Fangs

by Sapphic

The Beginning of a Nightmare

"So lovely to see you again Octavia." Wilfred said with a warm smile as he opened the door and stepped aside, letting me into the large estate of my parents.

I gave him a smile in return and slipped past him.

I had come here for my father since he was able to find Vinyl astonishingly fast last time, but whether he could do that again, I did not know.

"Not that I don't mind you coming in at nearly four in the morning, but do you have a good reason for coming this late?" He said in a joking tone as he rubbed the bags from his eyes and shut the door gently.

I sighed and decided not to hide my reasons and just get it over with.

"Well...I lost her again." He first gave me a quizzical look and then cocked a brow.

"What? Lost who?" He asked as he moved over to the couch.

"You know...Vinyl." I admitted.

He didn't really seem to care, but he did acknowledge her name; he was pretty much unfazed by it. He did give me this sort of look before sighing and speaking up.

"I take it you'll want to speak with your father?" I gave him a nod and he got up.

"He's up in his bedroom, do you still remember where it's at?" He asked.

I recalled some old memories, getting a hazy memory of what his door looked like and where it was, and then nodded.

"Good, I'll start making some coffee for him, maybe for me as well. Do you want any?" I shook my head and he trotted lazily off into the kitchen, leaving me alone in the lounge.

I sighed and turned towards where I thought my dad's room was and began my journey into the dark depths of the house.

"Wrong hall Octavia!" I heard Wilfred call out from the kitchen.

I blushed a bit before turning to the other hall and delving in.

"Other one!" He called once more.

I directed myself to the last remaining doorway and finally, without any interruption from the kitchen, went up to search for my fathers room.

*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*

I finally arrived at a distinct wooden door that was outlined with fancy carvings, I presumed that this was my father and mother's room, though my mother had never liked to sleep in the room, and was usually never in it, so it was pretty much just my fathers.

I swallowed and gave the door a few quick knocks.

I heard some shuffling inside inside the room and eventually the door opened, revealing my very disheveled looking father.

"Octavia?" He asked in a sleepy tone as he rubbed his eyes.

"Uh, hey dad." I scuffed my hoof along the floor as I looked idly at the ground, it was pretty awkward and rude to just wake him up, especially at this hour, but I wasn't just going to let this whole trip be for nothing.

He seemed to still be rubbing his eyes, as if this was just a dream or something, but eventually came to realized that it wasn't.

"Did you need something sweetheart?" He asked as he blinked a few times.

"You're probably going to want to sit down for this, Wilfred is already making you some coffee." I said with a nervous chuckle on the end.

He sighed and started downstairs.

"You're probably right."

I had given my father all the time he needed to get his coffee and a comfortable and place in the kitchen. I did, after all, have a few hours to spare until the sun even began to rise, but I planned to leave once I got the information from my dad.

"So what is it you want to talk about at an hour like this?" He said in a sarcastically joking tone.

He probably knew why I was here, but then again, he might not, so I decided to tell him.

"Well..." I took some time to work up the words. "I lost her again."

"Lost who?" Well, I guess he didn't know the reason then.

"Vinyl." I said. He tensed up ever so slightly at the mention of the name, I was beginning to think he knew a bit more than I thought he did.

"Oh." Was all he had to say. The room got suddenly quiet, aside from the sip my father took every so often from his coffee. I was beginning to grow impatient, and decided to push the matter.

"So, do you think you could help me?" He didn't respond immediately, but took a second to collect himself, as if playing out the conversation in his head before speaking.

"Octavia...I think you should stop looking for her." He said, his voice coming off as rather cold.

That took me off guard.

"W-what?" I stuttered, not expecting my fathers rather cold sounding response.

"Look," He sighed outwardly. "This mare...she's just trouble to almost anyone she's around. I understand that you have quite an attachment to her, but listen to me Octavia."

"She's trouble." He finished speaking and took a sip from his mug.

I had never heard my father speak like that, he was typically outgoing and friendly and spoke only about the good sides of ponies, even if most hated them. He didn't speak harshly, it wasn't even in his voice, it seemed like he was speaking logically, as if what he said is fact. He didn't even know her, so even if he didn't like her, I was still going to help her. She saved my life twice, the least I could do was try and save hers once.

