//------------------------------// // Camping // Story: Fangs: The Order // by Sapphic //------------------------------// *~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*...Octavia...*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~* You might think I'd get used to seeing random people coming to my door after living with a vampire, being friends with a set of sister mares with some sketchy pasts and connections, as well as having gone through some life changing experiences I'd argue most people would never go through. Well, you'd be wrong. "Sweeps? Why are you here?" Standing in front of me was one of mentioned sister mares with the sketchy pasts and connections, armed to the tooth with various looking pieces of equipment that looked oddly familiar to camping gear. Though, out of all the oddities she was wearing, the look on her face was easily the most odd one. It was a mashup of looks, her mouth flat as if she was just annoyed at this point, yet her eyes looked at me with dead set determination. "I could be asking you the same question." She said, sounding a bit disappointed. 'But...my name's not Sweeps...' I thought to myself, putting a hoof to my chin and averting my eyes to the floor in thought. "Is there someone there Octavia?" The sound of Vinyl's mother called out from somewhere behind me, a voice that caused Sweeps' eyes to widen instantly. She pushed me aside, rather easily, and rushed into my apartment before letting out a horrific sounding gasp not but a few seconds later. "Octavia! I can't believe you!" She said, turning to my now downed form with a look of anger. "Wh...What?" I asked, rubbing my head, genuinely confused at what in Celestia's name was going on. Sweeps' only response was to throw her hooves up in the air, turn around and walk deeper into my home and grab something that I couldn't see thanks to my position on the floor, before coming back holding Vinyl's mother by the ear as she dragged her along like a stuffed toy. "This!" She said, waving her hooves up and down, gesturing to Vinyl's mom. I looked closely at Vinyl's mother, not spotting anything out of the ordinary. Her eyes were still closed, her mane was still blue and her coat was still white. There really wasn't anything else to her. "...I don't follow." I replied. "Is this why you're still here and not out looking for her?! Because you've already moved on to another mare?! Have you no shame?!" She screamed at me. My eyes widened with realization at the huge misunderstanding that Sweeps had come to, though albeit a fairly reasonable one. She must have, thanks to the youthful age that Vinyl's mother still had, gotten the impression that I had moved on from Vinyl and was now dating her. She also must have thought that this was also the reason I hadn't gone out and tried to get Vinyl back. I could only imaging what was going through Vinyl's mother's head right now. Though, judging by the look on her face, she wasn't exactly used to it. Thinking on it now, her response was a pretty reasonable one. It'd be like going up to an apex predator and toying with it like it was something harmless. They wouldn't have expected it, being the top predator and all, so they wouldn't know how to immediately react to it either. "N-No! Th-That's not what I'm-" I began to explain, but she held a hoof up and stopped me mid-sentence. "Save your excuses, I don't want to hear the reason you did it..." She began, looking off to the side with a sad expression. "...I just can't believe you would go and off her like that." She said. Was that a tear? She wiped away whatever it was that had formed in her eye, be it sweat from that massive bag she was wearing or an actual tear, and graced her face with a new look of determination. "Whatever, I'll still go get Vinyl back. With or without you." She said. This finally seemed to snap Vinyl's mother out of her trance like state, causing a smile to form. "Oh! So you know my daughter as well?" She asked to Sweeps, sounding as happy and as chipper as ever. Sweeps froze. "D....Daughter?" She repeated, slowly looking down at the youthful face of Vinyl's mother, who smiled back at her with just enough of her teeth showing for her fangs to shine clear as day. I saw Sweeps looking a bit pale after that, her eyes getting a bit unfocused as she began to stumble ever so slightly. She soon let go of Vinyl's mother, that hoof moving up to her head as if she was suffering from the headache of a life time as she stumbled over to the couch. "Sweeps?" I asked, concerned. She held up a hoof the moment I tired to make a move towards her, straightening up as if she were fine just before she fell backwards like a sack of bricks. Vinyl's mother was quickly and easily able to understand what had happened, despite not seeing it at all. "Well, she's unconscious now." She said, sounding like this was a common occurrence for her. And, in all honesty, I wouldn't be too surprised if it was. "Shall we wait for her to come to?" I asked. "It'd be wise. Her waking up with no one around her would probably only damage her mental health and make her think she was crazy. I can just go get some breakfast and bring it back here." She said, a red tinge already starting glow from her horn. I made good use of my hooves and hid my eyes from the sudden flash that came from where she was sitting, then looked up to see that she was gone. I