Fangs

by Sapphic

Manipulation

"Come on...just a little harder..." I said in a whisper of concentration and strain as a pulled hard on a small brick that stuck the slightest bit out of a wall, my hind hooves now up on the wall to provide additional strength.

That was how desperate my search had become; down to devoting nearly all my strength to pulling on brick that was just barely sticking out of the wall in the hopes that, by some stroke of luck, it just so happens to be a secret exit. I had checked everywhere at least twice, and some places around five times, thoroughly, yet all my attempts came up empty with the exception of stubbing the occasional hoof. Not only that, but I also had to be wary of the still sleeping Bigs in the other room not but a couple dozen feet away.

A sudden pain swelled in my chest and I let go of the brick instinctively, falling down onto the stone floor and landing on my back hard enough to knock the wind out of me for a few seconds. Fortunately, I could only let out a silent grunt of pain thanks to the same fall and lack of breath.

I moved my hooves up to my chest and held it until the pain slowly died down and I could move once more.

As I got up, however, my hoof clipped on something, which caused my to fall back down once more, this time on my stomach, and that didn't fell to good. I let out another groan of pain, this one being a lot louder than the last breathless one.

I pushed my body over and let out a pained sigh, picking my self up once more and not moving at the fear of tripping again while I scanned the ground for the source of me falling in the first place.

There, a slightly bulging lump forming on the thin carpet that covered the floor.

I leaned a little bit to inspect the lump, but ended up grabbing the edges of the carpet and pulling the whole thing off just to get a better idea of what exactly it was.

What I found made my heart flutter a little.

A small iron loop, connected to a hinge that was hooked onto a small square door made of wood. I moved a hoof up to the loop and grabbed it, rearing back and pulling in an aggressive way that did nothing but make my shoulder hurt. I gave it a few more tugs, but only got the same result from the aged door.

I gave out one more annoyed sigh before plopping down onto my haunches, my head hanging low and my eyes wandering.

A large, black spear came into view, and an idea popped into my head as well as a smile of renewed effort creeped its way across my face.

The door flung open with a loud, metallic sound; the sound of a rusty piece of metal grinding against another before giving out and popping painfully open. My head swiveled over to the door way to see if I had woken anyone, but after a few seconds of silence, I turned back to my prize. I took some time to set the black spear gently onto the ground before actually getting to my reward, but I was anxious to get to it none the less.

My head peeked over the edge of the hole in the ground, peering down into a nasty looking fall downwards into nothing but pure darkness. I then moved my tongue around in my mouth before spitting out a gob of spit into the hole, quickly readjusting my ear close to it and waiting for sound of the distinct sound of my saliva hitting a surface of some sort.

...

It finally hit, about five seconds if I had to guess, which was a pretty long drop if you asked me. Luckily, there was a ladder that led downwards into the darkness; a rusted, dangerous, unstable, and untrustworthy looking ladder.

Perfect.

I was already mentally prepared to go down the hole after a minute of self encouragement, but an image out of the corner of my eyes stopped my just before I hopped onto the ladder and started my decent.

The weapons.

"Well I can't just leave all of you here could I?" I spoke to myself, trotting over to the racks and plucking the occasional off until I had about three set out in front of me.

The next thing I searched for was something to carry the weapons, and I knew that most barracks and armories had some form of way to transport or hold weapons for anyone needing to do so. I took a quick search and found a few straps and holsters, taking a couple extra minutes to strap them on myself and place the weapons inside securely. I turned back to the hole, feeling a bit more confident about venturing down the hole that might not even be a secret exit to begin with, but I felt better going down inside a deep, menacing hole regardless with a dagger, short spear, and small sword with me.

I put my hind hoof on the first step of the ladder, hearing the rusty metal groan under the weight it wasn't use to having on it, and probably hadn't had on it for who knows how long. The way the rust looked it could have been a few years or decades even. I put my other hoof down and felt the groaning increase, but I pressed on and kept taking steps down until only my neck was still outside of the hole. I then reached my hoof around and pulled the trap door shut; better to have it closed than wide open, though I suppose the carpet would still be pulled up, but I guess better that than nothing.

I pulled the trap door over and took a few steps down the ladder to close it firmly, letting my weight do most the work on closing the old door. As soon as the door shut, the light ceased to exist inside the small hole leading downwards, making a claustrophobic feeling swell inside my head. But I pushed on and began my decent downwards, taking my time in placing my hoof firmly on the next step on the ladder to minimize my chances of falling.

