//------------------------------//
// General Care 
// Story: Fangs: The Order 
// by Sapphic 
//------------------------------//

	
*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*...Octavia...*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*


"Miss Scratch! Would you please be so kind as to stop throwing knives at me!?" I shouted as I popped out from behind the couch, only to duck back down as another red tinged knife hurdled past me and towards my wall.

Thankfully, she had stopped letting the knives hit the wall and damaging it. I would already have to buy a new couch thanks to Vinyl's mother's "innovations" to it, but walls were a bit more important than some like a couch. Not to mention much harder to replace. Though I was sure if she were aiming to kill me, she would have done so by now, but that didn't make the knife hurdling any less scary. Not to mention she probably would have just shot me with magic or threw me out of the window if she wanted to get me.

Sometimes, I truly was envious of unicorns.

"I will stop when I achieve results dear. I didn't get where I am today by listening to pleas. And don't try lying either dear, you're as easy to read as a picture book." She said, withdrawing the knife backwards to rejoin the floating arsenal she had amassed from my cutlery stand.

'Why do I have that? I have yet to use those knives for anything except cutting bread.' I thought to myself, regretting ever bringing sharp objects into my house.

Then again, if those weren't here she would have just found something else to hurl a me.

Like my cello, or the couch.

I dragged a hoof over my face and looked upwards as it came off, only to find a trio of knives floating above me, as if they had been listening into my internal monologue.

They came down like a guillotine, only to plunge into the wood in the space between my hoof and body. For some reason, this near skinning gave me the idea that it was time to relocate, this time to my room and behind a locked door. Although I knew she could just teleport in there, or rip the door off the hinges, or any number of ways to get to me, I was lingering on the slim chance that maybe she wouldn't.

I hopped up, trying my best to avoid the blades of the knives near my body and hooves, and began a full sprint towards my room. My limbs felt spastic, as if they were too full of energy for their own good, and helped me get moving quicker than I thought I could've moved.

Vinyl's mother seemed to enjoy my choice.

"There we go dear! Get into it and run!" She cheered, sending a few more knives my way and hitting the floor just behind me as I made it into the hallway and out of sight.

After that, I knew it would take her some time retrieve her knives. Enough time for me to get into my room, and consequentially into safety.

A red flash appeared in front of me, and my fears spiked as I assumed she was teleporting in front of me to cut me off.

To my surprise, both fortunately and unfortunately, it wasn't her.

Instead, a knife hurdled towards me nearly skimmed my cheek.

She was teleporting the knives instead.

Almost instinctual, I turned around to see where the knife would end up, and it turned out that Vinyl's mother had stuck her upper body into the hallway and caught the knife.

One look at that smile and her arching hoof was more than enough to speed me up.

I arrived at the door and slung it open, the feeling of something solid slamming into the side was more than enough to know she would've hit me if I hadn't opened the door. Well, that and when the knife's blade stuck through the other side of the door and nearly hit my nose.

I was quick to get inside and slam the door shut, my hoof nudging the lock just enough for it to click.

I placed my back against the door - avoiding the knife - and slid down it as I felt my heart thumping hard enough for my head to feel it. It was remarkably quiet after my final thump against the floor, quiet enough that even through the beating in my ears, I could hear her coming.

It was a steady pace, but a pace nonetheless. I looked up just as the knife embedded in the door began to glow red and removed itself from the door with a slide. I heard her suddenly stop outside of the door, not even her breathing was audible, though I did hear her horn charge lightly.

I found that the lights in my room suddenly turned on, and a quick turn towards the lamp showed the red glow culprit. And it seems that was just the beginning, as the sound of her horn charging came again.

A thunk came from around ten or so feet in front of me, a knife falling from mid air onto the ground. Followed by another, and another, and another until all seven knives were sitting on the ground in front of me. With each drop of a knife, I felt my heart rate going up ever so slightly, and then it suddenly spiked as the knives began to hover upwards on their own with each of their blades faced towards me.

