Fangs: The Order

by Sapphic

Motherly Initiative

You might think that you could read people pretty easily by judging their body language, interactions with others, speech pattern of choice, or a variety of other things that are too long to list; in the end it all comes down to one thing and that's the truth.

I hadn't expected an attractive looking mare with a friendly and care free aura who had done nothing but entertain me for the past few minutes to be someone that an order of trained experts had been after for a couple years on account of her apparent extremely violent nature and ability to wipe out droves of people on a whim.

Real shocker.

Well, I guess reality is nothing if you keep your eyes is closed. Might be why that mare inside there keeps them shut. Can't say I blame her with how things typically turn out for me.

I pushed open a door that led out the back of the building into a spacious looking back street that ended with a dead end. The way the restaurant was set out was so that the front was on the street, but the back was part of a dead end strip of space littered with fire escapes and trashcans.

I held the door open for the mare with my back hoof.

She gave me a smile and thanked me before stepping out into the alley with me. I noted she stopped just short of the sliver of the lowering sun.

I gave her a fake smile. It was the most I could do.

"So, what was it you wanted to tell me?" She asked innocently.

I wasn't sure if it was a charade that she was about to drop and reveal an appetite for blood that could only be akin to a monster or if she was actually innocent.

Either she was actually oblivious to my reasons, or she was a damned good actor.

"Well, there was something that I wanted you to tell me first." I asked cheerfully.

"Shoot." She replied, ears perking up.

"Well, there's been some rumors going around town that some bad people are on the loose." I said slowly, like talking to a child.

And in a few ways I was.

Her face looked saddened and shocked by the news.

"That's horrible." She said.

Was that genuine? Ah, who knows.

"So what was it about them that you wanted to know? I haven't really heard all that much about bad people around here..." She said honestly, looking a bit scared for... was that herself?

It looked like she wasn't exactly scared about herself when I told her the news, her head tilting back towards the restaurant briefly before returning her attention to me.

I chuckled under my breath and turned away from her.

"Well..."

Heat welled in my chest as I felt my heart rate begin to speed up.

"...rumor has it..."

The heat grew, a familiar feeling running from my hooves, down through my body, and settling around my hooves as I began to hear the damp surface of the ground begin to sizzle gently.

I turned back to her.

"...it's you."

Her face was stoic from what I could see, her eyes were hidden behind a wall of purple, as she somewhat looked at me.

I smiled at the realization that I had checkmated her. She knew I was on to her, and now she figured she would drop the act. There was nothing left to back pedal to; no body language that she could throw out, no tone of voice to convince me, nothing. She was caught, and she knew it.

I smirked as the heat began to spike again.

I loved this part.

I began a walk towards her, heat building ever further with ever step.

"So, do you admi-"

"Are you sure they were me?" She blurted out to me, as if she hadn't seen me approaching or the crackling ground beneath me.

Though it was enough to stop me dead in my tracks. Just the sheer randomness of the question. Did she not understand the inference?

"Ah, uh, yeah. Pretty sure." I said in response, beginning my walk towards her again.

"Thanks!" She exclaimed cheerfully.

'Again with the stopping me? It's beginning to get a bit irritating.' I though in irritation. Though, yet again, she had taken me off guard with some random action.

"For what?"

"Well you told me what they look like. Now I can be sure to look out for them and avoid them too!" She said cheerfully, honestly and thankfully.

I felt my face scrunch up in some sort of combination of anger and confusion.

"Look, I don't think you're understanding what I'm implying here." I said with a chuckle that clearly reflected how short my fuse was getting.

"Implying what?"

"I'm saying that you're the bad person."

"Huh?"

"You. You're the bad person I'm talking about."

"Really?"

"Yes. Really."

It went silent as she lifted a hoof and stared at if for a solid ten seconds before looking back up to me. Her nose seemed to scrunch up in some form of confusion.

"Are you sure?"

I felt something in me snap. Perhaps it was my tolerance.

"You know what. Whatever, I'll just find out myself." I said with a snicker.

I couldn't help but laugh, I was finally about to take on the menace that had gotten fame and renown around the camp over the years. It was like fighting a legend, only this legend was some obliviously cute mare that seemed to not quite understand how sentences and other basic literary tools worked. I mean come on, it was like talking to a damned child.

Heat welled up in my horn as I began to concentrate on the mare in front of me who seemed to just be studying me at this point.

"and I really hope that you aren't. And if you are I really hope you've got a fire extinguisher on hoof." I mumbled at just above a whisper.

Her staring didn't stop, though she almost looked concerned.

