“Vinyl? Vinyl!” Octavia shouted to get the unicorn’s attention, but she just ignored her as she walked along the path. Octavia galloped after her, quickly coming level with her. “Vinyl! Stop and talk to me!” She shouted as she grabbed the impassive mare by the shoulders.
The moment she touched her Vincenza froze, immediately tense as if she was preparing to strike. Slowly, she turned her head to face Octavia. “Later. I will tell you about it later.”
Octavia glared at her. “No. You tell me now.”
Vincenza started grinded her teeth together. “I’ll explain the rest later, what I can tell you now is that D is…was an old friend of mine, he’s a vampony and he’s powerful. Very powerful.” She shook Octavia’s hooves off her and resumed her walk to Town Hall. “The sooner we can get this business with the mayor sorted, the sooner I can get to explaining things.”
The pair made quick time to the Town Hall, mostly because everypony gave them a large berth. Although, this was probably due to the dark look Vincenza was wearing. As the couple walked through the doors, they were cheerily greeted by the receptionist. But as Vincenza turned her head to look at her, the pony’s smile quickly faded as she saw the look on the unicorn’s face. “Can I help you miss?”
“Si, I need to talk to Mayor Mare immediately.” The look on Vincenza’s face stilled any objections as the unicorn walked right past the desk, and up the stairs that lead to the mayor’s chambers. Octavia gave the mare at the desk an apologetic smile and trotted up the stairs after her.
Vincenza and Octavia walked down the hall, Octavia was admiring the portraits of past mayors as they made their way to the chambers at the far end. “These are quite nice don’t you think? I wonder how much they cost.”
Vincenza quickly examined the paintings, she sneered at them and continued walking.
Octavia gave the vampony a scowl. Vincenza simply huffed and quickened her pace, wanting to be out of the building as fast as she could.
The national seal of Equestria, two alicorns circling each other, was superimposed on the twin doors of the mayor’s chambers. The gold inlay made it shine in the light and the artwork was so well painted that if not for the door handles a pony could be forgiven for mistaking it for a wall.
“Let me do the talking Octy.” Without waiting for a reply, Vincenza knocked on the door three times and walked in, closely followed by a very embarrassed Octavia.
Mayor Sliver Ink, or Mayor Mare as she was known to the public had, been in office for years. And when you are mayor of a town like Ponyville with its uncanny ability to attract the unusual, the odd, and the downright impossible, you tend to become immune to surprises of all flavours. So when a unicorn walked into her office with a glare that could make an Ursa Major wet itself, followed by an embarrassed earth pony she recognized as Octavia, she took it in her stride, offering them a seat and preparing for the incoming shit storm.
“How can help I you today?” she said with practised cheeriness.
Vincenza took a moment to calm down marginally. “Good morning Mayor.”
“Good morning miss…?” Sliver was at a loss to the brunette unicorn’s name.
“Vinyl Scratch, I believe we’ve already met.”
With a grace only gained through years of political work Silver managed to keep her composure. “Oh sorry Vinyl I should have recognized you when you came in with Octavia. I presume that from the accent that you speak Istallion?”
“Si.” Vincenza replied with a curt nod.
Silver filed the information away and smiled at Vincenza then at Octavia. “So what can I do today for two of Ponyville’s more illustrious residents?”
Vincenza cleared her throat. “Well you can start by cleaning up the bodies in our house.”
It took all of the Mayor’s will power to resist jumping in to the air screaming ‘What!’ Instead she said in an even tone. “You had best explain this Miss Scratch.”
“Last night Octavia and I were woken up by sounds from the lounge. We went to go check them out, turns out that it was some sort of gang with some griffons they had brought along. They saw us and I teleported Octavia and myself to the Whitetail forest.”
“Then how do you know if there are bodies in your house?”
“Because we saw Lyra and Bon Bon, two friends of ours. They had gone over to invite us to breakfast this morning. When we didn’t come out, they went in and found the bodies. We meet them as we were coming back into town, and they told us.”
“Oh dear, I’ll alert the guard to clean your house and examine the crime scene.”
“That won’t be an issue Silver. Lyra said that Twilight was on the case so she probably already has tracked the criminals.”
