//------------------------------// // Rumors // Story: Fangs: The Order // by Sapphic //------------------------------// *~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*...Maple...*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~* Sunshine danced through two windows that sat in front of me, stretching up the wooden floor and stopping just at the foot of the desk where I sat. I stared longingly at them, like two gateways to another world that I had yet to see in its entirety. My days working as a desk mare seemed to blend together in an unnerving fashion; daylight becoming something I observed more than experienced while I worked in the shade and only left the office once it had turn to pitch black outside. I asked myself a few times if this was what Vampires lived like, though I suppose they were used to it. Even the overwhelming silence had become a normality; now it was something making a sound that became an awkward moment. The only manner of sound came from either me clicking my pen repeatedly, or Rose flipping a page in the newspaper or taking a sip of her coffee and putting it back on the table. My head was propped up against my right hoof while my left was busy prodding at a paper ball with the end of a red pen. I had made a sort of system in the meantime where I alternated jobs between the two hooves; once the one holding up my head began to go numb from the awkward angle it was bent at it would switch with the other and begin poking with the pen. Rose, the only other pony I had been around in for some time now, said I was beginning to turn into a classic secretary like herself and suggested I try some coffee and read the paper to start fighting the monotony of the job I was given. I mean they didn't even have a board game or something to keep me the slightest bit entertained. I didn't want this position, and I don't think anyone would, but I really wasn't suited for this. I was trained to be a field solider in my brothers hunting pack; not some desk mare trained to pick up a phone that never rings and watch a door that never opens. I'm sure that Rose was trained to fight as well, and probably felt the same way as I did, but she seemed too far gone to help anymore. It's a sad day when the highlight of it was that I got to stack the papers in the back room. I had been plotting against this position for a while now actually; trying to come up with some sort of elaborate way to convince Rose to either let me go have some fun or get her to come along with me. Though I was pretty sure she would be against it since it was probably against some regulation to leave the desk with the phone unattended. Either way, I was going to give it a shot. "Hey Rose?" I called out, not bothering to look up from my game of makeshift soccer I was now playing. A grunt was my only response. "Could we do something?" I asked, almost pleading in my monotonous tone. I heard a shift in the paper to my side, signaling that she had either flipped the page, or was now looking at me. "Like what? You wanna clean the bathroom this time?" She asked. I couldn't tell if what she suggested was sarcasm or a genuine suggestion; which was a fact that scared me a little bit, but otherwise encouraged me to press on. "No, like go get lunch." I said. I would start small with my things, and work my way up. That way, it didn't seem that big of a deal at first and, over time, I could work up to bigger things. There was a silence for awhile before she spoke up, but only after her paper crinkled and the sound of something hitting the trashbasket rang out in the silence. "Sure, lets go." She said with ease, getting out of her chair. I nearly slipped out of my chair. "W-what?" I stammered. I hadn't expected this to be easy. "Let's go. I'm getting tired of reading last week's paper anyways." She smiled, trotting around her desk and towards the door, with me stumbling right behind her in an anxious attempt to get out of the cramped office space. *~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~* It was like a breath of life when the air of the outdoors hit my face; stopping me dead in my tracks and forcing me to take a deep breath of the fresh outside air. It smelled nostalgic, another disturbing fact, and alive compared to what I normally breathed; which was normally either the crisp air of night or the air conditioning of the office. Not only that, but everything seemed saturated with color as I looked at it, colors popping out in ways I hadn't thought possible. Maybe it's just me, but I think the night smelled different than the day. I took a quick glance at Rose, who seemed to be doing the same thing as me but not on the same scale. Figures she wanted to get out too; I guess she just needed a partner in crime who was a bit more eager than herself. "So where do you want to eat at?" I asked, still taking deep breaths. "There is a cafe about a block from here, just after a pawnshop - if you're looking for convenience that is. If you're out for quality I'd recommend a family owned diner about three blocks that way." She said quickly, jesting a hoof down the street. "I'm guessing this isn't your first time doing this?" I asked with a small glance and a smirk. "Do you really think I would sit in that office all day without succumbing to the temptation of the door not but fifteen feet away?" She asked rhetorically. Rose was a very interesting character, as I had learned from my recent abundance of time with her, to be around. Despite her boring job, she had plenty of stories on all kinds of things; things that would have still surprised me even if an adventurer had been the one telling me. In a way, she