//------------------------------// // A Quick Rest // Story: Fangs // by Sapphic //------------------------------// *~~~*~~~*...Bigs...*~~~*~~~* 'She's not here for you, just the psychopath behind you.' I thought to myself in an effort to calm myself, but it wasn't working too good. Believe it or not but when someone who wiped the floor, or dirt for that matter, of your guard without actually being seen, it gets you a little nervous and on edge. I knew Vinyl was strong, the occasional throb in my head was enough to remind me of that much; she was also unpredictable, the fact that she decided to go headstrong at the castle was proof of that. But on top of all those, she was ridiculously persistent, some of my past experiences could tell you that, and that went hoof in hoof with her odd reactions to being hit with anything. She smiles. I went over to one of the charcoal black pillars that lined the way to the throne room and leaned against it as a sense of sudden dizziness overcoming me as a throb pulsed through my head, hoping that it would help me balance myself. My ear twitched, picking up the smallest sound of a gate being opened from outside the doors. 'She's close now.' I thought, no exact emotion flowing through me. The sound of dirt and rubble crunching underneath the force of hooves began to become audible as well, even the sounds of a couple of grunts from my guards outside joined in to haunt me, I even cringed a bit at the sound of the groans from the ones not lucky enough to make it inside. It grew louder and louder until the sound of hooves hitting dirt shifted into the sound of them hitting stone while the sound of rubble slowly drifted away until it was no longer audible. I figured that was her finally getting to the stone part of the path up to the castle and the dirt wiping from her hooves. That means she's really close. One of the troops had taken the liberty of locking the doors of the castle, on his own accord of course, but I knew that it might as well have been barred up with twigs and cardboard with what was coming its way. Poor door. I took this time to close my eyes, breathing in slowly and breathing out a shaky breath, a small smile forming on my lips for some reason as my mind wandered into the corner that held all the good times I had had. Most of them were with Vinyl and Shakes at the bar, in fact, all of them were: not a single thought that I considered 'good' popped into mind mind when I thought of this place. A hoof hit the doors and one of them shook a little. I guess a lot of things had gone my way: getting picked to go do recon for the master on Vinyl, actually getting to befriend her, bonding with her friends through her. Man, I had it good. The only parts that were bad were when Vinyl had caught me feeding on some of the patrons that had stumbled out back into the alley. She kept me under close watch and I couldn't report back to the crazed bastard, so he sent my three lackeys. I could here the sound of magic charging on the other side of the door. I really shouldn't have taken advantage of that now that I think of it. I took one drink and maybe killed a mare, she looked pretty dry after I took a good sip from her, maybe she survived though. Then Octavia came by and I nearly killed her in a blood rage, I even insulted my lackeys: I never do that. A strike struck out, its sound capable of being mistaken for lightning, and rocked through the halls of the castle, dust spewing in and enveloping all that was inside. Every torch was nearly put out, the enchanted flames wavering from the sheer force of a single blow. Maybe they died too, I'm pretty sure Shakes killed all three of them with her old cross bow. I had never guessed that she was an ex-hunter, and if she was, then she would have definitely found out about my condition before I found out about hers. But that means that she knew about Vinyl's too, so why didn't she take out Vinyl? Was it an agreement they made? No, it was a bond: a bond of friendship and understanding. She understood Vinyl's reasons, and maybe even the fact she was starving herself. I opened my eyes to see the white mare trudging forwards with a streak of blood rolling out of her mouth, her glasses were covered in dirt and dust, but remained unbroken. Her head was low and her horn was covered in what could be confused for liquid tar with a hint of blue food coloring. She lifted her head up slightly to see me, my dopy smile probably enraging her, but she remained as stony as ever with a small frown on her face. She began charging her horn, a swirl of dark curling around and readying itself to be thrown out far quicker than I could ever dream to dodge. "Bastard." She muttered lifting her head up just enough so her eyes peeked over the rims of the glasses and revealed her blood red