I scrambled up from my sitting position and felt like screaming, but my throat seemed to disagree.

"Ready....dear?" I heard a voice whisper from the other side of the door.

I had enough time to think about responding before the knives set themselves in motion.

They came closer and closer, each inch of them closing in was enough to terrify me twice over. Despite what Vinyl's mother had said, I felt like I was going to die.

And that was what I assumed was going to happen. Out of reflex, I clenched my eyes tight to brace, only to have them almost forcefully open themselves again to stare at the knives. But when I looked at them after blinking, something odd had begun to happen.

They began to slow.

What had previously been feet traveled per second had soon become inches, and even that soon turned to centimeters. And it had also turned from many centimeters per second, to maybe two or so a second.

At first I was confused, but soon recalled what exactly the point of Vinyl's mother's experiment was. And it looked like it had worked, but I decided that this was not the time to question it or celebrate it.

The knives were already a few inches a way, but if logic was still in play then they would still be going just as fast as when they had been hurled. So grabbing them was out of the question.

Instead, I decided I would just push them enough to send them on a different course other than my face and torso.

My hoof moved slower as well, but I found that if I willed it I could move it fast enough to outrun the knives.

I gave one a cautious poke, watching in part awe as I saw it fluidly change courses away from me. After that, I had a bit more confidence when touching the others, giving them nothing more than a small poke to get them off the track to kill me.

As I poked the last one, I brought my hoof back to my sides to admire my handy work as the knives all steadily moved in a line towards the door frame and wall around me. I felt relieved at the sight, and found that that triggered things to begin speed up once more, a machine gun of thuds going off as each of the knives landed around me with enough force to plunge and inch deep into even the solid wood of my door frame.

The door behind me suddenly opened and I felt myself begin to fall back only to be caught by a pair of gentle hooves that wrapped me in a soft embrace, managing to easily turn my cheeks pink and rosy.

Vinyl's mother was looking down at me with a happy and warm smile, a drastic change from her previously insane look, but I wasn't complaining about it.

"See dear? All it takes is a little near death experience to wake you up." She said cheerfully, as if she hadn't just attempted to murder me.

"You weren't going to actually follow through with any of those knives? Were you?" I asked, watching as her face went sheepish.

"O-Of course not dear!" She said, rubbing the back of her neck.

She let me out of her grasp and ignited her horn, picking up each of the knives from out of my wall and letting them trail behind her as she trotted back into the living room. I decided I'd wait a little, and let her little following of knives go before myself.

"Well dear, I assume you used your eyes? Unless you were just hiding your ability to react that quickly and precisely?" She said, placing each of the knives back into the cutlery holster.

"I-I think so. If not, then time must have slowed for me." I said, trying my best to sound rhetorical.

"Good, but I think that you're going to need a bit more experience using it in order to get it to go on command."

"Does that mean you're going to try and kill me again?" I asked, half fearful and half rhetorical.

She smirked sheepishly, but her answer was the exact opposite.

"I prefer the term 'enthusiastic threats', but to each their own."

I sighed.


*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*...Shakes...*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*


Looking at The Order's head quarters was kind of like looking at an army commander who's base was at a bakery. Everything didn't fit its true purpose, or the people working there. The building was way too exposed, way too modern and way too inviting to be the home of thousands of ponies who's job was to kill people.

It was crazy.

Not to mention how natural everything was, from the outdated magazines to the worn out and constantly exhausted secretary who seemed to not want anything to do with you despite it being her job.

We walked past door after door, the building's layout looking strikingly similar to a doctor's office, and towards an elevator. It was a bit crowded, since there was ten people crammed into a narrow hallway, and it managed to make everything seem more awkward to do. The guards flanking me and Vinyl looked ahead stoically while me and Vinyl stared at them with confusion.

The elevator dinged loudly and we all moved forward, like penguins huddled in a pack, and crammed into the elevator. The guards and their equipment didn't make scooting together any easier, unless you were game for an unintentional shanking. The most entertaining part was watching them trying to maintain their stony looks as they were forced to rub into both me and Vinyl.

