I don't wanna whine, but growing up a vampire is tough. On top of all the stuff you gotta go through as a kid, (stress, peer pressure, puberty, all that good stuff,) add being a blood thirsty beast on top of it and you’ve got one hell of a fun childhood.
My folks had raised me to be respectful of life. I never hurt anypony that I didn’t need to and when I did, I never killed them. Never. That wasn’t an option; was one of those things that was just totally not okay to do. I’d never hated a pony so much that I was willing to end their life. Well, except for one.
It’s gonna suck hearin’ about it, but if you’re gonna understand the rest of my story… I’m gonna have to tell you about a pony named Silver Streak.
_________________________________________________________________________
Six Days After I Met Her
Her business suit sat on the floor of my room as we laid in bed together. I slowly stroked a hoof through her long hair as she rested her head on my chest, a goofy smile on my face.
“You’re amazing, you know that?” I sighed. She giggled and kissed my chest.
“I was about to say the same thing to you,” she said softly.
Life was good. Life was more than good. I’d never met anypony like Silver Streak before. She was smart, sexy, confident, sweet. Everything I wanted in a mare. Walking down that exact street at that exact time when I’d first met her was the best thing to ever happen to me. Who knows what would’ve happened if I’d gone home a different way? I probably would’ve never met her.
“So, out of curiosity, have you ever been with an older mare? Or am I your first?” she asked in a sultry tone. As I'd guessed, she was a few years older than me which I'd found out during our first date. I probably turned a little red at the question.
“Well, if ya mean as far as being in a relationship with them, then yeah. You’d be my first older marefriend.” Suddenly, realization of what I’d said came over me. “I… I mean, if you wanna be my marefriend. I never asked, did I? I’m sorry, did I freak you out?” I stuttered worriedly.
“Relax, Vinyl,” she giggled. “Yes, I’d say that you’re my marefriend. You know for such a cool pony, you seem to be a tad nervous around me.”
“Nervous? Naw, I’m not nervous,” I chuckled shaking my head. “Just… ya know, wanna make sure I’m doing this right. Relationships are… Sometimes, I don’t know what I’m doin’.”
“Well, you’re doing wonderfully so far, so I wouldn’t worry about it,” she assured me, nuzzling my chest. “There’s no reason for a pretty mare to be worried.”
I smiled. She was so great. Always trying to make me happy. I hoped I was doin’ the same for her.
“So, what’ll your parents think about you dating a DJ?” I smirked, kissing the top of her head. “Is it gonna be like one of those cheesy movies were they ban you from seeing me cause I’m ‘nothing but trouble’ or somethin’?”
I laughed at my dumb joke. She was silent for a moment.
“Actually, both of my parents are deceased. They died when I was very young,” she said softly. “I grew up in an orphanage. Lived there until I was sixteen then set out on my own when it closed down.”
Ouch. Nice going, Vinyl.
“Oh Goddesses, I’m so sorry. I didn’t-“
“No, it’s really alright. I never mentioned them before, so there’s no way you could’ve known,” she said looking up at me and smiling. She scooted up on the bed so that she was laying right next to me and wrapped a hoof around my body. Her head rested next to mine. “I’m certain they would’ve loved you, though. What about your parents?”
I didn’t wanna tell her about them. Didn’t want her to know I had famous parents. Not yet, anyway. I wanted her to like me for “me,” not them.
“Oh they, uh… they run a record shop in Canterlot,” I said thinking quickly. “Don’t really talk to them. Lost contact awhile ago.”
“Aahh, I see. That’s too bad.”
Didn’t feel right lying to her. She’d never lie to me, but… I just couldn’t tell her yet.
I craned my neck to look over at the clock, groaning when I saw that it was 8:30 p.m. I was DJing that night at 9:00 and it usually took a little to set up.
“Ugh. I gotta go to work,” I groaned with a hoof over my eyes.
“Oh, you can’t go to work with that cold you’re coming down with,” Streak insisted, kissing my neck. “No, no, you need to stay home and rest.”
“Huh? What’re you talkin’ about? I feel just fi-“
She rolled over on top so that she was straddling me.
“I think you need to call out sick,” she said slowly, running a hoof through my mane.
“Uh… w-well, now that you mention it, I am feeling a little feverish,” I said nodding eagerly.
“Your face is bright red,” she agreed, smiling. “You must be… burning up.” She kissed my lips and I swear my coat must’ve turned completely red. Only downside to having a white coat; ponies could tell when you’re blushing much easier.
Hopefully work wouldn’t ask for a doctor’s note.
_________________________________________________________________________
Four Months, Seven Days After I Met Her
“… so then I got my degree from Manehattan University and moved to the city,” Streak was telling Charcoal. “It’s been a wonderful adventure, but I’m happy that the chaos has died down a bit.”
Streak and I were getting a bit serious by now, so I’d wanted to introduce Charcoal to her. The three of us sat in a restaurant at a little table near the bar. We’d been there for a few hours, chatting and catching up. Charcoal and I sipped beers, (him on his second, me just starting my third,) as Silver nursed her second martini. The bar was having a half off special for mares and called them mare-tinis, but I wasn’t gonna call em’ that. I like not sounding ridiculous, thanks. Didn’t get one for myself. Cutesy, fruity umbrella drink things weren’t really my style.
In public, at least. They’re damn tasty, but I got a reputation to keep!
“She teaches at that middle school on 40th street. You know, the one with the funny looking tree outside it? The one that looks like it has a face,” I explained and looked over at Streak. “Ain’t that right, babe?”
“I was born to teach math,” she said nodding with a smile. “My cutie mark can attest to that. You don’t get an addition symbol on your butt unless it’s fate.”
“A very awesome butt,” I added with a devilish grin. She giggled back at me.
