Okay, who was banging on his door at this time of night? Taking a quick glance from his paperwork, Heaross saw that it was currently 11:30 p.m. He heard some stories that Twilight occasionally pulled late night reading sessions, but this didn't seem like it was her. Stretching, the warrior made the way to his door, and the incessant knocking.
Opening it, he found Vinyl Scratch with her shades broken and barely staying on her muzzle. She had some cuts and blood smears over her, while nursing a nasty looking cut, about a foot long across her right foreleg. Looking up, Vinyl brokenly said, "They took her."
"Took who?" Heaross was already guiding her inside, looking over the grievous wounds.
"Octavia. All because I'm some freak of nature." She couldn't meet his eyes while she said this.
"Vinyl, you are no freak of nature. A vampire, yes. But you are still a living, breathing, being." Switching subjects, not allowing her to press the issue, "Now, who's Octavia, and who took her?"
"Octavia is my marefriend. It was some weird group, yelling about how evil won't take over the land. They said their name was the Silver Necks or something like that."
"What did you do?"
Vinyl visibly gulped before answering. "After they had barged in at complete random, they started destroying the place and searching around. Octy and I were upstairs, sleeping. When they came in, they grabbed Octavia and slammed me through a window. I tried to rush back in but one of them threw some collar around me that shocked me so much I fell unconscious. When I woke up, I saw the place on fire and no sign that they had been there. I got the collar off of me and found a note inside of it." She pulled out the note and handed it to Heaross, who read over it quickly.
Come find us. Manehatten, Warehouse 326.
-Silver Necks
Octavia was almost literally in Tartarus. She had been beaten, cuffed, tortured, and almost raped at one point. If it weren't for the leader showing a small mercy by that, she would have been dead by now. Her supposed "guards", if you could call them that, were sitting on some boxes lined up around her. One held a baseball bat, another had a gold sword, and yet another was holding some kind of torch.
The gray mare was strapped to a chair by her forelegs and was chained to the chair itself. From where she was, all she could see were boxes and the door to the warehouse. Wait, did the door just open? It seemed like for barely a second there that it had opened and something dark had flown in. While Octavia was pondering her remaining sanity, several shadows come from nowhere and took out the guards surrounding her, as well as the chains. All she heard was a very sharp cutting sound, then the chains fell. Pushing them off, Octavia took that moment as her cue to leave and did so promptly.
Outside, she got blindsided into a tight hug by Vinyl, who very affectionately nuzzled her. "Wha- How did you do all of that? How did you even break the chains?" She managed to get out through the vigorous squeezing.
"I didn't." She answered, her voice tinged with relief. "I got some help who could."
"Help?" Octavia questioned. "Who is 'help?'"
Pushing off of her marefriend, Vinyl had a not-so-innocent grin on her muzzle. "Remember that human I told you about?"
"Yes, you said his name was Heaross, correct?"
"Yeah, him. Since he's the only one besides you in Ponyville I could turn to about this, I got his help in saving you." The DJ nuzzled Octavia once again, relieved at her safety.
The cellist smiled a bit as she returned the affectionate action, keeping silent in the night. Eventually, she braved to ask, "So, where is Heaross right now, anyways? I need to thank him."
"Heck if I know, Octy." The vampire shrugged as she said this. "He's probably still inside, taking care of those 'Silver Necks.'" She said their name with no small amount of disgust.
"Or," A familiar voice called out to the pair, "He could standing right behind you." Stepping out into the moonlight, Heaross exited the warehouse, holding a gray stallion by way of a tight grip set around his neck. While the warrior didn't seem any worse for wear, the stallion wore many scratches and cuts, bleeding freshly from several open wounds, though only one of them was fatal. The wound was a large imprint of a set of sharp, narrow teeth, almost like a wolf's, but different somehow. The circle was around a crushed mantle hanging around his neck, made of silver and gleaming oddly in the moonlight. It bled almost profusely, but the stallion's lifeless eyes betrayed his true state of being.
As Vinyl looked over the many wounds, the ring around his neck in particular, she asked the 'human', "Jeez, what did you do to him? He looks like he just went through a pit of werewolves." When the vampire looked up, she was met with an almost wolfish grin by the man. Scratch that, it was a literal wolfish grin, as the teeth filling his mouth were razor sharp and whittled to deadly points, reminding her of a wolf's smile. Nervously, Vinyl backed away from the man, bumping into Octavia along the way.
Heaross turned his head away from the mares, while something poked around in his mouth, distending his cheeks and shifting his jawline. Eventually, he turned back to them, showing off a set of normal human teeth. The warrior worked his jaw around for a moment before asking Vinyl, "What do you want me to do with this asshole?" He said, shaking the dead stallion for a moment.
The vampire looked over the corpse, answering, "Throw him in the docks. Far enough that nopony will ever find him. Sink him to the bottom of the ocean if you have to." She turned away, towards Octavia, head bowed. "I never want to see his face again."
"As you wish." Heaross solemnly agreed.
