whatever she was after drinking, the more I seemed to notice that she had that same dumb luck that seemed to haunt me. She tripped and stumbled, dodging fatal blows, eerily similar to me when I would stumble over my own hooves or something. 'Perhaps we aren't so different after all...' I thought to myself. Vinyl rolled over, dodging another piece of stone that took a chunk of the ground out from where she had been lying, and pushed herself back off the ground. She kept up this drunken teeter, slowly but surely closing the gap between herself and Stone. A pair of hooves grabbed me, causing me to yelp a little and raise a hoof up in a rather frail defense, but when my eyes settled on the ashy color of a grey mare, I surprisingly felt myself relax. "C'mon, get with the rest of us where it's safe." Flint said to me, oddly caring for my safety. "B-but, I'm with Vinyl..." I began to stammer, but a roll of her eyes stopped me. "I don't care who you're with. You're not a vampire so you're on my list of people I'm obliged to protect." She said. 'Was I still not a vampire?' I asked myself, looking at my free hoof while Flint began to pull my other one, leading me along the edge of the wall towards the small cluster of wounded ponies settled behind a fallen chunk of rock. The rock was serving more or less as a barrier between the oncoming fight between Stone and Vinyl, and when we got closer I noticed that it was being headed by that other general that wasn't fighting Vinyl; Care I think his name was. He struck me as a rather level headed stallion, if not a little bit socially awkward - though coming from me that was a pretty hypocritical remark. Nevertheless, he definitely took his job as a doctor serious, evident by his expression and the coolness he had about him as he casually addressed the wounded. As I found myself being led into the makeshift fort, the free hoof that Flint wasn't dragging along suddenly latched itself onto the edge of the misshapen rock wall, keeping me in view of Stone and Vinyl as they played a game of dodgeball with boulders. Flint seemed to only give me a few weak tugs before giving up on me and letting me stay where I was. "Girl's got a grip." I heard her mumble as she walked away. Vinyl was still closing the gap, roughly halfway there by this point, and still seemed just as wobbly. Though, this time her wobbles back and forth seemed, for a lack of better words, elegant. Each movement seemed purposeful, and even ended up looking acrobatic. On one of her movements up from off the ground, I caught a glimpse of her face, and found my heart both chill and warm at the same time. It was a familiar grin, a tad bit too happy for the situation at hoof, but with enough cockiness behind it that you knew she was at least somewhat conscious of what she was doing. 'At least she's not fighting me anymore...' I thought, a smile coming onto my face as my eyes drifted to a more relaxed, half lidded state. '...whatever that is. To think it only took some - what was it? - ethanol?' I continued to think to myself. My eyes widened as a grey blur came into view and I instinctively ducked, letting a slab of stone fly past me and crash against the wall, before popping my head back up again. I looked back to the fight to see that Vinyl had evidently picked up the pace and closed the last gap between her and Stone, wrapping her hooves around his torso. Stone tried to knock her off with a swipe of his hoof, but Vinyl dodged by leaning back far enough to make you wince and wonder how her spine could bend like that. Her eyes looked up at Stone from the ground, a devious smile coming across her face as her eyes seemed to narrow. For a second I thought I saw them spark a little bit from their glazed look. She snapped back at Stone like a rubber band, her head knocking into his with the sickening clack that most headbutts have. As unconventional as it was, this seemed to yield oddly effective results. Though Vinyl stumbled back a few feet, landing on her rump and rubbing her head as if she had a mild headache, Stone seemed to have taken the brunt of the damage. He slid back a couple meters before coming to a stop, one of his knees wavering as a stream of blood came down from his forehead and between his eyes. "She certainly likes playing up her role, doesn't she?" A voice said from my left ear. I suddenly recoiled right, letting out another squeamish yelp as I curled up in surprise when I found Care's head stuck to the right of my own despite his body being on my left. He didn't seem to acknowledge my reaction, instead continuing to stare at Stone and Vinyl with a mock serious glare. "With her natural durability and that ethanol in her system, she's arguably at the same durability as Stone is normally. Only difference is how fast she can move, which influences how hard she hits." He said sagely. I gave him a cocked brow, but he either didn't see it, or he ignored it. "Stone might