//------------------------------//
// Perspective 
// Story: Fangs 
// by Sapphic 
//------------------------------//


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


I was propped up against the stone wall that my bed was shoved up against, my thought's still lingering on Shakes's presence and what could happen to her and whoever was with her. Which, if my guess was right, was her sister, Vinyl, and that gray mare that Vinyl was so fond of: Octavia. There was no telling what would happen if my master got a hold of them, or even one of them. Especially Vinyl.

I rolled on my side, my head turning and eyes landing the picture that rested on my nightstand as my thoughts lingered, only to be interrupted by a sudden pounding on the door.

"What the?" I asked myself aloud.

I hesitated for a second after the knocking died down, only to return once more with a voice on the other side calling my name.

"Captain Bigs! Captain Bigs are you in there?!" I sighed at the sound of a recruit's voice I heard from training a few days ago whose name escaped me.

I rolled myself out of the bed and trotted over to the door, opening about halfway through the next barrage of feverish knocks from the other side and nearly getting hit in the face. I was met with the sight one of the young recruit's face painted with terror, a look of pure fear tainting their eyes as they turned to meet me and begin blabbering on about something.

"Captain! T-there's- outside!- S-someone...Something is-" I cut them off there with a hoof over their lips and looked them in their flickering eyes with my own calmed ones.

"Slow down, I can't understand you if you speak like that." They nodded slowly, clearly not completely soothed, but enough to get their message out. I lifted my hoof and let them speak once again, this time much more clearly.

"A-at the gates sir, someone is tearing us up out there!" She stammered, getting a raised brow from me.

"Who?"

"W-we don't know, but their raining down magic on us. We're getting torn apart!" She said.

"Hm," I paused, thinking on what to do, "Go back and help get some of them inside, I'll go see who it is that's causing us all this." I finally spoke, my instincts as a leader kicking in and taking over as we both filed out the room and went our separate ways.

They went down the main hall and out the doors. When the doors opened, I heard the sounds of many of the guard shouting inside the inner walls, nearly drawing me over to aid them, but I had my own place to get to. I took a quick turn that led to a spiral staircase, trotting up the metal stairs with haste and making it to the top of one of the towers just in time to see something hit the wall right below me.

I took a second to watch some of the wall crumble off and fall to the ground, then directed my attention over to where I though the shot had come from. My eyes went wide white I saw the small white figure walking up slowly, something colored blackish around her horn and an uncountable amount of those same shots pouring out of it, each one coming down and crashing on the inside of the wall in violent explosions that were big enough to reveal the dark blue color in the seemingly tar colored magic. She wasn't even at the gate yet and she was causing so much chaos amongst my men.

'Something must have pissed her off real bad.' I thought to myself.

I shook myself from my state of awe and turned to rush back down the stairs and into the main landing, nearly running into the job overseer on my way down. He managed to stop me before I ran out the door.

"Captain!" He called.

"What is it?" I answered quickly, yearning to get out of conversation and out to the inner walls.

"Have you seen Night Watch anywhere? I sent her into your barracks and I haven't seen her since I split her and Dark Heart up." He explained, a look of slight panic in his eyes.

His statement stole away my haste as my head began to connect a few things.

"You said Dark Heart?" I asked again, my mind bringing up the image of a dark gray mare. Shakes had taken on the role of Night Watch I assumed, and he said that he split the two up.

"Yes; gray earth pony, relatively new around here. Have you seen her?" I ignored his last question and pressed my own.

"Did she seem to be acting a little...weird?" It took him aback a bit, but he did answer.

"Why...Yes, yes she did seem a bit off, but I just assumed that was because she had a meeting with the Master. Why do you ask?" He posed, but I didn't answer. The information he gave me made my eyes widen and my thoughts scream.

"No time, I need you to go and help get the ones outside to safety; they don't know what's coming." I said, shoving him off and turning towards the throne room.

'Please tell me he didn't. Please!' I thought as I rushed towards the doors and slammed through them.


*~~~*~~~*...Shakes...*~~~*~~~*


"Sis?" I called to my sister who was fading in and out of consciousness.

"C'mon Sis, stick with me." I pleaded, watching her eyes go from barely awake to peacefully shut.

Eventually I got her to hang on to her consciousness, though she was obviously still weak from whatever it was that hit her and on the verge of going under again. She seemed so helpless like this, her eyes barely open and a weak smile on her face as she did nothing but look at me. It almost brought tears to my face, but I held them back as best I could.