sighed, getting up from off the floor and moving over to Sweeps' limp body and finally managed to get a good look at what was on her back. It was a standard looking camping bag, though it was obviously overly packed judging by the strain the clips were currently under. Though, what was more intriguing was why she had come here with the pack. Had she planned on going camping somewhere? If so, why now of all times? I'm sure she knew just as well as I did that Vinyl was missing. I mean, she had pretty much just called me out on it. I let out another sigh, something that I seemed to be doing a lot of recently, and began to attempt and un-clip Sweeps out of the massive bag. *~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~* "So...you're Vinyl's mom?" Sweeps asked for the eighth or so time, taking a sip of tea Vinyl's mother had managed to bring back with her, along with some biscuits. "Yes dear, I am her mother." Vinyl's mother answered for the eighth or so time, looking pretty bored this time. At first she had taken a sort of enjoyment from watching Sweeps' face twist in confusion, but now it was just an annoying look across her face. Which was understandable, as it turns out, Sweeps was apparently incredibly hard to convince. "So...why is this the first time I've even seen you? I mean, you'd expect Vinyl to talk about you a bit more. She's never even mentioned you to us." She said, not really thinking her question through and wincing as she saw the pang of hurt go through Vinyl's mother's face. "I...I haven't always been around Vinyl due to some... shall we say, complications. It's the reason I care about her so much, because it's so rare that I get to spend a solid day or two with her." She said, a bit of anger bubbling in her voice. I watched her hooves clinch tightly against the couch. I realized now just how much restraint Vinyl's mother had to not go mindlessly chasing after Vinyl when she was taken, and just how much she must have thought through chasing after her. I know I would've if it were up to me, though I also know that my efforts would have been effectively useless. "Wow... so, uh, how old is Vinyl?" Sweeps asked, getting over the brief moment of awkwardness with impeccable ease. Vinyl's mother's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Child, you never ask a mare her age." She said in a tone of scolding as she went in for a sip of tea, though that failed to even make a dent in Sweeps assault for information. "Oh come on, we all know she has to be old. Is she, like, a hundred?" Sweeps offered. Vinyl's mother suddenly sputtered her tea in a cackling laughter. "A...a hundred?! Ha!" She asked, laughing hard enough to literally fall onto her side. It took her roughly five minutes for her laughter to die down, only to have it re-erupt when she repeated the words "a hundred" to herself. I myself had thought about the issue for awhile, though decided to stop pressuring Vinyl into answering it and simply decide that her age didn't really matter in the long run. She, for all intents and purposes, could have been thousands of years old with massive amounts of knowledge, thought that didn't seem very Vinyl-like to me. On the other hoof, she could have been only fifty or so years older than her actual appearance. Though, judging by Vinyl's mother currently rolling on the floor in laughter, the answer was most definitely not one hundred years old. After another ten or so minutes of cackling, Vinyl's mom finally settled down enough to carry out another conversation. At this point, Sweeps looked as annoyed as she ever had. "Care to give a hint then?" She said, as if the fifteen or so minutes of uninterrupted laughter hadn't occurred. "S-Sure." She said, still giggling and finally getting more serious. "Alright, so, to answer your question, I need you to answer one of my own. Sound fair?" She purposed. Me and Sweeps looked to each other and nodded before turning back to her. "Sure." "Perfect." She said with a growing smile. "When was the princess of the moon banished?" She asked, as if she didn't know. Both me and Sweeps eyes widened at the implications of the question. The idea that Vinyl was over a thousand years old was almost unbelievable to me. The things she must have seen, such as the growing of both the country and the innovations of said country. And not to mention her mother, she was probably around when the princesses were born, whenever that was. Sure, we had expected a big number, but actually hearing the number being implied was different. And, in all honesty, I was more leaning towards maybe two hundred or so. "Really, she's that old?" I asked in shock. "No, she's not. I won't tell you her age, and I won't say mine either." She said with both a serious and playful tone somehow "If you really want to know, then get my daughter to tell you herself." She said, keeping her answer oddly vague. 