For herself? I didn't know, though it didn't looked that way. Similar to how she looked worried for someone else when I brought up bad people around town.

Though this time she looked concerned for me.

I stopped looking at her to make it easier on me.

The door suddenly opened.

I gasped as I stopped focusing and looked up in alert at who could have entered the alley. If it was a civilian then I'd have to protect them above anything for this monster.

The only thing I found was the mare with shut eyes from the restaurant. The one who had been flirting with me and Stone through almost all the walk here.

She looked a bit distressed, though she eased up the second she laid eyes on the vampire. A look crossed her face that looked loving at the mare, and a realization struck me.

They were lovers.

It made since when I thought about it. A similar charisma between the two, only serving as a natural attraction to the other. Of a near mirror age of each other. Similar looks so that they could cutely pretend to be the other. A little bit of mane dye, a comb and switching the glasses and they would could easily pass for the other.

It was perfect.

I felt a new, different heat begin to rise in me, though I shook it off as I remade my list of priorities.

"Miss, you should back away from her. She's a-"

"A what?" She looked at me, and if her eyes were open I knew there would be daggers coming at me.

Ah, the lovers defense over the other. I should have anticipated.

"Ma'am, I don't think you know what exactly she is." I said to her.

A confused look crossed her face.

"What is she then?"

"A..." I realized I couldn't just tell her what she was, she wouldn't believe me and only protect Vinyl Scratch with a renewed vigor from 'that crazy mare in the alley'.

The frustration of my constraint began to get to me.

"Look, she's bad. Just trust me."

I realized how dumb a request was as I looked back over it. Though if she wouldn't let me protect her, then I guess it was up to me to protect her whether she wanted it or not.

"Are insulting her?" She sounded threatening.

That pissed me off.

Here I was trying to protect this dumb bint and she was doing nothing but threatening me.

"Look, just get out of the way you dumb bit-"

A voice tickled my ears, coming from behind me.

"Please keep your language appropriate around my daughter."

I felt a brief cold spot in my heated body as I jerked my head around at the familiar sound of the voice. Though what I found was nothing but the alley.

My eyes widened in realization as I placed the owner of the voice.

I turned back just in time to see the mare walking back into the restaurant, leaving me and Vinyl Scratch in the alley by ourselves. Though she left the two of us with some parting words.

The cocky grin of the sightless mare met my alerted gaze and I realized just what I was messing with. Though it should have been pretty obvious from the start, I now realized that if Vinyl Scratch was a legend of a threat on her own, her mother must be a hell of a lot worse.

I slid my hoof to the side and dropped down to a defensive stance, horn bent at the ready and my own orange flare encompassing it wildly.

"Of course Stone wouldn't be here."

I swallowed hard.

I might have been a general, though that bit of expertise came with a downside that balanced it out. The more experience you gather, you'd obviously rely more on it and then the job would get easier. Practice makes progress. Though after awhile, when you reach the level of experience I have, foreign waters are unheard of.

Needless to say, the fact I didn't know how strong these two were was a bit worrying.

'Keep on the offensive, don't give them a chance to get a rhythm.' I said inwardly.

The first one to pick off would be the weaker, to insure there would be no assaults from two directions, and that meant to incapacitate or kill Vinyl Scratch.

I focused briefly on the trash piled behind her, setting it ablaze in an attempt to distract the two.

It worked, both of them recoiling at the sudden burst.

I took that chance.

I strained slightly, simply aiming forwards, and letting a gout of fire spill from my horn down the alleyway. I knew that the mother was particularly fast, so aiming wide was a good idea.

Well, I thought it was.

"So, you had a job in the music business?" Stone repeated, nodding approvingly.

Thanks to the lack of ponies at the table - Vinyl, Miss Flint and Miss Scratch all absent - the conversation became a bit more demanding of me. I guess I felt like I should be able to keep up some conversation, I had previously been more of an audience to the others but now Stone was taking his time asking some simple questions to avoid silence.

Though the way the two other mares kept glancing back to where Vinyl, her mother, and Flint had exited, it came down to be more of a conversation with just me and Stone.

"Well, yes. I had one." I repeated.

"Aye, so you lost it then?"

"Yes, though I guess it couldn't have been helped." I said, a bit quieter than normal.

"Oh? Whys that?" He asked, a bit curious by my response.

I wasn't very good about making up lies on the spot, as I had found out it typically ended up with a nonsensical and non-believable story, and as a result I was a bit more trained with simply telling the truth on the spot. Not to say I couldn't lie, just not elaborately.