eyes that were filled to the brim with anger. But it was a calm anger; the kind I hated the most. She took up a loose stance with her head dropped down so her horn was lined up directly with my head, a certain whirring of magic building up higher and higher began to sound out. It's pitch escalated with passing time too, up until the point I was afraid it might damage my ears. "I called them off." I said quietly, barely above a whisper, but I knew that she could hear that. That didn't seem to phase her judgment though, she still deemed me unworthy of continuing to live. Of course I hold my life dear, but I figured I might even deserve this, so I didn't flinch, but only let out the other side of my claim. "I want you to kill him." I said simply. The charge stopped and dispersed, the blackness falling away to reveal her pure white horn. She seemed taken aback by the statement, but I had no idea why. And why it was enough to throw her so far off as to break her hold on her magic, that was even more of a mystery. "W-what?" She stammered. I was still confused by her reaction, but I went with it. "The guards Vinyl, I called them off so you could kill that lunatic." I chuckled a bit for some reason. Maybe it was how surprised she looked when she heard that some backstabber like me would call of the guards and let her in, like it was some act of kindness. She remained silent, so I took the time to do something that I never thought I would do while in my position as captain. "I'm so sorry Vinyl," I started with my head held high and my eyes staring straight into hers, like staring death in the face in a way, "I'm sorry for backstabbing you, deceiving you, spying on you, blackmailing you, hurting your friends, everything. Believe it or not but I understand why you're wanting to kill that heathen inside those doors, and I want you to do it." I said gesturing to the doors to the throne room. Now she was awestruck with my sudden statement. "I'm not going to ask for your forgiveness, but I can tell you that I want it. Anyways, here's your straight shot, go ahead, but I want to warn you about something before you charge in there blind." I said sagely. She was just now getting over her shock and nodding her slowly. She was obviously still cautious and ready to take care of me with a moments notice. As if I would have even thought of trying to back stab her again, I doubt I could even pull it off with out her coming back to blow half my face off without me even knowing it. "You might not-" I stopped to reword, "No, you will not like what you're going to see on the inside of those doors Vinyl." I left her with that vague message. She furled her brow in concentration for a second, thinking hard on what I said, before looking up to me with serious eyes full of conflicted feeling and judgment before speaking to me. "Why'd you do it?" She asked innocently, "Why'd you help him?" I could only laugh. "Hell if I know, ignorance if I had to guess," I started with a chuckle, "blind, loyal, ignorance." I admitted on the way down from my little laugh. "Look, why I did it doesn't matter to you right now, well, maybe it does, but it shouldn't be your priority right now." I turned and raised a hoof to the throne room's doors, "that is your priority right now; Octavia's in there." I said, watching her eyes light up with a brightness at first, but that light was smothered immediately by a crushing weight of darkness. She marched forwards quickly, rage rising just as fast. "What did he do?" She spat darkly to no one from what I could tell. I lowered my head in shame just as she shot open the doors with a quickly reformed shroud of darkness from her horn and stepped inside. The doors were strong and thick, so they survived the blast and began to close just in time for a quiet, but still audible, gasp to be heard from Vinyl as the doors came to a slow and firm close. *~~~*~~~*~~~*...Shakes...*~~~*~~~*~~~* I kicked the head of one of the few remaining guards that still fought against me and my sister. It was a weak kick, but I put most of my body weight into it so it was just enough to get the job done, that, and the solid rock that his head landed on. I let out a deep sigh, my body had already been aching in pain from exhaustion, but now permanent damage was seriously becoming a concern. I'm pretty sure that if I got knocked down, I wouldn't be getting back up. "Sis..." I heard an equally tired sister of mine ask. "Y-yeah?" I trembled. "T-there's five left, one is a unicorn...the rest are just earth ponies." She pointed out. The magic was our only real concern. "You get the mage and one of the others, I'll take the rest as best I can." She said in between pants. I would have protested, but speaking last time took my only breath away, so I just nodded and strained to hoof up