'What a let down.' I said internally, dashed of a chance to learn another hard fact about Vinyl. "Anyways," Vinyl's mother sighed. "don't we have another issue to address here. Such as your friend even being here?" She said, motioning to Sweeps. My eyes followed her to Sweeps, and remembered that we still had no idea why she had come to my house with her massive camping bag. "Of course. Ah, Sweeps? Why exactly did you come over here anyways?" I asked. Sweeps' brows cocked in confusion. "Was the bag not enough of a hint?" She asked. I shook my head. "Really? What'd you think we were going to do? Go camping?" She asked, clearly rhetorically, but it was - in all honesty - what I thought she was here to offer. I nodded. She face-hoofed hard enough for it to make a smacking sound that echoed through the room, and when her hoof came down from her face, a large red welt was already surfacing across her face. She let out a big sigh, before looking back to me. "We're here to go get Vinyl back." She said. Vinyl's mother visibly tensed at the idea. *~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*...Shakes...*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~* "Any idea why she's so... well, docile?" Cure asked to Flint as he looked down into the sterile room at Vinyl, who was sitting on her haunches and looking around the all white room like she would always do when she was bored. I had no idea what went on in that head of hers, or if she was even seeing the same world I was if she was able to look around a single room this much and still find it entertaining enough to make her smirk and giggle occasionally. "Heck if I know, she's been like this ever since I met her. Only time I've ever seen her move fast is when she saved me from her mother." Flint admitted. "Saved you?" Cure asked, pretending to clean his ears with his hoofs. "Yeah. I've got no idea why she did it; maybe she wanted the kill at a different time." Flint suggested, visibly reassuring Care. "Maybe she wanted a peaceful resolution for everyone." I suggested, getting two different glares from the both of them. "Just sayin'." I said with a shrug. We all turned back to Vinyl, who was in the middle of letting out a big yawn. She looked on the edge of sleep as was, a big contrast from her awestruck look from earlier. Maybe it was night time in whatever world she was in. That seemed to be the finishing blow for Care, judging by the tired sigh he heaved out when he saw her begin to curl up into a ball in an attempt to sleep. "I think we're done here for now. I won't deny that she's got something about her that suggests her true nature, right now all my recordings show that she is - in most regards - similar to a newer aged vampire. And a pitiful one at that." He said, rubbing his temples. What he was referencing to was probably the dramatic shift observed in vampires based on the time period. 'Newer aged' vampires were a lot weaker than the ones around maybe a hundred or so years ago, mainly because of the evolution of ponies - their prey. Way back when, earth ponies were farmers, pegasi were all weather ponies, and unicorns... well, they were still about the same actually. Though, thanks to the first two, vampires had to adapt to dealing with the strength of a hard working earth pony and the speed of a raised-from-birth weather pegasus. As an example, the "strong ponies" of today were roughly the strength of the average earth pony farmer maybe two or so hundred years ago. And, thanks to that, vamponies of that same age were about the as strong as General Stone was today; and that strength is more than enough to deal with hundreds of 'new age' vamponies in a row without breaking a sweat. And the trend continued the farther back in history you went, in an exponential sort of way too. It actually, as far as I knew, got up to the point where vamponies looked and acted much more like the books depicted. Only difference was that they were hoofs-down the apex predator of their era thanks to their speed and strength. Now-a-days, even some civilians can deal with a vampire or two. Back in the old days, it would take the intervention of a princess of today to deal with those one or two vampires. Not to make the Princess's look weak or anything, they were strong as hell, but the vampires of a thousand years ago could definitely cause some trouble. It's one of the reasons The Order a thousand years ago is considered the "golden age" of vampire hunters. Because they had to put up with - and they effectively did put up with - those kind of threats. As for Vinyl, she was a wild card. I had only known her for a couple of years at most and she never really talked about her past before the bar. 'Damn...I think I forgot to turn the lights off.' The sound of Flint speaking broke me out of my self taught history lesson. "Would you mind if I go down there and try to get you some actual record-worthy....ah, records?" Flint asked, sounding a bit ashamed of herself for not coming up with a good synonym for records. Care lifted a hoof in a shooing motion without taking his hoof that was rubbing his eyes away from his face. "Try and kill her for all I care." He looked up after he said that. "Actually... don't do that. That's a bit uncalled for." The room went silent as Flint turned away from Care and made her way towards the door. I could Care was thinking the same thing I was as we watched her leave, but he knew all too well how she would react if he said it. So, I decided to speak up for him. "Better get Stone to go with you too." I suggested. "Just to be safe." Care added on quickly, looking a bit nervous at the idea of Flint getting throwing a tantrum. Flint gave us both a sneer and stuck her tongue out before walking out of the door, making sure to shut it extra hard to show her disapproval of the idea. As soon as she left, Care turned to me with a relieved look