The way down was quiet and hot, ten people using up all the air managed to make the elevator hotter than a sauna in a matter of minutes.

Once the doors opened up on the elevator, the entire look of the building changed from something of a law firm into something more fitting for a laboratory. The walls were a pristine white and just felt sterile, as opposed to the light grey walls from the upper area of the base.

The guards nudged me and Vinyl forwards, and parted as Maple came trough as well. The door then closed, turning into a dead end of cobblestone.

Apparently they were comfortable with just this general guy and Maple escorting Vinyl. A bit cocky, but I suppose they could afford it since we were god knows how far underground with no obvious means of escape.

We walked forwards for a bit longer, giving me plenty of time to notice the odd styles of the underground dungeon they had built here. It was a mashup of sorts, we walked by a long window at one point - which interested me since what view would someplace underground have? - only to look into something that looked like a different time period.

What I found was what looked like a dungeon fit for upwards of three hundred years ago. Dull cobble stone was the go to flooring and wall choice and naturally lit torches were the primary source of light.

"We like to keep a certain atmosphere for the prisoners here. That, and we still have a bit of honor for the original hunters from years ago. We did decide to update the metal and bricking for the cells though, to bring them up to the standards of withholding more modern vampires." Care noted, not stopping to even look out the window. I guess he had been through here enough to know the sight.

"Don't worry though, all of our testing equipment is up to date." He added, coming to a stop a minute or so later in front of a large set of iron double doors.

He pulled a key out of seemingly nowhere and shoved it into a socket on the side of the doors, the sound of numerous, heavy locks turning and grinding to unlock the room behind.

"But for our guest here..." He said turning to Vinyl.

"...we have high priority confinement."


*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*


Vinyl's cell was in a place that was somehow even more dreary and dusty looking that the place that I had peered into. Walking past the cells - that were spaced out fifteen or so feet from each other to show the thickness of the walls - you could feel the stares on yourself. It was like walking through a graveyard.

Though hers had something the others seemed to lack.

A trough.

It was small and wooden, pretty simple and looking like it belonged to a farm more than any sort of violent organization. It looked pretty clean though, but I was still wondering why it was in there.

When I asked, Care seemed to answer honestly.

"Well, we were informed by a certain someone that she had been fasting for awhile. I decided to send a few people ahead to install this to compensate."

I cocked a brow, not following.

"If we're going to test on her, then we want her at her best." He reiterated.

I gave Vinyl a worried look as she trotted into the ratty looking cell, taking an examination of the cell before plopping herself down on her haunches on the worn bed they had. It lacked a mattress, consisting of nothing more than a thin one inch cushion and a ratty looking cloth.

She didn't seem to mind, having a straight and emotionless face as she let her eyes wander like they do.

"Care to come with us then? I'll brief you on your new job on the walk to the observatory." Care noted, walking back towards the exit.

I lingered a little at Vinyl's cell, my hoof had crept up to the bar on its own in the meantime as I looked at her. I was concerned for her. I felt horrible for myself no less, it was all my fault that she was in this pickle in the first place. I'd like to think that she would have went down fighting - if at all - instead of being held in a cell and fed through a trough.

A trough.

Like she was an animal.

She seemed to notice my conflict ion, and gave me a big smile. It was disturbingly genuine, despite me imprisoning, betraying, hurting her lover and completely using her. She was still grinning and bearing it. Not even that, it looked like she wasn't bearing anything, and it only made me feel worse. She seemed to want me to go.

I gulped and, ever so slowly, went to join Care at the exit.

Leaving Vinyl inside of a cell was the second hardest thing I had done since knocking her out. I'd say the third was punching Octavia. As a result, I was a bit quiet on the walk through the rest of the lab with Care and Maple.

"So, Maple, you will now be siding with me for the most part here. Serving as my 'unofficial assistant' as you will." Care said, walking down another indistinguishable hallway of the underground lab.

"Assistant?" She asked.