was kind of like a grandmother; always having something to say about everything. And all it took was one simple question about a part in the story to send her into another one. Her outward appearance was a near opposite of her true self; her coat a rather dulled down red that one would call burgundy and her mane was styled into a simple bun that had the occasional spare strands of hair spring from it and fall down into her eyes. She'd probably hit me if I told her that though. Well, the grandma part at least. We settled on the diner -- I was in no rush to get back to my match of paper soccer -- and got through the walk with relative comfort thanks to another one of her infamous stories. This time it was about how the vampires supposedly came to be, though she made it clear that she was going off purely rumors. The restaurant we arrived at could have fooled me for just another brick house in the urban area of Canterlot we were located at, the only thing giving it away was a small sign that stuck out not but two inches from the wall with the words "Diner" emblazoned on it. Even the words seemed a bit sketchy; some of the paint was scratched off to reveal the tan, splintered, wood underneath. "So this is it?" I asked hesitantly. "Don't let the outside fool you, the ponies who own this place are nice and the food is good; what more could you ask for?" She said with a sage tone. I simply shrugged and let her take the lead before we entered the building. *~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~* The inside of the building had the rustic mood that one might expect a country store or your grandma's house to have; old rocking chairs off in the corner, hoof woven tablecloths on hoof built tables, even a wood fueled fire place set off to the side with a couch and loveseat to catch the warmth. A perky stallion met us the second we entered, practically pouring a welcoming feeling out of his body and into anyone who dared enter. He was about seat us until another, much older, stallion patted him on the shoulder and sent him off to service the other tables. He did so without a complaint or even a second of hesitation. "Good to see you still get out of the office Rose." The elderly stallion said, curling his mouth into a wrinkled smile. "Well it isn't that lonely in there now a days." She said as she gestured to me. "I can see." The stallion smiled, nodding to me and picking up two menus. We were sat back in a corner booth, where we were engaged in some more small talk with the stallion until a waitress brought us two glasses of water and asked for the stallion's help; and were then left alone to each other. After that, we were on our own. My first logical thought was to ask Rose about anything. Though I could have gone onto any subject and gotten a good thirty minutes of talk out of it, I decided to push another issue that had been lingering on my conscious for a while. "Hey Rose?" I asked. She hummed in response as she drank some of her water. "Who exactly is Vinyl Scratch?" She tensed, but I pretended not to notice and went on. "You kinda freaked out when our last customer signed her name on a contract, and it's been bugging me for a good while what exactly makes her such a tender topic to you." I elaborated, giving Rose some time to get her thoughts together. "W-well..." She stammered, putting her glass down with a bit of a shake that I ignored. "She's....an interesting topic." Was the only thing she said. "Coming from someone like you who can make doors an interesting topic, she must be quite the specimen." I commented playfully, ignoring Rose's cautious tone. "Yeah..." She said simply. I gave her a glance with a raised brow, and encouraged her to continue, but she stood firm on her silence. "Mind entertaining me with a bit about her?" I asked. "She..." Rose hesitated, as if to collect her words. "she was a case that was first signed awhile back, and who had some of the Order's best operatives put on her time and time again." "So she is renown for her elusiveness? Fighting ability?" I pressed. "Uhm, no. Well, not exactly." She inhaled. "We never actually got any reports back from the operatives we sent out and when we sent a retrieval squad for our missing operatives they went silent too. She is known for not really being known about, and not being able to have information gathered on her; in other words, she is known as a variable in the order." She hesitated on her sentences all throughout the small speech, making it clear as day that she wasn't too comfortable about the topic. I ignored it again and pressed on. "Well she can't be the only variable. What makes her so special?" I asked. "You're right about her not being the only variable, we get new cases on vampires all the time which gives The Order a lot of variables to deal with. What makes her special is that she is one of the hoof-full of variables that have managed to stay a variable with a good amount of resource put into learning about her." "Wait, so we know literally nothing about her?" I asked, doubting her to be a total mystery. "Only that they are probably a vampire, and probably a mare." She said, taking another sip. A shy looking waitress walked up silently and asked for our orders in the midst of the conversation. At first I worried she would get curious about the whole 'vampire' thing we had been spouting, but Rose played it off well by asking the mare if she had seen a play with such a scene before ordering our food. She was definitely quick witted. The waitress scampered away and I immediately got back on track. "So you can only say 'Probably' on if she is a vampire?" I asked. "Well, we get plenty