Fangs

by Sapphic


The End of Madness

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

I looked on in shock, watching as the white mare finished licking every last spec of my blood from her face and hooves, taking all the time in the world before returning her gaze back down to me. I heard the sound of crumbling stone behind me and assumed that the stallion had just fallen down from the wall, which he had been plowed into with seemingly no effort from the mare in front of me.

"So your magic changes colors?" He grunted, "Interesting."

She gave off a little giggle as a response, which struck me pretty hard considering how she was talking to him not too long ago.

The stallion gave her a gritted smile in response, but it was obvious that he really wanted to wipe the smile of her face for laughing at her, anyone could see that.

"Cocky now are we?" He asked, trying to keep his calm outward appearance. He jutted his eyes to me and then to the spear quickly, nudging his head slightly as if to try and tell me something.

I looked down at the spear and then back at him.

'Does he want this?' I asked myself as I looked back up to him.

He nodded, and I nodded back, understanding his plan.

The room fell silent after that, two pairs of calm eyes staring at each other while everyone else only watched them. Tension was thick and dense, if it was visible the room would probably have probably left us all blind. You could almost feel each of them wanting the other to make the first move, but at the same time, each of them wanting to make the first move and get the jump on the other.

While this spectacle went on, I slowly inched my hoof over to the spear while they held their staring contest, and when my hoof finally hit the hilt of it, their gaze broke.

The stallion ran forwards and I moved instinctively, hoofing up the spear and tossing it his way. The toss checked out and he caught the spear, even swirling in mid air to add extra velocity to the throw when he loosed it. And when he did, boy did it, it strained my keen eyes just to keep up with the spear as it plummeted forwards.

But there was a problem with the throw: It missed.

The throw was on point, but it's target had moved out of the way somehow.

I blinked, and so did the stallion, at the sight of the spear sticking out of the stone floor, its target nowhere to be found.

"Oh Tavi, you should know how wrong it is to help him." Her voice whispered into my ear, tickling the inside of it and making me spin around frantically, only to find the space behind me empty.

"I thought you were on my side? What happened?" She cooed again, but from behind me once more. I spun again, only to be met with the same devoid space.

"H-how?" I trembled.

"It was him wasn't it." Another spin as my eyes feverishly searched for the mare.

"Don't worry, we'll fix you right up good as new." I eventually just closed my eyes, hoping childishly that her voice would just go away.

"Now," My eyes bolted open as I felt a hoof slid around my neck gently and slowly, wrapping around it until I could feel her heavy breath on my neck,

"let's see how much of that bad stuff we can get out." Her voice was just about as ragged as mine, but hers for a different reason entirely.

The next thing I felt was a dim pain, piercing into a place on my neck that seemed to be getting far more visitors than it should be, and a light pressure as she suckled gently on my neck. I felt my blood being drained, along with my strength, and by the time I got my hooves up to stop her, I was already too weak. I good do little more than claw weakly at her grip for a moment before my hooves dropped weakly to the ground and my knees begin to buckle.

I began to fall, but she held me up and made sure to set me down gently. My vision began to dim as the floor became more and more level with my eyes, being almost completely black by the time I was on the ground. The sucking continued however, but now it was beginning to feel more pleasurable, like a sweet lullaby that was cradling me to sleep.

I tried to hold onto consciousness, but I just couldn't seem to stop my eyes from closing.

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

"Damn..." I whispered as I watched Octavia being set gently onto the ground by Vinyl.

"How did she move that fast? Did she teleport?" My sister asked, just as confused as me.

"I don't know, if she did, I didn't see a flash." I replied, giving the best answer I could. I watched on, observing closely as Vinyl pulled up from Octavia with a small sliver of red trailing from her lips and a soft look on her face.

"Amazing, truly and simply amazing: You managed to dodge my throw, and escape your friends eyes." I heard the voice of the stallion crackle through the air, bringing the ethereal moment to an end with a cringe. Even Vinyl cringed a little at the sound of his voice.

Vinyl's hoof pressed into the ground a bit, but her facial expression remained unchanged as she continued to stare at Octavia's peaceful body.

The stallion cracked a grin that grew into a smile, but that smile quickly escalated into a chuckle, which went into laughter. It was a sick and twisted laughter, maniacal even, as he tilted his head back and looked to the ceiling as he started walking towards Vinyl.