A boom rang out in the distance, getting me to turn my attention over to the castle to see that it was being bombarded by a flurry of blackish blue bolts that rained down from the sky. You could barely see them from where I was at, the only things you could catch glimpse of were the blurs of black speeding down into the almost equally black castle walls. I had began to pick up on a few shouts from the inside of the castle, no telling how hectic it was inside those walls, but what was a bit more unnerving to me was the fact that Vinyl was still just nearing the castle.

'No telling what kind of chaos she will cause when she actually gets to the inside of the castle itself.' I thought to myself, returning my attention back towards the direction my sister.

"I can't just let Vinyl go in alone though...Even if she is strong, she's stubborn." I whispered to myself, not looking at anything in particular.

A sudden hoof on my shoulder got my attention, I looked to see my sister shifting her weight and shakily rising off the ground.

"Sis?" I stuttered in awe.

"You said it yourself...she's a bit on the dull side," She whispered as she looked up at me with a smile, "so let's make up for that." She said with a weak confidence, but I guess it even out considering her condition.

I was about to protest, but the look in her eye said that it was pointless to, so I didn't.

We began to move towards the castle, but she faltered and began to fall, only to be quickly caught by me. She was in no condition to walk, much less to even try and fight anyone inside that castle. She looked in pain, but she also looked so determined.

She glanced at me, just in time to see me bending down and gesturing for her to get on my back.

She was seemingly shocked at the gesture, but shook it off and slowly climbed on. I lifted up, feeling the weight send a burn through my joints, but I pressed on and began a trot. Each step sent a jolt of red hot pain up my legs, but I only grit my teeth and kept going, ignoring the returning swell of pain in my chest as I pressed on through the wake of carnage Vinyl had left with her assault.


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


We got about half way to Vinyl, who was still dozen's of yards ahead of us, when we heard some crumbling from around us. I didn't catch it since my sense was seemingly dulled from the pain I was going through carrying my sister, but said mare managed to catch them.

"Sis." she said weakly, tapping me on the side to get my attention and raising a hoof to point to the scuffed up guard that must have been thrown to the side by Vinyl. They saw us and were apparently still determined to stop someone, even if it wasn't the main threat they were stopping.

"Don't worry Sis, were in this together." She said in an attempt to sooth me.

They gave a quick charge, slowed by their injuries, but still considerably fast.

In response, I gave a small drop, lowering me and my sister just enough so the punch grazed over us. My hooves and legs burned, but I pushed up and my sister moved her hoof up and shoved the guard's hoof up weakly, but still sending it up enough for me to quickly stretch out my front hoof and give them a hit to the neck that sent them down to the ground writhing.

In our little tussle, we alerted the other remains of the castle's first line of defense, seeing a few sets of eyes peering at us.

'Oh joy.' I thought, lifting my hoof up and pulling out the small sword I had taken from the armory.

"Ready?" My sister asked, her strength clearly returning just by the sound of her voice alone.

"Yep." I muttered through clinched teeth.

The first one to charge was an earth pony, his yell giving away his charge immediately. I turned my self and readied the sword, only to have him slap it out of my hoof and stick into the ground a few inches deep with astounding strength. He arched his hoof back and let it fly, triggering me to back step quickly and ready for a counter attack. Or, at least, that is what I would have done if the pain in my hind leg made me go down to a kneel.

He pulled the sword from the ground and gave it a swing, only to have it be shattered from a bolt from my sister. She flinched, I felt it on my back, at the shot, but it was effective despite the side effects. I took his moment of shock to recover and pull the dagger I had also stolen and throw it at him.

My aim would normally be spot on, but the pain set off my shot and it hit him in the helmet, only stunning him.

"Behind." Sweeps said simply, triggering me to hit the deck and give my legs a moment of rest just in time to see a figure sweep over us and crash into the stallion I had stunned in a tumble of wings and dust. I had enough time to see they had a head on collision and both of them were lying there limp.

I gave a chuckle at their clumsiness as I lifted myself off the ground in a burn of pain.

A figure jumped over the two collapse ones, running at us with murderous intent in his eyes.

"Kneel again." I heard, and obeyed the voice of my sister.