"So will you help me?" I asked, looking at him with pleading eyes.

He was my only chance on where to find Vinyl, or at least which direction to go in. Of course, I could just go back home and waste eight hours doing nothing until Shakes arrived, but I didn't want to let anymore horrific images fill my head.

He looked back at me, I could see this look in his eyes; a look of consideration, and of desperation. He was probably worried about me, especially if he knew what exactly I was getting myself into, but that was expected.

"Fine." He admitted with a sigh. "Darn those eyes..." I heard him grumble under his breath afterwards.

I smiled at him widely as he got up from the table in the kitchen.

"Give me a moment to go through what I can and I'll see what I can find." I trotted over and gave him a kiss on the cheek

"Thanks dad." I said happily.

"I hope you have someone to go with you?" He asked with a cocked brow.

I said yes automatically, not taking the question seriously, I was happy that he had agreed to help me.

"Alright, get comfortable and I'll see what I can do."

It had been about half an hour after my little chat with my master that one of the guards had come down and told me I was needed upstairs. When I had asked why they only told me that he called for me, this was the typical way of say that it was the master calling, and that it was mandatory.

I had come up to the sight of the back of his chair.

"You called for me sir?" I asked to the back of my master's throne.

He turned around with a wide smile on his face, a very unusual sight for him.

"Yes, I'm happy to tell you that you're getting a new assignment."

'Whoa, he is...happy?' I thought briefly to myself, until I saw him looking at me expectantly, apparently wanting a response from me; another unusual sight from him.

"M-my new assignment?" He usually gave me a break in between assignments, though I didn't need them, they were more like times I sat aside for emotional release.

"Yes, and this one won't be one of those lowly simpleton missions either." He said.

'Finally!' I shouted in my head, though I chose not to express that outwardly.

"Something of more importance?" I asked with both my hopes and anticipations growing.

"Oh yes, something of much more importance. In fact, it carries the lives of many of your brethren." This caught my interest, above my importance was the importance of my brethren as a whole. I was one, they were many.

"It's been brought to my attention that some of my followers have been killed whilst entering and exiting our domain, I have reason to believe it's a party of vampire hunters, and if my instinct is right, there will be around twenty of them." He began.

"I want you to put a stop to this."

"Sir, I know that you believe in my abilities, but twenty hunters? That's suicidal on my part." I might have been able to take out two or three on my own, but twenty would kill me before I even got near them.

And if these hunters were up to date, unlike that bar mare, I might as well just be the dirt beneath them.

"Oh I'm well aware of the odds, which is why I'm sending you with back up." He said with a devious smile that nobody would trust.

"How many?" I asked. I would estimate about twenty of our own go, just to make the odds even and such, we could even stretch ten if we played our cards right; any less and we would be on the losing side of the fight.

"Oh, only one." He said with a sly smile.

I only blinked. 'He must be joking...he has to be.' I thought to myself, not believing that he was serious. Even one of his highly trained personal guards couldn't dispatch twenty hunters with ease. Of course the probability of the end of all this depended on how trained the hunters were; if they were rookies I might even be able to kill them all, but if they were trained even in the slightest it would cause problems. If they were veterans, forget about it.

"You might have wondered what I was doing in the last hour." He began.

I wasn't at all.

"Well, let's just say I was getting our guest a little more comfortable to our way of life."

What? Did he mean Vinyl? Was he sending her? You might as well just kill both me and her and get it over with then. No way that pipsqueak could take out twenty, even with my help.

"You mean the one I brought you?" I asked.

"Oh yes. She's come along quite fine." He said with a dark chuckle.

I was about to ask what he meant, but he beat me to it with a sharp whistle.

I heard the sound of light hoof steps come from behind me, and I turned to see the white mare that I had brought coming up to join me at my side, but she looked different. She wasn't full of the same 'aura' as before; she was lively at first, even if she was mad at me I could tell she had sparks of energy, but now she seemed...well not that. It was as if all the energy was gone and replaced by something different, and not a good kind of different.