“If you’ll excuse me, I have to take my ‘awesome butt’ to the restroom. I’ll be right back.” Streak kissed me on the cheek and made her way across the room. I watched her as she left.
“So? Waddya think? She’s amazing, isn’t she?” I said turning back to Charcoal, beaming.
“She’s definitely… something,” he said smiling back. “Super pretty and nice, like you said.” I sighed and fidgeted with my coaster.
“You’ve found something wrong with her already, huh? Might just be your new record…”
“Naw, nothing’s wrong with her. Really,” he said levitating his drink to his mouth.
Good.
I sighed in relief.
“… Well…”
“Ugh.”
“It’s just... Something just seems a bit… off about her.”
He always did this. Every mare I dated, Charcoal found something that wasn’t up to his standards. Something that “rubbed him the wrong way” or “didn’t seem right” or some other bull crap. He always came up with some ridiculous reason.
Ya know, she’s great… but her mane is a little too poofy, for my taste.
She seems awesome… buuuut that birthmark on her face is just a little distracting.
That is one talented, beautiful, amazing mare. Buuuut she’s a doctor so, you know, she’ll be at work all the time.
“What? You’re crazy, man. What’s ‘off’ about her?”
“I dunno, it’s… just the way she looks at me sometimes. It’s like she… I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being silly. Just… be careful, alright?”
“Look, just cause you’re jealous that I can get marefriends whenever I want doesn’t mean you gotta rag on Streak,” I said taking a swig from my glass.
“I’m not jealous, V, I’m just looking out for you,” he said with a sad face. I swallowed my drink hard.
“I don’t need anypony to look out for me,” I stated harshly, setting my drink down forcefully on its coaster. “I’m fine on my own. What, you want her to yourself? Is that what this is?”
Maybe I was letting the alcohol talk for me a bit too much, but I wasn’t thinking about that at the moment. He sighed.
“I’m your friend. This is ridiculous.”
“Oh, some friend you are. Ya know, every marefriend I’ve ever been with, you’ve had something negative to say about em’.”
"Vinyl, they..."
"What?"
"Nevermind. I-"
"What? Spit it out."
"This isn't the place to be talking about-"
"What. Were you gonna. Say?" I asked, my eyebrows narrowing. He paused for a moment.
“I… well… Look… don’t take this the wrong way, V, but… they don’t seem to last very long. I’m just trying to spare your feelings when they… I mean...”
“What?” I asked, glaring at him and leaning over the table. “When they what? Spit it out.”
“… I don’t wanna fight.”
“Good. I don’t want to either. In fact, I don’t ever wanna fight with you again. Or not fight with you, for that matter. Maybe I should just find somepony else to chill with.” I got off my stool and started walking away. “Thanks for the beer.”
“Vinyl, don’t do this,” he said grabbing my arm. “You’re not thinking clearly. Just calm-“ I pulled it away roughly.
“Lay off me, man!” I yelled getting close to his face, causing his arm to knock into his glass. It tipped over and fell off the table, shattering on the wooden floor. Ponies started to stare at us. I hadn't meant to cause a scene.
“Is there a problem, missy?” the bartender asked me, my eyes still locked on Charcoal’s. I snorted and turned to leave.
“I’m outta here.”
I walked to the door, passing the bathroom as Streak was coming out of it. She looked at me with wide eyes.
“Vinyl, are you alr-“
“Sorry, Streak, we’re headin’ out,” I said walking past her. I heard her hoofsteps as she followed behind me.
“Vinyl, what’s wrong?” I heard her ask worriedly. “Vinyl dear, please. What happened?”
I kept walking. My eyes were starting to tear up. Didn’t want her to see me like this. We walked down the sidewalk in silence.
I wanted to punch something. How could he do this to me? Couldn’t he just be happy for me for once in his frickin’ life?
I was happy. That should’ve been enough for him.
“Vinyl.” She stepped in front of me, stopping me from walking further. I looked down at her hooves, unable to look her in the eye.
“I’m sorry… I’m just pissed. I don’t wanna talk about it. Can we just… go somewhere?” I asked quietly. “I… I just wanna go.” She paused for a moment then put a hoof under my chin and lifted it so I was looking at her face.
“Of course, dear,” she said smiling at me. She brought my face to hers as she kissed me. We crossed the street and slowly started making our way towards my apartment. A small smile crept across my face as I walked beside her, never feeling more grateful for her than at that moment.
She was the one pony in the world I knew I could really trust.
_________________________________________________________________________
Five Months, 23 Days Since I Met Her
I awoke in the middle of the night and, realizing that Streak was no longer in my arms, blindly felt around the bed for her as I kept my eyes shut. I heard a creak in the next room and cracked an eye open to see that a light was on behind my closed bedroom door. Groaning and stretching, I slowly got out of bed and made my way to it, quietly opening it and slipping into the hallway. I peeked into the living room to see that Streak was sitting in a chair with my laptop on her lap, her face illuminated by the screen.
She glanced up and saw me, her face growing panicked for a second then shifting back to its usual smile a moment later.
“Hey, you’re up,” she said clicking a few times and then shutting the laptop.
“Yeah,” I said groggily rubbing one of my eyes. “Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. What’re you up to?”
“Oh, I woke up and realized I needed to check my e-mail. Forgot to earlier today and it’s almost the end of the school year, so I’d like to keep on top of things as much as I can,” she explained setting the laptop down on the coffee table. There were important Inner Circle files on that computer, but I wasn’t too nervous about her finding any on accident. There was a certain code you had to enter on a specific screen, so there was no way she’d see any secret stuff.
I mean, there were some things that she could find on it if she looked hard enough, but those weren’t Inner Circle related. Just… ya know, stuff you wouldn’t want your marefriend to know you’ve been lookin’ at. Wasn’t too worried though cause I delete my browsing history every time I’m done using the inter- okay, I’m getting off topic. Gonna shut up now.