“Twilight knows about this? Then why am I only finding out about this now.” The mayor was irritated that Twilight had not immediately informed her. She was definitely going to have some cross words with the lavender unicorn later, prized student of Celestia or not.
“I don’t know Silver, that’s something you’re going to have to ask Twilight when you next see her. If you will excuse me, Octavia and I have other plans we must attend to.”
“Of course. I shall get the guard to clean up your house and dispose of the bodies. It should be clean by this afternoon. I will also have to get Twilight to share any information she collected for the investigation, but that’s not your problem.” The mayor rises as she shows the couple to the door. “I hope you have pleasant day and don’t worry I will be sure to get this sorted out.”
Vincenza gave her a polite nod and walks out the door. Octavia follows not having said a word during the whole exchange. The pair walks out of the government building and Vincenza turns to Octavia, some of her earlier mood fades. “So what do want to do until one Octy? We’ve got plenty of time.”
“We could always go to the market. I need to pick up a few things anyway.”
Vincenza smiled slightly. “All ways practical, right Octy?”
“One of us has to be.” Octavia gave Vincenza a smile of her own. “Let’s go.” Octavia set off towards the markets, this time making Vincenza be the one to catch up to her.
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The markets were lively, even during the morning as ponies rushed around to collect daily supplies and essentials. The next hour was spent running around to stall after stall purchasing food, washing powder and other house hold items. Normally most stalls would try to swindle their customers by jacking up prices but when it came to Octavia that day, they decided to play fair. Mostly due to the black looks the unicorn with her would shoot them.
“I can’t believe that the stall was having a sale on carrots, three for the price of one! The savings here have been amazing.” Vincenza tuned Octavia out as she ranted about the ‘deals’ and how nice the owners were to her. They were walking through the beauty care section when a loud voice roared out over the market.
“When some pony tries to block, show them that you rock!” Moments later a light blue pony with a green mane burst through a stall and rolled along the ground a bit before getting up and running away. Octavia, Vincenza and small crowd of ponies walked up to the newly created hole. On the other side was a big blue Minotaur a small white carry basket on one arm loaded with various produce. He walked up to the turnip stall, the line suddenly decided to reform behind him.
Octavia was outraged by his actions and marched right up to him. “What in the name of Celestia do you think you’re doing?! You can’t intimidate ponies like that! Who the hay do you think you are?!
”
The Minotaur raised an eye brow at the grey mare before clearing his voice and striking a pose. “Iron Will is my name, training ponies is my game.”
“Well I don’t care who you are, you can not intimidate ponies like that.” Octavia stamped a hoof into the ground emphasising her point.
“Listen here lady. No pony and I mean no pony cuts in front of Iron Will!” The Minotaur tensed his muscles and shouted, his voice pushing Octavia backwards.
Despite his theatrics Octavia was nonplussed. “That is no call for violence though. You try to act tough, but you are nothing but a hyped up thug with anger issues.”
The Minotaur’s pupils constricted “Insult me, and you pay a hospital fee!” He roared. Iron Will lunged forward, grabbing Octavia by her mane and tail. He then spun her around like a discus before letting her go, his basket spilling his produce at the same time. She was flung through a stall, the owner jumping out of the way in time to avoid the incoming mare. She stumbled up, fine apart from a few splinters and bruises.
Iron Will dusted his hands off and began picking up his spilled food. Vincenza trotted up to the rubble that used to be the stall, levitating Octavia’s purchases with her. She set them down in small pile. “Octavia, could you please watch these for a moment.” She didn’t wait for a reply as she turned to face the preoccupied Minotaur a thin smile playing its way on to her face.
“Ahem.” She cleared her throat to get his attention, Iron Will perked up and turned to face her. He eyed her suspiciously, as something about the way she was smiling was giving him the hebejebes.
“What do you want?”
“I saw your display there and I have to say, it was amazing!” She walked a bit closer to the Minotaur.
“You think so?” He replied his ego inflating at the complement.
“Oh yes, so strong so…assertive.” Vincenza fluttered her eyelids at the Minotaur in a way that Rarity would kill to learn. Iron Will blushed and adjusted his tie, Octavia, on th’ other hand, was confused as to what her marefreind was up to. “I’m terribly weak willed myself, and was wondering if a big, handsome, Minotaur like yourself would be willing to show a pushover like myself how to assert myself more.”