"Bigs, I believe you've met your new partner already?"

New partner?! Is he crazy?!

"Huh?" Was all that could make it out of my mouth.

"She will be helping you with your mission, I don't want to hear any flak from you, so don't protest or complain." He said with a more serious demeanor.

"H-How did you get her to h-help?" I stuttered. A dream was more believable than this, she had quite the gripe with me after the whole threatening of her friend thing, and I had a hard time believing she would just jump at the chance of helping me. There was no way he talked her into this in under an hour, it just wasn't possible.

"Let us leave certain stones unturned shall we?" And that was the end of it, no answer, just some vague replacement that still left me as lost as I was before.

"Now I want you to go, complete the mission." I nodded slowly and started towards the door, still shocked by the revelation that my former target was now my 'partner'. He had to have done something sinister, and I didn't like the looks of this.

Something was wrong, very wrong.

My father had been wherever it was that he had gone for about half an hour now and I predicted the sun would begin to peek along the horizon within about two to three hours. I didn't mind it, I would still be getting ahead of Shakes. I had done just about everything imaginable in the kitchen, I had ate food, played with the food, looked at the table, played with the table, you name it and I had pretty much done it all. It had ended when Wilfred had come in and offered to play a game of cards, I had accepted, even if I didn't know anything about cards it was better than doing nothing. Of course Wilfred won easily, but I was a good sport about it and we continued to play until my father came back in.

"Well, I have a lead." He said tiredly, though still more awake than he was a few hours before hoof.

I turned to look at him as Wilfred clean up the cards and exited the room, he probably realized this wasn't his place to listen in on, but I was sure he would be anyway. It had taken him long enough to get a single lead, though I wasn't complaining, at least he found a lead.

I smiled at him gratefully. "Thanks dad." I said with genuine thanks.

"Don't thank me yet." He said bluntly.

I cocked a brow at him.

"The lead points in the direction of the Everfree; a very deep and abandoned part of the Everfree." He said, stressing his words.

'The Everfree? What's in that Celestia forsaken forest that that bouncer would want?' I thought in my mind.

"There is no telling what, or even who, is out there; abandoned doesn't always check out when filed. Not only that, but it's going to take you a couple of hours just to get to the Everfree." He said grimly.

"It's okay father, I'll handle myself." I said, starting to doubt myself and my capabilities.

He turned and looked deep into my eyes, it was rather unnerving the way his eyes looked; tired and baggy with the beginning looks of being bloodshot.

"I trust you Octavia, but I don't think it would be wise to go alone, so I hope that escort of yours you said you had is a good one, you might need him." He said.

'Her.' I mentally corrected him. 'And she might not even be coming. I added.

"I assure you father, they are good at their job." It was a half lie, but I had a feeling it reassured him a great deal.

I saw his face visibly lighten.

"I don't know what has gotten into you lately," He started. "You used to be a shut in, only coming out to go to one of your concerts or one of your friends events, now look at you; braving the Everfree to go and find someone you hardly know." He was joking I could tell, but there was that sense of truth behind his words.

"I won't try and keep you any longer nor will I try and change your mind about this, but I want you to be safe out there; don't take any risks that don't need to be taken." He said as he looked me in the eyes.

"Trust me father, I will be safe." He got up and gave me a hug before saying his goodbyes.

And with that I was off, starting my search for Vinyl on my own, though I thought I heard my father get up and say "I need to make some calls, Wilfred, fetch the phone would you?" But I just shrugged it off.

"So Vinyl..." I said as I tried to spark up some conversation while we traveled on the road as bait. I didn't know exactly where the hunters were, so I tried to make us as obvious as possible, though it was proving rather difficult.

"..." She remained silent.

"Guess he really did do something to you..." I spoke, mainly to myself.

It wasn't right what he did, whatever that is that he did. Don't get me wrong, I do believe in inducting some into our breed, though I only do it if they are worthy. I also believe they should have some part of their conscious left so they could operate on their own, this wasn't the case with Vinyl. It was as if the processing part of her brain was gone, like she was just a puppet. I didn't like Vinyl, but I did believe in humane ways of going about things, if I had known that this is what my master was going to do with her, I think my search might have taken a lot longer, for some 'unexpected' reasons.

