Fangs

by Sapphic


Cramped Places

*~~~*~~~*~~~*...Octavia...*~~~*~~~*~~~*

"Water?"

"Check."

"Food?"

"Check."

That's how it had been going for about the past ten minutes; Shakes reading off an item, Sweeps saying either "Check" or running off and going to get something. I was amazed that they were managing to fit so much stuff into their bags, although, they did have a fairly unique way of packing their stuff. They put two moderately large sleeping bags and a tent, some water and food, and a couple other "necessities" all in one bag.

They were bringing two bags.

While they were doing all of their packing, now in the kitchen where they were arguing over what brand of cereal bars to bring, left me and Vinyl sitting together in the living room. She sat on the couch while I sat in a reclining chair. I could tell she was still feeling doubtful, just her appearance and current demeanor said that much about her. Maybe I should try and help ease her.

"Don't worry Vinyl," I said, trying to brighten her up.

She didn't respond, she just kept on sitting there silently. Her head was bent down and resting in her hooves just enough so her hair fell down and covered most her face, that, plus her sunglasses, made most of her face impossible to see.

"I'm sure we'll be fine." I tried, in another desperate attempt to lighten her up.

I shrunk back down after getting silence as my response, leaning back into the couch and sighing. I didn't know how or why this one little thing was getting her so upset to the point where she wouldn't even respond to me. It must have really gotten under her skin.

I decided to listen to the two sisters in the mean time, at least they would talk, even if it wasn't to me.

"Beans?" A voice, that I recognized as Sweeps's, say, though it came out as more of a question than a statement.

"Why would we need beans?" Shakes replied, making Sweeps sound a bit dumb.

"I dunno, just thought we might need beans." I heard Sweeps say back, I imagined her shrugging when she said it.

"Look, why don't we ask the two who's ideas it was to go in the first place?" Shakes said, confusing me a bit with how she worded it, but I got what she meant.

I heard the sound of hooves on marble come clacking closer until the suddenly fell silent as they hit carpet. I turned to see the two walking in, smiling to both me and the unresponsive Vinyl.

"Hey, so do you two want to bring beans?" Sweeps asked, sounding quite serious about it, but her sister butted in with a huff.

"Never mind the beans." She said, giving her sister a playful nudge.

"What would you two like to bring food wise?" She asked, looking at me until I gave them a shrug, and then to Vinyl who remained hunched over.

"Vinyl?" Shakes asked, raising a brow before trotting over to the unresponsive mare.

She arrived in front of her, still no response voiced. Shakes looked a bit confused for a second, and then leaned in close to the top of Vinyl's head and waiting there for a second. I was about to tell her about how she was roughed up by the prospect of us tagging along, but Shakes reeled back with a deadpan expression that stopped me.

She raised a single hoof, letting it linger there for a moment, before bringing it down in a side sweeping motion centered right at Vinyl's hooves. The hit made full contact, knocking Vinyl's hooves right out from under her head.

Without any support to hold it up, Vinyl's head came crashing down.

"Huh?" She snorted, catching her head about halfway down the fall, jerking her head slightly as she bolted upright, eye wide and glasses askew.

"You can sleep after we get in the forest!" Shakes glared, making Vinyl recoil sheepishly.

I sighed a mental sigh of relief at the sight. At least she wasn't just ignoring me because she was bent out of shape, she was ignoring me because she was asleep.

"Wha?" Vinyl stammered, clearly confused about what was going on.

I stifled a giggle.

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

"So you're sure you can carry them?" Shakes asked for the second or third time.

We had come to a hiccup in our plan; the size and weight of the bags was too much for me to carry, and Shakes and Sweeps couldn't do it thanks to the state they were in. We were ready to call it quits until Vinyl opted to carry both. Of course, we were all a bit reluctant at the idea, I mean, the bags were packed to their max, and they weighed a lot, I can tell you that much.

It felt like carrying a giant rock, and I was only carrying one when I tried, and now Vinyl was offering to carry both.

"Shakes, stop worrying, I can carry them." Vinyl huffed in a bit of annoyance as she stood with both of the duffel bags hanging from each side of her.