“Man, I wish you were my teacher growing up,” I said as she walked towards me and threw her arms around my neck. “Maybe I actually woulda paid attention.”
“Oh, I think you’d be paying attention alright. Just not to the math,” she giggled as she kissed my neck. “Let’s go back to sleep, alright?”
I nodded tiredly and we walked back into my room, shutting the door behind us.
_________________________________________________________________________
Five Months, Twenty Six Days Since I Met Her
“That brings this week’s meeting to an end,” Princess Luna proclaimed as everypony started to get their stuff together and leave Pony Joe’s Donut Shop. “We shall see you all next week. Be sure to check your e-mails for this week’s newsletter as it shall arrive within the hour.”
I slung my saddlebag over my shoulder and started making my way towards the door.
“Vinyl!” I heard a voice call behind me. Turning around, I saw two male ponies with yellow coats approaching me; an adult stallion with a black mustache and a young colt.
“Hey, Mr. Kite,” I said smiling at him. “What’s up?”
“Not much, not much. Just wanted to check up on you,” he said smiling back. “Haven’t talked in awhile.”
I used to watch Mr. Kite’s kid, Top, a few years back. Not really big on babysitting, but since Top was a vampire, Luna called me in on “Emergency Business” when his regular babysitter called out sick and made me watch him. The kid wasn’t that bad at all though, so I couldn’t really complain.
“I’m doin' great, thanks. Couldn’t be better.” I looked over at the colt and rustled his hair. “Hey, kid, you’ve gotten taller since I last saw you.” He laughed and pushed my hoof off of his head, smoothing it back down to its usual style. I turned back to his dad. “How’s the shop?”
“Never better. It’s Summer now, so everypony has more time to come look at toys. Doesn’t hurt that the shop is ten minutes from the beach either. Just have to deal with cleaning sand off the floor,” he laughed.
“I’m glad,” I said nodding. “And what grade are you in now, kid?”
“Seventh,” Top said beaming.
“He’s becoming quite the little genius. Top’s made honor roll at Maplewood Middle School for the second year in a row now,” his dad said placing a hoof on his shoulder.
“Aahh, sweet. Good for you,” I said smiling at him then realized something. “Wait, you say Maplewood? I actually know your math teacher then! Miss Silver Streak?” He gave me a confused look.
“Hmm… I know all the teachers, but… I don’t think there’s one named Miss Silver Streak.”
What? Weird. That’s definitely the school she said she teaches at.
“Well, how about Miss Silver? Or Miss Streak?” He shook his head. “Grey coat? Long-ish, grey mane? Addition symbol cutie mark?”
“Sorry, doesn’t ring any bells. I’m pretty sure there’s no teacher like that there.”
“Ahh. I… must be mistaken then,” I said slowly, trying to smile.
“Well, we’d best get going, but it was great seeing you again,” his dad said.
“Yeah. Same to you,” I answered back, a little distracted.
As they both started walking towards the door, I stood there thinking. Why did Silver lie?
Maybe she just told me the wrong school. Or... maybe there's more than one school on that street or...
It’s the one with the tree that looks like it has a face. Pretty sure there’s only one school on 40th street that fits that description, dude.
Well maybe… maybe she…
Dammit. This didn’t make sense.
I got home after the meeting and unlocked my front door.
“Hey, Streak? You here?”
No response. I closed the door, went to my room, sat down at the computer desk, and opened my laptop. Going onto the internet, I searched for the middle school she taught at. Or said she taught at. Looking at their website, I clicked onto the “List of Faculty” page and looked through the teacher’s names.
The kid was right; Silver wasn’t on the list. I searched back each year for the past ten years of teachers. No sign of her name.
What the hell?
Just then, Luna’s voice rang through my head.
"Be sure to check your e-mails for this week’s newsletter as it shall arrive within the hour."
Eh, guess I’d better get that over with. Probably just bake sale announcements and junk like that.
Accessing the page and entering my code, I logged into the system and clicked on “e-mail.” The newsletter talked about a bake sale coming up (called it) and other boring announcement stuff, but the thing that caught my attention was that it also said that a new layout of the TIC headquarters was added a month ago. Needed to be updated since some changes had been made to the building, (a few walls were torn down, a few rooms were added, stuff like that.) I tried to remember when the last time I’d looked at the layout was to figure out if I’d seen the updated page or not.
The TIC system had a little “history” option where you could see when you’d last logged in, what pages you were on, all that good stuff, so I went to it to find out. My eyes narrowed when it told me that my last log in was just three days ago.
Wait. Three days ago was Sunday. I never…
Then I realized that was the night that Streak was on my computer.
No… no, no way… That’s impossible…
I clicked “more info” to see what pages had been accessed that night; it looked like she’d clicked on every single page that sounded like it had info on members of TIC. You could access anything you wanted by logging into the system. Everything was there. Well, almost everything. It read at the bottom of one of the pages that all the actual files and info about members was kept on a computer at…
Crap. I know where she’s gonna go!
“Vinyl? Are you home?”
I hurriedly closed the laptop.
“Y-yeah, just a sec!” I called back, walking out of my room and into the kitchen to see Streak levitating a brown grocery bag onto the table. She then went into a cupboard, pulled out a pot, and set it on the counter closest to the door.
“Hey, I brought home some pasta. I thought we could… Is something wrong, dear?” she asked when she saw my face. “You look sort of… flustered.”
Maybe there was a mistake. Maybe I’d gotten the wrong idea about all this and she’d just gotten on my TIC account by accident.
You gotta enter in a twelve digit code. She had to have hacked it, dude.
“I’m fine,” I said forcing a smile. She happily walked around the counter towards me and leaned in for a kiss, but I craned my neck to avoid it. The kiss landed on my cheek instead.
