//------------------------------// // Trust // Story: Bite Me. . .Please? // by Drax //------------------------------// Octavia blinked, and then she did it again just to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. Sitting right in front of her was her classmate AppleJack. After the initial shock, they had both sat down and the tan blonde had poured both herself and Octavia a drink from a bottle of apple cider she’d brought along. With the sincere promise from AppleJack that it wasn’t any of the “hard stuff,” as she put it. Which is a shame, because Octavia really could have used a drink to calm her nerves. After working for Vinyl, she’d thought she’d get used to these kinds of things. She’d met two vampires, a ghost, and seen an underground, mostly illegal part of the internet, but it looked like this “Other world” still had a few surprises up its sleeve. It didn’t help that the current surprise in question seemed completely undisturbed about the fact that Octavia was working for a vampire. “Maybe this is just an ordinary day for her." Her brow furrowed as she took a look at the girl who was already pouring herself a second cup. “Come to think of it,” she thought. ”I don’t really know much about AppleJack as a person. I know she’s an Apple, one of the oldest families in Ponyville, so named for the actual apples and apple products they sell.” She took another sip of her drink, “Which, judging by this cider is well worth the hype. I know she’s good friends with another group of girls at school that are relatively popular, and that’s about it. I’ve never really had to sit down and talk with her for an extended period of time.” Her brow furrowed, “Actually, now that I think about it I don’t really spend an extended period of time with anyone at school besides BonBon.” Octavia stared down at the cup in her hand’s contemplating her apparent lack of friends. It was a thought that would have to wait though because Apple Jack was already finishing up her second cup, and looked like she was ready to talk. “Ah,” said AppleJack as she slammed the cup down on the table, “That hit the spot.” She smiled at Octavia, “You feeling any better Sugar cube?” Octavia blushed, remembering how she had frozen up at the sight of the girl. “Yes, much better now, thank you. I was just a little . . . surprised that you were the big bad official that had Vinyl and Nos so paranoid.” AppleJack chuckled as she started pouring herself another glass. “Well, that just means I’m doing my job right.” Octavia blanched, “Uhm,” she started nervously, “What exactly is your job?” AppleJack blinked, slightly put off by the question. “Vinyl didn’t tell you about us?” “Well, no, but—“ Appleack groaned, as she took a big gulp of the cider trying to calm her nerves. Only to remember it wasn’t alcoholic. “Typical, Vinyl putting something off until the last minute. Probably hasn’t even gotten you registered yet, has she.” She pointed accusingly at Octavia. Octavia’s face fell, her eyes drifting back to the drink in her hand, as she blushed. Too ashamed to admit the vampire hadn’t told her anything about a registration of any kind. “I don’t really know. Vinyl’s been keeping a lot from me. What information I have, I’ve had to pry out of her or other sources, primarily Nos and Lyra.” She looked back up at AppleJack, whose face remained contemplative. “I mean you saw how confused I was when I saw you, but from the way Vinyl talked beforehand it sounded like she was expecting this.” She gestured to the space between them, “Expecting us to be close friends who could just—you know—talk.” AppleJack, somewhat reluctantly, set her drink down. “Look,” she leaned back into her chair. “I’m not blaming you for not knowing anything, that’s Vinyl’s fault. But if you’re going to be dealing with this sort of stuff, there are some things you need to know, like the existence of The Order.” Octavia raised an eyebrow, “The Order?” AppleJack waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah, I know not the most creative name, but that’s what happens when you get a bunch of old stuffy white guys to come together and create an organization. Anyway, you’ve heard of Van Helsing right?” “Didn’t he slay vampires or something?” She said, eyebrow still raised in what she hoped was a dumbfounded look on her face. Octavia knew plenty about Van Helsing. After all, how could she claim to be a vampire expert if she didn’t know about one of their mortal enemies? But as long as AppleJack was in an informative mood, why not let her talk and see what she could learn? “Yeah, that’s the one. Any who he spent his entire life hunting down vampires and other creatures of the night that he discovered. I’d recommend looking up his autobiography, it’s an interesting read. There’s one part where he—“ “Perhaps I can borrow it sometime.” She said cutting her off abruptly. Octavia had just stumbled upon a gold mine, she wasn’t going to let it slip away. “Can you continue with the story please?” She asked a little more nicely “Oh, yeah, sorry about that.” AppleJack blushed, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment as she realized she’d been rambling. “Sorry, it’s just that he’s a bit of a hero of mine and I look up to him.” She smiled smugly, “He’s also family.” “Wait, what?” Yep, definitely a gold mine. “Helsing spent his entire life hunting down