actually be feeling some of these hits." He continued. I settled back into my original spot, still uncomfortably close to his head, but the urge to watch the two fight overcame that. "Do you think she will win?" I asked. Once the words left my lips, I realized that this question was like asking someone if whoever they wanted to win was going to lose. The answer I got, however, was oddly different than what I thought. "It can certainly be anyone's game right now. Whether she feels the pain is one thing, but how much her body can take is another. Right now, it's all a matter of persistence and willpower; whoever gets tired first." He explained sagely, wordlessly handing a strip of bandages off to a troop mid sentence as to not be interrupted. I felt a swell when he said persistence and willpower, knowing full well that Vinyl probably had more of that than anyone alive. "Vinyl's body can operate longer at a higher stress than Stone's, but Stone can wear down Vinyl's much quicker than Vinyl can wear down Stone's." He continued. "Truth be told, I'm just as interested to see the winner of this fight as you are." He said, a small grin showing up on his face just before turning away and going back to tend to the wounded. I kept my gaze on him as he walked away, my opinion about him both shifting and verifying itself about my assumptions of his character. Indeed, he was levelheaded, if not a bit awkward, but also seemed to feel indifferent about the people he worked with. He made it fairly clear that he wasn't in agreement with what went on, but did it nonetheless - most likely from blackmail since he was evidently one of the physically weakest generals. My eyes turned back to Vinyl, weaving past Stone's hooves and continuing to hit him with painful looking blows that cracked the ground beneath him. At the same time, Stone had seemed to adapt to it, his initial grunts had stopped and all signs of pain were gone. *~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~* With every hit the two gave each other, the other seemed to revel in it. Stone would get hit hard and slide back a few inches before coming back and hitting even harder than before. Vinyl would get knocked onto the ground in every position possible, but would only seem to get up and smile before going back and hitting Stone harder as well. But with every hit that landed on Vinyl, I felt something tick inside of my head. Something unexplainable. Eventually, those ticks spread from just my head, down to my body, taking shape as a tingling spreading through my entire body every time Vinyl was hit. I guess my body eventually got fed up with the constant feelings, as I noted myself beginning to sweat despite hardly even moving, even my balance leaving me on my haunches with my front hooves being the only things keeping me up. I felt like I should've told someone, as my childhood doctor had always said fevers were a sign of the body trying to get rid of illness, but needless to say the fact I was in arguably the most hostile building was a bit deterring from the idea of seeking help. In this case, it was the hunters Care was caring for that were sitting maybe a few feet from me. "Y-You...alright?" I heard the voice of Flint ask, wavering. She seemed to see that I wasn't feeling alright. "F-Fine..." I stammered, but the way I winced when her hoof touched my back said otherwise. It was a feeling of uncomfortable pain that spread across my entire back, enough to make it arch in an attempt to escape her touch. It reminded me of what carpet burn felt like, as if my entire back was raw for some reason. My hoof began to move on it's own, weakly hitting the ground in a vain attempt to stop the feelings. I could feel sweat beginning to build in the crevice of my back where Flint's hoof was situated, also on my scalp as my mane began to stick to my back. And especially on my forehead that had since sunk down to rest on my other hoof. A crushing sound caught my attention, making my ears flick up - sending their own odd feeling through them - and I raised my head just enough to get a single eye up to look towards the sound. What I found, made my heart sink. Vinyl was on the ground, Stone towering over her and drawing his hoof back from her body, and she wasn't moving. My sight began to blur, and I blinked instinctively. When it ended I noticed Vinyl's head was now propped up. She was looking at me with an objective air about her, despite looking broken and unconscious a moment before. Looking at her through my one open eye, my hoof, searching for something to stop this heat once and for all, stumbled across my bowtie. Somewhere between the delusional heat, my mind connected it to the bowtie, and urged me to take it off. My hooves fumbled with the knot of the bowtie, but shaking as they were, I never managed to get a good grip on it. A separate set of hooves seemed to see this, and helped me. A sudden wave of cold washed over