a rock. My eyes were even beginning to feel heavy and my head throbbed each time I tried to concentrate too hard. I saw the unicorn aiming at my sister, so I rushed and took the shot, sending the rock hurdling towards the unicorn and hitting her horn with accuracy that surprised myself. My sister had taken that opening and had already took out one of the earth ponies, and was working on a second. We had went from more advanced team work maneuvers, to down and dirty warfare. We would do anything to end this and move up to the castle to help Vinyl, if we could even do that when we finished here. If we even finished. The sound of hooves rushing at me triggered me to take a half step back, but I decided to leave my front hoof forwards. One of the guards tripped on my hoof, which took all my strength to hold in place, and went face down into the dirt. He didn't bother to get up, all of the guards were in just about the same state we were. My sister had taken care of all of hers, and had even fell to the ground in exhaustion. We had done it, we had beaten what was left of the guard, but the thought if these had been some of the elite still lingered on the edge of my mind. I trudged over to my sister, chuckling with what little strength I had left that wasn't being spent on keeping the spear on my back. I considered taking it off to lighten my burden, but it brought a feeling of protection to me for some reason, even if I couldn't use it at all without the fear of tearing a muscle. "Tired?" I wheezed. "Nah." She smiled, clearly lying. "Heh, good news is we can get going now." I said, not really thinking of moving anywhere as good news, but I was still persistent to get there to be there for Vinyl, even if I was passed out in the corner of the room, I would be there. "Great." She exhaled, rolling over and pushing off the ground slowly and visibly painfully, but eventually getting up off the ground and turning on her hooves towards the castle. "Might as well not keep her waiting then." We started the remainder of the trip with a slow and peaceful walk, planning on letting our bodies get a moment of rest before the final push. We would want to be as well rested as possible for the castle itself, and judging by how relaxing this walking was, I figured I would only be completely miserable and almost fully exhausted by the time we got their. 'Better than dead I guess.' I thought, trying my best to muster up a smile as we closed in on the castle. *~~~*~~~*...Bigs...*~~~*~~~* I had slid down onto the ground by now, letting my head rest and wait for the victor to emerge from the throne room. If it were two that came out, then I would know that Vinyl had succeeded, if it were three, then she had failed and I would probably end up dead. I could only sit here and hope that she would win. The familiar sound of dirt from outside being moved and stirred tickled my ears, my eyes soon jumping open and stared out the charred and splintered remains of the front door. I squinted my eyes to try and see who it was, but they apparently weren't in view yet. At first I was filled with the hope that it was some of my guards returning from the field and had survived their encounter with Vinyl's magic, but I soon dashed that hope. Indeed, there was two figures approaching in the distance, each one clad in the dark armor of my guard that was scuffed up and even had lost a few pieces, but their faces were definitely different than any trained guard of mine. These face had emotion, they had fatigue that was in the form of a smile; they were trudging, but they were happy to be. Two sisters were approaching, one a trained bartender and Vampire Hunter, the other a tad bit younger with a horn atop her head and no training in the arts of fighting at all, but apparently was good at improvising. Maybe her sister taught her a thing or two, who knows. "Shakes...Sweeps..." I muttered, almost questioning my own eyes at the sight of the two that still couldn't see me. I could see it on both their faces when they saw me, Shakes's was barely brightened to a happy grin while Sweeps's was darkened to a grimace. Shakes saw her sister's expression, but didn't bother to say anything. I was on the ground, leaned up against a pillar, maybe she thought that Vinyl had wiped the floor with me and I was too injured to move. I however, smiled at their sight. I waited for them to step over the scattered remains of the door, Sweeps suddenly taking the lead with a burst of surprising speed for her fatigue and a look of anger with a sudden burst of magic from her horn. I easily moved my head to the side just enough to dodge the shot, my smile ever present as I began to speak: "Good to see you too." I said cockily, making Sweeps even more mad, that is, until her sister put a hoof on her shoulder and