//------------------------------//
// Sword sworn 
// Story: Bloodsong 
// by Not_A_Hat 
//------------------------------//

"Ow!" I awoke, as Vinyl had promised, to a kick. "Stoppit!"
 
"Don't give me that." She frowned. "You've been dead to the world all day! I really could have used your help, but no, you just kept snoring."
 
"Look, Scratch, I'm not sure what you expected. I was up for nearly two days straight, with double-doses of magic exhaustion piled on top." I climbed to my hooves and stretched. The furniture scattered around the room had been tidied, and a glance at the clock told me I actually had slept most of the day. "I still feel pretty awful." I rustled my wings and shook myself. My muscles were sore, and my collection of bruises and bandaged shoulder ached. My throat was sandy, and I could feel a dull emptiness where my magic should be. I sighed. "So, how'd things go on your end? Where is she?" I looked around, leaning to peer into the kitchen. The mare I'd rescued was nowhere in sight.
 
"She, um." Vinyl paused, looking slightly ashamed.
 
"Yes?" I gave her an expectant look.
 
"Um, she sort of... "
 
"Spit it out."
 
"Sort of ran off...?"
 
"What."
 
"Totally not my fault! I was trying to explain things, help her recover a little. You know, ease her into the idea? Only I must have come on too strong, because she asked to use the bathroom, and then-- Poof!" She waved her hooves. "Gone! And you were asleep, and I didn't even get her name, and..." She buried her face in her hooves, groaning. "Sorry, Silver, I screwed up."
 
"Blech." I grimaced, trying to make sense of what she was saying.
 
"Sorry for kicking you. Only, this has been really frustrating for me. She's out there alone, with no idea of what's coming, and I couldn't help but remember..." She trailed off, looking despondent. Gloom settled over the room as we both considered the implications.
 
"I need to talk to Syzygy,” I muttered. “And Intaglio, too."
 
"Silver..."
 
"Look, I'm sorry for dragging you into this. I know you've got reasons to be wary of  me, hay, wary of the Hunters. Just say the word, and I'll never darken your doorstep again."
 
"Unless it's really important again huh?" The lack of bitterness in her voice surprised me. "No, that's okay. I mean, the newborn saw me; I told her my name. I'm already involved. And... well, I enjoyed being your friend. Before. Nowadays, I ignore the Hunters and they ignore me. I'm not so worried anymore. Say, tell me..." She slipped her shades down her nose and gave me a piercing glare with her scarlet eyes. "You've been up for two days, frantically trying to finish a job, right? What happened this time?"
 
"Um." I coughed, embarrassed. This wasn't what I'd expected from Vinyl. Last time, we'd parted with hard words and harder feelings between us. I'd expected time to cool that, knew that despite our past differences we were still friendly, but still; frustration, disappointment, anger would have been par for the course. Instead, she was giving me concern and kindness.
 
"Well, see... my cloud house got towed."
 
"Huh?" She shoved her shades back up and smirked. "Towed? A house?"
 
"It's a pegasus thing, okay?" I waved a hoof defensively. "I was renting some airspace, over near the University, but you know I'm picky about the jobs I take." She nodded. "There wasn't much in my line of work coming up. All the jobs were for somepony posh or just needed hired muscle... Anyways, I got a li~ttle behind on my rent, so my landpony had it towed. If I want to move it out of the police zone, I need to pay my rent and the fine. And my rent keeps adding late fees."
 
"Your landpony's a louse," Vinyl snorted.
 
"Yeah, well. It was cheaper than renting on the ground." I shrugged. "Anyways, I bet this job was rigged from the start, but I should at least search for the pony who commissioned me. I'll be able to do that and get a message to Ziggy through my contacts. Then Intaglio needs to know what happened. This sort of thing, baiting a Hunter, that's the business of the whole organization, and the Chair’s gotta be in the loop."
 
"I guess." Vinyl scratched her head and sighed.
 
"Did you know they closed your case?" I asked. "They marked you 'vanished' and took down the reward."
 
"What?" She gave me a sharp glance. "When?"
 
"A few months, I thin—"
 
"And you didn't tell me?" I flinched at her sharp frown.
 
"I thought you'd—"
 
"Look, Silver." She raised a hoof and poked me in the chest. I took a step back. "Knowing there's no longer an organized group of mercenaries offering ten thousand bits for information leading to my capture is the sort of thing a mare might consider important. Okay?"
 
"Okay."
 