me, a stark contrast from the heat that had been covering my body for the past minute or so. Enough to make me jolt my upper body up and stiffen them to the point it hurt. My eyes were wide and my mouth was agape, and I found myself staring dead at Vinyl once more. But more noticeable than this feeling of chills, was the clarity that came with it. I found myself thinking back on what that stallion had said. How this battle was more or less all about who got tired of it first. Evidently, that was going to be me. I was tired of seeing Vinyl being harmed. I was tired of not doing anything whenever she needed help. So now, now I was going to do something. Vinyl was silent, still looking at me from her battered position on the ground beneath Stone. She looked a bit confused for a short while, most likely at my sudden movement, but it turned into a gentle smile afterwards. I could've sworn that she was waiting for something before all this, even from when she first looked at me before she began fighting with Stone and even from when I looked at her just a moment ago before I took off the bowtie. That smile was a sign that she saw it. I felt my body get off the ground and begin to move towards her. 'Whatever that was, I had no idea.' I thought to myself. *~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*...Flint...*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~* I withdrew my hoof from her back when she winced and stiffened at my touch. I was a bit scared that I had hurt her, but judging from all the sweating she was doing I'd say that me touching her back most likely wasn't what was bothering her. She had keeled over with her head resting on one hoof while the other one was firmly on the ground. On another note, she used that free hoof to try and punch the pain away. A lot of people try that when nothing seems to work - just kinda hitting something for no reason other than to try and vent a little. Though most people don't casually make a hole in the ground when they do it. Maybe she had just hit a weak spot in the ground. I had already had doubts about whether Miss Melody was an actual pony or not, but that didn't matter right now. I knew that if she got hurt in some way, Whitey might actually start getting serious with us. And that wouldn't end well. That being said, it's a bit hard to protect her when she seems to actively get herself into deep shit every time she moves. She had been fumbling with a knot on her bowtie and I decided to help her. 'What's the worst that could happen?' I figured. Well, as it turns out this idiot got up off the ground and started walking forwards. Towards the danger. And here I was, hoof was still hovering in the air, stretched outwards in an attempt to stop that idiot of a grey mare from getting up to go help Whitey. She didn't know what she was getting into, but I sure as hell did. I had noticed the admiration Stone had when he met her; respect for some reason, and I never quite understood it until we finally realized that she had been harboring Whitey. Stone probably had suspicions of it at first - and had probably pegged it soon after. He'd been in this game a much longer time than I had, and probably could've made that stay in Canterlot a hell of a lot shorter if he wanted to. 'I wonder if he did it for my sake?' My thoughts grumbled. It was a bit unlikely, but I knew that the big guy was a softy. He had respect for her because she had resisted that temptation. The one that comes naturally when you're friends with a blood sucker. And seeing her begin to give into that temptation was really pushing him. The effects were noticeable too; the rapid sweating, the ability to actually take a hit from Stone, both of them were signs of that vampire goo Care had told me about working it's magic. She still had time, and Stone seemed to be placing his bets on that sliver of time, and trying to beat Whitey quickly so he could do something to help her. She didn't even seem notice herself get up and begin to move towards Whitey - her movement like what you'd imagine a sleepwalker would look like. Not to mention her blocking out my screaming at her. "Sit down you idiot! This isn't your fight." I screeched. When I stopped yelling, I was surprisingly able to hear her ragged breathing, and Care had noted the "rapid dilation and contractions" in her eyes, but it didn't seem to matter to her as she stumbled her way over to Whitey since nobody made a move to stop her. Their eyes were locked, and I saw a smile forming on both of the grey one's lips. Stone didn't seem to acknowledge her, but instead began to raise his hoof up high with the clear intention of bringing it down on Whitey. He didn't mean to end it, but he needed to atleast try and get Vinyl out of the equation to make dealing with the grey one easier. Speaking of the grey one, I noticed an odd twitch coming from her hind leg. I blinked, and found that she was sprinting towards