"Exactly! You'll basically just be helping me with the experiments that we put Vinyl Scratch through." He elaborated, seeming much more cheerful now that we were away from Vinyl.

"What might those experiments be?" She asked, catching my attention as well.

"Well, basic things for the most part. The first ones will consist of mainly physical tests; things like reflexes and strength ability while she recuperates to her actual strength. Afterwards, we'll move onto some more... less basic tests." He said, coming to a door and opening it while keep his head back to face Maple, apparently not needing to look at the door to unlock it.

Inside the door was a small station of sorts, over looking an expansive and bleak room with nothing inside of it at all. I assumed that was the testing room he had mentioned before. Sitting inside the station was a single unicorn mare with a light purple coat and a darker mane. She was set up at a small desk with panels set out in front of her, roughly three of them.

"How do you plan to get her back to full strength?" I asked.

"Simple, we feed her blood in excess. We give her more blood than a free and hunting vampire would get in a month, in an hour or so." He said matter-of-factly.

Care turned to the mare.

"Pull up the newest cell please." He asked.

The mare nodded and closed her eyes, sparking up a dark green magic on her horn and aiming it at the center panel. Her horn sparked a bit more before the panel began to shimmer, and an image appeared. From where I was, I could see a small white spec and knew instantly what I was looking at.

It was a live feed of Vinyl's cell.

I moved a bit closer and saw that she was still in the same spot that she was when I had left, but she seemed to be a bit more focused on something. Her ears were perked up and she was leaning towards one side as if she were listening to someone. Possibly another prisoner, and I had no idea what that conversation would've been.

"She doesn't really like indulging in blood you know, it might now work." I said, hoping that he might cancel it then.

But it was a fruitless effort.

"Nonsense. She may have fasted in the past, which is impressive, but no vampire can resist being in the vicinity of blood that she's at for long. She'll crack like an egg in a few minutes to thirty minutes." He said, confident in that assumption.

"The trough is on a schedule that should start within a few minutes and fill it to the brim with blood. Hers personally is going at a bit of a faster rate than the other ones we choose to feed regularly." He said, enjoying the live stream of Vinyl.

I felt my teeth begin to unconsciously grit as I saw his smug smile as he looked down on Vinyl, the urge to let him get a better, "closer", view growing with every second.

"Anywhere I can go in the mean time?" I asked, voice a bit strained but he hardly noticed.

"The whole base is, as far as I know, at your disposal since you're one of the acclaimed 'heros' who brought in Vinyl Scratch. The barracks might like seeing you; you're about as big a myth to them as she is. So long as you don't free any prisoners, you're good in my book." He said, mumbling under his breath about Vinyl's rather tame nature.

"Yeah..." I said, turning and heading towards the door.

"Maple, get ready to go have a conversation with Vinyl Scratch. I want to see how she reacts to prolonged conversation." I heard him say.

I shut the door a bit louder than intended.


*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*...Maple...*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*


"C-C-Conversation?" I stammered.

"Yes, yes. Don't worry, the cells are more than capable of keeping someone like her-" He said, though the mare at the table suddenly decided to interrupt for some reason.

"Sir?" She said, the concern in her voice enough to get the attention of General Care.

"Yes?" He said, walking over to her and looking at the make shift screen.

"It looks like shes had a change in demeanor. I managed to listen in a little bit before hoof, but the only thing I could make out is mumbles from the surrounding cells. I managed to make out her eyes widening at one point; one thing is for certain, she certainly isn't looking quiet as content with being inside the cell." She said.

"Hm. Interesting." Was all General Care had to say. "Has the blood began to pump?"

"No sir. It's expected to launch in roughly five minutes." She said.

"Perfect!" He said, turning to me.

"That's about all the time I want you to spend making conversation with her. I want you to see how she's doing, and if possible, the cause of her change in demeanor." He said simply, walking towards me and beginning to usher me towards the door of the room.

"W-Wait, I don't t-think this is a good-" I began to protest, only to be met with a door as he managed to get me out to the hallway.