of calls about ponies just being a bit creepy and being confused for vampires, so we can't even eliminate the possibility of her just being a normal pony." "So why is to not looked into more severely if she is such an enigma?" I asked. "I just told you, everything we send at her disappears." She said curtly. "Then we just dropped the case?" I was beginning to get frustrated. "Well, no. The reason we dropped the case was because of her relative silence in general before we got involved; the only time things happened to our soldiers where when they were sent after them. All the cases filed weren't even violence cases, just 'potential threat' cases; so we thought it best to just leave it alone in the hopes that she left others alone in return." "Wait, if ponies reported the cases, why didn't they describe her appearance?" I asked, sensing a hole in her explanation. "You really have never looked at the report section on those contracts, have you?" She chuckled. At least she was getting more comfortable. "We don't typically ask for details from the pony who signs the contract, and simply pass on the name to the operative and let them deal with gathering details. They usually get most our information from local sources like bar owners or gossipy nobles who are typically safe since someone would notice if they went missing. The problem arose for Vinyl's case when ponies gave descriptions that never matched others - the only consistent detail being the it was almost always a mare that was described." She said, taking another sip before continuing. "She is either a true master at keeping herself out of the public eye, or she really is just an enigma. Because we have been sent on some very elaborate chases because of her that all ended in dead ends." She said in almost admiration. It puzzled me how this Vinyl Scratch was such an unknown, and it made me want to research into the topic even more. Though I figured if multiple others before me couldn't do it, I couldn't either. I mean, we couldn't even truly identify her gender, much less her status as a vampire. Luckily the food arrived in my thoughts, saving us the trouble of coming up with an excuse. I hadn't even gotten to order my own food - Rose ordered for me without my notice - but I didn't really seem to mind as I unconsciously ate my food. The old stallion also brought along a newspaper towards the end of the meal, and exchanged it with Rose for a sack of bits which I assumed covered the meal. I wanted to press Rose more, but she managed to speak up before I could. "We should probably get back soon." She said quickly, getting up from her seat. I briefly wondered if she did that on purpose to avoid my prying mind, or if she just was uncomfortable with being away from the office. Either way, I didn't protest; this was a baby step process after all. *~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~* We strode back towards the small, tucked away building that was out office with a bit of regret, but we knew that we had to do it. Rose seemed in a bit more of a better shape than me, but that was probably because she got a new paper to read for the next week or so. Or at least until I managed to get her to get out again. We did notice something strange though. We saw that the door wasn't completely shut when we came close enough; pushed in just far enough so that a crack of the wooden floor inside could be seen. We looked to each other, Rose shrugging, before pressing inwards with a bit more caution than before. The room was just as we had left it: completely empty. Even my desk side soccer game was in the same position as before. We creeped in a bit farther before something stopped us. "Well, well, well." Both me and Rose yanked our heads to the voice that called out, and let out two different reactions simultaneously. Her's was more of panic; her eyes wide and mouth open as if waiting for the words to climb in and form a sentence. She even dropped the paper that she had been carrying since the diner. Mine was more of an annoyed sigh, as if I was let down by the sight in front of me. My eyes rolled away as I simply continued to walk in as if the figure wasn't even there. A slim stallion was leaned up against the wall of the office, his dark blue coat nearly making him invisible up against the dark side of the wall and his white mane tinged a dull grey. It was the reason we hadn't immediately picked up on him when we entered. "I see you're adapting well to the secretary position." "Can it." I shot back. "You should really be more respective to your senior officers. Sis." My brother sneered, only to have a pen tossed at him from where I sat at my desk. "It's okay Rose, he's not someone to worry about." I spat, calming the panicking mare slightly. "You wound me so." He mocked in a dramatic tone. "What do you want anyways," I spat. "I'm busy here." He took a look around the empty office. "Clearly." He said simply before trotting over and taking a seat on a small couch sat off to the side of the room. "If you want to get down to it, I'm actually here to say you've been requested back at base for some questioning. It's about that last contract that was signed; I'm assuming you can guess the one I mean considering how...spacious this office is. The intelligence department has got a few things to talk about with you." He said bluntly. "Both of you." He added, looking to Rose. "Like what?" I questioned instantly. "I don't know; they didn't give me specifics to go off of but I can only assume it's important since they're calling in a few favors about this one case." He shrugged. Me and Rose could only look at each other after that much.