Of course, it had to have been about a topic I was trying to keep quite.

"Well, my relationship with a roommate of mine sort of kept me busy. Though its still my fault entirely for not being responsible." I said, a bit ashamed of my ability to cave so quickly.

"Ah, so she's in a relationship too?" He chuckled, leaning in a bit more.

I felt a blush rising as I suddenly found my hooves oddly interesting.

"Ah, well yes."

I realized now that his question wasn't even really taken from my statement, as a relationship could have been a friendship as well, but I guess it was a tease from him that I ended up taking literally. At least it was more of a habit to me now.

"So who's it with then? Some nice inner-city stallion? A business owner maybe? Maybe a lawyer or even a musician? Knowing the looks about you you could just about manage anyone." He complimented, not helping my blush at all.

Though I found it a bit weird that he wondered who it was. Did he not see that me and Vinyl were a couple? I mean, we had kissed and done... other things. I thought that was about it.

"It was actually that mare that Miss Flint left with." I informed him.

He seemed surprised at that.

"Ah, into mares then? Seems to be a growing thing round these parts. Beginning to get scared for the lads 'round here." He chuckled, getting a laugh from me as well.

"Though, I gotta say. That mare that went with Flint was yours? I had assumed that she belonged to that other mare with the shut eyes. She didn't quite seem your type." He said, looking to me for some confirmation.

"Ah, that's her mother...actually."

His eyes were wide as I ended that sentence.

Even the other mares around the table had turned and looked at me with wide eyes. Though those two looked more scared than shocked.

"That's...interesting." Stone said slowly, ending it with an awkward chuckle.

The sudden vague sound of a thump caught my attention, though it apparently alerted no one else.

Where was Vinyl at?

Another mortar of a shot hit the ground where I had briefly been standing, the mother of the two had recently been taking pot shots at me after she had teleported up to the top of the roofs. She had been giggling madly as she shot down at me just often enough to keep me moving. Some of the shots didn't even make full contact, dissipating a few yards in front of her on her own will; she was doing it to try and fake me out and catch me off guard.

What I had manged to do was send Vinyl Scratch back into a dumpster somehow. She was still struggling to get out of it, though she was managing.

She finally tipped the can over and pulled her head out of it. Luckily it was relatively clean.

Her glasses were a bit tilted, revealing a set of crimson eyes. The color of the devil, of course.

She was a bit dazed, though when she focused on me as I dodged another pot shot, her eyes widened.

Though her eyes seemed to get a new shine to them as she looked at me, enough to keep me entranced long enough for the mother up top to take advantage and send a stream of red hurdling at my face. It was aimed up perfectly to match my bodies current path, that was unalterable since I had to jump to dodge the last one.

I braced, it was all I could do.

Well, that and complain.

"Oh come o-" I began, though a sudden force that wasn't magic struck me hard enough to send me to the ground and skid across the alleyway's cobble.

Some scrapes I could deal with, more than a magic mortar that's for sure, though I was already confused about what else could have hit me.

I opened up my eyes to see a pair of purple glasses covering my eyes, and through them was the face of the mare I had previously been entranced by.

She suddenly called out loudly.

"Mom!" She whined, drawing out the 'o' in the word.

The sound of her mother from atop the building responded.

"Yes sweety?!" She called out innocently.

"Stop shooting at her!"

My eyes widened a bit at the request.

"Let mommy do business honey! Just get off the mean mare so mommy can fire some more magic at her!" She cooed.

"You do this every time you come to town and you just embarrass me!" Vinyl whined in response, ignoring the fact her mother was talking to her like she was around the age of two.

"Vinyl Scratch, you get back in that trash can this instance and let your mother shoot that mare!" Her mother demanded.

"But mom-"

"No 'buts'!"

The mare atop me let out a big sigh and turned back to me, her eyes surprisingly not suggesting that she was annoyed with her mother's desire to kill me. Her eyes caught on me, a bit surprised at first, but then she let out a smile.

"Wow, you look pretty good with these on." She said, taking the glasses off and putting them on her own head, using her horn as a sort of prop.

"Real sorry about my mom by the way. She's kinda protective." She chuckled, scratching the back of her head.

It was odd to see her without those glasses, despite having only seen her for around ten minutes or so, but she just seemed more lively with emotions flowing through her eyes.

"But thanks for the warning about the bad people around town." She smiled brightly.

I was beginning to wonder if this mare did have something wrong with her. Was she this dense?

"Vinyl!" The mother called once more.

Vinyl turned her head back to her mother before looking to me once more.