Vinyl, running right in front of Stone and putting herself between Stone and Vinyl. I wasn't quite sure how to feel watching Stone's hoof come down. It was like watching someone swing a sword at someone else. You'd heard all about what happens when something lethal hits someone, but seeing it was a whole different experience. There was a bit of indifference I guess, but I noticed my hoof stretched out farther and my voice began to bubble. But I found myself speechless as Stone's hoof planted on her back, and she didn't budge. "What the hell..." I found myself whispering. She turned around slowly, a sly grin on her face. "Please don't hit her." She said, coming off as surprisingly calm for her previous movements. Stone's eyes widened for a moment, but they quickly narrowed again, and a weird look came to his eyes. "You really have changed haven't ya?" He said sadly. Her smile faltered, her head tilting in confusion. "Change? How?" She asked genuinely. Stone's demeanor quickly changed, going from the lumbering, level headed stallion he was to something more inline with an enraged bull. His eyes were wide again, but not in surprise this time, this time they were clear anger. I felt my eyes widening as I realized he was going to lose it. When I say "lose it" I don't mean in regular terms of just getting angry. Saying that with Stone would be like calling a hurricane "just a really strong breeze". I'd only seen Stone lose it once before, and the result was what was known as "the cave" here in HQ. It's basically an old mine that we made the base on, and what happened was Stone had a really bad day. Now...well, let's just say you can't find the cave. Because the cave doesn't exist anymore. Because Stone had a bad day. His hoof quickly retracted from Octavia's back, raising up again quicker than I had ever seen him move, before plummeting back down towards her. Octavia, in response, repositioned herself so that she was facing him with her own hooves. "Is she... going to try and catch Stone's hoof?" I heard Care ask. I nodded silently, mouth agape. "I suppose I'll fetch the doggie bag." He said with a sigh. She didn't seem to care that she was going to catch it, which was a bit surprising considering that there was a one ton hoof coming at her with the intention to deliver a punch that was going to have the force of approximately a mountain behind it. Most likely more. Stone's hoof hit her own, the upper half of Stone's arm connecting with Octavia's hooves while Stone's actual hoof hit Octavia's shoulder. The force coming from Stone's hoof alone was enough to cause Octavia's hind legs to break through the ground beneath her, making her a few inches shorter. I realized she had caught it. "Did she... actually just catch Stone's hoof?" I heard Care asked. I nodded silently, mouth somehow even more agape than before. She seemed to realize the greatness of doing that, even looking back to Whitey with a gentle smile. But she didn't realize what I did. "He doesn't just have one hoof!" I shouted, catching her attention just before her eyes widened, as she must've heard Stone's other hoof flying towards her side, though it was just too late. She only managed to lower one of her hooves to block a direct impact from the hit. And it was good she did, considering that her hooves - dug into the ground as they were - moved like she was weightless. She practically flew, going far enough into the air that I had to tilt my neck to keep my eyes on her. When she landed, it seemed like something inside of her also snapped, like Stone. Unlike Stone however, she didn't look angry. Her expression was flat, stoic even, which made the walk she instantly began when she landed all the more curious. She had shrugged off the blow as easily as it had hit her, turning the motion of crashing and tumbling on the ground into a casual stride back towards Stone. Suddenly, her stoic expression turned into a different one. Her lips opened slightly, showing off her tightly gritted teeth while her brows furrowed in what passed as anger. Stone turned to her in response, his eyes glowering with a mix of hesitation and his rage - both of them conflicting on what to do. "Stay back, or you will get hurt." Stone warned, but it didn't seem like anything could stop the grey mare right now. His eyes widened as a white figure stood up behind him, a devious and insanity-stricken grin forming. Sparks of dull blue came from the ring around her horn, which I was beginning to see as a measure of her drive or effort. "I dare you to try." A surprisingly tipsy voice said, the warning in this one outweighing Stone's. Stone turned back and arched his hoof, ready to swing with all his might to try and silence Whitey, but when he tried to send it forward, he found he couldn't because of a pair of grey hooves wrapped around it slowly. I wasn't sure how she had close the gap so fast, but she did. Stone turned around again, finding the