The next week went by rather quickly in hindsight. While Vinyl and Octavia searched for a new house, they stayed over at Heaross' and kept the warrior company for the week. Vinyl's wounds healed quickly from her vampiric regeneration, while Octavia's took longer, even requiring one of Heaross' health potions to prevent some unsightly scarring. While the potion helped heal most of everything, a couple deep wounds didn't seal entirely and left some wicked looking marks. The Guardian did what he could to prevent the scarring, but she would still wear those marks for the rest of her life.
As the end of the week neared, the couple found a suitable house that would both provide lenience and comfort. The only problem was that the cost for it, buying or renting, was entirely out of their price range. Deciding to do one last comfort for the plainly still healing musical duo, Heaross covered the entire price of buying the house for them. At first, they tried what they could to stop Heaross from being so generous, but he didn't buckle under their pressure. As their arguments started to gain some sense of logic in them, Heaross countered with his own, even providing several reasons that he should be doing it and not just because "it's the right thing to do."
So, after some difficulty with the paperwork, Vinyl and Octavia moved into their new home, recently built and coming prefurbished. Heaross enjoyed having the odd couple over, as he was never one to comfortably enjoy solitude. Eventually, his house was quiet once again, leaving the warrior to either strike out and find something fun to do or get something to enjoy his time in. Since he had spent almost all of a week with company, he decided to stay home and enjoy some alone time there. Curling up with a book, Heaross read the day away, enjoying the next part of the Daring Do series, heavily reminded of home.
As fate would have it, reading for an extended period of time would cause one to become tired and dreary, despite the inextensive activity. So, after reading more than half of the novel by days end, Heaross felt very sleepy. Deciding to eat just enough to fill his stomach, the warrior settled in bed for the night and slept happily and soundly. That is, until a knocking came from his front door. At 3 in the morning.
Grumbling, the warrior made the from his bedroom to the front door, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and stifling a yawn. He had to actively resist pulling out the Blade of Awe just due to his early morning grumpiness. Opening the door, Heaross looked down and saw Vinyl Scratch, looking rather timid, despite the overactive mare's nature. Heaving the smallest sigh he could manage, Heaross asked, "What are you doing here so early in the morning Vinyl? I know you're a vampire but I'm not nocturnal like most vampires."
"That was... actually what I wanted to talk to you about, Heaross." The mare admitted. "As a vampire, I'm strong, I'm fast, and I can endure so much more than most others." She admitted the next statement barely over a whisper. "But, it still wasn't enough to save Octavia when it mattered."
"So," Heaross started, "You want some sort of training or equipment to help protect her?"
"No, I'd probably have some trouble sticking to a regimen and I'd likely lose anything you gave me."
"So what do you want then? I can't protect you and Octavia all the time."
The vampire grew a grin as she managed to look the taller man in the eyes. "You managed to bite straight through silver metal, crushing it and I bet you even drained blood through it." Though the incident was still fresh in both mind's, the astoundment of the crushed metal still managed to surprise Vinyl. "How you did that, how you managed to save Octavia without a scratch, I want to be able to do that." The mare looked down, much more serious and resolute than before. "I want to be able to protect Octavia."
Finally seeing what she wanted, Heaross couldn't help but frown. "You do realize what you're asking for, right? My power is not shared lightly, and if you lose control of it, you will not only be a greater danger than a normal vampire, you will be a threat to Octavia." Heaross didn't say this lightly, but he couldn't help but notice some parallels between her and some other civilians.
"I'll learn to control it then. I don't care what happens to me, but I want to protect her."
"Alright then. Vinyl Scratch, there are many things to do before I can give you my power, but the first of a few should be simple. If I give you my power, and find you can't control it, I will take it back. As necessary as it may be, you will be turned into a normal pony. You won't be a vampire anymore. Can you take that responsibility, even knowing the consequences?"
"Yes."
"Good. The second thing about my power is that you will be like no other. You may have the powers of vampires, but they will never accept you. Should you enter their presence, they will immediately leave or try to kill you. With werewolves, it is a similar story, but they are more blatant about it, I find. Can you accept that? Can you live with never being able to see some of your vampire comrades?"
"Yes." She looked less certain about that, but her resolve wouldn't waver.
"Very well then. My final point about this is that if, and I mean if you manage to withstand all of the trials associated, you will receive my power. Understand this, it is, and will remain, my power. Should I wish, for any reason, to take it back, you will be forced to return it. I won't lose my power upon giving it to you, but your new power is entirely mine. You will be mine, in a sense. Should I tell you to kill someone, you do it. If I tell you to run from Ponyville and abandon everything, you will do it. If I tell you to kill me, end my life to save another's, you will do it." Heaross stared critically hard at the pony, testing her resolve.
Vinyl felt uncertain about the last part. In a strange sense, she would become his slave to do with as he bids. She honestly thought of turning down the offer, refusing selling herself to him. But she thought of Octavia, and what happened.
Her resolve iron, Vinyl answered the only way she could. "Yes."