monsters, protecting the innocent. But near the end of his life he realized that in the grand scheme of things he had basically accomplished jack squat. Take vampires for example,” she took another sip of her drink that had managed to find its way back into her hand. “Vampires multiply like flies. If they’re not having kids, they’re turning regular people into vampires. I assume, or at least I hope, you know about the clans and the different weaknesses and such.” Octavia nodded, “Even in Helsing’s day, there were hundreds of them. Different families within clans that considered one thing toxic, meanwhile for another part of their clan you might as well be trying to poke them in the face.” She leaned forward, “And trust me, you do not want to poke a vampire in the face.” Octavia could pretty easily imagine the end result if she ever tried that with Vinyl. Apple Jack shuddered, shaking her head. “Plain and simple, it was ridiculous, and he had no way of keeping things in check. So, finally, in his old age he decided enough was enough. He rounded up group of extraordinary individuals with like-minded views to help him fight. People that were also fighting the good fight, trying to keep things in order. Together they went on the warpath, with Helsing leading the charge. Eventually, they would go on to create an organization hell-bent on exterminating, everything undead, hell spawned creature they could find aka The Order. With Helsing’s post as head of the organization taken over by his daughter after his death. She took a short pause, almost as if she was trying to collect her thoughts about what to say next. “Nowadays, though, the organization is almost entirely Helsing’s descendants. We set up shop in different parts of the world and watch over things.” She took another sip to wet her lips and give Octavia time to take in everything she’d said. But most of what AppleJack had said didn’t make sense to her. “Wait a minute.” She blurted out. “That’s a completely different story from the one I heard. Didn’t Helsing’s daughter die? And if your organization started out trying to kill vampires and creatures like them, when exactly did things change? After all,” she pointed out, “You don’t seem very interested in exterminating Vinyl.” AppleJack shrugged, “Things change,” she explained. “Somewhere along the way we realized that trying to just kill everything wasn’t really getting us anywhere, so we decided containment was the best option. We started striking deals, making agreements. The basics of which, pretty much say that as long as none of them step outta line we don’t interfere. We keep them a secret from regular people and keep things stable. Also we’re a top secret ancient organization, Sugarcube. If we want you to believe something did or did not happen, we can do that.” She winked, but the context made it come off as more menacing then charming. “So basically, what you’re saying is, your entire family are—“ “Monster hunters, eeyup. Hmm” she crinkled her nose. “Now that I think about it we’re more like the secret police than anything else.” “But wait,” she said pausing Apple jack from chugging the rest of the bottle. “If you’re supposed to stop creatures from killing humans and things like that, then why haven’t you been after Vinyl? She’s been draining half the town lately. And why is it so important that I have to be registered.” AppleJack’s face twisted into a look that told her she was missing something pretty obvious. “Well, we have to get you registered to avoid any slip-ups." “Slip-ups?” “Yeah, suppose you stumble across something like a werewolf in the park. It’s not likely though, werewolves aren’t really frequent in this area of the country.” She tacked on after seeing Octavia’s eyes widen in shock. “Anyway, a werewolf shows up, then someone from The Order shows up to take care of things. Make sure everything doesn’t end up on the national news or Facebook, though we’ve got those pretty locked down from the inside.” She scratched her neck, “Photoshop is probably one of the best things that ever happened to us at The Order.” Octavia glared at her, but she just rolled her eyes. “Anyway, The Order takes care of things, and then we have to perform cleanup. Now if you’re registered we know to leave you alone, and let you carry on with your life. But if you aren’t, we erase your memory, all of it. “You’re not serious.” “Completely and totally.” “You’re just trying to scare me.” “Well it should, because that’s what we do.” Another sip from her cup that had mysteriously emptied without her realizing, causing her to frown. “Plain and simple, Octavia, we aren’t the men in black. We don’t have a little device we can flash when you see something we don’t want you to. Messing around with people’s minds for any reason is a disaster.” She tapped her head trying to get her point across. “Science or magic, it doesn’t matter, it’s messy. “We either do a complete mind wipe of who you are and try to start you over, or we risk destroying most of it trying to target that specific memory. We’ve tried it before and it never works completely. It leaves people broken, and hollow inside. It completely distorts who they are and any memories they still have are going to be warped. Heck, you could keep the best memory you ever had, but remember it as a complete and total nightmare. So I’d recommend making sure Vinyl gets you registered.” It was said as more of a warning then a threat, but Octavia could tell AppleJack wasn’t playing around. “Duly noted,” she squeaked out A crease appeared in AppleJack’s forehead, as a thought crossed her mind “Honestly, I’m surprised you slipped through the cracks for this long without us noticing. As for Vinyl though, well, the key word in that sentence is ‘kill.’ Vinyl hasn’t actually killed anyone in town, she’s drained several people looking for a meal but that’s perfectly natural. I mean, she is a vampire after all. How would you like it if I tried to stop you from getting a meal just because I didn’t like where it was coming from. Ya' gotta eat, ya' gotta eat.” She shrugged again, and Octavia had to admit she had a point. “Besides, even if we wanted to go after Vinyl, her position makes her a might too important to apprehend.” “Do you mean her position as the leader of the Venture?” AppleJack nodded. “Now, if she was up to some real world ending business, then no one would kick up a fuss when we took her down. Heck, they’d probably help us stop her if we asked. But as she is right now, we can’t touch her.” She explained. Octavia sat back in her chair, trying to digest the information she’d just learned. It made sense, Vinyl was a big name vampire so normal laws didn’t entirely apply for her. She was too important to get rid of, and if they did, they’d have a legion of vampires trying to take revenge after them. “Wait a moment!” she screamed, rocketing into a sitting position in the chair and startling her company. A new thought had just came to mind, and it brought with it an unexplainable fury towards the woman sitting in front of her. “Don’t tell me you’re here because you think Vinyl and Nos are plotting to create some sort of doomsday device? I know the two of them can be pretentious, annoying, infuriating and just downright assholes sometimes, but they’re not evil.” “Whoah, whoah, whoah,” she said holding up a hand in her defense. The smaller girl actually looked ready to hit her. “No one ever said they are. This is standard procedure whenever we have two or more high profile creatures meeting. I’ve known Vinyl for a good long time, and I know she’s not the type to go on a kill all humans kick, but this is my job. Why do you care anyway? What exactly did they do to you?” Applejack cocked her head to the side, for the first time actually wondering how the girl in front of her got involved in all of this. Slowly, Octavia sat back into her chair, feeling herself shrink under AppleJack’s scrutiny. The flush of anger she had felt earlier was gone, replaced by embarrassment and confusion. Why did she care? True, Vinyl was supposed to grant her, her heart’s desire, but they weren’t friends. Mostly, the Vampire acted completely indifferent to her, treating her like a servant. And why wouldn’t she? The contract they’d made said that Octavia would work for Vinyl until Vinyl made her into a vampire, nothing more; nothing less. Vinyl said she had bigger plans for Octavia, but did she really? When she kept Octavia completely and totally ignorant of a world that, from the looks of it, completely and totally surrounded her without her knowing. “I-I’m her servant.” She said shakily, trying not to look AppleJack directly in the eyes. “We made a deal.” I’ll serve her for,” she wasn’t sure what to say, “A time, and then she’ll make me into vampire.” Octavia caught a glimpse of a frown on Applejack’s face chose not to say anything. “Well, I wish you the best of luck with that, but if you really want to get anywhere with Vinyl, you might want a piece of advice.” Octavia leaned forward, “What’s that?” “Don’t trust her." “What the hell, Nos? That hurt,” said Vinyl, still rubbing her head. Meanwhile, the elder vampire just smiled in response. Gone was the stiff, tightly round, girl he’d seen every day since he had arrived. Here was the Vinyl Scratch he knew. “Please, Vinyl,” he said as he marched back to his seat, plopping down into it, and then tossing her a glare. “Did you really think that act would work on me? I can understand the girl, and maybe the council, if you ram that stick a few more inches up your backside. But did you really think I would fall for that, prestigious and noble act.” He huffed, “You’re about as noble as McDonalds.” “Hey,” she shrieked, “I’m plenty noble.” He scoffed, “Look, Vinyl, I know the council is asking a lot of you, but if you think acting like one of them will get them to lighten up you’re sadly mistaken.” He visibly shuddered, “Believe me I’ve tried.” Vinyl crumpled into a nearby chair, her scowl slowly morphing into a look of disappointment. Nos always did have the ability to take her down a notch when she was really getting worked up. And from the looks of it he always would. “So what do you think I should do?” He sighed, “Honestly, I don’t know. The best you could do is try to prove yourself. Take the reins of things. The Venture haven’t had a strong leader for a very long time. Paole—as much as I loved the old fool—was very lax with how he handed things.” He held up a hand to silence any possible outbursts, from his very wounded looking niece. “Don’t get me wrong he got things done when they needed to be but, he didn’t really rally the Venture together like the old days.” He let lose another sigh, leaning his head back