"I've got to admit, this isn't how I pictured getting you to invoke you're instinct, but I guess it works," He rambled on,

He was oblivious to Vinyl's hoof pressing harder into the ground, even cracking it a bit, and her head lowering slightly as her smile shifted from a peaceful and soft smile directed to Octavia, to a crazed one that was meant for the stallion.

"I guess that mare was worth something after all."

The stone under Vinyl's hoof broke.

"I'm going to enjoy making you apart of the ground." She said, the fact she still held her calm, lusty, voice made the threat sound even more scary.

"Try it." The stallion tested.

The stallion adjusted into a readied posture as Vinyl lifted herself up from her spot above Octavia, her eyes filled with a look that made me want to leave the building. My eyes adjusted to the doors, eying them longingly before an idea popped into my head: another use for the door.

Rather than letting someone out, why not let someone in.

"Don't think you're off just yet...Bigs." I whispered to myself as I began to scoot my way around the stallion.

He turned a bit, and I froze up in the act.

"And just where do you think you're go-" His eyes went wide mid sentence and he immediately tumbled to the side, dodging a massive buck from Vinyl that flew by his head in a display of speed and just how dirty this fight was going to be.

'Just keep him busy Vinyl.' I thought, continuing to inch my way over towards the door in an effort to bring in another playing card.

I had already done half the work for this plan, all I needed was to get over to the door and it would be done. I smirked to myself as I gave myself a mental pat on the back for how smoothly I had unlocked the door, not the stallion, nor Octavia saw or even heard it. I had done it when the stallion had taken my sister hostage, when I let my hoof purposely slide down over the lock and turn it while I yelled 'shit' to cover it up.

'Good job Shakes, good job.' I congratulated myself, a small smirk forming on my face as I inched past my sister, who seemed completely confused as to what I was doing.

I only gave her a wink and held a hoof up to my mouth to tell her to keep quiet.

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

I had taken up a comfy position leaned up against the wall, scanning every door that led to the barracks over and over again while I listened in on the battle on the inside. Sounded like that lunatic's plan was crumbling at the sides, but it also sounded like he still believed he could salvage it.

"Guess that bastard is going all or nothing..." I whispered to myself, smirking at the thoughts of his plan failing and his tyranny coming to an end. All of the guard had lived in fear with him at the top, I imagined we wouldn't even know what to do if he was suddenly taken out of that spot of leadership. Who would take over? Maybe the head adviser, he seemed rather considerate for being one of the elite.

'No need to get ahead of myself now,' I thought, 'He is still alive and kicking after all.'

Let's just hope that Vinyl makes good work of him and throws him out that big glass window he's so fond of. That would sure be a good way to add insult to injury.

A rustling on the other side of the door caught my ear and I perked up to listen. It sounded like someone was sneaking around the room, trying their absolute hardest to mask their presence from someone else. But who would do that?

I felt the door's support behind me give way, and a flailed as I fell to the ground.

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

"What the?" I groaned, opening my eyes to see an upside down view of clashing colors of white, but more so an amused expression on Shakes's face.

"I told you, you're not getting off that easy." She said, giving my head a rough tap with her hoof.

I scrambled to my hooves thanks to my friend so lovingly inviting me into the crossfire of this match between the two white blurs. I gave her a critical look, only to have it returned to me ten fold.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked sarcastically.

"Help!" She screamed at me.

"About the only thing I can do is either, A: get killed by getting in the way of one of the two, or B: get in the way of one of the two and get killed!" I said, putting great emphasis on the little deference between my two options.

"This isn't the time to argue Bigs! Just go in there and grab the spear or something!" She said, slipping her way behind me.

"You don't have to beat him, just cover me so I can get Octavia out of harms way." She spoke into my ear, sounding much more calmed and level headed, just as she tried to shove me forwards, but my hooves were planted firmly.

"Why don't you do it while he's fighting Vinyl? He looks pretty distracted right now fighting her." I pointed out while she shoved harder.

"It's not about him being distracted, it's about him not getting to Octavia." She said, snaking a hoof under my own and tripping me up, sending me stumbling forwards.

As I stumbled to a stop in front of the two, I gulped. I noticed that my ex-master was playing it rather cautious, watching intently and making sure to try and dodge every hit possible while Vinyl was fighting much more loosely: maintaining constant offense and dodging literally every hit with what looked like an accident. She occasionally 'tripped' and dodged a hit, sometimes even pretending like she was picking something up off the ground to dodge.