Most of the walk passed in silence, a very uncomfortable silence at that. I took a glance back every once and a while just to make sure she was still following and this whole thing was nothing but a ruse to fool me, that hopefully she was just pretending and this was a plan to get away, but she was still there every time with the same dead-to-the-world look on her face.

Eventually one of my look backs came in handy, she stopped dead in her tracks and I did as well.

"What is it?" I asked with a cocked brow.

I couldn't detect anything, smell anything, see nor hear anything in the area but she still just stood there.

"What are you waiting for? Nothing's here." I was beginning to get the hope from earlier that she was acting.

If that was the case she might attack me, or just run, I was fine with both, though I wasn't particularly leaning towards the whole 'attack' option; if my master trusted her to be the riding force in taking down twenty hunters, then he must have done something to make her stronger as well. There was no way she would kill twenty if she fought like she fought me before.

I put myself into a defensive stance as I stared her down, this was getting a bit uncomfortable, the way she was just looking at me. It felt like she was planning something, like figuring out where to hide my body or something.

'What are you thinking...' I thought to myself as I stared her down.

Slowly, her horn began to charge, but it was a different shade than before at the bar. It was darker, where as before it was a near neon blue, now it was a navy blue.

I took up a position that was prepared to dodge if she shot a bolt at me. Whatever my master had done, it must have been wearing off now, though that doesn't explain her different magical aura; Maybe that part was permanent. All of that aside, there wasn't a noticeable change in her demeanor nor lack of speaking, she remained as silent as ever.

During my train of thought she fired off a bolt, this one moved at a much faster speed than the ones I had dodged at the bar, so it took me off guard. Though what took me off was the fact it was aimed off course and right beside my head rather than a head shot. As much as I hate to admit it, she could have just killed me.

The bolt connected with something to the left of my head, something that I hadn't seen their before, causing a small explosion that caused a ringing in my ears and a small surge of energy through my body. I recoiled and jumped to the right, just in time to see some bushes nearby rustle and shake.

Out of the brush hopped a cloaked pony who immediately bolted into a run in a direction away from me and her. I was still in shock from how quickly all this had happened, so I didn't give chase immediately, though I didn't have to.

With a head propped over their shoulder the cloaked figure looked back at me with a smug smile as they quickly gained ground between me, thanks to this they didn't see the figure appear in front of them, and collided full force with them and fell back onto the ground. I took me awhile to recognize the figure thanks to the darkness from the forest, but eventually I made out what looked to be like the white mare that was behind me.

I took a look back behind me just to make sure, and sure enough, she was gone.

I didn't feel or see the flash of light that comes when a unicorn uses magical teleportation, which left me with the option that seemed impossible; that she moved that fast. I felt as though that was impossible, I realized that she was fast, but this just wasn't possible. She must have used teleportation, she must have.

She raised a hoof upwards just as the cloaked figure registered that she had ran into something and looked up at her. She sent her hoof downwards at a violent speed, fast enough that I nearly missed it. The hit made full contact with the face of the cloaked figure, making a chilling sound as it hit, and just like that, their body went limp.

I was still in partial shock when I walked over to her and the body, not only from how she had moved with seemingly no trace, but how she had quite possibly just killed this pony with a single hit. I bent over and investigated the body better, and my suspicions were confirmed that it was indeed a hunter, the crossbow and the bolts confirmed it. I looked back over my shoulder to the place where Vinyl had shot at me and, upon closer inspection, I saw what she hit.

A small black bolt had been shattered in two and was lying on the ground, still smoking from the heat of her magic.

All of it started to process for me; Vinyl hadn't tried to kill me, she had just saved me. Even if it wasn't in her mind set, I was thankful, and I started to feel pity for her. One thing was certain however, a thank you was in order.

I walked back over to her, where she still stood in the same place over the figure. I felt my throat begin to swell as I tried to mouth the words to myself, I didn't know why I would choke, she probably couldn't even register it anyway. Eventually I swallowed my pride and the words came out, shaky, but they came out.