walked up to me. "Well," She took a brief survey of me, and I even went all the way to stand up for her to get a better look, "you're still in more than one piece, so I assume you made amends with Vinyl?" "Kind of, it was more like I said I'm sorry, then brought up Octavia, then she stormed off through those doors." I pointed at the black doors over to the side. Shakes put on a look of fear and care at the mention of her gray companion. "Is she okay?" I hesitated, looking at the ground with a feeling of shame washing over me. "She's...he...it's bad." I decided to keep it simple. "How bad?" "Remember when Vinyl was fighting with you?" "Yeah?" She nodded. "Well, he kind of did the same thing to Octavia." I said finally, watching her face go from horror to anger to a mix of the two. "Basta-" She was cut short by the sound of a shout from a corner of the room. Each of our heads swiveled on end to see a group of my guard standing in the entrance of their barracks with conflicted looks on their face. Some with disbelief and others with a look of an anger that was quickly boiling out of control. I knew that some of them recognized Shakes and her sister since some of them had come back and told me of their comrades fighting them, so I could understand their confusion and growing brash rage. "Captain, what are you doing with them?" A unicorn mare spat, sparks already building on her horn. Many of them got riled up at the sight of their fellow guard threatening the two sisters, pouring out onto the floor and unfurling wings and stamping hooves in protest, the occasional uncontrolled sparks of magic made a pretty light show in the back of the small group of about fifty guards. However, some of the guards were loyal to me. "Are you threatening the captain?" One of them asked, breaking through the wall of black armor and standing in the way of the small group. Many others came out and joined him until it was about forty on ten, my side being the lesser. Tension was growing quickly in the room, they were butting heads and shouting at each other, the bunch of hooligans. I trained them better than this. The first shot of magic rang out, sending one of the ten on my side off to the side with smoke coming off his stomach from the magical burn. The shouts amplified and they began attacking one another, the opposing side squirming inside my defensive line and pushing all of my men aside, making a straight path to Shakes and Sweeps for the rest. The sisters had ducked down into a loosely defensive posture, the walk up here still plaguing them with some exhaustion. I startled them with a hoof on the shoulder, a serious look in my eyes that made Shakes nod and stand up straight, dropping her guard. I then looked at Sweeps, who took a little more time, but eventually nodded and dropped her guard. I turned back to the rush of soldiers pouring at me, but I held my ground and stood tall in front of the two sisters behind me. Two of my guards even managed to wedge past the wall of bodies and take up defensive spots beside the two. Man, that must have been one of the most confusing times of Shakes's life: having two Vampires flank her and her sister's sides in an effort to protect her, wish I could have seen that look on her face. I was too busy giving the guards left a piercing gaze, all ten of them that weren't holding off my guard. 'Questioning; just how I raised them.' I thought with a smirk. I loved having soldiers that questioned authority, it showed that they weren't single minded slaves. I kept my soldiers resistant, but I kept them loyal to me because I earned it from each and every one of them. That's why they wouldn't listen to the chief adviser, and I probably should have thought of that before I sent him outside to withdraw them now that I think about it. The first charged, breaking my train of thought, but one of the two guarding Shakes met him with a blow to his blindside that sent him tumbling to the ground. Two more charged after him in an effort to overwhelm him, but the remaining unicorn met one of them with a blast to the hoof which sent him down to the ground, leaving the other unnerved and open to my earth pony guard to knock him out; which he did beautifully. It reminded my of a game of chess in a way. There were seven left, other than the twenty on the sides who were still struggling, I still had both my guards, and I hadn't even moved. I knew that fact alone had an effect on said remaining seven. They switched it up a bit with a silent nod from the ring leader to the rest of them, having the only pegasus in the crowd take flight and charge at the unicorn in a serpentine pattern to avoid being hit while they sent in two more earth ponies at my one. The unicorn guarding Sweeps looked to me with scared eyes after realizing he couldn't hit the