"This day just can't make up its mind." She rubbed her eyes and sighed, but I saw tension I hadn't even noticed lift off her. "Still, that's good news. Hay, that's great news. I need a drink." She spun, and I followed her into the kitchen. She set out two glasses and splashed dark red liquid into each, from two different bottles.
 
"Is that..."
 
"Brandy for you." She pushed one across the table. "And AB-positive for me." She took a sip. "I'm going to need more of this soon."
 
I sipped my brandy. I normally didn't drink right after getting up, but I normally didn't get up at sunset.
 
"This is good." I gave my glass a surprised look.
 
"Mine's better." She gave me a smug smile.
 
"I'll take your word on that." I glanced uneasily at her glass. "Where do you get that stuff, anyways?"
 
"What, the mighty Hunter can't unravel this mystery?"
 
"Sheesh, I was just curious." I paused. "You're not..."
 
"Hay no!" She slammed her glass down. "This is blood is one-hundred-percent consensual, fair trade certified, and organically harvested!"
 
"Organic?" I cocked an eyebrow. "Really?"
 
"Read the label." She reached into the fridge and dropped the dark glass bottle in front of me. 
 
"Vinyl... this is a liquor bottle." I spun it so she could see. "Somepony sharpied out 'tequila' and penciled in 'blud'. They even spelled it wrong."
 
"Look, it's all good, okay?" She waved a hoof. "I don't do... that anymore. I'm reformed. You reformed me, remember?" She sighed. "Anyways, I'm almost out because I served our ungrateful waif about a pint of this stuff. It matches her pony type, so even though she was nearly dry, her magic should be good for at least a little while. After that, though, things will get tricky. Can you find her before that?"
 
"I'm... not sure." I frowned. "I have a rough description. Race, coat, mane, eyes, mark. But she's lost in the city, and investigative work takes time. I can't afford to hire anypony. Hay, I can't even tip my contacts." I groaned. "I gambled on this, Vinyl. I need to get Intaglio on my side and try to at least keep Syzygy quiet. If the other Hunters find out I've allowed a vampire loose, at the very least I'll be kicked out. Not even the boss will be able to stop them."
 
"I hear ya." She nodded sympathetically. "Well, I will say this: she's no nightwalker. She's different from an invert, though I don't know if I'd go so far as to start sticking myths and legends to her."
 
"Not like anypony can agree on what a 'daywalker' really is, besides dangerous."
 
"Right, well, here's the thing. If you don't find her, things might get tricky. But I will say there's a pretty good chance that if she starts to fade, she'll end up coming back."
 
"Oh... Because she rose here."
 
"Exactly." Vinyl stared into the distance. "Look, Silver... what happened between us, it was a while ago."
 
"Vinyl, I never intended—"
 
"No, and neither did I." She cut me off with a rap on the table. "But intentions are useless; it's actions we have to live with. And the long-and-short of it is, we both hurt each other, and I never really dealt with that." She sipped her drink. "I really liked being your friend, while it lasted. I hope we can try again, maybe with less secrets this time around. But taking another chance means... I guess what I'm trying to say is... Sorry." She sighed, rubbing her eyes. "Sorry for not hearing you out. Sorry for not thinking things through. And, well, sorry for taking so long to say sorry."
 
"It's... that's... I forgive you," I mumbled awkwardly. "Sorry."
 
"You apologized last time, dumbass." She finished the last of her drink and grinned. "This day started sucky, but it's been looking up. I've got a club to be at. If you want to crash on my couch..." She turned serious for a second. "Actually, I'd really appreciate it if you stayed around until this is over. I'm not bad in a pinch, but if our mysterious waif comes back, having another pony for backup would help a lot."
 
"Sure." I grinned. "That... actually, that sounds really great. I'm in no mood to fly across the city just so I can fight my way through the paperwork needed to sleep in my own bed."
 
"Knock yourself out." She turned towards her bedroom, and I stumbled back to the couch, the brandy already filling my head with mist. I curled up on her battered red sofa, barely taking the time to pull the folded blanket off the back before drifting into sleep.
 



 
"He's gone, and he never left your payment."
 
"Blech." I grimaced at the plain words.
 
"You expected it?" The barkeep's gaze sharpened.
 
"Sort of." I was sitting on a bar stool, in the dim corner of a downtown dive, fishing cautiously for information. I eyed the pony behind the counter, a deep green unicorn with a carefully messy mane. Vagabond was one of the rumor-mongers and they-say farmers indispensable to the trade of a Hunter. He was good, but that didn't mean he was helpful. I paid him, but that didn't mean he worked for me.
 
