*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*...Shakes...*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*
Heads started turning when I approached, namely the hunters, though I also noticed the eyes of sis and Octavia widen when I got close. At first they looked hopeful, but that quickly turned to doubt when they remembered what I did. The group of hunters, on the other hoof, looked at me with giddy smiles; some looked smug, though a few of them were giving me almost confused looks. But my focus wasn't on them, it was on Octavia and Sweeps and the death glares they were giving me.
I couldn't really blame them, I'd have hated me too if I did what I did, and in hindsight I would've done it all different. Like taking Vinyl and hiding her rather than turning her over.
'What was I thinking when I did that?' I thought, mentally smacking myself in the head.
I let out a long sigh as I got to the middle of the group of hunters, closing my eyes in thought.
'Oh well... I guess now's the time to try and make it up to them.'
I opened my eyes and put on my best smile.
"Hey what're you doing out here? Shouldn't you be doing paperwo-" One of the younger looking recruits began to ask me, only to get jabbed in the side by one of his friends.
"That isn't a secretary, dummy. That's the person who brought in Vinyl Scratch, captain Shakes." He said, smiling nervously at me.
The stallion he had been talking to looked at him with shock.
"W-wait...that story's real?!" He stammered, looking back at me with a look of awe.
'They'll get proof of that soon enough.' I thought to myself, though on the outside I smiled at him.
I turned back to Octavia and my sister, to see that Octavia's face was filled with disgust. A glance to their side at the white mare that looked like Vinyl showed that her face was almost eager to fight with me. Though the face that struck me the most was on my sister, she looked almost hurt, but at the same time hopeful. She looked like she was about to break out in tears.
"Anyone got a spear?" I called out.
Sweeps almost recoiled when I said that.
"You can have mine!" One of them called out, tossing a spear my way.
I caught it firmly and tossed it a bit to get a good feel of its weight, ignoring the cheers and hoots from the crowd of hunters around me. Saying things like how I was gonna kill the trespassers, how doomed they were, and all kinds of things like that.
Heh, I guess me and Sweeps didn't have much sisterly resemblance.
One hunter was really pushing it.
"Just give up already! With a captain here, you guys are as good as dead anyways! We haven't even started, but the fight's already over!" He called out from beside me.
I tossed my eyes his way, my smile far gone by now, but he was too focused on taunting to notice it.
"Ha! I bet you're shiv-" He began, though he was cut short as the air drained from his lungs.
A lot of the group looked over at him, only to stare in stunned silence at the blunt end of a spear sticking into his side. I had felt a sickening crunch when I had hit his side, so I assumed I had broken maybe two or three ribs.
Serves him right for being so cocky, regardless of what side he was on.
They all looked at me, even that vampire that looked like Vinyl, shocked at what I had done, though not sure why I had done it. The hunters probably assumed it was an act of discipline, while my friends had probably gained some hope for me.
I felt a smile coming back across my face as I heard him cough and hit the ground, though I lowered my head in an attempt to hide it.
"So that's the discipline of a captain...she's harsher than most of the ones we have here currently." One of the hunters whispered.
"You guys wanna tip?" I asked, turning to the group of hunters behind me.
They all stiffened up meekly.
"Don't make an ass of yourself, until you know who's on your side." I said, cocking the spear up in a defensive manner.
They all looked shocked, and I felt like a badass for doing it.
Though my moment was short lived, because someone suddenly jumped on my back and toppled me to the ground. I tensed up and struggled at first, though when I saw the face of who it was I felt a sudden sense of relief and happiness.
"Dammit, you ruined my badass betrayal moment..." I mumbled, feeling the hooves wrapped around my neck in a gentle hug tighten.
"I can't believe you did a betrayal without me..." The voice of my sister said, her voice wavering but clearly happy to see me as she pressed her face into the back of my neck.
"Heh, yeah...it was pretty cool though." I murmured.
"'Cool' wouldn't be how I would describe it." Octavia said, walking into sight, an obviously upset and scolding look on her face.
"Heh, forgive and forget?" I suggested sheepishly, trying to use Sweeps as a way to hide.
"We can talk about it later. With Vinyl." She said, smiling smugly.
I cringed a little at the mention of Vinyl from Octavia, knowing what she didn't, then let out a sigh of defeat.
"Can I still switch sides?"
"I'll shovel you." Sweeps said in the same verge-of-tears voice, but a hint more dangerously.
I sighed in defeat, again.
"Oh! So this is the mare that kidnapped my daughter? Oh how wondrous to meet you deary!" I heard the shrill voice of another mare say just as the Vinyl look-a-like stepped into view and ducked down to be eye level with me.
'D-Daughter?' I stammered in my head. That seemed eerily familiar.
"Yes yes, we can have a long and thorough talk about it." She said.
I could pretty much feel her urge to strangle me then and there, though Sweeps was already two steps ahead of her.
The sound of a bolt being loosed caught my attention, and a quick glance up showed that the bolt was aimed at myself with pinpoint accuracy. I didn't have enough time to react to it, much less with Sweeps on my back nearly strangling me, and could only brace by moving my hooves up to cover my face. At least this way I wouldn't be killed by it, only wounded.