I, for one, thought she was up to it. She seemed to be handling herself quite well right now, she even did a little test trot around the house and came back with out a single problem.

"Even if I couldn't, I could just use my magic." Well played Vinyl, well played.

Shakes backed down after that, finally accepting that Vinyl could carry the two bloated bags for the long journey that would take a couple of hours at most.

"Alright..."

I took a quick peak outside, looking at the orange tinged sky that showed me that there was still a few more hours of sunlight left before Vinyl would be able to go outside without suffering, and since she was arguably the most important member of the group, we were going to play the cards in her favor.

"It's still light out." I spoke up, getting all their heads turning towards me. This was one of the few times I had spoke in my time being here since most of my time I had spent in the living room with Vinyl, who had only been woken up a few minutes ago.

"True." Sweeps said as she began to help Vinyl unhook the bags from her sides, letting them drop to the ground with a loud thud, reminding us all of their weight.

"Well, that means we got a few hours to kill, so who's up for a game of cards?" Shakes butted in as she pulled a deck of cards from seemingly nowhere, a giddy smile forming on her face.

*~~~*~~~*~~~*...Bigs...*~~~*~~~*~~~*

The first thing I felt was a throbbing pain in my head, pulses riding through my skull and down my neck until my body began. The next thing I felt was the rough texture of dead leaves and dirt that pressed against my face. I lifted a single hoof at first, it was all I could muster at the time, and pushed hard enough to roll myself over onto my back. I was breathing hard for some reason, I didn't know why, but most of my focus remained on the pain in my head.

I remembered being lifted up, a pair of red eyes, and then pain. Pure, gut wrenching, pain.

I remembered going after Vinyl for the sake of many others, and all I got was probably a concussion. Why do I always get hurt for trying to do what I think is right?

'Probably because my definition of good is probably the definition of evil to others.' My head thought through it's cloud of agony, answering my own question for me.

The third, and last, thing I noticed was my surroundings: dark woods where the canopy was thick enough to block off any view of the sky, equally dark colored dirt that became lighter in some instances where a trail had been worn in. Even the occasional bush that held a pair of eyes looking back at you. I knew where I was.

'Back in the forest.' I though as I let out a big sigh.

I finally mustered up the strength to take both of my hooves and push myself up right into a sitting position. My head gave a pulsing pain of protest as I did it, but I only paused for a second before I kept pushing. I felt the blood run from my head back down to the rest of my body in a quake of pain, that was soon followed by a flush of relief.

That seemed to do the trick for my head, clearing it up enough so that I realized that I had failed in bringing back my target, and letting me realize the consequence that would follow. It would only be a matter of time before my master sent out his scout to scour the city in a search for Vinyl.

I rubbed my hooves against my temples to try and sooth the headache that was building.

A sudden crack coming from behind me caught my attention, but it wasn't enough to put the effort into turning around to see what it was.

The cracking persisted, growing louder and closer until even some voices came into play. That was enough to get my attention, my neck turning on a whim just enough so that my peripheral vision was able to look in the general direction of the sound.

"Yeah, I saw the flash come from over here." One voice said, I didn't recognize it but I had one of two guesses in my mind.

One: A vampire hunter.

Two: One of my master's soldiers.

The cracking stopped, now it was a crunching sound. Probably coming from them stepping on the dead leaves that covered the forest floor. I turned away, best not to spoil the surprise.

I could tell they were close now.

"Look rookie, you can't just go off making false calls like this and not have any actual evidence except for a flash." I heard a deeper voice say, this one I recognized vaguely, but their name escapes me with my current situation.

"I swear, someone is out he-Hey look!" I heard the first voice say. They must have spotted me.

I heard the sound of a quickened pace, the dried leaves crunching so fast that they sounded like a maraca. They grew close until the last crunch landed a few mere inches behind me.

"Here!" The higher, cheerful, feminine sounding voice spoke. I still didn't recognize it.

"Well I'll be...Captain Bigs?" The deeper voice said, uncertainty clear in his tone.

There's the answer.

I turned, finding two dark faces, each looking at me with wide eyes and one with a glowing smile.

"It's a miracle that we found you," The stallion began.