It was quite comical if you asked me, but I didn't have time to laugh, I turned my sights to the spear and went for it.

"Come to help your master Bigs? How loyal of you." The stallion voice, dodging a kick from Vinyl.

I grit my teeth at the sound of his mocking voice and grasped the spear a bit harder than necessary.

"Good, now come help me take care of this little..." He hesitated while he dodged another strike from Vinyl, "problem."

I pulled hard on the spear, pulling it up with one go and turned to face him with a boiling anger. My eyes were lining a perfect shot aimed right between his eyes, but I had a hard time since he cocked his brow and forced me to adjust.

"Come now, why the hesitation? Don't tell me that you're actually intimidated by this bint." He spat, directing the last part towards Vinyl as he punched and missed.

I felt my temper snap at his insults of Vinyl and I arched my hoof back before I let the spear fly as fast as I could, focusing all my anger into the one throw as it hurdled towards him. His eyes, for the first time that I had seen in a good while, went wide with genuine surprise as he tumbled to dodge the throw, rolling to the side only to be met by a punch from Vinyl that sent him back a good three or four yards until he skidded to a stop.

I was confused why he would be surprised, he seemed to acknowledge my doubt in him. Maybe he didn't think that it would go so far as to me trying to kill him.

Though my throw had missed, Vinyl had managed to sock him right in the side of the face; the small dribble of blood that was rolling freely down his cheek and already beginning to form into hanging drops on the line of his jaw. His eyes jutted up to me in disgust before glancing at the side to see a stock still Shakes in the middle of pulling Octavia's limp body towards the exit of the room.

I watched as his grimace directed at me turned to a twisted smile meant for Shakes as he realized his position, then he acted.

He slowly gained ground on Shakes, a glint of evil could be seen in his eye as he closed in on her. She panicked, but had a clear enough head to pick up Octavia and toss the body to the side with all her might in a last ditch effort to get Octavia out of harms way. Fortunately, she succeeded and manged to toss Octavia far enough to the side where she was caught by Vinyl, whose eyes had softened.

The stallion wordlessly raised his hoof and brought it down at Shakes's head, making a shivering solid noise on impact that sent Shakes down to the ground in a limp heap; she was breathing, but was unconscious from the blow. Thought, knowing her, she probably wouldn't be that way for too long, but it would definitely keep her out of the fight and from thinking too hard afterwords.

"Shakes!"

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

My eyes stirred as all my surroundings blended into a single, dark pallet and my ears pounded with enough force to put a bass drum to shame. I was dizzy, and trying to move around out of instinct, but a pair of hooves held me steady while I seemed to try and swim through the air. I wasn't sure whose hooves they were, but whoever they belonged to, they were comforting.

Slowly, the pallet began to separate and form my surroundings: a dark rock room with crumbling wooden bookcases and a big window on the side with the night in clear view, but it seemed to blend in with walls in perfect harmony. The hooves holding me where the only things that struck out as they were as white as the moon, excluding one of them which seemed to have faint rust colored splotches in some places. I followed the hooves to meet a familiar face and a pair of soft eyes gazing at me, and a smile that seemed to radiate warmth.

I knew this face.

"Vinyl?" I called out, only getting a giggle in return.

"Yes, my delicious?" She asked, her voice seeming intoxicated by something. I could only smile, but it began to fade as memories began to come back to me.

They flowed like water, starting with arriving inside the castle and then being separated; then stumbling into this room and meeting with...

My eyes widened as my head turned to see the stallion from my memory turning away from another familiar figure. She was lying limp, collapsed on the floor in a heap and I figured out what had happen to her just as her name popped into mind.

"Shakes?" I asked in disbelief, my muscles beginning to move as I started to stir, only to be held in place by a pair of reassuring white hooves.

"Don't try to move too much, I drank a lot from you." She said sweetly.

"I'm fine." I said nearly defiantly and tried to moving again, the thoughts of a friend being harmed filling my head, but those struggles of mine soon stopped as the sight of another stallion moving up to meet the one above Shakes came into view; the name Bigs ringing a bell.

His eyes were narrow and his teeth were gritted; if rage was visible then it would have been filling the room right now. The other stallion whose name was not in my memory looked at him with a smile of both condescension and cockiness before he spoke with a tone that voiced those feelings.