“Well, I would be will to give a few assertiveness training tips over dinner some time.” Iron Will gave his best grin and took a few steps forward, Vincenza was now standing directly in front of him.
She gave him her most seductive look. “I would love to Mr Will.” She said in a husky voice. “There is only one thing though.” She beckoned him to lean forward, and he eagerly complied. This time her voice was cold and serious “I’m into mares.”
Iron Will’s face was confused as he began to pull away. Vincenza turned sharply, and putting herself near vertical, bucked straight up, catching him in his windpipe. Iron Will grasped his throat, making weak gurgling sounds as he gasped for air like a fish out of water. Vincenza quickly followed up with a sharp buck to his knees, shattering his knee caps. The blue giant made a wet gurgling noise as he tried to scream, falling over on to his back. The crowd gasped and Octavia was shocked as Vincenza jumped up on to the Minotaur, pinned his hands to ground with her magic and began to rain blows onto his face. Blood spurted up as she fractured his jaw in multiple places and knocked out most of his teeth. She struck him across the face with enough force to crack an eye socket. The blood was freely flowing down his face as she mercilessly continued to rain blows down onto his broken face, her face twisted into a sadistic smile. She only ceased when it became obvious that the unfortunate creature had gone unconscious.
Vincenza stood over the unconscious body, her smile fell as she realised she may have gone too far with her retribution. She turned around to see the crowd looking at her with a mixture of shock and horror. She looked at Octavia and her heart wrenched, the mixed look of horror and disbelief she was receiving made her want to just sit down and cry. However, she crushed those emotions. Her face assumed a neutral expression as she forced her emotions into a mental safe and slammed the door shut tight.
“Somepony should call for an ambulance, he needs it.” She addressed the crowd, levitated the morning’s purchases and walked away. The crowd spilt apart for her, ponies backed away in fear, looking at her the same way one looks a wild animal.
Octavia was shocked, she had just witnessed Vincenza brutally beat another living creature, and judging from the smile she had been sporting moments before, she had enjoyed it. Once again the image she had built of her partner changed, this time taking on a darker tone. For the first time, she was afraid of what she would find if she continued to stay with Vincenza. She had said in the forest that there was so much more of her to discover, now she wondered exactly who she would find and whether or not she would like it. She hurried after Vincenza, not wanting to bear the looks the other ponies were giving her.
The pair walked in an uncomfortable silence until they were well and truly away from the market and walking down a quiet back street. At which point Octavia rounded on Vincenza fury evident in her features.
“What the buck was that?! Why in the name of Celestia did you do that?! What on Equis would, could, prompt you to beat him to pulp?!” Octavia was breathing heavily from her emotion fuelled rant.
Vincenza simply looked at her impassively. “You.” Her voice contained no emotion, like she was some sort of construct.
“Wahh?” Octavia said, with confusion evident in her voice.
“He threw you through a stall! Like hay I was going to let him go!” Emotions crept into her voice, notably rage, and surprisingly, sorrow. “I’m not going to let anypony or anything hurt you. Not as long I live.”
“But why did you have to hurt that poor Minotaur so badly? You could have stopped after you bucked him in the knees.” Octavia asked.
“I…got carried away. I’m sorry. It’s just that the letter we got earlier put me in a bad mood.” Her voice shook slightly with anger.
“About that, who is D? What did he do to you?”
“He…He…” Vincenza shook with rage and sorrow. Octavia nuzzled her, her concern once again beating her anger.
“Grazie Octy I’m sorry but…it’s not a nice memory and I would prefer to tell it only once, so could we talk about this with our friends later?”
“It’s okay, I understand.” Octavia hugged her marefriend as she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Grazie for understanding.” Vincenza returned the hug.
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The couple dropped their purchases off at the house and rest of the day passed without incident as the two mares wandered Ponyville. Ponies would occasionally give Vincenza weird looks, but surprisingly, more than a few ponies walked up to them congratulating Vincenza for ‘giving that brute what he deserved’. That put a smile on Vincenza’s face for the rest of the day, but as the clock crept closer to one Octavia noticed that Vincenza was becoming more and more stressed.