"The master has been getting all worked up over you and that mare that you set out with." Good to hear that he mentioned me.

"He even sent out a couple squads to search the forest for her...You wouldn't happen to know where she is, would you?" He asked, but I shook my head.

'I knew he would get antsy and do this. It's only a matter of time before he tells them to go inside the city to check.' I thought.

I let out a deep sigh just before I raised myself up off the ground, the earthquake of a headache doing a good job at making it as uncomfortable as possible. I nearly fell back down, but the peppy young mare and focused stallion managed to catch me, helping me up and offering to carry me.

But I refused, I still had some dignity.

"Oh boy..." Was all I could muster, a aching pain riding on every syllable, but it was all that needed to be said. It displayed my thoughts, and my mood, exactly.

*~~~*~~~*~~~*...Octavia...*~~~*~~~*~~~*

"Is it dark enough yet?" Shakes asked rather feverishly, her eyes flicking across the cards she held with a nervous expression. She had been playing cards, and apparently thought she had an unbeatable strategy, thus her mischievous demeanor not too long ago, but it turned out it wasn't.

Vinyl sat lazily on the other end of the table, a innocent looking smile gracing her face as she didn't even bother looking at her cards. This was her third time playing, and judging from the state Shakes is in, her third time winning.

Sweeps and I decided not to play, me for not knowing exactly how to play, and Sweeps for "the competitive attitude her sister had."

"I believe so." I said, getting an affirmative nod from Sweeps. Suddenly Shakes jumped.

"Ha!" She said slapping down five cards.

"Straight flush!" She said, looking at Vinyl for anything.

Vinyl looked over her cards carefully before she looked back up and shrugged, a sheepish smile crossing her lips.

"I knew I would win!" She boasted as she walked away, head held high as she headed towards the bags while me and Sweeps went over to Vinyl. Sweeps first looked at Vinyl's cards before looking back at her, at first with confusion, but then with a knowing smile.

"I knew you had a royal flush." She said with her smile. Vinyl only shrugged.

"Figured I'd let her end on a high note." She said, turning and heading out of the room and out the door Shakes left.

I guess it was time to go.

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

Even though the sun hadn't set completely, I could already feel the brisk air of the night. A wind gusted at us, blowing my man back and letting it settle back down roughly, making me look rather rugged. I scrambled to fix it, but the wind decided to play games with me, and picked up again. I could do little more than hold down my mane and try and brace it from the mild wind.

I heard a laugh, Vinyl's laugh.

I turned around to see her walking forwards on all four hooves, smile shining, and letting the wind blow her hair back without a care about it. Shakes and Sweeps seemed to be taking my approach to the situation, one of their front hooves held up in front of either their eyes or their manes.

We walked on for about thirty minutes, making it out of the gates and partially down a trail as we headed for the forest that seemed to spark a few tensions, answer a few questions, and raise even more. The wind was relentless, a constant stream of it always coming from a different direction that switched every few minutes.

That's when a genius idea struck me.

"Vinyl, couldn't you just teleport us?" I said, making sure to be loud enough to be understandable over the winds. She turned, hearing my question, and voiced her answer.

"I could, but it wouldn't take us all the way since I would be teleporting the four of you and these two heavy bags." She half yelled.

"It would also nearly drain her of magic." Sweeps added in from behind me.

I turned my head forwards, blinking my eyes every few seconds thanks to the wind blowing into my eyes and drying them up. I managed to see, through the eye harming gusts of wind, the edge of the forest, but at the pace we were moving, it would be at least an hour.

"Something wrong with your eyes?" I heard a smug, distinct, voice say to me over the wind.

Vinyl was looking back at me, her mane blowing freely as she stared at me with a irritatingly smug smile. I glared at her as best I could, but the wind proved to much, and I had to clench them shut. The wind was blowing hard enough to begin to sting my eyes whenever I opened them, so I kept them shut.

Suddenly, the wind stopped blowing on my eyes.

I opened my eyes to see that the world was now coated with a purple tint, along with Vinyl who was now missing her sunglasses. Her smile had changed too. Where it had previously been a smug smile, it was now a genuinely caring smile. She didn't say a word, and just turned back around.