I was stock still; I had the feeling that someone was hovering near my bed, which was making my body seize up. You learn how to tell when these types of things after you stay in the barracks for awhile. Well, it was that, and the fact that I heard the door shut and no one getting angry at me for sleeping on the job; they always get mad at me for sleeping on the job, and if it's not one of my superiors, then its an underling, and they will tell me the consequences.

Every time.

Which is why I seized up, the fact that I heard someone enter, come down the steps, pause, try and sneak into the armory, and then try to sneak back over to me before pausing over my bedside was something that tends to take someone aback.

"For Vinyl..." They whispered.

I recognized the voice immediately as Shakes, but I almost doubted it. Why would she be here in the castle? I deduced that if she was here, then Vinyl would be too. But if she is in here, in the barracks, and hovering over me, then she was probably intent on killing me. I was prepared to react, but the sound of her picking up that picture I had at my bedside stopped me.

I hesitated.

'What is she doing with that old thing?' I asked myself.

I heard the picture set back down and the sound of another attempt at sneaking out of the room and into the armory, then, a bunch of rustling and moving.

It went on for a long time, exactly how long I wasn't sure, but it was long enough to start and give me a cramp from staying so still. It sounded like she were turning over the entirety of the room. She was even speaking to herself during the time, but eventually she stopped moving after a big thump. I assumed she had fell.

It was silent, and then another thump.

'Really? Again?' I deadpanned in my head.

There was some then some struggling and the sound of something being ripped open, judging by the sound of that rusty grinding, it was that old door we had that led down to the waterways. There was lingering and then the sound of a couple clacks of metal, and eventually the sound of the hatch being slammed back down onto the ground.

I was up in an instant, moving towards the armor to see that she had thrown the rug off the floor and had left the hatch slightly cracked up; the rust that had build along its frame stopping it from closing completely.

I wasn't entirely sure what to think of it, or whether I should help her like a certain feeling in my gut and head were telling me, or stick to my loyalty and expose her, and possibly her friends, to my master. It was a conflict that raged for awhile in my head, but regardless of what the answer was, I had one thing on my mind right now.

I moved to the hatch and pressed my front hooves, pushing down hard and hearing the rust grind before giving way and ramming into place.

'That should give her a bit of a scare.' I thought, chuckling a bit at the image of her scrambling and nearly falling off the ladder. She always had gotten the slightest but jumpy in tight spaces. But who doesn't? Especially dark ones.

I moved over and grabbed the rug, pulling it back over the hatch and making sure to pat out any lumps to make it look as though no one had even touched, or been anywhere near, the exit.

"Good luck Shakes," I whispered, "you're gonna need it if you plan to try and do what I think you are."

The hole led down to a place that was hot and hard to breath in, the only source of air being a few grates every dozen feet or so, which also doubled as a light source. The place I landed in was just a long corridor-like hallway with river thing full of flowing water that was placed down the dead middle of the two stone paths on each side.

Basically, it looked like a sewer, which would explain the hard to breath atmosphere. But it lacked the smell of the sewer; the air in here was only hot and stuffy instead of disgusting.

I heard a loud bang come from up above and my head jolted upwards to check for any sign of light, or anyone coming down.

Fortunately, there wasn't any, but the loud bang kept me a little on edge.

'Best not to think about it too much.' I thought, readjusting my focus to the path ahead of me.

There was only two ways to go: forwards, and back. There was a little debate in my head, but I remembered some common sense that helped me decide. Water flows down stream, and most sewers, or sewer like things, lead the water to an exit. So by that logic, if I follow the water, I'll get to the exit.

I reached up and gave my head a pat.

"Good job brain." I whispered, starting a slow creep forwards in my search of an exit.

"Vinyl, for the love of Celestia, please stop pacing." I asked the Vinyl with a hint of annoyance in my tone.

She had been walking around a distressed trail in the ground ever since Octavia and my sister left. Of course, she didn't respond, she just kept walking her small oval like trail into the ground with a look on her face that makes the expression 'worried beyond belief' look like an understatement. Her restlessness raised a few suspicions on my half, the main one being what was running through her head. I was pretty sure it was how badly her little marefriend could get hurt, and maybe even my sister too.

"Would you at least answer me?" I asked in desperation to get some form of reaction out of her.

Of course, she didn't. She hadn't the last few pleas either, so why should she now?

I let out a huff and turned away, intent on leaving myself to my own thoughts and letting Vinyl tend to hers.