"Come to play with your old master? How nice of you." The voice echoed in my head, the sound of it making me want to go cut my ears off. The stallion in question didn't answer him right away, but instead spoke to a mare off in the corner.

"Sweeps, pull that spear out of the wall." His voice was firm while he spoke, not breaking contact with the other stallion. The mare in the corner nodded and began tugging on the spear with all her might, jerking it from side to side before it finally broke from the wall. She turned back to him and tossed it gently to him.

He caught it firmly and stopped his treading, stopping about ten feet away from the other stallion before he dropped the spear to the ground in an unexpected display. What was even more unexpected was when he pushed the spear forwards about five feet, letting it slide to a stop in the middle of the two.

"This looks like it will be a fun show." An amused voice from beside me said. I turned to see that Vinyl had since let go of me and sat down bedsides me, snuggling up a bit closer than necessary so our flanks touched.

"Good to see you still hold fairness as a priority Bigs," The stallion spoke, turning to Vinyl, "some of us here don't seem to have that skill." He said venomously, only getting a giggle and a shrug out of Vinyl.

They setup, each one bending down and ready to pounce towards the only weapon on the field to get the upper hoof on the other. I began to struggle in an attempt to get up and help Bigs but, one more, a pair of white hooves managed to stop me, this time curling around my neck before whispering softly.

"Sit for now, we'll get our chance," She paused and seemed to think on it for a second, "soon."

The message was vague, but the look in her eyes suggested she knew what she was talking about, so I reluctantly sat down and joined her as a spectator. She seemed a bit overjoyed at my agreement and snuggled up closer. She sure was acting cocky in the middle of all this, openly flirting during the middle of a life or death battle, she either doesn't know the scope of this situation, or knows the scope exactly, and I wasn't sure whether I should be reaffirmed or unnerved by any of the answers.

I turned my attention back to the fight at hoof, feeling extremely odd just sitting back and watching a fight happen in front of me that directly involved my well being. I felt like I should have been helping, but I stuck to my word and stayed awkwardly in place next to Vinyl.

Bigs and the stallion charged, Bigs diving for the spear only to have it kicked to the side by the other stallion, who followed up by plowing his hoof at the ground where Bigs lay. He barely missed, the only reason for him missing being a move on Bigs part as he rolled out of the way.

They fought hard after that opening move, each side dishing out fast and ferocious blows that would assuredly put a dent in any normal pony's life span. But the exchange also consisted of dodging; each side managing to keep up with the other and continue their cycle of endless counter attacks until one of them decided to switch things up a bit.

Bigs hopped up with his front hooves and brought his hind legs up in their place, catching the stallion off guard as a massive buck hurdled into him. The blow was, as expected, a monstrous one that managed to not only break through the guard of the stallion, but even send him back a few feet. Bigs took that opportunity to rush for the spear, sticking his return to the ground with practiced perfection.

I was getting twitchy at the sight of the fight, an urge to join in beginning to build and build as adrenaline began to pump through my veins the more I watched. Each blow thrown and even each blow dodged seemed to stack one on top of the other while my body seemed to yearn to get into the action.

Bigs drew the spear up only to have it pushed out of the way by the stallion, who had recovered from the buck and caught up with Bigs at a blistering pace. Bigs was surprised and stood still as the stallion's free hoof came in and made full contact with his face, sending him back to the wall and sending the spear skidding to the side from the sheer force of the hit.

That was it. The fight had been so short and it was already clear who the winner was going to be. With Bigs backed against a wall and with blood streaming freely from his nose, it seemed hopeless for him to even continue to fight. The stallion was approaching to deliver the final blow when Vinyl finally got up and spoke:

"Now." She said simply, her horn lighting up and dragging the spear along the ground until it was floating at her side. The dragging noise got the attention of the stallion, whether or not it was intentional on Vinyl's part to do that was anyone's guess, but nevertheless, it worked.

Vinyl floated the spear gently over to me and spoke,

"Here," She dropped the spear and I scrambled to catch it, "throw it when it feels right." I merely stared at the spear as a response.

"B-but I've never thrown a spear before." I stammered. She only smiled and said sweetly,

"You threw it pretty well awhile ago." And with that she left me and stepped up to the plate.

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

The room was still as the battle began to draw to a close. Not a sound, other than my own breath and the sound of my heart beating in my head, was heard as the two main contenders of this match stood against each other. Bigs was leaned up against a wall and struggling to breath properly through his nose thanks to the blood coming from it, Shakes was lying limp near the window with her sister looking over her with a feared look on her face and I was standing with a spear held sloppily in my hooves while I watched the two.