against the chair. “I don’t think anything short of a disaster could bring them together like the old days.” His head shot back up to look at her. “Now what are you planning?” It was Vinyl’s turn to scoff. “I’m not planning anything Nos,” she rolled her eyes. “I’m just trying to keep everything together. With Paole gone, I’m on top of the Venture.” She bit into her lip, “But no one will listen to some spoiled brat Paole just decided to hand the title to. I have to act like I’m in charge if I want to be treated like it.” Nos face palmed, “I know, Vinyl, we just had a very nice conversation about that, and I told you that wouldn’t work. When you’re a leader actions speak louder than appearances. Although those can be pretty helpful at times too, especially when you’re trying to get the attention of that pretty, young, Beelzebub at the bar, who’s been giving you the smoky eye. . .” Vinyl glared at him and he cleared his throat, trying to regain his train of thought that had been slowly traveling into the gutter. “Anyway, that’s not what I’m talking about.” He bridged the gap between them poking her in the forehead, “I’m talking about the other plan that’s been cooking in that head of yours. The one that involves that human girl you’ve made a deal with.” She smacked his hand away, the glare returning to her face. “While we were out yesterday, Octavia asked me about the deal you two had made.” For a brief instant, a flash of worry appeared on Vinyl’s face. Indiscernible to an untrained eye, but to someone like Nos it was practically a Neon sign. He waved his hand dismissively, “Don’t bother scolding her.” He leaned forward to the point where his face was inches away from hers. “I have very old eyes Vinyl,” he whispered, “Eyes that have seen things beyond your comprehension and still see them just as easily.” Vinyl looked into Nos’s eyes. The orbs that had been green and white a few minutes age were now a deep shade of red with a spot of black in the middle. Almost like a void or a pit, waiting for her to willingly fall in. Vinyl forced herself to look away. One of a vampires most effective weapons were their eyes. For Nos to use that kind of look on her, meant he wasn’t playing games. “Look at me,” he snapped.” Vinyl forced herself to look back, but she was worried for nothing. Nos’s piercing gaze had returned to normal. “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice the ties you had to that girl? Putting your soul on the line, what were you thinking, Vinyl?” Vinyl’s hands were still shaking, but she forced herself to at least sound like she was stronger than she felt at the moment. “I was thinking I needed cheap labor for a little while. I was broke and this place was slowly falling apart.” He sneered, “Quit lying Vinyl, you know just as much as I do that this is permanent until the deals finished. As for workers, there are a million other ways you could’ve gotten it, and still had a better deal. You know why?” She shook her head, “Because you’re selling your soul, practically everything is a better deal than that!” His eyes softened, and he let out a deep breath trying to calm himself. “Now when do you plan on turning Octavia?” “Never.” “What!” Nos shouted. His niece had gone insane, completely and totally insane. “There’s no weaseling out of this deal Vinyl. You either turn that girl into one of us or you surrender your soul to the gates of The Nether Realm.” Look, Nos, Tavi is . . . nice, but she’s not exactly the type of person suited for this type of life.” Vinyl had suddenly become vastly interested in her finger nails. Mostly because she didn’t want to see the disapproval on Nos’s face. “Besides, there are ways to get out of everything,” reverting her gaze back to her now steaming uncle. “You told me so yourself.” Nos clenched his teeth together, trying not to shout at his niece’s thick-headedness. “But Vinyl, aren’t you forgetting the fact that she’s a human. At some point she’s going to die, and when that happens, you’ll be doomed. No if ands or buts about it, she’ll be at the pearly gates of heaven or wherever else, and your soul will be burning in eternal damnation. “Well I guess I’ll just have to make sure she stays alive for a very long time.” She mocked. Nos froze, “Vinyl, you wouldn’t.” She crossed her arms in an action she hoped looked commanding, but instead made her look rather childish. “I would, my soul is on the line remember.” She stated matter of factly. “And think about it this way, the more time I have to spend with her the more she might change my mind. I know what I said about saving her the torment, but the main reason right now is that she kind of annoys me. She has her good parts too,” she added on quickly, seeing that her uncle was about to scream again. “But yeah, kind of annoying.” Nos, shook his head, not exactly sure what to say about his nieces arrogance, “Fine. But what about in the meantime? I assume you’ll be using the money I give you to put the spell on the house back into place.” Vinyl nodded, “Once the spell is back and working at full strength I can focus on other more important things. It’s been, what? A couple months or so since I first went into seclusion to train? Once the house is taken care of it’ll be back to business as usual.” “It’s hard to go back to something that never started.” He said a smirk returning to his face, as he