Eventually the clock struck one and they made their way over to the square. Vincenza was hopping around nervously, scared of how her friends would react. The pair rounded the corner to see the group at a table. They were all there, with the exception of Twilight, and were deep in conversation. Octavia called out to them and waved, however they didn’t hear her so she moved closer. This time the group looked up and rushed over to them. Vincenza stopped in her tracks, their expressions weren’t particularly happy. In fact Applejack and Rainbow’s were simmering with rage and Rarity’s was particularly sad.
The pair approached the table, and as she got closer Vincenza could make out red rings under Rarity’s eyes, as if she had been crying. She was being comforted by Lyra, Bon Bon and Fluttershy. Applejack stood up and walked over to them, nodding at Vincenza “I know that’s you Vinyl, Rare said you got a new mane and such but we’re gonna have to talk latter. Right now we’ve got work to do.” She looked the two ponies in the eye. “Girls, we’ve got a situation; I could really use all the help I can get.”
Octavia looked worried “What’s wrong Applejack?” She asked with concern.
“It’s Applebloom and the girls, they’ve been foalnapped.”
Octavia took a step back in shock whilst Vincenza narrowed her eyes in a dark scowl.
“When.”
“I don’t know. Last time I saw them was this mornin’ when I sent Applebloom to school, same with Rare and RD.”
Rainbow looked at the pair. “If anypony hurt her…” she trailed off, unable to find the words to articulate how she felt, so she settled for bashing the table with her forehooves and glaring at the table top darkly.
Pinkie put a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “Come on Dashie. We’ll find them. No need to get saddy waddy.” She gave the pegasus a trademark grin.
Rainbow simply continued looking at the table top before springing up into the air. “ARRGHHH.” She screamed in frustration. “We should be out looking for them, not sitting around here doing nothing!”
Applejack turned to look at her. “Trust me RD, nothing is going to keep me from my sister, but we need to everyone here and we’re missing Twilight. And if anypony can help us, it’s her.” RD scowled at the apple farmer before lowering herself into her seat, resuming her glaring contest with the table.
Vincenza stepped forward. “How do you know they’ve been foalnapped? They could just be hiding somewhere, trying to get their cutie marks in camouflage or something.”
“Because we got a note.” Applejack said bitterly, she reached into her saddlebags and withdrew a letter from it, she passed it to the waiting vampony. “Here, read for yourself.”
Vincenza scanned the letter and immediately tensed up.
I have your young. Tell the nightingale to find me or their blood will be on her hooves.
D
P.S I’ll be watching
Octavia noticed the change in her partner’s posture. “Are you okay?” She asked.
Vincenza slowly handed the letter to her partner. Octavia scanned through the letter, her face showing her outrage as she read through it. She rounded on Vincenza “Who is D?” She asked.
Applejack and Rainbow both looked at Vincenza. “What!” Vincenza took a step back.
“Everypony calm down.” She said in a soothing voice.
Rainbow shot forward and stopped inches from Vincenza’s face. “You know where Scootaloo is! Tell me where to find my daughter! She shouted, grabbing the unicorn by the shoulders.
Vincenza lit her horn and lifted Rainbow off her, depositing her a short distance away. “Listen I don’t know where your families are, but yes I do know who D is.”
Applejack took a step forward. “Then start explaining.”
“I order to do that I have to tell you something first. My name isn’t Vinyl Scratch, it’s Vincenza Nightingale.”
“Nightingale? As in the bird.” Lyra spoke up.
“Yes my mother had a thing for birds, anyway that’s not all. You see I’m not entirely pony.”
Rainbow cocked her head to one side. “What do you mean? You look ordinary enough.”
Vincenza cringed inwardly, this wasn’t going to go down well. “I only look ordinary, Rainbow how old do you think I am.”
Rainbow looked her over. “I would say…twenty five twenty eight.”
“Close. Try adding another three thousand four hundred years add you would be about right.”
Everypony stopped, their mouths hung open. Even Rarity was shocked enough to stop her moping.
Applejack was the first to respond. “But how…”
Vincenza flashed her fangs, causing everypony to backpedal away from her. Fluttershy and Rainbow shot up into the air, and Lyra and Bon Bon hugged each other tightly while Rarity and Applejack took multiple steps back.
Again Applejack was the first to recover. “What…what are you.”