“Vinyl? What’s wrong?” she asked with sad eyes. The same awesome, silver eyes that I’d fallen in love with.
No. She’s a bad pony. Snap out of it.
I would have to just come out and confront her. Couldn’t avoid talking about it forever. I looked her in the eyes.
“I know who you are,” I said with a serious face. She stared blankly at me for a few seconds then laughed.
“I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about. … Ooh, is this some sort of new game?” she asked coming closer to me and placing a hoof on my chest. “Where you’re the big, tough police officer and I’m-“
“Streak. Stop.”
She paused for a moment, then slowly her expression changed to panic.
“Look, baby, it’s… it’s not what you think,” she said removing her hoof from my chest.
“You were using me,” I said glaring as I took a few slow steps towards her. She backed away slowly with each step. “Who do you work for? How much have you told them?”
“Honey, please, I can explain everything! Don’t hate me, please!” she begged, her back now touching the front door as I backed her into it. There were tears in her eyes. “I’ll explain everything! I love you, I really do! Please don’t do this…”
Don’t believe her. Don’t believe a word of it.
“No, you don’t love me, Streak. You don’t. I caught you. It’s over,” I said getting close to her face. My heart felt like it was gonna beat out of my chest. “I never wanna see your face again. So here’s what’s gonna happen: I want you to get your stuff and put it in a pile near the door. I’ll be behind you the entire time, keeping a close eye on you. I’m gonna give my boss a call and she’s gonna come here to collect you, ask you some questions, I don’t give a crap what she does… but you’re gonna get out of my house and never walk through those doors again. You got it?”
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she looked at me with wide eyes. Suddenly, she leaned forward and pushed her face into my chest.
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry I hurt you, Vinyl,” she sobbed, wrapping her hooves around my waist. “I love you so much. This assignment… everything… I regretted everything and… and I was going to tell them false information. I fell in love with you and… I couldn’t bear to rat you out.”
Aww jeez. You made her cry.
Wait, what?! Did you even hear what you just thought? She’s the enemy! A spy!
“Look, it’s… it’s alright,” I said, awkwardly patting the top of her head. “I just… you lied to me and… I don’t think we can be together anymore.” She sniffed and lifted her head from me.
“I… I understand. You deserve to know the truth,” she said sadly. “I’ll tell you everything, Vinyl, just… could you please hand me a tissue?” She pointed a hoof to the counter behind me, causing me to look over my shoulder and see a tissue box next to the phone. I gave her a little nod, walked closer to it, and reached forward.
Then something hard slammed into the side of my head and everything went black.
_________________________________________________________________________
I woke up very slowly, my senses beginning to return to me one at a time. The side of my face was pressed into the kitchen floor and my head throbbed like crazy. I felt the back of it and, not seeing blood, tried to remember how I’d gotten there. The pot that Streak had pulled out to make dinner sat next to me on the ground, most likely the culprit of my sore head. Everything started to come back to me.
Crap… crap crap go, Vinyl, GO!
I stood up feeling a little lightheaded and rushed over to the phone. Dialing a few numbers, I hit the green button and tried to pull myself together as it rang. Something caught my eye as I stood there leaning against the counter; the bag Streak had brought home was tipped over and I could see that it was stuffed with plastic bags. Just plastic bags. They were meant to make the bag look full. The scene of what she was planning to do played out in my head: she’d ask me to get something from the bag, I’d look in and see that there were no groceries, then she’d go behind me and knock me out.
She never intended on making dinner tonight; this is the night that whatever was happening at TIC headquarters was gonna happen. Looking at the clock, I saw that it’d been around two hours since Streak and I had our “conversation.” A tired voice picked up the phone on the sixth ring.
“H-hello?”
“Dude, it’s me. We’ve got a-”
“Vinyl? Goddesses, do you have any idea what time it is? If you're calling because you want me to come to some rave again, you can take your phone and shove it-”
“I know it's late, I know, just listen to me! Somepony’s gonna break into TIC headquarters, if they haven’t already. I need you to call everypony you can and tell them to get their flanks down their pronto.”
“W-wait, slow down! What’re you talking about? Who’s going-“
“Star Catcher, we do not have time for this! Just do it! Please! I’m leaving right now.”
“Okay, okay, but- Hey, Scratch, hold o-“
I hung up the phone, threw open the door, flew down the stairs, and ran the whole way to my destination. Fastest way to get there. Vehicles would just slow me down.
Half an hour later, I arrived at the giant, grey building. I’d never been there before, but I’d seen it enough times in pictures and stuff. It was disguised as an old, abandoned party supply factory and had a faded sign on top of it that read “Balloons Galore.” Looked kinda creepy.
There were two ponies guarding the front door, both with silver fur and manes. Weird. Silver must be the new black this season. I crept around, beat up the first one, then slammed the second one’s head into the wall, knocking both of them out cold. Slipping inside, I did my best to remember the layout of the building. I was supposed to have memorized it for emergencies, but… well, it was on my To Do list.
I had to knock out around ten ponies, (again, all with silver coats and manes. Were they all in some cult or something?) as I made my way through various hallways to the main computer room, the door to which had a small window on it. Peering in, I could see two silver coated/maned ponies inside, a female and a male. Both unicorns.
The male one was sitting at the computer desk typing things on the keyboard while the female watched over his shoulder. A yellow pony in a white coat sat in a corner. Looked unconscious. Must’ve been in the building when these silver dudes stormed it.
What do I do? Just bust in there and demand answers?
Eh. Couldn’t think of a better plan.
I kicked in the door and slowly walked into the room. The stallion and mare turned around to face me; I recognized the mare immediately. She smiled.
“Oh, look who’s here. It’s my marefriend,” she said in that smooth, calm tone of hers. “How’s your head, dear?”