"Th-thank you..." The words came out soft. I wasn't used to thanking others, it just wasn't my thing since I tried to rely on myself most of the time; always giving myself the tasks that needed to be done as opposed to things that could afford to not be done.

She didn't respond, thank Celestia, but she did tilt her head up and looked at me.

"U-uh..." I was beginning to stumble over my words and beginning to make myself look like a fool. I needed to get out of this situation.

"L-let's get moving, shall we?" I chuckled nervously as I turned and started down the path, leaving the body in the middle of it.

I had finally made it to the edge of the Everfree and, even with the sun out, the inside was unnaturally dark. I guess it would make sense that a vampire would live here, literally no sunlight was visible when you look in from the outside. I was feeling some of my fear getting the best of me at the edge of my mind, but I pushed it aside; I had a goal that needed to be completed.

I pushed inward into the Everfree and the darkness instantly consumed me, my sight leaving me completely for a few seconds until my eyes adapted to the pitch black. I could somewhat make out the path on the ground, though I would probably have to give my eyes more time to adapt before I could start seeing more detail, but since my trip would be rather linear, I wouldn't need that many details anyway.

'Well, as long as I don't come to a fork in the road.' I added mentally.

It had been about twenty minutes into the forest that I started to hear a variety of sounds, though they might have been from the forest, I had the idea that they weren't. It might have just been the paranoia, but I was starting to think that there were others in the forest. Even though my father had told me about this, it was different when you started to experience it for yourself. After awhile I grew curious; I wanted to know what was making these abnormal sounds. They weren't natural sounds, they were sounds that resembled something being loaded, sounds of both metallic and wooden origin.

I turned to where I thought I heard the sound come from, the lack of vision helping somewhat, and it led me to a small pile of brush just off the side of the path I was traveling on. I approached it slowly, doing my best to examine the pile of sticks and leaves, in the darkness. As I approached the pile, I noticed it looked pony made, as if they put them there to throw others off, I began to move the sticks aside and eventually found another path behind the brush.

I was curious about the path, the one I was currently on hadn't given me anything in the past twenty minutes until now, so I decided to follow it to see where it lead; if it was, in fact, made by another to hide the trail I might be able to get some better directions on where to find the bouncer from whomever it was.

Who knows, I might even find the bouncer down the path, and maybe even Vinyl. There was the chance it led to someone bad, but I guess there is risks in every decision. I wasn't one to dive into danger regardless, but I wasn't one to let something go easily.

After a few good minutes, I noticed something that stood out from the usual darkness of the forest.

Specifically, it was light.

I saw the slight orange glow of what resembled a fire. Two things filled within me, one was a sense of hope that I had finally found a group that would help me out in this dark forest. The other was the exact opposite, fear; a fear that I had just stumbled upon the type of ponies my father had warned me about. The could be anypony really, they could be homeless, just campers, or even vampires for all I knew.

I decided to approach the fire with caution, but I could feel a sense of excitement for some reason.

I peered around a bush and looked into what I could see was a clearing where the fire was setup. At first the light was almost blinding, but eventually my eyes adapted to the change in light once more. Once I was able to see clearly I could finally see the fire, accompanied by an assortment of camping gear. Things ranging from sleeping bags, tents, and firewood to food, drinks and cups were organized neatly; basically everything a camper would need.

Figures finally began to emerge from the tents, mares and stallions alike were moving about now. They did things such as tending the fire, others eating some of the food and drinking and sharing stories with each other. They looked like campers more than anything else.

As I examined them closer, I began to take steps forward unconsciously to get a closer and more detailed look.

A sudden sound of wood snapping shook me from my state of curiosity.

I looked down and lifted my hoof to reveal a sight that made me begin to worry; it was a broken twig.

I looked back up to see that all movement in the camp had ceased, and all eyes were looking in my general direction. It was dead silent, aside from the flickering of the fire, while they stared me down. Some of their eyes were not actually on me, but close, while others were looking directly at me. I felt my heart begin to race, I felt like a thief that had just been caught in the act.