on his face. "Thanks for saying that. Like I said before, I'm not sure just what that mare down there is hiding, but she's hiding something from us." He said, casting a thoughtful gaze down to Vinyl, who had sprawled out across the floor - a sign that she had actually fallen asleep. "Don't mention it. And these results you're about to see might be just as useless as the others in all honesty." I said. "How so?" He asked. "Just watch them. Knowing Flint, she'll keep Stone out of the fight. And knowing Stone, he'll be happy to sit back and watch." "Hm, care to place some bets then?" He asked, reaching under the desk and bringing out a pouch that, after he shook it subtly, jingled with the sound of bits filled to the brim. "Why...do you have that?" I asked. "Well, me and Rosy like to spice up our time in this boring little square. So, we place bet. Turns out we're both horribly addicted to gambling." He chuckled. "Ah, fine then. But I call Vinyl." I said. Truth be told I didn't have anything on me in terms of money, so picking Vinyl was really the safest bet. "Fine, fine. I've got a bit of faith in Flint. Let's say...twenty bits?" He suggested. I felt my bar-mare side kick in, screaming at me to fix the price. "Twenty? Jeez, I thought you said you were a gambler." I scoffed, my eyes widening at what I had subconsciously said. "Alright, fifty?" He raised a brow. 'Fifty is plenty of money to bet. I mean, I don't have any to bet with to begin with, but if I win I can walk away with a clean fifty bits? And, I mean, it's Vinyl versus flint. Still, twenty was good enough. Don't need to go any higher tho'- "Seventy." My mouth blurted. "Deal." He said with a grin, bouncing the sack a little bit before placing it onto the table. He had visibly cheered up from before when he was sulking about the lack of results from Vinyl, but at what cost. Well, it was seventy bits to be exact. I sighed. 'Dammit.' *~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*...Flint...*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~* I grumbled as I walked down the hallway towards Stone's quarters. Ever since, the little stunt that Vinyl Scratch pulled by busting open the bars, all general's were now on the bottom floor with her by order of the board. Which sucked for all of us, because our beds were easily comfier than the "bed of nails" they call beds down here. And it was all cause of her. I mean, is it so much to ask to not burst through steel bars and put everyone on edge? Not to mention put us down in this hole they call a laboratory. I turned the corner onto the hall that Stone's room had been placed at. And as if I needed Stone to back me up with taking on Whitey. I had been having to hold back with her since we were in a residential zone back in Canterlot. The Order couldn't compensate for anymore wild fires because of my "recklessness" as they called it, so I had been put on probation - thus the reason Stone ever came with me in the first place. I walked up to his room and gave the door a solid knock, and waited for him to answer. "Aye?" Came a grumble. I pushed open the door and found a giant lump covered in sheets, the legs of the poor bed bending under the weight of his body. His head was facing away from the door, but I could see his more-messy-than-usual hair sticking out of the top of the covers from where I was, despite it being black in color "You up yet, care's wanting us to go spar with Whitey." I said. We had started calling Vinyl by the nick name Whitey for conveniences sake, Vinyl Scratch was a bit awkward to say after all. You'd have to be something real proper or real weird to call her by her full name all the time. "Can't yah get someone else? I gotta sleep to yah know?" He grumbled. I took a few steps into his room to answer. "Well, I don't know anyone else that'd be ballsy enough to help me out. Maple seems a lot more freaked out around Whitey than usual and everyone else gets nervous around her after the cell incident." I said, not exactly expecting that to change his decision, but more just to say why Care and Shakes wanted him. "I'll go." A voice said from behind me, faint and gentle. I tensed up a little bit as the familiar voice registered in my head. "Sterling, eh?" Stone groveled, not bothering to turn over to see if it actually was her. "Aye, that'll do. Might give Care and Shakes a show to." He said, as if his approval was for Silver to fight Whitey. "Thank you, Stone." She said, her tone sounding about as kind as anyone's mother. I turned around to see a light grey mare behind me, bright grey- almost white - eyes full of compassion and understanding looked in on me with the faintest of smiles. However, in great contrast to the inviting look on her face, where tucked away at her sides. Tucked at her sides was her set of wings, but that wasn't the interesting part. Gleaming silver plates that ran along the edge of her wing that I knew too well. Silver had been planning this one. She tilted her face in a slightly larger smile, giggling a little as looked to me. "Come on Flint, we don't want to keep Care waiting." She said, turning and walking away at a comfortable pace that wasn't in any hurry anyways. I started to go with her, but Stone's voice spoke up. "Aye, Flint." He said, getting me to toss a look back at him. "Don't let this get outta control, I don't wanna get out a bed this time, ya hear?"