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

The trip was long and uneventful, boring for the most part, but it was better than it would have been if Vinyl hadn't lent me her sunglasses. I'm pretty sure my eyes would be shriveled up and dried out if she hadn't.

But now we were here, just inside the edge of the forest, and out of the violent assault of the wind. I could barely register anything thanks to Vinyl's sunglasses, so I took them off, thanked her, and gave them back.

"Any time." She said piped as she placed them back on her, briefly raising a question in my mind of whether she could see with them on, but I've learned not to question things about Vinyl, her vision being one of them since it made positivity no sense how she could see in the dark so well. Probably her being a vampire and all, but who knows.

Shakes hoped right to it.

"Alright," She began as she started scanning the surroundings. "so where are we setting up the tents?"

"Wanna follow the trail a bit and see if any place looks good enough?" Sweeps suggested. Shakes nodded.

I, on the other hoof, think we should set up as close to the exit as possible, but Shakes was supposedly "the expert" at this, so I didn't protest.

I sprung an idea.

"What if we took that spot from last time?" I suggested, remembering the location where the hunters had set up before. They all looked at me with risen brows.

"You know? It was that place you got me from last time Shakes." I saw the gears begin to churn in her head.

"Oh yeah, but why would we camp there?" She asked.

"Because the vampires think that no one else is there." Vinyl butted in.

"That's the reason I was sent there in the first place, they assigned me and Bigs to clear them out, so they have reason to believe that no one would be there." She said sagely.

Shakes took it all in and shrugged, her answer being a simple "If you say so."

We set off on the trail, Shakes taking the lead, followed by Sweeps and Vinyl, then me taking up the back, but after awhile, the positions had slowly drifted farther apart. Vinyl had sunk behind, closer to me while Shakes and Sweeps stayed together about two meters in front of us.

I have to say, forests are absolutely terrifying at night, or at any time of the day in general if it's this forest. The leaves crunched beneath your hooves, shadows seemed to jump from place to place and play games with your mind. The occasional sound of a woodland creature, ranging from hoots to other sounds I didn't even know, wasn't helpful either. I'm not sure if it was just me, but I had the feeling someone was watching us.

A sudden pain shot up my left hoof.

I nearly yelped, but I managed to muffle it by biting my lip. I paused in my walking, taking a second to lift up my left hoof and see what had happened.

A large splinter sat deeply in my hoof, the edge of it now colored a burgundy, dark brow thanks to the blood the rimmed at the edge of it. I brought the hoof up to my mouth and yanked the splinter out, the sudden relief of pressure making me nearly sigh in content.

It was strange though, I was pretty sure there wasn't a shard of wood of this caliber sticking out of the ground just a second ago. I mean, I know it's dark, but I could still see in front of me pretty well, up to the point where I could still make out most of Vinyl, but something felt wrong here.

"Everything okay back there Tavi?" I heard Vinyl call.

I looked up and nodded quickly, planting my hoof into the ground and working through the pain.

The sound of rustling leaves caught both of our attentions, Vinyl's head turned to the side of her just in time to see a black figure shoot out of the bushes and tackle her.

"Vinyl!" I shouted, getting the attention of Shakes, Sweeps, and our unexpected visitor who looked up and flashed his fangs at me, letting out a wild hiss as he straddled Vinyl, effectively pinning her. He, or she, turned back down to Vinyl and bit down ferociously, then pulled back out, making a horrifying ripping sound that left me stunned and standing stock still.

"Get off!" I heard Vinyl yell as a bright, florescent blue, light began to illuminate the area. Shooting off at the stranger as soon as if began to become near white in coloration.

A howl rang out as they were flung off and back to the edge of the trail. They were quick to jump up and run back into the woods, smoke trailing behind them. That was enough to shake me, and apparently Shakes and Sweeps, from our stunned state and rush over to Vinyl to check if she was fine.

Shakes helped her up, taking a quick look to see if she had any injuries that need any attention.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine, but he managed to tear into the bag." She said, turning to the side to let us inspect the damage. Shakes poked her hoof around, looking too see if anything had been significantly damaged, and it turns out something had.