“Me? I’m many things. A musician, a warrior, a general and a politician. I’m an immortal of the night, an elder vampony, but at this moment in time I’m what you need most.”
“And what’s that?”
“A friend. You wanted to know who D is? Well that is a long story, but putting it as simply as possible he is one of my oldest friends, my brother, and my most hated enemy.”
Octavia put a hoof on her shoulder. “What happened between you two?”
“A long time ago, over five hundred years, long before any of you were born I lived in Istalia. But not the Istalia you know. In my time it was ruled by Vamponies and I was one of them, however I grew disillusioned and sought solitude. I found it in a town called Solis. There I settled down and found a home.”
Vincenza smiled faintly “I even found love.” Octavia gasped.Vincenza took no notice as a tear rolled down her check. “His name was Dante Rubino, and we were happy together, so when he asked me to be his wife, I said yes. Then something happened that changed my world.”
“What?” It was Applejack who had asked.
“Motherhood.”
Everypony including Octavia gave a gasp of shock.
Vincenza smiled sadly. “I gave birth to beautiful filly. I named her Eva, after my grandmother. Dante chose her last name, Diamante. She was born with vampirism, slowing her aging process down to one year for every two that passed, stopping when she completed puberty….or it would of if she had made it that far.”
Vincenza stopped to gather herself and take a breath before continuing. “When the second civil war broke out and I refused to join the fight, my town was destroyed and my husband and daughter were both killed. Only two ponies knew where I was during that time, both of them I trusted with my life and one betrayed me. D gave up my location and as a result my daughter was killed….” Her words trailed away as she shut her eyes and held back the tears.
Surprisingly, it was Rainbow who reacted first; she lowered herself down and hugged the unicorn. “I understand.” She whispered into her ear, being surprisingly sympathetic. Seeing Rainbow hold Vincenza the others soon joined in the hug. They held it for a couple of seconds before breaking away.
Vincenza smiled at everypony, this had gone a million times better than she could have every hoped. “All right, now that’s out of the way, let’s go find Twilight so we can locate the girls.” She said chirpily. “Where should we start?”
Rarity spoke up “When I went to tell Twilight about our little meeting she wasn’t home so I left a note on the door.”
“Then we try her place first.”
The group nodded in agreement a set off towards Twilights library, and soon reached the massive tree house. Rarity and Applejack knocked on the door, but when they received no reply they went inside, only to find the place deserted except for a sleeping owl and a napping dragon. They quietly walked back out and reported their findings to the group. As the group began to walk away, Vincenza stayed behind, something didn’t feel right.
Almost as if they were being watched.
“Girls hold up, something weird is going on.”
The group stopped and turned around to face her. Suddenly Pinkie’s body went psycho. “Wwwwwoooooaaaahhhhhh wwwweeeee’vvvvveeeee ggggooootttttt aaaaaa dddoozzzeeee iinnnbbbbooouunnndddddd.” She was shaking up and down like a jack hammer and moving around the group.
Vincenza’s ears perked up and she turned her head to the left, her world slowing to a crawl as her brain kicked her reaction time into high gear. Approaching her at high speeds was a faintly purple glowing sword, headed right for her head. Not wasting a moment she surged forward at fantastic speeds, her body blurring to the rest of the world as she shot forward, only moving a step before the blade punctured her torso, ripping through her stomach, effectively skewering her. The force of the blow made her slide a couple of feet, but she retained her balance.
The group screamed and began to rush forward to help her. Vincenza pushed them away from her with a pulse of force. “Stay back I’ll be fine!” She shouted.
She looked up in the direction the sword came from, the sword its self was lodged all the way through her and although it was painful she had endured far worse she could easily restore herself. Perched atop a nearby building overlooking the area was a unicorn, one that she knew very well.
Vincenza scowled “Twilight.” She whispered under her breath.
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Perched atop the building Twilight watched her friends nock on her door and walk inside, she waited as the talked and began to move away. Her target lingered behind. This was her shot. She withdrew one of her swords from the scabbards on her back and levitated it so that it was pointing directly at her targets head. She sent it on its way with a burst of force. But as she released it, Pinkie started shaking. Her target blurred the blade taking her in the torso, a non-lethal shot. She swore out loud, nopony was around to hear her.
“Bucking Pinkie sense.”