One side had a cocky smile with twisted intent riddled into it, a pair of dull red eyes, and a plan that he seemed determined to complete. He wouldn't let a soul get in his way, and if they did, then they would face him personally and suffer the consequences.

On the other side was a smile that was unreadable, whether it was a smile of actual happiness or if it was another cocky one like the other side was anyone's guess. This side's eyes were hazy rather than dull, they seemed unfocused yet even sharper than the spear I held. She seemed devoted to ruining the other side's plans, and had so far progressed quite nicely with that plan.

The silence was broken with the first move, surprisingly from the stallion who had seemed to be cautious up until this point. He charged in wildly, stopping and throwing a punch that purposefully ended up short by a fraction of an inch in an attempt to fake Vinyl.

It didn't work.

She stood stock still as the hoof stopped just short of her nose and withdrew just as quick as it came in, leaving the stallion a little fazed, but not to much. He followed it up with an actual hit, going low for Vinyl's side and forcing her to jump back this time. He followed it up again and again, his punches getting progressively faster and faster while he advanced on her, hitting nothing but air while Vinyl sped up to match his pace. Their dance went on for about half a minute before one of them slipped, and in this case it was Vinyl.

She moved her head to the side, taking the blow directly and stumbled back a few feet.

The stallion saw his opening and dove in, delivering hit after hit to he in an attempt to keep her in a daze. The daze seemed to be working, but one of his hits turned up short thanks to a string of blue shackled around his hoof. It took him off guard as it reeled back, but Vinyl simply graced her smile once more as her hoof caught the stallion's unchained one with a smack. She didn't counter, but actually let the stallion pull his hoof back before she snapped it shut with another mythic chain.

She looked to me and snapped me from my trance, jump starting me as I sloppily lined up a shot for the stallion's exposed belly.

He panicked at the sight of me and struggled, eventually breaking free from the mythical, blue chain and bringing his hoof in for a punch, only to have it instantly restrained by another chain. But the stallion had gained momentum, breaking his other hoof free and attempting a punch before having it restrained, then doing the same process with the other.

The cycle continued until he was able to punch faster than Vinyl could restrain him, and forced her to evade.

I heard a grunt from the side of the room and glanced to see that Shakes had awoken, with some help from her sister, but she seemed to be fading in and out of consciousness.

The sound of the stallion grunting with his punches grasped my attention back to see him swinging in fast and wide punches, all of which Vinyl slide away from until she finally broke her pattern and giggled.

She flashed her horn briefly and the stallion's hoof was caught out of mid-swing and pulled down by a blue chain from that had appeared from the ground, of course he broke free from it, but not quickly enough to stop Vinyl from leapfrogging over his head. She landed on her front hooves and used the momentum of her jump to turn the landing into a perfectly setup buck.

The stallion's eye went wide as he turned around just in time for the buck to come hurdling in, forcing him to jump backwards to avoid most of the hit, but not all of it.

They played cat and mouse for awhile, the stallion trying his hardest to catch Vinyl off guard or force her to trip up while Vinyl dodged and evade in a seemingly playful manner. She used the leap frog trick twice more and a couple of other recreated variations of filly games before the stallion had finally met his limit and snapped. His face contorted in anger, he stopped swinging wildly and turned it into a controlled rage while he waited for her.

Of course, Vinyl came near and tapped him on the shoulder innocently,

"Don't tell me you giving up already- She seemed to whine, but a lightning quick move from the stallion cut her off from continuing.

He had turned, grabbed her, pulled her in, arched his hoof back and let loose a punch strong enough to either silence Vinyl with pain or by knocking the wind clean out of her. She was stunned, her smile finally faded and replaced with a pained one just before he picked her up and threw her to the side towards me.

He began to walk on her, a raging look in his eye and a murderous intent in his mind no doubt.

Vinyl struggled to get up, her knee's seeming to buckle at every attempt to raise.

"You ignorant, half witted, bint. You treat this like game; you mock me!" He started calmly, but lost his cool near the end, "You think you can simply brush me aside like dirt?! I will not be stopped here, especially by some weakling, filly brained, twat like you!" He had reached Vinyl and raised his hoof, muscle visible from even where I was, and brought it down.

He had hit air, as Vinyl had dodged.