I knelt and felt a weight roll off my back and, right in front of my eyes, saw my sister roll off and hit the charging attacker with her hind hooves in a sort of drop kick style. It was clearly an amateur attempt, but since it took the attacker off so much, she landed a direct hit on the bridge of the nose, sending the attacker back with blood streaming from his nose.

She picked herself off the ground in time to see me smirk at her.

"Good one sis." I said, lifting myself off the ground with much more ease than before.

"Thanks, but there's still more to come." She said, pointing behind me.

I turned to see about five more, and more coming, standing and looking at us with a clear intent.

Kill.


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


"Why?" I whispered at the sight, gaining the attention of the one figure still standing tall.

"Why what?" He asked, cracking a maniacal smile as he noticed my presence.

"You...you crossed the line." I stammered in a quiet whisper, still taking in the sight of the collapsed sight of the gray mare. I wasn't surprised at the sight of two pricks on her neck, those were Vinyl's doing, but to see new blood running down them was a sight to behold.

"What line? There is no line when it comes to reaching a goal!" He snapped, displaying far too much emotion to be considered normal for him, even when others in the guard openly insulted him and criticized him, he never acted like this.

The sight I stumbled upon was a gray mare, presumably Vinyl's reason for her outburst outside, collapsed at my masters hooves with bright red blood running down her neck. My main concern however, was how limp she was; my fear was that my master had killed her, and the one that towered above that fear was of how Vinyl would react to the latter.

"You realize what she will do right?" I asked, my voice now re-found and firm.

His only response was to crack the same smile from before, the same abnormally emotionally, toothy, maniacal smile.

"I know full well, and I plan to use it to my advantage." He said, stomping his hoof on the ground beside the collapsed gray mare's head.

I was curious at first, the way he stomped made it seem like something was supposed to happen, but nothing did. Suddenly, the gray mare began to stir half consciously, much to my shock. She raised herself slowly, hair falling in her face while, but showed no concern for it, and stood tall and rigid. Her eyes were half lidded, amethyst gaze looking off into seemingly nowhere as she seemed to wait for something.

"I didn't kill her..." My master spoke slowly, giddy at finally revealing his plan.

"...I'm using her." He said, the statement sending a chill down my spine.

"That's...That's twisted." I said simply, taking a few steps back towards the door.

"Twisted loses it's meaning when you've sat and watched the world age for as long as I have, you learn that, twisted or not, what works: works." He said surprisingly sagely for the crazed aura he gave off. Maybe if it wasn't under these circumstances, I would have taken that quote a bit closer to heart, but considering the situation, I wasn't trusting this crazy's words for a second.

"This won't end well; for any of us." I said, turning and heading towards the door with a quick trot, desperate to get out of the mad stallion's throne room. He managed to catch my ear before I left though.

"Yes yes, go and try and hold her off. You're only delaying the inevitable Bigs, she will come one way or another." He said with a dark chuckle at the end that I tried to shrug off, but it only got stuck on my shoulder as I left out the door.


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


I shut the door behind me quickly, happy to be out of the presence of that crazed stallion and the husk he had left of Octavia. It was so similar to how Vinyl looked when she first got brought in and sent out on a mission with me, eyes dulled and senses seemingly blank. That's what I assumed my master had done to her, but how he did it, I had no idea. I thought that regular civilians couldn't handle the enthrallment without being exposed to multiple days of highly concentrated toxin that only a select few Vampires carry.

'Could that have been Vinyl? Is that why my master is so obsessed over her?' I wondered, seeing it as the only logical reasoning for his yearning for her to be under control and Octavia's current condition.

A sudden boom thundered through the halls I was in, something hitting with enough force to make the torches flicker and throw me off balance a little.

'Vinyl won't be able to keep this up for too long.' I thought, but I had no idea personally.

She has proven my predictions wrong time after time again, so I've learned to never assume too much about her since the risk of getting proven wrong and loosing a bet is literally random. You could ask her some of the craziest things and she would give you surprisingly specific answers that raised a few brows.

I started chuckling at some of the things I had heard her give unforgettable "insight" on.

Another thundering shake stole my thoughts from me.

"I've got to get the guard out of there, this isn't their fight." I said to myself, running towards the doors while the sounds of orders being shouted and screams became ever more audible until I opened the doors to the full roar of the guard at work in an attempt to protect themselves from the magical bolts being hurled down on us.