I sighed and sipped my drink, filtered rainwater with a splash of lemon. No alcohol on the job.
 
The bar was empty, just me and the barkeep. Vagabond didn't even open until the middle of the afternoon, but he made exceptions for clients of his side-job.
 
"Something I should know?" There was an edge to his voice. "I pointed you towards this job. I vetted Sun Dew. If you know why he's missing…" He let the sentence trail off.
 
"Look… none of this is good news." I sagged a little. Vagabond pulled out a bottle and added a splash of lime to my water. "Alright, alright." I pulled the cup closer. "Here's the short version. From where I'm sitting, the whole thing looked like a trap."
 
"Oh." He frowned.
 
"I met up with Sun Dew, ironed out the details. He was looking for a necklace. He had some fancy tracing thing on it; seemed pretty straightforward. He wanted it back quick and quiet. I'm a flyer, somepony who could move quickly and triangulate locations, and wouldn't be afraid of confronting a thief. His widget led me around for most of two days. It was tiring but not hard. I pinned the location at sundown, a mansion out in the country. I scouted once, waited for dark, and went in. Things got… hairy."
 
"Details?"
 
"Not that I don't trust you, Vagabond… but this isn't over, and it could be delicate. Hunter business, you understand." I shifted uneasily. Vagabond didn't like being left out of the loop, and I wasn't any good at improvising or misdirection. "I'm taking this to Intaglio."
 
"Fine." He sighed. "So, Sun Dew set you up and defaulted?"
 
"That's what it looks like." I stirred my drink, listening to the ice clink. The small noise echoed, highlighting the empty room. "Hey, can you get me in touch with Syzygy?"
 
"Maybe." He frowned as I changed the topic. "Depends. That one is barely more social than you."
 
I sipped my drink, reflecting. 'Maybe' meant he could do it, with the right motivation. The problem was, I was flat broke. I was just glad that he didn't charge for a glass of water.
 
"I'll owe you one," I said finally. I didn't like handing out favors. I trusted Vagabond, but that was the problem: I trusted him to serve his own interest first, which usually meant his bottom line. Still, he had a certain sense of integrity, not least because he knew the Hunters were serious business. "A small one."
 
"Promises." He waved dismissively but sighed. "Fine, I'll put this on your tab." The back door opened, and he grinned. "Syzygy, nice to see you."
 
"Thanks, Vagabond." Syzygy took a seat next to me and counted a reasonable sum out to the barkeep, his blue coat bright in the gloom.
 
"Did you just—" I frowned at Vagabond.
 
"The best sort of deal is one where you get paid twice." He gave me a smug grin. "Anyways, I'll leave you two to your business."
 
"Could I get a drink, first?" Syzygy leaned on the counter. "A mug of cider."
 
"Certainly, certainly." Vagabond drew from the tap with smooth efficiency, nodded to us, and walked into the back.
 
"Sometimes I can't stand him." I flipped the coin Syzygy had given me onto the counter. "This is yours. It's an interesting piece of kit."
 
"Thanks. Nice to have it back; they don't make them anymore." His horn glowed dimly. "For a little security," he said when I glanced at it. "Not that I don't trust Vagabond, but…" He stopped casting and sipped his drink. "We're clear."
 
"So." I sighed. "Um."
 
"This is for you." He extracted a sheaf of papers from his saddlebags and laid them on the counter. "My notes on the analysis of the vampire."
 
"…Thanks." I skimmed the first page, glanced at the last page, and sighed. Technical reading was not my thing.
 
"Want a breakdown?" He flashed his trademark smile and sipped his cider.
 
"Please, if it's all the same to you." I tucked the papers under a wing.
 
"Well, I carted the corpse back to my lab and took a closer look. It's my standard to do a twenty-four hour observation on anything I recover. A vigil, if you will. It's a precaution I started after my first hunt, and yesterday, I was glad for it. At dawn precisely, the vampire rose."
 
"Again?" I couldn't keep the surprise from my voice.
 
"Again."
 
"But that would mean—"
 
"It wasn't the leader. Somepony was sending it power."
 
"But it was so… so…"
 
"Powerful? Intelligent? Yeah, I noticed too. It didn't take me long to subdue it again, with the precautions I had in place. Afterwards, I disassembled it. Slowly." He smiled. "It's not like any of the nightwalkers I've gone up against. It was something more. You know how, if a nest forms, there's one alpha that sort of sets the… character for the whole thing?"
 