"Well, they tore clean through two of the sleeping bags, but let's not focus on that now. First, let's get to that camping spot and set up camp." She said, turning around after asking Vinyl if she was sure she was fine.

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

We got to the camp ground in one piece and undisturbed, no one else popping out of the bushes and nearly tearing us limb from limb. I was happy about that much, but the pain in my hoof had grown in our short trap. Thankfully, I stayed in the back of the group so they didn't notice me keeping my one hoof up off the ground.

The blood had began to pool, and I wasn't wiping it off on the ground and risking an infection, so I did what most do, and popped it into my mouth and sucked on it. The metallic taste was rather gross, especially the warmth that trickled down my throat afterwards, but it would make sure that the blood wouldn't crust over the cut.

The same cut limited me from helping set up the tents and such, but they didn't seem to notice nor mind that I wasn't helping out. Plus, it seemed like Vinyl and Sweeps were setting up the camp too quickly with their combined magic for me to be of any significant help, so I decided to sit myself on a tree stump and wait.

Before I knew it, the tents were set up, a small fire not big enough to attract attention was going, and we were all sitting an some logs that Shakes and Vinyl had drug close to the fire.

We had a dilemma about the whole loss of the sleeping bags, but we had a solution.

"Well, we either sleep in pairs, or two of us have to sleep on the dirt, and I'm not sleeping on the ground." Shakes said, crossing her hooves.

"Yeah, I'm not that much of a dirt type of person." Sweeps said after.

"We don't mind splitting a sleeping bag, we've done it before, so that leaves you two." Shakes said, waggling an eyebrow that got a slight blush to spark across my cheeks.

"You want the bag? I don't mind sleeping on the dirt." Vinyl said, but as kind of an offer it was, I wasn't letting her sleep on the ground. Not after what had happened before.

"No. We're sharing." I said firmly. Firmly enough that it took her back a bit, and got a giggle out of Shakes.

I realized what I had said, and how weird it might have sounded, but it was too late to go back; Shakes was already yawning intentionally and asking Sweeps if it was getting late.

Sweeps, seeing what her sister was doing and deciding to go along with it, yawned as well and nodded with Shakes in agreement. Shakes was quick to toss her bedroll to Sweeps and tell her to go set it up, whispering something into her ear about "I got this" and walking merrily over to me and Vinyl, other bedroll in hoof.

"Well, we're gonna get some sleep. you two love birds don't make too much noise now." She said with her joking, smug, and annoying smile.

I was going to respond, but the burning in my cheeks must have distracted me, since I felt like I was about to choke. My throat was swelling, maybe it was the blood from my hoof, but a sudden voice got my attention.

"You seem awfully interested in us Shakes, you sure you don't want to get in? I'm sure that this old sleeping bag can fit three." Vinyl teased.

Although it did nothing but make my blush brighter, I saw that it took Shakes completely off guard, it even caused her to begin to stammering, and eventually just turn around in leave. Vinyl's smile visibly widened when she put a hoof around my shoulder and piloted me to the tent.

"Just keep walking, it makes us look like we won." She whispered into my ear, leaning just a bit too close and tickling it a bit.

She held open the tent and let me walk under, but before she closed it, she turned around and caught a glimpse at Shakes looking back at us. I saw her eye move, and I could only assume she was winking at her. She turned back around and let the tent flap close as she started setting out the bed roll.

She had the idea that we would each get half the bed roll, and set it up so we could each lay our heads while our hind ends would hang off the end of the roll. She also said we could just sleep in it normally, but we would get "extra close" if we did. Not that I mind, but those comments from Shakes had me shaken just a bit, so I went with her first idea. She looked a bit crest fallen when I said so.

Once we had settled into our spots, I tried to get right too sleep, but the thought from earlier, the thought that it was Vinyl that had been ripped apart instead of that bag, it kept me awake. I kept thinking what we would do, what I would do, if that happened, and let's just say the scenarios weren't pleasant.

I laid there for what seemed like an hour, my eyes awake as they stared at the orange interior of the small tent, the occasional tickle from Vinyl's hair giving me a break from the boring.

"Can't sleep?" I voice asked. I knew it was Vinyl, and I knew the answer.

"No."