moving target. I merely gave him a nod and looked towards the two charging at the earth pony guarding Shakes. He gulped and gave a nod in return, charging his horn while aiming his head at one of the two charging. I waited until the last second, when the pegasus had passed by my eyes, to move, but when I did move, it was quick and precise. I grabbed the wing of the pegasus and pulled, turning his serpentine pattern into a harmless curl around me as I spun him right into the ground just in time for the unicorn to shoot a blast by his wing without even grazing it. The shot went on to hit one of the two charging guards and stumble him into the other, giving my own guard enough time to recover and knock the remaining one out. The four left had clearly wavered from their failed assaults while the two that had stuck by me were obviously feeling confident from my show of tactics. Even some of the guards being held back shouted a sound of rally and began to push harder against the ones holding them back. I began my own walk towards them, taking slow and well paced steps to squeeze every last drop of fear out of them. Despite all that, three still charged, the earth pony and unicorn guards on my side preparing by going into a bracing stance and charging their horn, but I simple placed a hoof on the earth pony's shoulder and gently slid by him. The unicorn got the memo and stopped charging. The first was easy, I simply dodged his flimsy punch and put my weight into a punch to his gut, hitting where the armor was the thinnest. The next was a bit more cautious, but still easy, I took him down with a fake punch to make him dodge downwards just in time to be met by an uppercut from my free hoof. The third was the trickiest of them all, seeing what I had done to both of his comrades with little to no effort, anyone would be. He moved up quickly and went directly for my gut, the softest part of any pony, his hoof moving at a rapid speed but stopping a few inches short of impact. It was clearly meant to be a fake out, but I hadn't moved: I had something special planned for this one. He hopped up and sent his other hoof hurdling at my head with the intent to make full contact, only to have me actually lean into the attack head on. It was a special way show your battle hardened status and make them feel even weaker that I had picked up from the elite. Of course, under normal circumstances, I would never use this move if the opponent was actually capable of incapacitating me, but recruits were an exception. He, realizing I had taken the blow on purpose, cowered away only to be met with a slap of magic. I lazily turned to my unicorn to see him with a hoof raised to Sweeps, like a filly who had been accused of some thing they didn't do, who happened to have an innocent look on her face while she scuffed her hoof along the ground, the magic still cooling on her horn. I gave a chuckle before turning towards the last one opposing me: The ring leader. As I walked over, I began a little speech reserved for those who accuse me of things such as treason. Though, this time it was a little different, and reflected my current feelings. "I have room for tolerance of the ignorant and the foolish, even the brash, but I don't have any room for traitors. You just accused me of treason, which I don't even think you realize how bold of a statement that is to me, but I will also not lie that I have my doubts about the crazed stallion I used to call a master, but regardless of that I am your captain." She was visibly shrinking under the weight of my words. I was so devoted with my speech, I hadn't even noticed the fighting around me had slowly died down and every head was looking at me with attention. "I do not care if you think me a traitor, but have more evidence other than me making talk with a few of my friends." She meekly nodded and slipped back into the crowd to get out of my glare. I turned and walked through the sea of astonished faces that were the remainder of the guard and made my way back to the two sisters only to see a look of surprise on Sweeps, which I expected since I called her my friend after all she had seen, but a look of pure amusement on Shakes. "Quite the leader you are." She said smugly, only getting an equally smug grin from me in return. I turned and shouted one last time to give her my answer: "Back down to your barracks!" I shouted over them, getting a flinch out of the ones closest to me. Each one piled back down the stairs, this time much more silent and obedient than the first time they went down there. I turned back to the sisters, only to meet them with a sheepish grin. *~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~* We had each set down for the time being, despite them eagerly arguing against my suggestion, I managed to convince