serious face of a grey mare; amethyst eyes piercing at him with just as much warning as the insane smile from her partner behind him. The two were both rising in defiance of Stone's attempt to hurt the other; a sort of cycle that fed itself and only got stronger with each attempt to stop one. Whitey placed her front hooves on his head, regaining his attention just before she jumped and stuck her hind legs right up against Stone's lower jaw. Her weight and Stone's awkward position was enough to make Stone trip and fall downwards, where Whitey kicked her legs out. The sudden change in momentum sent Stone backwards again, and in the motion of falling onto his back, his eyes connected with Octavia's and her upstretched hooves plummeting towards his face. I don't think I had ever seen Stone in a position where my thoughts were 'Wow, that must've hurt', but the way Octavia had slammed her hooves onto Stone's neck on his way down were pretty convincing. The cracks that outstretched from the ground also backed up the idea, as well as the dust cloud kicking up after the impact. A dark silhouette surfaced from inside the cloud, only to have it shoot out from the cloud right after. Judging from the size, it was definitely Stone. As he crashed into the wall, I felt the need to help him begin to outweigh the urge to leave the fight be. He wasn't just another general, he was my friend; and I was fine with him going after Whitey by himself - because I was confident in him - but against her and Octavia was too much of crutch from him both mentally and physically. I began to get up, charging up my horn and letting the ball of magic circling at the tip of my horn light ablaze as I aimed it towards the settling dust cloud. I clenched my eyes, feeling a pain come from the center of my head as I realized that I was approaching the end of my magic's limit for now. So I'd better make this shot count, or else I'd be defenseless for the next day or so. A hoof on my shoulder stopped me mid charge, causing me to lose concentration. I found that it was Care, with an expression I had never quite seen on him before. It was serious, brows furrowed and a certain look in his eyes that reminded me of a person who was dead inside. “Not yet.” He said vaguely. “Stone needs to get it through his mind that he can’t hold back against her because he grew an admiration for her. He needs this to be able to actually fight back.” I settled down, not quite used to Care being the one to order me around. That being said, what he said was true. Stone was holding himself back, and it was going to get him hurt if he didn’t come to a realization. A smash drew both of our attentions. We looked to see Stone swinging a slab of Stone like a baseball bat at the two mare's pouncing at him from alternate directions. Judging from the positioning, he had hit Octavia with it directly. Also judging from their positions, Octavia had blocked it with a single hoof. Whitey took that time to slip around Octavia and slither her way onto Stone's back, taking advantage of his large size. "What are ya- Damnit, get offa-" Stone said with obvious frustration before a grey hoof to the underside of his jaw stopped him. Whitey then complied with Stone's demand, rolling off of his back and plopping onto the floor like a wet rag. She then twisted her body and spun her hooves so they crashed into the back of Stone's, causing them to buckle. Octavia took full advantage of it and turned around, ready to buck. Her eyes were narrow and almost shimmering as she waited, Stone's head dropping inch by inch until she saw fit to buck. Stone staggered back and up from the buck, going onto his back hooves and leaving his stomach exposed just as Whitey got back up with a hoof loosely arched and aimed at his gut. The next thing I saw was another dust cloud coming from the wall Stone had been nearest to and the two mares walking out of it, Whitey trying her damn hardest to get on Octavia's back in order to not have to walk herself. She let out an adorable hiccup every now and then before she finally settled down on her back. *~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*...Shakes...*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~* “You really couldn’t have done anything to have prevented this?” I shouted, redoubling my efforts and wrapping my hooves around a white hind leg and giving it another pull. The muffled sounds of Vinyl’s mother came through, barely audible, but clear enough to understand her. “As I said dear, I could’ve, but it would’ve had consequences. It’s much more efficient this way.” She said, the irony in what she said being almost offensive. I had run from Octavia to try and find Sweeps, also to maybe try and think of something to get us out of this mess, but mainly to find Sweeps. Looking back in hindsight, it was kind of a little bit of a mean move to leave just Vinyl and Octavia there to handle Stone and Flint, but I’m