"...idea." I finished.

I was left to myself in the silent hallway, looking both ways and trying to remember the way I had come from in order to get to the holding cell of Vinyl Scratch.

As I started to walk down the hall, I got to thinking about the prisoner. She wasn't doing anything to fight back, something I'm sure no one would have expected, but even more so she seemed to be happy. She was smiling, and it was gentle and kind. It was enough to make me start doubting the rumors of her story. How she was known for being ruthless and merciless. Right now she seemed to be the exact opposite of that description.

And even in the carriage, she seemed oblivious and innocent. Rather than jumping out of the carriage and getting away, she chose to stay on her own without us dragging her back. Rather than fighting and possibly killing Flint, she chose to flirt with her. Was she toying with us? Just giving us a false personality that we were more inclined to sympathize? If so, she was doing a good job.

I arrived at the door that she was supposedly behind and felt myself get on edge, but I was still laying true to General Care's promise that the cell was strong enough to hold her in.

I recalled General Care using a key to get in there, but an attempt to open the door showed that he hadn't locked it back.

The smell of old blood and filth assaulted my nose again as I went inside the medieval styled holding block. It was strong enough to make me clench my eyes, or maybe that was just me doing it to avoid the prisoner's stares.

I wasn't scared of vampires the likes that I fought, but the ones that got put in here would make just about anyone want to go home.

They were the ones that were violent enough to be separated from the regular holding cells because they were killing the other vampires. In a way they were our competition, but at the same time they were hunting us. They were, in a literal sense, the apex predators that we came across.

I arrived at the dead end of the holding cells, the cell where Vinyl was supposedly held, only to find that there wasn't anyone in there. I squinted my eyes and moved closer to the cell in an attempt to see if she were in the corner of the cell. It was like a wall of darkness about halfway into the cell, blocking off anyone from seeing the back wall.

The sound of metal hitting metal rang out loudly and I felt my heart attempt to jump out of my chest.

I whipped my head around to see nothing, no sign of what caused the sound.

I slowly turned my head back towards the cell to keep looking for her, my eyes lingering on the hall as if someone were going to jump out and run after me.

When I turned back to the cell, I felt my heart stop.

A pair of red eyes pierced through the darkness like a fire, the whites of the eyes and the red irises staring straight at me with an angry look in them. It was like the eyes of a devil were staring at me, something straight out of a nightmare was just a few feet in front of me. They gave off the impression that they were here of their own free will, and could leave at anytime. Something that didn't make me feel any more assured in myself.

I back away shakily, hitting the wall and sliding down to my haunches. I had instinctively raised my crossbow armed hoof at the cell, bolt loaded, but the eyes didn't flinch. They didn't even blink.

"See why she's scary now?" A familiar voice asked me.

I turned to see that Shakes trotting towards me.

I was still shaking when she got to me, and when I turned back to the cell I found that her eyes had gone away and now only darkness was inside the cell.

Shakes was at my side, helping me back onto my hooves, and said something that disturbed me a little.

"That's not the scariest thing about her either." She commented.

"W-What is it?" I stammered, my heart still racing as I attempted to calm myself internally.

"You haven't seen her smile yet."

I was confused, because I recalled her smiling a lot throughout the ride over here.

"But she was smiling all through the drive here..." I said.

"No, that was her friendly smile. I'm talking about her real smile, the one she uses when someone gets under her skin." She said, her tone warning.

"I'll just leave it at this. If you think her eyes are scary, her smile will make you wanna quit hunting for good." She said. Was that a hint at why she quit hunting?

She nudged me towards the door, going about halfway to the exit before letting go of me and walking back towards the cell of Vinyl Scratch. I turned and asked her where she was going, though she didn't even bother to turn back to face me when she answered. She also didn't seem intimidated by the cells and their possible inhabitants.

"I've gotta have a talk with her." She said, confidence oozing from her voice.

I was beginning to see why she was rumored to be a good hunter.


*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*