them to take a breather with two fairly decent points. One, was the fact that they would be literally useless if they couldn't fight, which they couldn't in their current state of fatigue. That one they took to the head, the other was a bit harder to get. "He'll probably go off into some elaborate monologue anyways. I'd say the actual fighting won't start til he finishes that up, and there's no telling how long that would take. I'd say about ten minuets at the least." They only gave me confused glares, but I pretended not to notice them and went on. "But yeah, sorry about this whole incident by the way, you two and Vinyl invading and all that must have them a bit on edge and jumpy." I said with a sigh as I drooped down to join them on the floor, resting up against one of the pillars of the hall. "Ah, don't worry about it: it's understandable." Shakes said with a grin, "What's more surprising is the way you talked about us. Ain't that right sis?" She asked, nudging her sister in the side. "Yeah, calling us your 'friends' and all that stuff." She said seemingly reluctantly. I went a bit sheepish at that part. "Well...it's true. I already did this to Vinyl, but I figured you two deserve it as well." I said, preparing my apology speech, "I'm sor-" "Sorry for backstabbing us, blackmailing us, tricking us, threatening us, trying to kill us, making Vinyl try and kill us; yeah, save that sappy stuff for another day. The fact you kind of just saved our asses is enough for me." Shakes interrupted me, finishing my speech with surprising speed and accuracy, and leaning back with a content sign as she began to rest. "Same here." Sweeps chimed in, ending her statement with the same tired sigh as she fell back onto the ground, muttering something about a 'quick nap.' I took a look around me, admiring the two who had so easily forgiven me despite all that I had done. "Hey Bigs?" Shakes asked from her resting position, not even bothering to open an eye. "Hm?" "Don't think you're off the hook with us yet. We still got to get Octavia back, and make sure Vinyl doesn't get herself brainwashed and ends up killing all of us. The only reason were resting and not in there is because you actually made some sense with the fatigue thing, and that's the only reason we can rest." She paused and cracked an eye. "You are helping us...right?" Her gaze was a bit unnerving, but that wasn't enough to make me nod so quickly without second thoughts. "I..." I stammered. It was strange; I wanted so badly to help them, but guilt began to get to me at the thought of helping them bring down that heretic. Despite my feelings, which still remained as doubtful as ever, it made me feel odd to bring down the tyrant. A part of my mind said 'no', but another part screamed 'Hell yes!', it was like she had split my mind against itself with only a few words. Would my master still have the support from the elite? Would he call them in? Would my soldiers choose me over their master? Was I the only one who felt like this? I didn't know. "The odds are insane you know: he could call in all the guards and outnumber all of us at least a hundred to one." I said, admiring a piece of charred stone on the ground. "When are the odds not? After you go through what we did, 'insanely suicidal' begins to look like 'pretty good.' I mean, I think we have a good shot with Vinyl in such a rage." She said. She made a good point, Vinyl was very mad and very strong when she got mad and even more so when she didn't think clearly. Even my ex-master had felt the apparent need to point that out, but he didn't just get his title as 'master' hoofed over to him. That, and he had Octavia, which was still an unknown variable to all of us. "I..." I stammered again. "Ah, of course you will." She finished for me, making quite the bold assumption as she laid her head back down and began to fill the air with a light snore. That journey up here must have been quite exhausting for her get to rest this quickly, I'd still have to wake her up fairly soon though; she would be mad at me if I let her sleep too long. My mind thought on it for awhile, on whether or not I should help my 'friends', and if they even still considered me that, but judging on how casually they were talking to me, I assumed that we were. My thoughts were fighting themselves in a frenzy, pros and cons shooting up and being shot down just as quickly, but a rouge thought eventually rose up above all the others: a picture resting at my bedside. I felt a tear begin to swell in my eye, and I quickly wiped it away. My mind was made up, as if that tear was all the doubt and guilt in my mind simply dropping out and leaving me with perfect clarity in the form of a toothy smile. "He has hell to pay," I paused and looked at the two sleeping sisters, "from all of us."