The sound of metal hitting metal sounded out, followed by the sound of something plunging into the dirt in front of me. After that came the sound of a someone clicking tongue followed it.
"I thought I taught you all better than to use silly things like this, what with a hole in the side of a building after you tried it last time." The voice of Vinyl's alleged mother chimed.
'So that's where that came from...' I thought to myself, taking another look at the massive arrow still sticking into the side of the building.
I uncovered my face to see that the bolt heading for me had taken a ninety degree turn towards the ground, sticking straight up.
At first I had thought that it had been the vampiric mare that blocked it - who was pretty good at hiding the fact that she was a vampire - but looking a bit closer, I saw that it was the end of a shovel that had blocked the bolt. Following up that shovel, I found that one of Sweeps's hooves were gone from my neck and was now grasping the shaft of the shovel.
Looking to the side, where Sweeps's face was, I saw that she still had a blissful smile on her face from where she had hugged me, unmoved despite the fact she had just blocked something that even I couldn't have blocked.
"Did you think it was gonna hit? Really? After all that we've been through?" She asked, unwrapping her hooves and standing tall.
I found myself hesitating to stand up, not because of doubt, but because of the pride and awe I was feeling just looking at my sister. She'd grown a lot, even though I hadn't really ever noticed it. I had always sort of been the big sister behind the scenes, despite how outwardly she seemed like the eldest thanks to how I acted.
I planted the spear in the ground and pulled myself to my hooves, standing tall beside her.
But now I'd say we're more like equals.
"Heh, kinda familiar eh?" I asked her.
"What? The whole thing how we're saving Vinyl again? Or how it's us paired up to fight numbers bigger than our own?" She asked, chuckling.
"Heh, guess it's both." I snickered back before turning to Octavia.
"You two go find Vinyl, she's somewhere in the lower levels of the place. Me and Sweeps' can handle it here." I said.
"Are you sure you can-" Octavia began.
"Good." The white mare interrupted, grabbing Octavia and trotting towards the hole in the wall.
I figured she must've had a plan to get by the hunters if she had the audacity to just walk at them, though if she was Vinyl's mom she might not afterall.
Though when she got close to them and a number of them started to swing at her and Octavia, her horn flashed quickly and they were near the hole in the wall in an instant; just teleporting past them in an effortless instant.
They started to give chase, though I cleared my throat and they all stopped in an instant turning back to the surely grinning face of me and my sister.
"Well, guess I can see if they've came up with any new tricks since I left." I said, giving the spear a little twirl to see if I could intimidate any of them.
"And I get to hit them!" I heard Sweeps say cheerfully.
*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*
The group of them, despite looking like nothing but newbies, quickly arranged themselves into a little formation of sorts. They had the earth ponies stand at the front in a V shaped pattern, each of them armed with spears or swords in their teeth and hooves. In the middle of the group were maybe four unicorns. And finally, in the air above the group, were a number of pegasi with loaded crossbows.
And in the other corner weighing in at a unicorn and an earth pony for two ponies total, was me and Sweeps; armed with a shovel and a spear.
I didn't intend to kill any of them either, the sight of blood made me sick to my stomach in all honesty.
"So, what's the plan?" Sweeps whispered to me, eyeing the hunters who were closing in on us.
"Heh, just follow my lead." I said assuringly.
She smiled and nodded with determination as she looked back to the group of them. I followed along and leaned forwards myself, tightening my legs and gritting my teeth, a grin spreading across my face as I prepared to put the plan into full effect.
Then, with all my speed, I ran.
Turned on my hooves and bolted straight towards the hole in the wall.
"Sh-shakes?!" My sister called, her voice getting quieter as I ran faster.
I looked back to see her looking at me with a confused look on her face, along with the entire formation of hunters. Most of them had their faces with an expression that read "is this seriously what a legendary captain's plan was?" as I ran.
I only giggled and shouted.
"The plan!"
I made it through the hole and jumped to the right of it, waiting for Sweeps to get here to.
A flash beside me signaled she done so.
"Shakes what the hel-"
I smacked a hoof to her mouth and looked at her, the adrenaline flowing through my veins assuring me that I must've looked crazy.
"Stay here." I said simply, tossing her the spear.
I leapt away from her and made a beeline for the trees, hopping onto the nearest one and beginning to feverishly climb it. The hardest part was the start, where there wasn't and limbs to use, but sis helped boost me up with her magic and I soon found myself nearing the top of the tree.
Then I waited.
I was still as I perked my ears up and listened for a sound that I was already beginning to hear.
The flapping of wings.
I peeked out through some of the branches and saw the pegasi that were in the air had taken the easy route and gone over the wall rather than going through the hole. They were coming down from the height they had to have reached, looking cautiously near the hole in the wall.
Though, where they weren't looking, was near the trees where I was stationed.
I felt my smile widening as a set of the flyers lowered slowly to an elevation just near mine. They started taking aim at what must've been Sweeps, when the cocky grins on their face faded.