After awhile, they seemed to lose interest and went back to their activities, though the seemed to appear much more cautions and discreet about them. The laughing had stopped entirely, the ones who were eating were now scanning the woods around them while the ones who had been carrying fire wood were now partnered up with another. It seemed like they were ready for something like this, how strange.

I let out a sigh of relief and closed my eyes.

"Gotcha." My eyes shot open and I let out a scream as I felt something lift me up from my place in the bushes.

The unknown captor, who was presumably a stallion from the sound of their voice, hefted me forwards and out of the bushes and into the camp, where all its inhabitants looked at me with differing expressions; some with curious gazes, others with a smug sneers. I felt rather embarrassed, but mostly scared for my life, I had no idea what was about to happen to me, I mean, they could kill me for all I know.

As soon as we got near the center of the camp, specifically in front of the fire pit, I was tossed onto the ground rather roughly, landing first on my rump then rolling back onto my head.

After rubbing my head a bit, I leaned upwards and looked around me.

The first I saw was the one who had caught me, a rather broad stallion with a dark blue coat and white mane, who looked at me with a condescending smirk. He turned his head to a robed unicorn, only thing visible being her light blue horn, next to him and gave a nod, though I was completely confused, the unicorn seemed to understand completely and charged a yellow light on her horn.

I barely had time to register what was happening before the yellow light was shot at me face and I felt a darkness begin to sweep over me, the last things I heard and saw being the stallion from before speak to the unicorn once more.

"Okay, do your thing and get back to me afterwards." I couldn't hear the unicorn respond, but I did hazily see a nod from the unicorn before the blackness swept over me as I slipped unconscious.

I awoke to the feeling of cold dirt beneath me, I could tell it was dirt both because of the texture, and the fact that a rock was sticking into my side. I awoke to the sight of the blazing fire in front of me, I could only assume it was the fire from earlier, prior to getting knocked out, but both of those paled to what I heard when I awoke.

I heard the sound of two voices bickering, one I recognized vaguely as the voice before I had heard before getting knocked out; the same one that belonged to whoever took me out of the bushes.

"So you mean to say that you just knocked out an innocent traveler?" Said the masculine voice; the only voice I recognized.

"Me? Oh no, you made the call, I'm not taking full blame for this!" Said a girlish voice in retort.

"I guess you're right," Said the masculine voice, the girlish one replying with a 'hmph' of victory. "As captain I guess I should take part of the blame for your mistakes."

I groggily turned over tog get a better look at them.

"What?!" Squeaked the feminine voice in return as I rolled.

I could see them more clearly now, the stallion the same one from earlier and I recognized the girlish voice came from the unicorn from earlier; The same one that had knocked me out. However, she was now devoid of the robe from earlier, revealing her light blue coat and white mane. Now looking at the two of them, they looked awfully similar to each other.

"Alright alright, I take responsibility of your bad choice of actions that, as a result of my call, have knocked out this traveler." The stallion said, eliciting a groan from the mare.

"That's as good as it's going to get, isn't it?" She deadpanned.

"Yep." He replied, earning another groan from the mare who mumbled under her breath.

"Hey look at that," He said looking at me. "Looks like she's alright."

Soon enough the mare came over to examine me as well. She looked at me for awhile before getting close to my face, too close for comfort.

"Hey you okay?" She asked with a slight sound of fear on her tone.

"Y-Yeah." I mumbled softly, taken off guard and, somewhat offended, by the sudden invasion of personal privacy.

Her expression instantly lightened upon hearing my response.

"Whew, that's a relief." She said with a happy expression.

"Filling out that kind of paperwork is a pain in the flank." She said as she backed off me.

"That it is." Agreed the stallion. "Especially when you have to do all of it." He said towards the mare.

"Sometimes I wonder how you got selected captain..." Mumbled the unicorn in response. I saw the brother ready to reply with a most likely clever response, but I decided to interrupt them.

"Um..." I began, gaining both of their attentions.

"Who are you all exactly?" I asked, taking a look around the camp, though most of the other inhabitants of the camp weren't looking at me.