I ran into the chief adviser again, the one who sent Octavia to the master and Shakes to my barracks, while he was pulling an injured guard out of the line of fire. I was quick to help him pull the stallion along and grab a hold of the adviser.

"Why are they still fighting? I thought I told you to-" He cut me off.

"I can't rally them! They're too stubborn!" He whined. I merely gave him a huff and hopped atop a mass of wreckage that used to be a cart.

"Men!" I screamed over them, putting their cries of war to shame and gaining almost every eye that was outside.

"Inside! Now!" I screamed, my throat burning in protest of how loud I was yelling, but it got the job done. Some looked reluctant, but they all rushed inside after a blackish explosion erupted behind them and ripped a chunk of earth out of the ground.

I gave the chief advisory a cocky grin, taking pride in his roll of the eyes, before continuing to bark out orders of retreat as the explosions continued to rain down on us. The second the last hoof stepped inside the doors I barked at the adviser to help me close the doors, the tone in my voice throwing any protest he had away and making him scuttle along to pull the large iron handle on the door closed while I pulled my own.

He collapsed as soon as the doors shut, the thundering slam of the two massive doors sending a silence over the crowd. I turned to see them all looking at me with expectant eyes, waiting for an order to complete; call it a captain's hunch if you will.

I thought quickly on what to do and what to say,

'Get them out of the way; leave a straight path for Vinyl with no resistance. No resistance, no casualties.' My mind raced, and soon, my mouth did too.

My eye's darted to the barracks that were tucked away in each corner of the room and my mouth spoke the plan that came to mind.

"Go to your quarters." I said simply and calmly, even shocking myself at how smooth and steady my voice came out.

"But sir-" One of the voices piped, but I wouldn't have any of it.

"No 'buts', to your quarters. Now!" I snapped, sounding much more like a captain should." They hushed and some flinched, but they did mosey along and begin to pile into each of their corners, muttering protests as they went, but not a single soul dared to challenge the order. It felt good to do that, especially since I knew I was saving plenty of their lives with the call.

I stayed and watched as they filed in until there was not but one left: the chief adviser.

"Any reason you're sticking around?" I asked him, brow raised.

"Wanted to make sure everyone followed your order." He said, "Everyone." He added, getting his point across.

I smirked and gave him a little chuckle that took him off guard.

"I get your point, but I've got a bone to pick with Vinyl." I said simply.

"Vinyl?" He asked.

"The one shooting those bolts. Her name is Vinyl." I responded, getting a gasp out of him.

"You mean...one mare is shooting all of those..." He stumbled in disbelief.

"Yep." I responded, almost a bit too enthusiastically while he regained his composure.

"But that's sui-" He began, only to be cut off by me, evening the score.

"Suicidal? For a fool yes, but I have a plan." I said vaguely.

"Do tell." 

"She's not trying to pick a fight with us, or most of us at least, but she's actually going for that lunatic in the throne room." He raised a brow at my still vague plan.

"The master?" He asked.

"He's no master of mine." I said sourly.

The adviser took the halt of the explosions from outside as his sign to leave and wished me luck before heading over to the elite barracks. He turned back to give me a worried look, but I only nodded to him and faced the doors expectantly. Maybe, just maybe, I could get out of this with my life.


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


"Oh my, did you hear that? The mortaring has stopped and Bigs has called all the guards off; it's just a straight shot for Vinyl now. No more resistance and distractions." He said, his voice sounding oh so soothing.

I noticed it too, the silence outside and even the hooves hitting the metallic stairs as they went down them. It seemed my hearing had sharpened a bit since I blacked out. My sight seemed to suffered a similar effect, and, from what I could tell, all my senses.

My attention was drawn onto one name he spoke of, this 'Vinyl' character; the name seemed so familiar yet so foreign to me. Whoever she was, it seemed to cause the stallion I awoke to some kind of spark or something of the sorts. That was another thing: that stallion in the room with me. He seemed to go along the same lines as 'Vinyl' in being so familiar yet seemingly unheard of.

Today was weird.

"Octavia?" The soothing voice asked, my name rolling off their tongue.

I stiffened a bit for some reason.

"Did you hear me." He asked, sounding a little disappointed.

I opened my mouth to begin to apologize, but he beat me to it.

"Ah, it's fine deary. I have no problem repeating myself." He said happily.

I did a silent sigh of relief.

'He seems nice at least.' I thought with the smallest of smiles growing.


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