“We broke up. Remember?” I said seriously as I took a few steps towards her. “I prayed that I was wrong. I wanted to be wrong so badly, but…” I was having trouble forming words. Actually seeing her here removed any doubt. This wasn’t all just a huge mistake and I wasn’t just jumping to conclusions.
This was happening. She really betrayed me. Used me.
“Well, Celestia must be busy answering another pony’s prayers because… here I am,” she said giving me a curtsy.
Maybe it wasn’t too late to reason with her. Even if her boss was listening at that moment, maybe we could cut a deal.
“Look… whatever your employer is paying you, I can match it. Maybe even double it,” I whispered loud enough so she could hear, taking a step closer. “We can sit down and talk about this.” She stared at me with a blank look, as if trying to understand what I meant. Then suddenly, a look of realization formed on her face and a giggle escaped her lips. Her giggling got louder and louder until it was full on hysterical laughter.
“You… y-you still think that this was a job I took? That I’m some sort of spy for hire?” she asked in disbelief, laughing at me and placing a hoof over her eyes. Once she’d calmed down, she spoke again. “Don’t you get it? I’m in charge here. I’m the leader of The Silver Horseshoes. This entire operation was my idea.” My heart sank. She put a hoof on the computer. “I was actually sort of hoping you’d make it, Vinyl. I didn’t want you to miss a second of this.”
“A second of what?” I asked angrily.
“Why, us exposing the identity and personal information of every supernatural being in existence, of course!” she laughed. “I have to hoof it to you; you almost caught me in time, but fortunately for me…” She chuckled and looked into my eyes, smiling, “… you’re an idiot.”
There was so much I wanted to say to her. I was furious, confused, but mostly… just sad. It felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest and somepony was playing hoofball with it. Guess that's why they called it “heart ache.”
“Why? Just… why? Why for… almost half a year of my life? … How could you do this to me?!” I asked taking a step closer. I could feel tears starting to form in my eyes.
“Don’t you understand, Vinyl? You had to trust me,” she explained as if she were talking to a little kid. “Otherwise I could never get close enough to you to get what I needed.”
“Well, now I’m here to stop it,” I said galloping over to the computer. I threw a punch at the dude working it, but he dodged my hoof, grabbed me by the throat, and pushed the back of my head against the keyboard, all with little effort.
“Now, Silver Star, be careful you don’t hurt the equipment,” Streak said calmly as she walked towards us. I growled as I looked up at him, gasping for air as his hoof crushed my throat. He looked… very familiar, but I couldn’t figure out…
Then I noticed the thin scar… above his left eye… near his hair-line. All he needed was a red cap and he was the purse-snatcher from the day I’d first met Streak.
“Son of a bitch…” I rasped as he gripped my throat. I looked slowly from him to her. “You… Our meeting was a set up. You planned it. All of it.”
“Oh, don’t be so hard on yourself, Vinyl dear,” she said in mock sympathy. “You saw what I wanted you to see.”
“Don’t call me that!” I spat, angered by how her new attitude had twisted her affectionate nickname for me. “How can you even speak to me after what you’ve done? How dare you look me in the eyes and-”
“How dare I? Oooh, this’ll be good,” she chuckled. “Getting a lesson on morality from a blood-sucker. Tell me, do you also scold the innocent ponies about their issues before you murder them in cold blood, hmmm?”
“Shut up!” I roared breaking free from Silver Star’s grip and charging at her. I tackled her to the floor and pinned her down. “I don’t know what sorta vendetta you have against us, but this is not the way to settle things!” She angrily pushed me off of her and rolled on top of me.
“How could you know, Vinyl?” she yelled, her face now deadly serious. “You don’t know anything about me!”
This was the girl I’d do anything for. The girl I loved. How could I fight my own marefriend? Could I really do this?
She punched me in the face a few times before I pushed her off of me and dove at her. One of the punches had knocked off my glasses and they now sat on the ground a few feet from us.
No. This wasn’t the same girl. This wasn’t her. I wasn't in love with Streak; I was in love with the girl she pretended to be. It was just a sham, a game of hers that I stupidly played into.
“Keep working on the computer, Star. I’ll keep her busy,” she said keeping her eyes on me. As we fought, I managed to block a few of her punches, but even with my speed, I was barely able to hit her.
“Your fighting style is very predictable, Scratch, if you could even call it that.” I groaned as I got a knee to the stomach and was knocked to the ground. I landed on my chest.
“You’ve… f-fought vampires before,” I gasped wiping the blood from my nose.
“Oh, many times, sweetheart,” she said smiling and stepping on my back with one hoof. How the hell was she so strong? “It’s just that the reason you freaks at The Inner Circle have never heard of me is because none of the vampires I’ve fought have lived to tell you.” She pushed down harder on me. I held in my screams as I heard cracking in my back. I didn’t wanna let her know it hurt.
“Ha! This is nothin’,” I smirked through gritted teeth. “You’re nothin’.”
“How cute. You’re trying to hurt my feelings. Though it’s a little pointless when we both know you’re still in love with me,” she cooed, kicking me over so I was lying on my back.
“I’m not,” I rasped, my voice dripping venom.
“Oh, that sensitive little heart of yours. Did I break it? How does it feel?” she asked, viciously stomping on my chest. I cried out. Couldn’t hold it in anymore. My insides felt like shit, my outsides felt like shit. Didn’t know how much more I could take. “How does it feel to be betrayed by the one you love the most? To be used by somepony so special to you?”
“S-stop.”
“Tell me! Does it hurt?”
“Stop it.”
“To know that she never loved you?”
“STOP IT!”
With every ounce of energy I had left, I pushed her hoof off of me and pounced. I threw her with all my might into the nearest wall, leaving a sizeable dent. Grabbing her before she hit the ground, I forced her down and punched her over and over, pounding my hooves across her face.