stood up, working his way over to the door and throwing it open. “But if I recall, your old business, involved alcohol, lots and lots of alcohol combined with women for a dangerous mixture.” Vinyl blushed, “Shut up, you old geezer. Now let’s go get Octavia, before the goody two-shoes spills all of my secrets.” “What do you mean don’t trust them. Didn’t you just say, Vinyl and Nos couldn’t hurt a fly?” “Yeah,” she grudgingly admitted. “But that doesn’t mean they as vampires can’t be conniving, egotistical, and have their own agenda almost ninety percent of the time.” Octavia gulped, that captured Vinyl to a tee. Well, she didn’t know about the conniving part, but it seemed like a trait Vinyl would have. “Now, I’m not saying Vinyl’s guilty of anything,” she leaned in. But do you know why she’s the leader of the Venture. “I-um- Nos, said that Paole left the title to her when he died.” Had Nos lied to her as well? “Oh, he did,” Octavia mentally sighed. “But not before— “That’s enough, AppleJack!” The pair jumped in their seats, turning to look at the open doorway that was currently occupied by the two vampires in question. Neither one looked especially pleased with the conversation they’d just dropped in on. AppleJack recovered first, standing up to greet the pair. She threw her arms wide open, with a warm smile making its way across her face in much the same way she’d greeted Octavia. “Vinyl, Nos, how’ve you two been? Hope immortality has been treating you two Vinyl stared at her, “Considerably less, since you showed up.” She eyed Octavia. “I take it you got everything settled for Nos’s visit.” She scanned the room, “I don’t see any paperwork.” “Yeah, where’s the mountain of paperwork that has to be signed in triplicate.” Said Nos, clearly miffed at the idea Octavia had been given special treatment.” Applejack just chuckled, “Don’t worry,” she said. “It’s all in here.” Indicating to tight leather brief case that was now in her hands. “All forms signed in triplicate.” She gave Octavia a wink, asking her to play along. Octavia blinked “Where did that come from. I could have sworn her hands were empty until now.” Octavia did a double take as her eyes wandered to the table. “Also, where did that bottle of cider go, I’m pretty sure AppleJack didn’t finish all of it off. even though she gave it hr best try.” Those were questions that would have to be answered another day. After assuring Vinyl that all the forms would be processed correctly and reminding her about Octavia’s registration, the farm girl waved good bye, with Nos volunteering to show her out. As soon as they were out of sight, Vinyl turned on her. “What exactly did she tell you?” She snapped. “She told me a bit about her organization, what they were, how they came about, that’s all.” Vinyl seemed relieved, but against her better judgement, Octavia continued. “She, she also told me not to trust you.” Vinyl stared down at her with her usual cold expression, “And what do you think?” “I-I-I don’t know what to think,” she stammered. “You just keep so much from me, Vinyl.” She gave the vampire a pleading look, hoping for some sort of apology or sign of regret. “I’m not always sure that the small pieces you give me are real. The more people I talk to, the more it seems like there’s so much more to the story, but you won’t tell me any of it.” She shook her head, “What am I to you Vinyl?” Their eyes locked, and Octavia searched for an answer, but was greeted by the same off-hand coldness she’d received in her first week working for Vinyl. “The information AppleJack was about to give you was classified.” She replied coolly. “Not just from you, but from any outsider to the vampiric clans.” She smoothed her hair back onto her head, a fruitless endeavor since it was determined to spike out into the air. “If it had been discovered by vampires other than myself or Nos, that you knew more than you should, you’d more than likely be killed. Your soul stuffed inside a bottle or a jar for all of eternity.” Octavia paled, she knew she had been getting good information from Applejack, but she had no idea it was that good. Vinyl saw the look of distress on her servants face, and for the first time since she’d walked into the room her features softened, if only slightly. “Octavia, you are correct. There is a very vast and interesting world hidden beneath your nose. You are also correct in the fact that there’s a lot of it, I’m keeping from you. But you should know that most of it is deadly.” Vinyl turned to leave, but not before sending a final message. “Remember, Octavia, I’m giving you all of this information in pieces to help you digest all of it. Eventually, you’ll know almost everything I know,” she let out a breath she’d apparently been holding in. “In the meantime, your ignorance is imperative to your survival. Understood?” Octavia didn’t respond, but the vampire went on anyway. “Good, when you’re done being shell shocked, I have a note for you. It’s important you deliver it to someone important at your school tomorrow.” And with that the Vampire swept out of the room, closing the door behind her. Leaving a very lonely and slightly confused Octavia to like she said, “Digest” all of the pieces she’d been given. The one that just wouldn’t seem to go down, to the point she felt like she might choke on it eventually, was her trust in Vinyl Scratch.