Minutes went by and nothing but the sound of Vinyl's pacing filled the air as she continued to trot back and forth feverishly. My nerves were nearing their edges from the continual sound of shuffling dirt when suddenly, it stopped.

That was enough to make my head turn, only to see Vinyl standing stock still with her head raised up. Her ears were pricked up as well, even the edges of her eyes were at full attention and arching over her glasses the slightest. She had paused with her body facing towards the forest up the hill, seemingly waiting for something with a look of something like panic in her eyes.

"Vinyl?" I asked, curious about why she had stopped her pacing.

She didn't respond, only continuing to stare blankly into the treeline.

"Someones coming." She said simply, still unmoved.

"W-what?" I stuttered in disbelief.

"I can hear 'em; the sound of twigs breaking and stuff." She said, the tops of her eyes creeping back down below the tops of her glasses.

"What do we do? There's nowhere to hide." I said trying, and for the most part failing, to keep my cool.

"Well, since we can't hide, there's really only one option." She said calmly, grinding a hoof into the ground for some reason.

"Teleport?" I asked, the idea popping into my head at the same time the words left my mouth.

"What if Shakes comes back when they are walking down the hill?"

"Vinyl the odds of that happening are li-"

"Too big, I agree." She interrupted me with a smile.

'Jeez, it's like she wants to fight them or something.' I thought, but I knew that there was no convincing her when she came down to decision. It was a little thing that I saw about Vinyl that a lot of others, my sister included, failed to pick up.

She was rather stubborn. Scratch that, extremely stubborn.

"I'm guessing your plan is to stay here and fight?" I asked rhetorically, but with a small hope that she would answer 'No.'

"Yep." Of course it was. Why would I think otherwise?

The sound of snapping twigs and rustling leaves came into the range my hearing ability, which meant that they were close. Real close.

Sure enough, the curtain of leaves up at the top of the hill ripped open and let a group of about five pass through; a unicorn, two pegasi, and two earth ponies. Each one was barely armored compared to the guards from earlier, so that was a plus. But on the down side, there was five of them, and now only two of us.

Vinyl, out of the corner of my eye, plopped down on her haunches with a rather frightening smile on her face and pushed up her glasses a bit to cover her eyes more. Meanwhile, I was practically shaking as I turned back towards them. They had already made it half way down the hill, and a couple of heads were already locked dead on us. I even saw one of them lean over and tap the others on the side to point us out.

I turned back to face Vinyl again, only to see her still with her cool demeanor once more. It did a little to sooth me with how clam and confident she seemed, but I was still a bit scared regardless.

The sound of hooves drew closer, and I knew that they could only be a few dozen feet away by now. The voice that followed said hoof-steps confirmed it for me.

"How you guys doing?" I heard Vinyl ask, smiling all the way.

"And who might you two be?" A dull and scratchy voice asked, clearly curious and defensive.

I turned to face the five piercing gazes. However, one of them was bent off to the side and eying the two bodies we hadn't bothered to hide. We hadn't exactly planned on a group returning from the forest.

"Believe we got lost?" Vinyl asked, making notice of the one stray gaze.

The only response she got was four of them dropping low into a defensive posture after they followed the one stallions raised hoof.

"Didn't think so." Vinyl said sheepishly.

"Come on, let's make this easy on you two, shall we?" The lead stallion said with a cocky smile. The smile soon faded as he barely managed to jolt his head in time to avoid a lightning quick blast of neon aimed at his head. The shot, obviously, being shot from Vinyl, who was still sat on her haunches, with a smile growing across her face.

'Jeez, she must be eating this up.' I thought, and I would have rolled my eyes too, but I was to busy watching every movement the group made.

I never have been a fighter, that was Shakes's job.

"Didn't think so." He said, dropping low with his companions.

The furthest to the right of the five charged, clearly aimed towards Vinyl.

Vinyl didn't bother to move until the last second when the stallion jumped at her, all hooves leaving the ground. It was then that she simply let herself fall backwards, letting the stallion fly right over her. After that, Vinyl's haunches winded up and she let loose a wild kick to the soft under belly of the stallion that sent him up a few feet and a couple feet off to the side, his breath audibly being knocked out of him.

All of us were shocked by it, my mouth hanging slightly agape.

Slowly, like how one would imagine a vampire from their coffin, she raised back up with a little giggle that threw the mood off entirely, but that didn't make it any less scary. In fact, it probably made it a bit more frightening that she simply laughed at taking out one of them with a single kick so playfully.

"Next." She said simple, and almost enthusiastically.