During all that talking, I had finally lined up a shot that I thought could work and thrown.

He looked up angrily to see the spear hurling at him, but didn't bother to dodge. Instead, he knocked the spear aside with enough ease to frighten me a bit. His eyes were staring at mine the whole time, his rage for Vinyl having plenty of room to squeeze me onto his kill list as he began his march on me.

I staggered backwards, my mouth wide with both shock and fear while his dark figure approached, but something else managed to steal my attention away from my soon to be killer.

A flash of blue had popped in front of me and a ragged and tired looking white mare was now in front of me with a spear held loosely. She managed to stop his assault for a moment, forcing him back into a gritted sneer. Without even looking at me she tossed the spear back into my shaky hooves and spoke a single word with enough hunger to make me think she had been starving herself for days.

"More." She spoke, almost in pleasure. I gave a shaky nod as a response.

She charged in with renewed vigor to fight the stallion while I lingered on her message.

'She wants more? But why?' I thought.

I furrowed a brow in concentration, my eyes clinching shut and my face assuredly contorting in said concentration.

'More what? More fighting?', I lingered on the thought, adding everything else into the spot to fill 'more', but none of them seemed to fit just right. She wanted more of something, but it wasn't something she herself could get, that's why she told me.

I added myself into the equation as the variable for 'more.'

'She wants more from me...'

My eyes jumped open to see that she was now about two feet away from being within range of the already ready-to-hit stallion. The world seemed slower, as if someone or something had pushed it to its knees and told it to crawl rather than run. I felt stronger, the adrenaline's effect in my system finally peaking, and I decided to give Vinyl what she asked for.

More.

More speed for the spear, more power to the throw, more accuracy, all of it. She would get 'more.'

The spear seemed to leave me hoof faster than Vinyl was charging, but I couldn't tell this early on, all I knew was that I had given that throw everything I had left in me, but it was assuredly 'more.' Time began to stand back up and move normally again as a fatal flaw came into play with my throw.

Vinyl was in the way.

My eyes were wide as the spear sped up faster and faster, coming closer and closer to the back of Vinyl as she charged into something else that would kill her. I tried to knock the spear off course, or even grab it, but my efforts were in vain as the spear was already out of my reach.

A white head turned, still moving forwards, but also looking back. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place, but she did something that suggested otherwise.

Her eye winked and horn lit as flash enveloped, and the next thing I knew, she was gone: leaving the course that had originally been going for her now on a direct alignment with an unsuspecting stallion whose eyes were wide at the same realization as I. He tried to bail, his punching hoof now plowing into the ground in an effort to raise himself out of the way while time was now at a stroll.

He was raising off the ground , not a limb of his body touching, but the spear wasn't on the ground, and it was now on a course with his head.

I watched in eager anticipation and hope, but my hope began to waver as the throw seemed more and more off. Finally, my shot showed that it was not quick enough to catch him: he was already a few feet off the ground as the spear head began to go under him.

His eyes caught something and went wide.

I was confused as to what he was looking at, but after following his gaze up to the ceiling, I saw it too and my eyes went just as wide as his, maybe wider.

There, latched onto the ceiling like a bat, was a white mare with blue hair hanging down just enough to cover her eyes. But one thing was visible: an insane smile with twisted happiness over joyed to see her plan come into place perfectly.

Her hooves pushed of the ceiling fast enough for her to disappear from my sight and hard enough to crack the stone she had previously been on.

Time realized it was slacking and began a sprint as the world sped up and the room was soon filled with nothing but a thundering smash and a view filled with nothing but a cloudy dirt like color. Something had smashed into the stallion with enough force to simulate a sandstorm and an earthquake at the same time. The force of the winds soon died down and the dirt began to settle, revealing a large hole in the ground with bricks of black still crumbling into it. I was cautious to move, but I decided to and walked up.

As the sight of the hole became visible, a limp white figure did as well. At first I panicked, but a touch on the shoulder stole that panic as I spun around, ready to fight.

To my surprise, the place the unknown combatant chose to hit was not where I expected, nor was the weapon they used.

A familiar feeling of soft lips against mine took me aback as I felt a pair of warm hooves wrap around me and a raging blush lit across my face like a fire. I relaxed into comforting kiss and wrapped my hooves around to complete the embrace that lasted for so long, yet seemed far to short.