“You lied to me!” I screamed, baring my teeth. I could feel my fangs poking out of my mouth. “You looked me in the eyes and you lied to me over and over! You pathetic, low down, slimy, bucking piece of-“
Her horn glowed with a faint, silver light as she levitated a metal object over from across the room and put it to my head.
“I think that’s enough of that,” she said calmly, blood trickling from her cracked lip. “Hooves in the air. Now.” My eyes grew wide as I slowly got off of her and raised my arms. “Sit with your back against the wall.” I did as she asked, taking a few steps backwards and sitting down, resting my back on the wall.
I was panting. The dent where I’d thrown her was just above me and, as a result of our tussle, there was blood on her face. Some hers, some mine. She smirked.
“You know what this is, don’t you?” she asked tilting the silver instrument towards me.
I did. I’d heard about the new technology from the Griffin Kingdom. Guns. Put bullets in and you can fire em’ at anypony you wanna hurt. Hers was different than the black ones I’d seen, though. Silver, engraved with cool looking designs on both sides. Judging by its size, it looked like it could hold six bullets at a time.
I didn’t answer her question; just continued to glare.
“This gun is loaded with silver bullets,” she explained watching it as it rotated in the air. “I have three left. As I’m quite experienced with it, I’ll only need one to send you straight to hell where you belong. Now here’s what’s going to happen, Vinyl. Right now, Silver Star is getting access to every file of everypony on that computer and downloading it to our flash drive.” I looked over to see a small, silver stick poking out of one of the ports near the keyboard. “And you’re gonna watch and know that it’s entirely. Your. Fault.” I slowly put my hooves down.
“Jeez, what the hell d-did we do to piss you off so badly,” I panted, avoiding her eyes. I was so tired.
“What did you do? What did you do?!” She got close to my face, a murderous glare in her eyes. “You want to know why my parents are dead, Vinyl? My parents were killed by you monsters. Murdered! I was young… and had no other family. I was raised in an orphanage because of you freaks. This has happened to countless families because you devils get a little hungry and decide to take it out on innocent ponies!”
“Hey, that’s not true!” I yelled back at her. “We control it the b-best we can and most of us-“
“Shut up, shut up!” she screamed like a child, poking the gun into my chest. “It’s your fault! It’s your fault they’re dead! You’re murderers! You all murdered them! … And now you’re gonna pay for it.”
“What, y-you want me to say I’m sorry or somethin’?” I asked raising an eyebrow. She smacked me across the face with the gun.
“No!” she screamed at me. Regaining her composure, she looked away from me and continued speaking as I spit out a mouth full of blood. “No. No, that won’t bring them back. Even if I forced you to apologize, it’d be useless. You wouldn’t mean it. No matter what you do… you can’t bring them back. So no, Vinyl, you won’t say you're sorry.” She looked back at me, cocked the trigger, and put it between my eyes. “But you will die.”
When you’re about to kick the bucket, there’s a ton of different theories about what you experience; I’ve heard that you see a brilliant light at the end of a tunnel and you walk towards it and it takes you to heaven or whatever. I’ve also heard that you see everypony you know who’s passed on and they all welcome you with open arms as you fly up to them. I’ve also heard that nothing happens. No light, no angels, no nothin’. You’re just dead and it sucks.
For me, I closed my eyes. I didn’t want her face to be the last thing I saw. Blackness was a lot more comforting. I always figured I’d go out in a cooler way. Like, crowd surfing or saving a foal from a burning building. Not at the mercy of some insane mare who’d tricked me into dating her for five months. Guess it was an alright way to go out, though. Trying to stop an organization from revealing information that could hurt a lot of ponies. Just wished I could’ve actually saved them before I left.
My vision was black and all I could hear was a strange, static sound ringing in my ears. Then I realized that... I was still alive. I was still breathing. I slowly cracked an eye open to see Streak glaring at me just as she was before, the gun still pushed against my head. We heard the static sound again.
“Silver Streak, you there? We got a situation!” a panicked voice came through a walkie talkie that sat on the table next to Silver Star. Streak stared at me for a few more seconds then rushed over to it, pushing a button on the side.
“What is it? We’re almost done-“
“A whole flood of vampires just got here!” the voice yelled. I could hear screaming in the background. “We’re not sure how they found out, but you gotta get outta there! They’ll be up there any minute!”
“Dammit,” Streak swore under her breath. “Hold them off as long as you can. If you are captured, you know what to do.”
“… Yes, ma’am.” The walkie talkie went dead as Streak threw it to the ground and crushed it with a hoof.
“Star, we need to go. Now!”
“But it’s not done-“
“I don’t care! We’re leaving now!”
Silver Star yelled in frustration then took out the flash drive and put it in a saddlebag.
“Exit plan B. You go East, I’ll go West. I’ll designate a rendezvous point when I next contact you,” Streak said putting her gun in his bag. He threw it over his shoulder and ran out the back door. On his way out, a black handgun fell out of the bag and clattered to the floor. I assumed it was Silver Star’s. “Star, you dropped…!” But he was already gone. She began walking towards it. “Ugh. Idiot. Now I have to carry it mys-“
“Hey!” I yelled as loud as I could at her. She stopped, but didn’t turn to look back at me. “… J-just answer… one thing for me.” My voice was harsh, whispery. Was totally dehydrated and had lost a good amount of blood by that point, but I needed to ask her. I had to.
I swallowed and tried to get my breath back.
“Was w-what you did… what you did to me… Our relationship. Everything. … Was it all for this stupid mission? Or d-did you really love me?” My voice got even softer. “… D-did you even like me?”
She turned to face me and smiled as she slowly walked closer.