I nodded. I'd never been unfortunate enough to go up against more than one nightwalker, but I knew the idea. If a nightwalker managed to spread the infection, its subordinates were bound by the thrall spell. They would serve the alpha as best as they could. If the alpha liked stealth, they were all stealthy. If it liked carnage…
 
"So, you think the alpha for this nightwalker was… intelligent."
 
"It's my best guess." He shrugged. "There's more in the writeup. I spent the whole day working on that, barely taking time to alert the Guard to check the mansion.”
 
“Good call.” I frowned. I should have done that; the Royal Guard tolerated the Hunters, but only as long as we played by their rules.
 
“Anyways,” he said, “I'm calling the thing a 'dusk walker'. You saw how much control it seemed to have over its magic? The thrall spell seems to degrade the abilities of the betas. It's not really noticeable with a normal nightwalker, but the betas are a little weaker. I think that each step in the chain lowers things a little more. It's hard to guess just how much, but if my guesses are right, then the one ruling this pony was—is, moderately intelligent. Capable of logical thought."
 
"Do you think it's an invert?"
 
"That's the best possibility, of course. Most inverts can't create thralls, but maybe there's one out there who could. Or there could be more to it. Maybe I'm one step closer to the center of the mystery."
 
"What mystery?"
 
"The mystery of vampires, of course." He gulped his cider. "Look, hasn't it ever bothered you? Where this all started?"
 
"Um." I sipped my water, thinking. "No, actually. No more than where timberwolves started, or the fae, or changelings, or… well, any of the nasty stuff I've seen."
 
"Pfah." For a second, contempt flashed in his eyes. "Silver… for such a good Hunter, you can be remarkably disappointing. Look, vampirism is a magical disease. A spell! Those don't just start. It takes will, by definition!"
 
"By definition? What about natural magic?" I frowned. "I'm no magician, Ziggy, but isn't some stuff just… the way things are?"
 
"Eh..." He frowned. "That’s… Hmm." He peered over the top of his glass. "Look, I'll try and condense ten years of magic theory into short words for you. Magic energy is natural. As far as we can tell, it's generated by life. Spells, however, are not. Organized magic reflects purpose, like any tool. All sorts of things float, but nothing is a 'boat' until somepony steps onto it. Spells are produced by will. Ah-ah!" He stopped me as I opened my mouth. "I didn't say intelligence, Silver. Will. Timberwolves have will, though they're not intelligent. Even poison joak has will. Behind each spell is a goal, even if it's as simple as 'fly'." He pointed to my wings. "Tools imply purpose. Somewhere, sometime, there was a purpose behind vampirism's creation."
 
"Somepony created that?" My jaw hung slack. "That's evil!"
 
"It's probably not that simple." He chuckled. "I really don't think somepony wanted what we have now. It's too… disorganized, loose. Whatever the purpose was, it's been lost. If it was working correctly, I'd be able infer purpose from the effect, and current effects are… pretty useless, actually. Vampirism doesn't help anypony, but on the large scale, it doesn't hurt us much either. It's not effective at anything. I'm certain it's changed between then and now. Maybe there was an accident; maybe it's poor design, maybe there was intelligence, but something went wrong. Or…" He gazed into the distance. "Maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps it's fulfilling its purpose exactly, and I simply don't have enough of the picture yet. Regardless, I'm convinced of one thing. Until I understand where this comes from, where it's going, I won't be able to stop it."
 
"Woah." I sat back, trying to fit a barrage of new ideas into my head. "You want to cure vampirism?"
 
"That would be nice." He smiled. "But let's be realistic. I'd settle for destroying it."
 
I sipped my water to hide a grimace. This was the sort of thing that convinced me Syzygy wasn't nearly as pleasant as he acted.
 
"O…kay. So. You think it's a daywalker?"
 
"I honestly hope not." He groaned slightly. "I've got nothing concrete on the beings which carry that title, but every legend and myth agrees; they're very bad news. I'm not nearly ready to face one yet."
 
"Hum." Implicit in that were the assumptions that, one, daywalkers were real, and two, one day he would be ready to face them.
 
"There's no blood on this."
 
"Huh?" I realized he was pointing to the the coin I'd returned.
 
"Was it useful?"
 
"Y-Yeah." I stopped, trying to recover my train of thought. I'd asked Vagabond to find Syzygy so I could talk to him about this, but now that we were actually face to face, I had no idea what to say. "Look, Ziggy. Can.. Can I trust you?"
 