"Well we could ask the same thing to you." Said the stallion as he eyed me up and down.

"Oh cut her some slack." Said the mare, glaring at her brother until her shrugged and left before turning to me.

"Well, I won't lie to you since I did knock you out," She said as she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "But I can only say this much; we are campers."

I could tell it was a lie, it was pretty obvious, though I still didn't know what their true purpose was here, but I planned to find out. In my train of thought I heard my stomach rumble loudly. I clutched my stomach before looking back up at the mare sheepishly. I hadn't had any breakfast nor dinner, so I was pretty hungry for anything.

She only chuckled lightly and turned away, making a gesture with her head for me to come with her.

She showed me to a tent, presumably hers, and let me take a seat on a sleeping bag while she went digging through a saddlebag that was set near the entrance to the tent. Out of the saddlebag she pulled a delicious looking sandwich wrapped in plastic and tossed it my way.

"It's not much, but it's food." She said with a shrug.

I was already halfway through unwrapping the sandwich when she spoke again.

"I'll be outside, feel free to take your time with that sandwich, it's not going anywhere." She said with a chuckle from how I was frantically unwrapping the plastic.

I gave her a nod as she exited the tent.

I had devoured the sandwich quickly and was left sitting down on the sleeping bag.

Now that my mind was free from the sandwich's grasp, I decided to look around her tent to see if I could find something that could give me a clue as to why and what they were doing out in the middle of the Everfree. my eyes scanned the room as I looked in a variety of places, even under the bed roll. Finally, my focus. landed on her saddlebag, and as much of an invasion of personal privacy this was, I felt like I had earned it.

I opened up the tops of the leather bag and began to move a variety of things aside. The first bag turned out uneventful; full of only a book and a few more sandwiches, but the second bag turned out much more of a find.

A strange device with a variety of straps connected to two pieces of crossed wood, forming a T shape. I noticed that each end of the T were connected with a tightly wound string. Along with the strange and foreign object, I found a familiar sight; a long black wooden bolt. The bolts looked stunningly similar to the ones at the bar, only these were much more pristine looking and visibly sharper.

'Campers huh...' I thought to myself. 'Vinyl said something about these things belonging to...'

I finally put two and two together, these ponies were hunters; vampire hunters.

We had been walking for awhile now, and I was beginning to think that the Hunters had fled. It was practical suicide to setup a camp almost next to the base of operations for most vampires, other than the ones like Vinyl who had integrated into Society. We had been traveling for about twenty minutes now since Vinyl had taken out the lone hunter and I had found absolutely no trace of any others nearby.

Eventually something stopped me, a light smell that drifted through the air. I took a few whiffs, and that's when I recognized the smell.

Smoke.

It was smoke, which meant there was fire, which meant there were ponies to tend the flame. Either they were just campers, which would just prove to be an extra snack for me, and maybe my companion, or it was the hunters, which meant that my mission was close to being completed.

I took a few more sniffs of the air to gain a more specific direction of the flame, and I eventually found it.

I grinned as I set myself in the direction, I had finally found something, and started walking with a new found energy. My 'companion' followed along at the same constant pace as before. In all honesty, this new look she had was intimidating, not in the sense that her appearance was scary, but her capabilities. From what I had seen, and I still didn't believe it, her magic was much faster and stronger, and presumably her movement was as well.

I shook her out of my head and started off towards where the camp was.

It wasn't too far before we stumbled upon the camps outskirts, the fire somewhat visible from our place in the brush. It had taken quite the skill to get this far without alerting them, having to carefully avoid all the twigs and brush was a pain, but we were here now, and the targets were close. After some inspection, I determined that they were hunters; considering that some of the ones lazing around in the camp had crossbows poorly hidden next to them.

I turned back to my 'partner' and gave her a nod.

She presumably knew what this meant, judging by the small and twisted smile that formed on her face as her horn began to charge. The now duller and darker coloration of her magic definitely made her more concealed in the dark. If this was intended by my master, I had no idea.

'Time to see what she can really do...' I thought to myself as I turned back around, the light sound of a teleportation spell going off behind me, as my own smile began to form.