The leader nodded to the others, the pegasi spreading their wings and taking to the sky while the unicorn disappeared in a flash of dim purple. The leader dug his hooves into the ground and was clearly prepared to stand his ground as his eye burned into Vinyl's glasses, which only seemed to block the intimidation his gaze.

While Vinyl presumably returned the gaze, I couldn't tell with her glasses, I turned and scanned for the unicorn that had disappeared; the two pegasi over head getting an occasional glance of caution. Despite my effort, I couldn't find her, and the sound of whistling wings drew my attention to the single pegasus dive bombing down at me from over head.

I scrambled to get out of the way, but he only readjusted their course to hit me.

Suddenly, a blue flash knocked into them with a force strong enough to knock them entirely off course and send them tumbling into the ground.

The shot, as I found out as I refocused back to the white mare, was fired by Vinyl, who had broken the gaze and was still looking up at where she had knocked the stallion out of the air.

'When did she get this type of skill?' I thought to myself, thinking back to the encounter with Bigs at the bar when she was near helpless to him.

"Now!" The voice of the leader shouted, drawing my attention back to him just in time to see a bolt of purple whiz towards Vinyl at a dizzying speed.

"Vinyl! Look out!" I tired to warn her, only to have her turn her attention around just in time to get hit firmly in the side of the face by the blast of purple which withered away upon contact.

The impact was enough to make her slide a bit on the ground, the dirt piling up around her tail as she slid before she began to drop forwards. She barely managed to catch herself with one of her hooves as she nearly crumpled over on the ground.

Taking advantage of her downed position, the remaining pegasus started an accent upwards, seeming to stall at the peak of her height before doubling back and speeding down at Vinyl.

I focused on the shape of sphere, my horn aimed at Vinyl as I closed my eyes and grit my teeth in concentration. I peeked my eyes just in time to see the faint, flickering orb begin to envelope Vinyl.

The remaining mare, seeing this newly formed shield, pulled up and started upwards to the sky again and began circling us again like a vulture circling a helpless animal. I let out a sigh of relief at the sight, only to have it wiped away at the sound of the leader yell out another order.

"Again! Shoot again!" He screeched.

A bush far off, near where the five of them entered in the first place, lit faintly with a purple aura just before a blur of purple was shot out towards. I watched as it hurdled closer, my brain processing the information and my body reacting to it in the nick of time to hit the deck as the purple glow flew past where my head was and hit the ground behind me. I turned to see that the shot of magic was enough to make some of the ground erupt and char.

The shot had stole my concentration and the orb covering Vinyl dropped, leaving her exposed.

"The white one's exposed! Fire!" He ordered to the unicorn sniping from the bush, who did just what he said.

Time seemed to slow as the blotch of purple hurdled towards her and my concentration focused on reforming the orb over the still downed Vinyl. The way it looked, the sniper was going to succeed and hit Vinyl dead between the eyes.

Time restored to it's normal fluency, and everything sped up, including my orb forming and the shot of violet streaking in just in time.

I watched as Vinyl's body fell backwards limply, her smile vanishing as she hit the ground and stirred up a little dirt upon impact on the inside of my barrier that had formed to late. I trembled as I processed the scene, the barrier around her flickering and falling as the sound of smug laughter filled the air.

The lead stallion's laugh amplified as I ran over to the fallen white mare, but something strange happened on my run over. Something strange enough to make the stallions laugh stop.

I noticed that a smile crept onto her face as her body began to envelope in blue.

"Gotcha." She whispered as she faded away with a weak chuckle, leaving the stallion swiveling his head from side to side.

Even the pegasus above seemed confused, so much so that she had stopped her evasive maneuvers to avoid the same fate of her companion.

A sudden flash of blue ripped through the bush, sending the body of a familiar sniping unicorn through it and to the edge of the hill where she scurried to get on her hooves. She was tripped up by a white hoof, belonging to another unicorn who's horn lit and picked a branch of a nearby tree, bringing it by to float idly.

I couldn't see it, but I was sure the grounded unicorn's eye were full of fear as the branch lifted up and came flying down to make a nasty looking hit with the side of her head. It wasn't enough to killer her, I think, but it was definitely enough to make her stop her struggling and go limp. Her other two companions were beginning to look like nothing now.

Vinyl seemed unstoppable and almost feral; She took a head shot from a magical blast and laughed it off. Now I'm no expert, but I'm going to assume that's not how one should react to pain.

Her horn charged as she began a slow walk down the hillside, on a direct course with the leader who was now backing a way slowly. A dim neon shot was fired out of her horn like a mortar, aimed towards the flying pegasus.