"Now there's a leading question." He cocked an eyebrow. "What if I say yes, but lie? What if I say no, but I'm telling the truth?"
 
"Blech." I grimaced. "Okay, we’re both mercenaries. I'll be more direct. What's your price?"
 
"Information." The reply was instant. "You want my help? It's yours. Just tell me everything about the mare."
 
"Ooof." I puffed out a breath of air. "Yeah, you know."
 
"Of course I know." He tapped the coin. "No blood. Well, and your reaction the other night made it painfully obvious. So, let me in. Give me details."
 
I studied him for a moment, trying to gauge his character but not let my frustration show. I had trouble knowing when ponies were joking. Trying to read the intentions of somepony like Ziggy was frankly beyond me.
 
"Please!" I flinched at the intensity in his voice. "What do you want? Should I kneel? Plead? Silver, I'm deadly serious about this. Name your conditions, just let me know!" His brown eyes had gone wide, and he really did look ready to throw himself on the floor.
 
"Look… Ziggy." I turned away, so I didn't have to face his desperation. "I don't…" I stopped. I didn't really trust him. Part of that was, though, that I didn't trust myself to judge him. My eyes wandered across the counter, finally coming to rest on the coin. It really was interesting. I'd taken some time to examine it before coming, and maybe there was a way to ensure at least a little honesty here. "I don't know you very well, so here's what we'll do. I can't tell you everything, but I can tell you parts… with a little assurance. I want to make a wingpony pact with you."
 
"Support and protect, right?"
 
"It goes both ways." I shrugged. "You need my help in this, it's yours. But if I call on you, I'll expect your backup as well. It's an alliance, although I won't pretend we're comrades. That should assure you I'll tell you what you need, and it's promise enough my friends won't end up in your lab."
 
"What sort of monster do you take me for?" There was a flash of anger in his eyes, and for a moment, I felt abashed. I really had no evidence that Syzygy was anything more than a very pleasant pony. "Look, Silver. If you want to be my ally, I'll tell this to you straight. You have trust issues." He poked me with a hoof. "You think I'd stoop so low as to harm innocents?"
 
"I—"
 
"Don't say it. You drew blades to 'protect' her. You think I'd have given her any less of a chance than you did? Do you think our boss would punish you for taking a chance on a victim?" He stared at me, until I hung my head, ashamed. "If she's truly innocent, I'll swear." His voice returned to calm. "That's easy enough for me. But even if I swear, will you actually believe me? Can you bring yourself to trust the pony you see?" He gestured to himself.
 
"Swear…" I drew in a slow breath, steeling myself against his words. "Swear on your spathis."
 
"Ooooo." He gave me a long look. "And then you say something like this, and I remember why I'm afraid of you." I blinked, nonplussed. "How do you know that?" His voice turned sharp.
 
"This." I tapped the coin on the counter. "It's orichalcum, right? I have some idea of what that means."
 
"Then you have some idea what you're asking. My weapon is my life."
 
"I get that." I looked him in the eye. "And I realize it's a lot to ask. So, I'll put my cards on the table too." I flipped open a wing, and grabbed one of my quillons. With a quick yank, I pulled it from the quill it had been socketed in, and tossed it on the counter with a clank. It landed painted-side down, revealing golden metal on the bottom.
 
"Sssssilver…" Ziggy hissed, eyes going wide.
 
"And then you say something like this, and I remember why I'm scared of you." I gave him a flat stare. "Yes, I have one too. Very useful in this line of business, right? Conducts magic just as well as my feathers, so I can wear knives and still fly. Spell resistance; I've yet to find an enemy it won't cut. They even work on most shields. And as long as I keep my word, they'll always stay sharp."
 
"Fine." Syzygy gave me a nod. "Here's the conditions. As long as she's an innocent, I'll help you protect the mare. As long as you're not acting against the law or the Hunters or me, I promise you what support I can give."
 
"That… sounds fair." I thought for a moment. "As long as you don't spread the information, and use it to help ponies and not harm them, I'll pass on everything I can. As long as you're not acting against the law, the Hunters, myself, or my friends, I promise to support you when you call." Syzygy pondered a moment, and then nodded. We both placed hooves on our weapons.
 
"I so swear."
 
"I so swear."
 
A spark jumped from the quillon. Syzygy smiled, and my feelings of distrust came crashing back. What had I just gotten myself into?
 
"Now." His grin grew. "Maybe you can tell me why you were looking for me."
 
"Right." I sighed.
 
This wasn't going to be much fun at all.