“Like? That’s a stretch. I could put up with you for the assignment, sure. But love you? Who could ever love you?” This seemed funny to her. She grabbed a hoofful of fur on my upper chest and lifted me up in the air, our faces almost touching. I grunted from the pain. “You’re a monster. You’re nothing but a monster. And that’s all. You’ll ever. Be.” Her voice was full of malice.
That did it. My heart was completely destroyed. I felt numb. There was no heart left to hurt anymore. I was done being sad. Done trying to save her. Just… done. My eyes narrowed as she dropped me on the ground and turned her back to me, starting to walk briskly towards the door again.
“Y-you better not show your face again,” I wheezed as I sat back up and leaned my back against the wall, a look of pure hatred on my face. “Cause I s-swear… I swear if you do, I’ll find you… and I’ll squeeze that n-neck of yours until you stop breathing.”
Streak paused for a moment. Then it all happened in the blink of an eye.
She turned to face me, levitated Star’s gun off the floor, and fired. I screamed as my right arm exploded in pain. I gripped it with my other hoof as blood trickled from it. My eyes watered. I struggled for breath. This was a new kind of pain I’d never experienced before. I clenched my jaw and breathed heavily, trying not to scream.
“If you murder me,” she said staring at me with cold eyes, “you’ll do it with one arm.”
She gave me a little grin, then turned and left me there, levitating the gun beside her.
“Get back here!” I roared. “You bitch! Come back! I’ll kill you! I’ll bucking kill you!”
She was gone.
The pain was too much. It was starting to blind me. I felt like I was dying. My body just kept shaking as I laid there, slumped against the wall. Looking down, I could see my blood starting to form a little pool as my eyes started to droop. I was tired. I was so very tired. It was time to sleep now.
Then I heard noises. Voices, coming from the hallway. They would tell me later that when they found me, my eyes were totally wide open in complete fear… but I remember I couldn’t see anything.
_________________________________________________________________________
Five Months, Twenty Eight Days Since I Met Her
I sat in the hospital bed, looking and feeling miserable, staring into space with sullen eyes as the events of the previous night ran through my head. Looked like hell. I had two broken ribs, bruises all over, and my nose had to get reset. Or somethin’ like that. Don’t know a ton about medical stuff, but if the doctors said I needed something done, I just let em’. My right arm was in a sling. I was lucky they were able to get the bullet out without any complications. Silver Star’s gun must’ve been loaded with regular bullets, not silver. Missed all the important stuff, too.
Thank the Goddesses. If Stre… if she had taken away my ability to be a DJ… I don’t know what I would’ve done.
There was a knock at the door and it creaked open. I looked up slowly.
“Good afternoon, Vinyl Scratch,” a familiar voice said softly. First time I’d ever heard her that quiet. I smirked at her.
“Hey, Luna,” I muttered, looking back down at my lap. She shut the door behind her and walked towards me.
“How are you feeling?”
“Well, I’m not dead. So, I guess that’s good.”
Although at that moment, I sorta wished I was. Never felt so terrible in my entire life.
“That is indeed good. You are very fortunate that your injuries were not more severe,” she said, apparently not getting my sarcasm. “Well, we have some good news as well as some bad news.” I looked over to see that she was levitating a sheet of paper. She set it on my lap. “We wished to wait until you were more recovered before giving you this news.”
I really didn’t wanna deal with more bad news right then, but I could sure as hell use some good news. My horn glowed as I used magic to levitate the paper up and hold it in front of me.
“Apparently, the Silver Horseshoe’s magical memory stick device was removed from the computer too soon and only the files of a few supernaturals were saved onto it.” She meant flash drive, but I was too busy reading to correct her. “Those in the computer wing were able to find out which ponies they have the information for.”
Phwew. That was a huge weight off my shoulders. I looked through the list; no mom, no dad, no me. We were safe, at least. I felt like I could finally breathe again. They’d only gotten info for ten ponies.
But then my eyes came across the name of a pony that I recognized.
“… Charcoal?” I asked sadly, my eyes still on the sheet. “They… they got his file?”
“We are very sorry,” Luna said slowly, “but, yes. He will be moved to a new location today.”
My ears perked up as I looked up at her in alarm.
“Today? As in right now?!”
“Why, yes, some agents should be escorting him to-“
I leaned over in the hospital bed and pressed the “nurse call” button over and over. A nurse with a syringe for a cutie mark came through the door.
“Yes, what-“
“I gotta go somewhere,” I said eagerly. She gave me a confused stare.
“I’m sorry, but you’re on strict bed rest for-“
“Please, I’m fine! I gotta get out of here! Just for a bit!”
“Miss Scratch, you still need that sling on your arm. You’ll have to use a wheelchair if you want to-“
“That’ll just slow me down! I’m beggin’ ya, I gotta go somewhere right now!”
They were moving him today. In a few hours, he’d be gone for who knew how long. I had to say goodbye. Needed to apologize. Needed to tell him what an idiot I’d been.
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
“Uh, excuse me," a pony said peeking his head into the room. "Sorry for interrupting, but I was wondering if I could talk to Vinyl for a minute.” A rush of relief washed over me. Charcoal stood in the doorway, a dufflebag slung around his body.
“Oh. Yes, of course, dear,” the nurse said smiling as she left the room to give us some privacy. Luna gave a nod and followed behind her.
I looked at Charcoal, suddenly losing my ability to speak.
What the hell do I even say?
“… Look, I-“
“It’s alright, V. Really.”
“No, it’s not,” I said ashamed, looking away from him. “This is all my fault. I should’ve listened to you.”
“I didn’t really give you a reason to,” he said giving me a sad smile. “You were right; I always was kinda jealous of you. I’ve been trying forever to get a special somepony in my life and… the way chicks would practically throw themselves at you after a show… I didn’t think it was fair. It was stupid of me. I really did sense something weird with… her, though so that’s why I…”
His speech trailed off. Smirking, he continued.