Vinyl parted from my lips, moving back just enough to look at me with her big, red, eyes. A smile was on her face when she moved forwards again and comforted me with her embrace. I felt my insides melt from her passionate kiss, or maybe that was just the adrenaline crash that was bound to hit me, but whatever it was, I felt my knees begin to buckle and my eyes flutter.

We stood like that for a moment longer, the kiss itself seeming to take forever, yet coming to an end far too soon.

She pulled back, letting herself out of my weak grasp and trudging us both over to the hole in the ground to peer down into it. The sight that was shown was different than what I had originally seen: further investigation of the inside of the hole revealed countless pairs of eyes staring back up at us, some with shock, others with admiration, but the majority seemed to be the former.

I heard a giggle from beside me, then nearly buckled under the weight of a body falling onto me.

Vinyl had collapsed onto me, a smile on her face while she breathed out in a rhythmic pattern that suggested she was out cold. During my struggles to hold her up, I hadn't noticed the others in the room beginning to move about; the only time I took notice was when one of them picked the weight I was so desperately trying to hold up away.

I looked to see that it was Sweeps that had taken Vinyl onto her back, a hardened smile of her own gracing her lips. Shakes had gotten up as well, with the help of one bloody and ragged looking Bigs.

I looked at Sweeps, holding up Vinyl with little effort, when a sudden seemingly random urge popped into my head, and came out sounding even more random,

"Can I hold her?" It was an awkward question, but Sweeps chose to ignore it and only hoof her onto my back with a smile. Her weight nearly made me buckle, but I tried my best to suppress my soreness.

It just felt right to be caring her back after all that she carried me through: the walk home when I was drunk, and a variety of other times. I guess you could say it was paying her back.

Shakes and Bigs were talking about something that seemed a lot more serious, I even picked up snippets of the dialogue, but primarily chose to ignore it and focus on balancing Vinyl's wieght on my back.

"But who will take over around here? You know they can't go to town; the order would kill half of them the second they caught word of it." Shakes asked, getting a mere shrug out of Bigs.

"I planned on letting the adviser take over: he's about the fairest one around here that seems to still have a independent thought process." They went on about the subject before my attention faded out of their conversation.

It was odd how quickly this all ended and how quickly we were seeming to go back to normal, unnerving really. We had came all this way and had suffered quite a lot, and yet here we were, talking to each other about the future rather than the past or present. Well, most of us were; me and Vinyl were silent, and the latter was probably silent only because she was out cold. She would probably be talking about the present though. She seemed like the type to not worry about before or later, or even now: she simply lived life and took it as it came.

My thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of something poking me in the side, and it seemed my claim about the white mare was false.

She was still slouched over my back, everything limp, but not her head. Her neck was craned up halfway so her hair just barely cleared off her face to show her tired smirk and dull eyes. She didn't say a word, but instead lifted a hoof with surprising energy and pointed to the door, an implied meaning coming out of her gesture.

"Let's go home." Is what she would have said, had she been able to speak.

I wasn't in the proper mental or physical condition to argue with the idea of going home, so I nodded half consciously and started a stumble to the doors of the castle with my cozy, white, blanket on my back to comfort me on the journey back. The journey that was sure to tug on my fatigue even more.

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

It was just turning night when we got out of the forest, and half way through the night when I got back to my apartment, walking past a hoof full of odd stares from guards and by passers on the way into the city. Apparently someone had reported me missing during my trip to the castle, but I didn't bother delving to deep into that issue at the fear of my brain shutting down and Vinyl falling off my back.

I might as well have broke the door down to my apartment, using my remaining strength and body weight to force it open hard enough to wake the neighbor and cause them to stumble out of bed. I didn't bother going for the couch, despite its appeal at the time, and headed straight for the bedroom: shoving open the door hard enough to make a snapping sound come from one of the hinges.

Vinyl was the first to be dropped, I made sure to take care not to wake her, before I threw myself onto the bed beside her, not even bothering to get under the sheets. It wasn't hard at all for the coldness of sleep to come over me, but it became apparent that someone else had one last thing to do before sleep had its way.

It was the feeling of a pair of hooves snaking their way around me and tugging themselves closer, a warmth curling around my back as I felt a smile creep onto my face. A nuzzle to the back and a content sigh suggested that I wasn't the only one who enjoyed the feeling.

A few last words were murmurer, serving as a loving reminder to me.

"I told you we'd get our chance." I managed to respond.

"I love you Vinyl."

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