"Sorry, mom says I gotta get off. You were doing really well dodging though!" She said happily before hopping off of me and even helping me up off the ground.

She gave me one more smile before turning and trotting away.

Needless to say, I was still left stunned by the mare. So much so, that I didn't even hear the sound of the alleyway door opening.

My eyes began to drift, going upwards towards the glowing red of Vinyl's mother atop the roof. Her horn was already on the verge of firing, but that wasn't going to stop me.

Though suddenly I couldn't see her anymore.

I shook myself a little and realized that someone had stepped up to me.

"We're headin' out. You three decided to go an miss dinner, so shame on you." Stone groveled, looking down on me with a bit of a stoic stare.

A look of stone if you would.

The vague sound of the mother's horn discharging made it into my ears, though when I started to say something it was too late.

A crash of red hit the back of Stone's bulky neck, a much larger blast than what the mare had been shooting at me. Though Stone didn't move, not even a single flinch from him as the magic actually washed over his neck. It was as if he was a pillar, and the magic cast down on him nothing but a gentle flow of water.

I cast a brief look to both sides of me to see the two chunks of earth ripped out of the cobble. A result of the magic splitting over Stone's neck.

He cast his bored looking gaze backwards, up at the rooftops.

"I'd love to stay 'round and have a good spar, but you know what they say about exercise after eating. Wouldn't want to cramp up." He said dangerously. It was that of what a true general was made of. He made it explicit that if a brawl was to begin then someone was going to be getting hurt.

And judging by how her just took a concentrated blast of magic that was strong enough to uplift cobble and cement - not to mention the earth under it - he was not going to be the one getting hurt.

I was stunned to say the least. I mean, I knew Stone had earned his name for a reason, but I didn't expect him to be the point where he would just voluntarily take blasts of magic.

I wonder if he ever felt it.

I wonder if he even feels.

I watched as Stone's gaze shifted from the roof tops to the hard at work mare in the alleyway. She was in the process of backing herself into the can in which she had fell out of, her tongue sticking slightly out of her mouth in concentration as she settled down. Her front hooves were settled at around her face. Though once she finished and caught Stone's stare, she let out a grin that was disarming to say the least, even to someone like Stone, and could honestly have been genuine.

She really was following her mother's order.

"So you're Vinyl Scratch then?" He asked.

She nodded happily, without even a second of thought, her ruffled mane bobbing up and down with her and almost hitting the inside can.

Stone smirked at her.

"Well, it's nice to meet ya' then. Quite a shame we could't introduce ourselves at the table properly, though that mare friend of yours was kind enough to introduce you."

Somehow, the mare's smile only widened.

"Yeah, Tavi is really nice." She said.

Stone chuckled.

"That she is. Keep her close, she's a one of kind." Stone said.

The mare nodded happily.

Stone returned his gaze to me.

"Like I said, we're leaving." He said simply, walking around me and towards the exit of the alleyway.

My words returned to me.

"J-Just like that?"

"Just like that." He repeated.

"Vinyl, you smell a bit..." I paused as I searched for a word to describe it while still being somewhat polite.

I hadn't noticed it on the way home, but once we all got in the elevator I noticed that she had somewhat of a stench to her. It wasn't bad to the point where it would make you gag, but it was noticeable. Vinyl's mother also had a smell about her, though hers was more along the lines of burnt garbage and was to the point to make you gag.

Though I didn't say that to her, as I probably would have regretted it if I did.

"Like a trash can?" Her mother suggested, sounding a bit sour.

"Well, yes." I agreed, waiting for an explanation.

Though the two of them went silent.

"Uh, might I ask why?"

"Mom told me to." Vinyl said, bobbing her head from side to side in sync to some imaginary beat inside her head. She didn't seem to mind the stench at all, and in fact was still smiling despite it.

That was one thing that Vinyl and her mother had in common, the fact that a smile was always on their face, though Vinyl's mother seemed to have far more than Vinyl did. I had found that Vinyl had two types of smiles, the first and most common one being the genuine and innocent smile, and then the far less common smile that typically made people want to leave the room.

And not slowly either. It was a "I would rather bust a hole in the wall or jump from a window" speed.

For once, I wasn't the one opening my door, Vinyl actually just opened the door without a care in the world despite how sure I was that I had locked it.

I was a bit curious about it, though I was more surprised about what I found inside my apartment.

A familiar bar mare, sitting down and looking at me, Vinyl and Vinyl's mother as we entered the room. The small glint of moonlight off of a silver surface caught my attention.

A small, familiar looking, silver shaker.

She gave a weak smile to us, though something about her was rather dark.