“Let’s just forget it, alright? I don’t want this to be the last thing we ever say to each other.”
“This isn’t the last time," I insisted. "Listen, I’ll find a way-“
“Vinyl… please.”
I closed my mouth slowly. There was no use tryin’ to brush off the situation. He was right. They were moving him, giving him a completely new identity. We wouldn’t be able to see each other for a long time. A couple of years, if we were lucky. Especially since the Silver Horseshoes knew who I was.
“Oop, almost forgot. I still need to give you something,” he said reaching into his bag. He levitated out a smaller, black bag and put it in my good hoof. Opening it with magic, I found that it was full of gold coins.
“Dude…”
“I owed you 20 bits and you’re getting 20 bits,” he said smiling at me. “Was gonna give it to you that night at the restaurant, but… Well, there you go. Can’t say that ol’ Charcoal squirreled out of the money he owed you.”
“You should keep it, man. You’ll need it for starting your new life,” I argued floating it over to him, but he pushed it back towards me.
“With donations from TIC members and stuff, I’ve got plenty of cash for… wherever they end up sticking me. It’s yours.” He floated it onto the little table next to my bed. I sighed. “And look, I heard about everything. Don’t let that bitch get in your head. You’re one of the most amazing ponies I know and you shouldn’t let her ruin dating for you or anything like that, alright?”
“Pfft, please. Look who you’re talkin’ to. I’m Vinyl Scratch. Telling me to stop hittin’ on mares is like asking a fish not to swim,” I smirked confidently at him.
Little did I know that I wouldn’t date for two years after Silver.
“Good,” he chuckled.
There was a knock on the door. Through the little window, we could see a stallion in a business suit signaling to the watch on his wrist.
“Well, that’s my ride. I’ll… I’ll see ya, Vinyl,” he said pulling me into a hug.
“Bye, Charcoal,” I said softly, my voice starting to falter. He took a few steps towards the door, but then stopped and turned back to face me.
“It won’t be ‘forever’ forever,” he said, his voice full of hope. “Maybe one day… once I’m settled, wherever I am, I’ll look you up. Sound good?”
I slowly smiled back.
“Yeah. Lookin’ forward to it.”
He exited through the door and closed it softly behind him. I stared at where he used to stand for the longest time. Couldn’t bring myself to look anywhere else or the tears were sure to come.
_________________________________________________________________________
Ten Months, Seventeen Days Since I Met Her
I’d been kind of a mess since Streak and I split. After your heart’s been broken, it can be repaired, but first you gotta go through a few “stages.” Only once you get through em’ can your heart actually start to fix itself. Each stage acts like a kinda realization period and by the end, you admit to yourself that you can pull yourself together and get through it. Makes sense when you think about it. You can’t get better if you don’t believe that you can get better, ya know?
The first stage, Denial, existed all through my stay at the hospital and about a week after I got let out. This was the stage where you don’t think you need to get better.
I didn’t need her. Everything was awesome. She was a jerk and I was better off without her. I didn’t feel bad at all. I went about my day as usual. That is, until I came across something that reminded me of her and burst into tears like a little filly.
Then came the next stage: Anger. This is the stage where you don’t wanna get better. How could you have time to think of moving on when you have so much hatred in your heart? I punched walls, got in a few bar fights, stuff like that.
Then I dedicated all my time towards trying to find Silver Streak. Tried asking around, going undercover, paying off the right ponies, but I hit a dead end every frickin’ time. Luckily, towards the end of it, I started putting my anger towards constructive stuff instead of breaking things. I might’ve picked up crocheting, but I’ll kill ya if you tell anypony.
I was currently stuck going round and round in the third stage: Depression. I didn’t think I could get better; it was pointless to try. Instead, I hit clubs. I hit bars. I was desperately searching for companionship. Looking for somepony to love me. For me to feel something with somepony.
Depression is different for everypony who goes through it; mine took the form of one-night-stands and alcohol.
I couldn’t sleep. I was in somepony else’s bed. Couldn’t even remember the name of the mare sleeping beside me, but she had a light orange coat and smelled like perfume and martinis. I felt a little sick. Gently removing the arm she had draped over me, I slipped out of bed and made my way to her bathroom.
Still had my shades on. Never took em’ off. Girls must’ve found it charming. That or they were drunk and never asked why I kept em’ on. I closed the bathroom door behind me and flipped on the light, taking off my glasses and setting them on the sink. I splashed my face with some water and looked up at myself in the mirror.
There I was. My eyes were misty and my hair was a little messier, but otherwise I looked the same as I always did. It was me, sure, but… it wasn’t really me.
Look at yourself. What happened? Why are you here, Vinyl?
Just leave me alone.
I splashed myself with more water and blinked a few times.
This is wrong. You shouldn’t be here.
Shut up, I… I just want somepony to love me…
Stop it. Do you hear yourself? You’re pathetic. This isn’t you. Pull yourself together. Get outta this place, go home, and clean yourself up.
I ran a hoof through my mane, tears starting to form in my eyes. She… well, I had a point. What was I doing there? What was I thinking? I needed to go home. I needed to stop this... whatever I was doing. This endless carousel of stupid kept going around in circles. Wasn’t getting me anywhere.
This is exactly what Streak had wanted; to hurt me. To make me feel like I was nothing. To make me think that nopony could ever love a monster like me. Maybe she was right, maybe she was wrong… but whatever I was doing here wasn’t gonna prove anything. I wasn’t about to give her what she wanted.
Hell, who knows? The pony of my dreams could’ve been somewhere out there at that moment, just waitin’ for me to find them. I put my shades back over my eyes, snuck out of the apartment, and caught a taxi home.
I was about to start the final stage: Acceptance.