She seemed to see the shot and began an easy evasion, but the single bolt unexpectedly split into a rain that covered the sky in a haze of bright blue. Of course, she was grazed by some of the shots, but one of them hit her directly and sent her plummeting down head first. Though, it looked like she evened out in time before she hit the ground, the cloud of dirt sent up where she landed said otherwise.

Vinyl continued her slow walk, headed towards the lead stallion that was seized up with fear.

The distance was closed slowly and they were soon face to face, smudged purple shades and trembling red eyes now seeming to mix with one another. A quick punch was thrown by the stallion in a poor attempt to hurt Vinyl, but she only let it hit her face firmly, and even seemed to tilt her head so it hit harder. The impact was met with a smile and a lightning quick strike from a white hoof that sent the stallion to the ground and off to the side a few feet.

The same white mare was returning to me when a look twisted onto her face and she pointed.

"Look out!" She shouted, causing me to turn just in time to have a hoof hit me dead in the face and a darkness sweep over me.

My hoof splashed into a puddle in the darkness, making me draw it back suddenly and shake it.

"Ew." I shivered as I scraped my hoof against the ground to try and get some of the sewer water off. Even if it wasn't dirty in the slightest, just the prospect of it being sewer water was enough to make me shiver whenever I came into contact with it.

A sudden barrage of thumps pounded from over head, something hitting the ground above with enough force to make small pieces of stone come crumbling down. I was still for a moment, ready to avoid any bigger pieces of stone, but none came and I eased up. I was curious about what on Equestria could cause that much damage, so I hurried my search for an exit and went from a casual walk to a hurried jog.

After a hoof full of turns, I took one that led to a hallway that ended with dead end and a shut door in the center of the wall. Willing to take any door I saw, and this being the first I had seen, I trotted quickly over to it and grasped the handle and gave it a tug. The door screeched open and a crack of light beamed in just as I could tug no more.

'Light...that's good.' I thought, gripping the handle again with a new found strength and giving it another mighty tug, this time pulling it open to make have the door opened about half a foot.

It still wasn't enough to fit me through though, so I pulled again, this time feeling the door give way and suddenly fly open all the way to reveal a wall of vines hanging down in front of it.

I was quick to push them aside and trot through, only to find myself at a side entrance of the castle that was tucked away behind a hill. I ascended the hill quickly to get an over view in the hopes of spotting whatever it was that had hit the hill above the tunnel, but I was to late and the field in front of me was plain.

Except for two figures still standing, and many others collapsed.

One of the standing figures shot a blur of neon blue at the other, knocking them down and back a few feet.

'Vinyl...' My mind deduced, eye going wide at the color of the magical blast and my hooves jolting forwards at full sprint.

'Sis...' A second thought chimed in, making my hooves move faster as they galloped across the field and encouraging me to ignore the swelling pain in my chest.

I slowed down, my breath heavy and panting as I got close enough to Vinyl, who was bent over my sister with a look of panic on her face. I wanted to rush over there as well, but the burning in my chest had become something better described as a wild fire, and my hooves felt the same way. I was practically limping when Vinyl turned around, her teeth gritting at the sight of me and her horn charging up violently.

"V...Vinyl..." I panted, trying to tell her it was me.

She seemed to pick up on it and her charge faded, just as her expression did, becoming something more close to pity and relief as she trotted quickly over to help me close the rest of the way between me and my sister. I was to tired and enveloped with examining my sister to care about her change in magical color, and instead pushed a hoof up against her neck to feel a pulse and let out a sigh of relief.

"Wait..." A voice from behind me said, "where's Tavi?" Panic was growing on her voice, but I knew she would only pry if I kept it from her.

"Got...separated...she...had to see...'Master'" I said, leaning back and panting hard.

I didn't look at her, but I knew her eyes grew and her mouth dropped the second I said the words. Sure enough, I turned and saw the exact expression on her face, but it was changing quickly. Her head lowered slightly and her mouth dropped to a frown, and then to a enraged grit of the teeth, giving the streak of blood she had coming down her face a rather menacing look. She turned on her hooves, starting an angered and slow trot towards the castle.

"Vinyl...wait..." I panted, but she didn't hear me, and even if she did she would have ignored me.

Her horn lit, a charge of deep and dark blue, nearly black in color, curled around her horn like a snake that made my eyes expand. I was only able to say two words thanks to my condition, but I'm pretty sure I would have only said them even if I was fully rested.

"Oh no."