"Well," I heard, and felt, her begin to rustle and adjust her position in the bed roll, encouraging me to look.

She was now sitting on her haunches, purple shades reflecting the orange glow that the fire that burned on outside gave the tent walls, and a small smile curling at the ends of her lips.

"Wanna pass the time?" She asked, sounding hopeful.

"Like how?" I asked, curious by what she meant, as I began to turn myself around to sit upright as well.

"Well, I was thinking about how much I still don't know about you, so I figured we could ask each other some questions to get to know each other a bit better." She said happily.

Well, it would be beneficial for the both of us to get some information on each other, especially for me, so I agreed. Who knows what I could learn?

"Okay." I shrugged.

"Alright, but I go first and we have to take turns." She said. I nodded to her terms and braced for the first question.

"What's your favorite color?" She asked, both innocently and seriously.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, I've been wondering for awhile ever since you asked me mine and I told you, but you never told me what yours was." She said, sounding truthful enough, so I answered.

"Pink," If all the questions are going to be like this, she might not learn anything important. Although, this could have been her way of easing into the questions, but I wasn't sure. Maybe she just wanted to know what my favorite color was.

"Now it's my turn." I said, thinking of the question nearly on the spot. I had many to ask after all.

"When was it that you became a vampire?" I asked. It had been bugging me for the longest time now, and maybe now I would hear an answer.

I could have swore she stiffened the second the question left me lips, but she put a hood up to her chin, tapping it idly and making a humming sound.

"Well...I can't really recall..." She hummed.

"You would expect something like that to stick out, but...it just doesn't." She said, not exactly a proper answer, but an answer none the less. Though, I had the strangest feeling that wasn't the truth, but I decided to drop it for now. I still had many questions, but for now, it was her turn.

"Why did you-" She paused, a strange look crossing her face while she took a quick inhale through her nose. She sniffed once or twice more before facing me.

"Do...Do you smell something?" She asked. Her tone made it sound important, but when I sniffed the air myself, I couldn't smell a thing.

"No, I don't...do you?" I asked, curious what it was she smelt.

"I'm sure it's nothing." She said, clearly still sniffing, but coming back to our little questioning game.

"Anyways," She said, visibly trying to disregard the smell, but also visibly failing

"Why was it that you came to our bar in the first place?" She asked, her nose twitching few seconds, but I thought nothing of it.

"Well," I was a bit reluctant to tell her everything, so I decided to dumb it down a bit, but still make it believable.

"I was at the local theater, when a song that was playing reminded me of someone close that had..." I felt my throat start to swell up at the thought of my grandmother, but I pressed on.

"Passed, the bar was nearby so I decided to try and drink it away." I finished just as a tear started to form, I wiped it away instinctively with my left hoof.

"Oh." Was all that Vinyl said.

I looked up to see her breathing a bit heavier than normal, but I blamed it on the lack of ventilation, as well as the sweat forming on her brow.

"My turn." I said, happy to learn more about her.

Our questions went on and on for a long while, she told me many useful, interesting, and odd things about herself and I told her a few "interesting" things about myself. For example, Vinyl doesn't really know much about Vampires or what they do, she said that they just have "Instincts" that kick in whenever they need to. She also said that Vampires can be easily persuaded, if persuaded properly, when they are like this.

Probably the most interesting thing that she told me about was about her self. She, apparently, has lived for quite some time, long enough to forget about nearly all the things that happened in her entire foal-hood. I asked her how the whole "Eternal life" thing works, and she said that she thinks that you stop aging the day that the effects of the bite completes.

Additionally, she brought up that bites have different effects, when I asked what she meant, she said that a vampire have different types of bites. One was a regular bite, nothing special about it. Another was a toxin, the one that she had bitten me with once. And the last was the infectious, the type that is used to spread Vampirism. She said that only a select few have the infectious bite, thus the miniscule population of Vampires

I was beginning to notice some things about her over our time talking. She was beginning to get fidgety, constantly moving her legs or twitching her ears, things like that. She was also sweating more than before, giving her a near shiny look. That's when she decided to take the questions game to the next level.

"It's your turn Vinyl." I said. I had begun to start telling her when it was her turn, mainly because after she answered one of my questions, she would just sit there and look at me for a few seconds until I brought something up.