sure they would do fine until I could get back there. I had hastily trotted through essentially the entire floor of the base I was in, going from room to room looking for Sweeps. I even ended up going through holes in the walls from the earlier explosion that had caused all this. Though, I eventually did run into her. She had apparently gotten up from wherever she had landed and had started to try and find her way back to me. I’d never had hugged her so hard in my life. “Put your legs into it Sweeps.” I said through gritted teeth. “You’re a fine one to talk...” She grumbled, serving as a near mirror image of myself, hooves wrapped around the other hind leg of Vinyl’s mother. We had also run across Vinyl’s mother on our way back. Well, her back half at least. She was stuck in a wall, basically halfway through with her waist being at about the same spot as the wall. How exactly she got sent this far into the base and still managed to end up halfway into a wall was a mystery to me “Couldn’t you just, you know, magic your way out of this?” I said, straining harder. “Well, if I could do that, I wouldn’t exactly still be here would I dear?” She said rhetorically. “You could at least...be...a little...less...bit-” I began, but the sudden feeling of Vinyl’s mother giving way caught me off guard and sent both me and my sister down onto the ground with a set of white flanks following us. It was more or less like getting hit by a marshmallow, but the feeling left as quick as it came thanks. Dashing as it was, it left me with a single thought. ‘Wonder what she does to get her butt like that...’ A hoof jerking me up made me realize I had been laying there dumbfounded after the chance encounter with Vinyl’s mother’s tush, but I soon found myself being borderline dragged along like a ragdoll as Vinyl’s mother pulled both me and Sweeps down the hallways. “W-Where are we going?” Sweeps stammered as she dangled in the air, her tail pinched in a glow of red magic. “Why, back to my daughter of course.” The motherly mare chimed, voice soft as silk. Looking at the rooms passing me by, an idea finally sprung into my head about what we could do. “Take a right.” I said, eyeing a familiar corridor with glee. Vinyl’s mother looked back and gave me a look of confusion, but fortunately she turned without question. I felt a smile form on my lips as we made our way down the halls, half from the idea I had thought of and half from telling Vinyl’s mother what to do. Sweeps seemed to get into her air suspended seat, and eventually struck up a conversation with me. “Where we going sis?” She asked me, her hooves crossed as she was held upside down. “Up to a room. I think it’ll help us out in the long run.” I said vaguely, but the shrug of her shoulder suggested she was either happy or used to the vague answer. When we finally arrived at a familiar door, Vinyl’s mother letting me drop off of her back and slide up to the door, a smile grew on my face as I all but kicked the door in and viewed the numerous desks with small slabs that Care’s assistant had used before to look into the holding cells.. A huge hole was in the window in front of me and I could hear the sounds of stone breaking and blows being exchanged, but I ignored it and ran up to the slabs, scanning each of them for the one Care had seemed to linger on the most. “Is that...Octavia?” Sweeps asked from in front of me. “I believe it is dear.” Vinyl’s mother said. ‘Did she sound...impressed?’ I asked myself, looking up to be sure. I looked up to see the two of them staring out the hole in the window, Sweeps with a look of awe and - sure enough - Vinyl’s mother with a look of both amusement and a hint of excitement. As much as I would’ve loved to look down at it as well, we needed to get out of here quick. The sooner that happened, the quicker we could actually help Vinyl and Octavia. I turned back to the room, roaming down the isles of slabs until I found the panel I had been looking for. I recognized it from the cup of pencils that I recalled when I had first met Silver. Looking over it, I found the button I was looking for. “Release.” I said quietly to myself, smiling widely as my hoof traced around the smooth button. “Sis, come over here for a sec.” I yapped. Reluctant to look away from the fight, it took her a bit to get over to me. “Alright, focus some magic onto the button.” I told her. “Not til you tell me what it does and what you’re planning.” She said, crossing her hooves. “Come on...just, do it. Please?” I said, giving her my best set of puppy dog eyes. Needless to say, she didn’t fall for it. “In my knowledge, red buttons are usually bad. Tell me what it is.” She said. “Fine.” I sighed. “The button, as far as I can tell, controls the holding cells beneath this place that holds a buncha the vampires these guys consider dangerous.” I said. “And….you-” She said, pointing to me. “-want to...” She hesitated. “Release them.” I filled in.