"Oh, sorry Tavi." She said in a breathy voice.

"You seem a bit distracted Vinyl, is something wrong?" I asked with care.

"I was just thinking about what to ask." She said, her claim sounding like a lie.

"Like?" I asked, playing along.

"Do you remember when you kissed me? After that piano competition or whatever it was?" She asked, getting a blush out of me.

"Y-yeah." I spoke softly, remembering my actions as I averted my gaze to the ground below me.

"Did you like it?" She asked in voice that sent shivers down my spine.

I was at a lack of words at her question, which gave her the perfect opportunity to start moving without my knowing as I stared at the ground, looking for the answer. I was sure I loved it, but I guess the words didn't come out as easy as I thought about them.

I felt a pair of hooves on my shoulder, and a weight behind them that pushed hard enough to send me onto my back. They were gentle, making sure not to hurt me when they laid me back, but they still caught me off guard.

"W-Wha?" I stammered in shock, looking up to see a sea of purple looking down on me.

"Shhhh." She hushed me as she leaned into my body, gently lying herself down on top of me, making sure not to put too much weight on me to make uncomfortable.

"Vinyl, what are you-?" I asked, finally finding my voice just as she placed a hoof over my lips.

"I said hush." She said, her voice motherly as she smiled at me

"I knew I smelt something." She said, her hoof sliding across my body and over to my hoof.

I stiffened as all the pieces fell together in my mind.

I pushed up on her lightly and she didn't resist, letting her body raise up off of me until she was in full view. I picked up my other, uninjured, hoof and brought it over to her glasses. I picked them off slowly, letting the sight of her beautiful scarlet come into view dramatically. But the one thing that made this sight bittersweet was the at the center of the beauty.

Dilated pupils sat in the center of the sea of red, confirming my fears.

She smiled at my realizations, not even bothering to try and stop me since she was already too close to care about me getting away. If I tried to run, she could simply push down and overpower me.

She had me right where she wanted me.

"Awww, don't look at me like that." She cooed at my expression, which must have expressed my thoughts perfectly, as she picked up my hoof. She brought it up to her lips, taking her time to cherish the smell of my blood.

"Don't worry, this won't hurt too much." She said just before she finally took the first taste of my hoof, her tongue tracing the blood and sending me small tingles of pain and making me yelp a little.

It went on for a few seconds until she finally let off, my hoof completely cleaned of blood and her letting out a satisfactory hum. She turned back down to me smiling, a small dribble of blood falling from her mouth, but her tongue was quick to catch it. She looked at me and giggled, presumably at my expression, and opened her mouth to let out another comment, but something stopped her.

She tilted her head back and sniffed the air once again, even closing her eyes to try and get a better direction of the smell. Her head turned down towards me and moved forwards until it was only but a few inches away, then stopped. Her eyes opened and her smile curled higher than ever, which got me even more scared of what would come next.

"Oh I'm going to love this." She said as she leaned in, her mouth lined up with my own. My eye widened as I realized her intentions, but it was too late to stop her.

Her soft lips pushed into mine, making me let out a moan that was muffled by her mouth. This only seemed to fuel her as she began to kiss more passionately, her tongue snaking past my own lips and making me let out a shocked yelp. I felt her lips curl up once more as she held the kiss.

Finally, she broke the kiss, slowly lifting her lips from my own, a thin string of red tinted saliva hanging between us. Her face was one with a clouded judgment with her eyes half lidded, and that toothy smile that was always there. She sat there and stared deep into my eyes for a few seconds before leaning back down and nuzzling into my chest, letting out a content sigh once she seemed to find a comfortable spot to lay.

"You didn't struggle this time." She said, my eyes going that slightest bit wide with revelation as the words left her lips.

She was right, I didn't resist, or even think about it for that matter. She didn't even push down on me hard enough to stop me from moving, I had the choice of getting away, but I didn't.

"I think I found the answer to my question Tavi." She said mockingly, letting out a little laugh after she finished speaking, but that wasn't even the end of her mocking.

"It's your turn...Tavi." She said, a final mock for our game that had turned into something else.

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