"Where'd the other one go? I see her spear, but there's only one down there." They said, dodging a bolt from what must've been sis that made them come a little closer to me.
That's when I jumped.
I gripped onto the one closest to me, my heartbeat thumping in my head, and used his body as a makeshift stepping stone while I jumped to the second, who was too surprised to do anything. I actually ended up giving him an accidental kick to the head when I jumped, dazing him enough to run face first into the trunk of the tree I had jumped from.
"What the-!" The second pegasi shouted while I hopped on him, quickly grappling around him so that I was on his back and out of the reach of the crossbows he had strapped on both hooves.
At that point it was only a matter of hugging him tightly so that his wings couldn't flap properly, and listening to him curse while we quickly descended to the ground.
When we landed, though it was more like us crashing, on the ground, a shovel quickly found its way onto his head, which then quickly found its way onto the ground.
I chuckled as I got off of him and started undoing the crossbows from his hooves and strapping them onto my own, taking his pouch full of bolts and placing them off to the side. While I trotted over to the base of the tree where the other pegasus had fallen, Sweeps started talking.
"Can you tell me next time? Teamwork is, like, our thing remember?"
"Yeah, and you did it perfectly by shooting that one guy towards me, and hitting the other one on the head." I complimented her, finally getting the bolt pouches off of the other one and putting them into the other pouches from the first one.
The pouches were bulging with fullness, almost to the point where I couldn't close them, but it was something I was going to need if I wanted to bring down a lot of hunters without lethal shots.
"Mind strapping me up?" I asked, rolling onto my side and raising up my leg.
She gave me a deadpanned look at first, but after giving her my best puppy dog face, she rolled her eyes and lit her horn up, moving the pouches around my hind leg and pulling it up to snugly rub my flank. I rolled over, and she followed suit with the other side with the other pouch of bolts.
I hopped up to my feet to be met by another question from my sister.
"Why'd you think they only sent two pegasi? I saw at least four of them in the air, not to mention all the other ones on the ground." She asked.
I shrugged.
"Probably because I ran away and shouted 'The Plan!' back at them. If it wasn't that, I dunno." I said, giving my leg a few test shakes to see if the ammo pouches would hold.
"So, you think they'll come through?" She asked, looking up at the wall to see if any other flyers would be following the first two.
"Meh, if they do we'd just get overwhelmed. But if we wait too long they'll just leave and go after Octavia." I said, loading bolts into the two crossbows.
"Soooo....?"
"So, now," I said, grabbing the spear and giving her a wink, "we've gotta go on the offensive."
Me and her both walked over to the wall and lined up near the hole, letting me peek past in an attempt to see what they were doing, only to have to yank my head out of the hole to avoid the tip of metal that flew by my face and into the trunk of tree behind me.
"Care to tell me the plan this time then?" She asked, ignoring the near death experience I just had. It seemed like we went through them enough to shake the whole "nearly died just then" effect of it off.
I put a hoof up to my chin and started forwards, the words "The plan" on my lips, only to have her yank me back to her the instant I made any progress.
"Plan. Please?"
"Well, way I see it, we've only got one thing we can do, and that's to hold them off as long as we can and eventually make our way to regroup with Octavia and that white mare." I said.
"You mean Vinyl’s mom?" Sweeps corrected.
"Yeah, but for now, let's focus on the more immediate threat." I suggested.
She nodded.
"Good, wrap us in a bubble for long enough to get past the hole in the wall. Then you can drop it and we can try and break their formation, all right?" I said.
"Right." She said.
I lined up on the wall and was about to rush in when Sweeps' put her hoof on my shoulder and got my attention again.
"What is it-" I began, only to have a little kiss on the cheek interrupt me.
"Welcome back." Sweeps said warmly.
*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*...Octavia...*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*
Vinyl's mother had taken to just carrying me at this point, as I was surprisingly a bit too slow to keep up with the supernaturally enhanced agility of a vampire believe it or not. I had ended up being placed on her back with my front hooves wrapped around her neck while she bolted through the large and industrial looking building.
It was doing quite the number on my mane.
"Where do you suppose they've held Vinyl?" I asked Vinyl's mother as she blurred down the hallway, taking seemingly random turns.
"Well let me just stop at one of the directories and look it up, dear."
"Oh! Do they have those here? They'd be extremely helpful." I said, looking around us to try and spot one.
"Unbelievable, that you have a harder time than myself picking up sarcasm. My daughter must see something in you that evades myself." She mumbled, though the passing wind made it hard to hear her.
A stallion walked out of a doorway, a cup of coffee in his hooves that he was taking plenty of care to not spill as he used his back hoof to shut the door behind him. He wore a jumpsuit of sorts, suggesting he was part of some sort of construction company - a good a choice as any to find out where something might be. He looked up at us and went wide eyed at the sight of a mare, with another on her back to boot, barreling down a hallway at him.
"Let's ask the friendly stallion up ahead then, shall we?" Vinyl's mother suggested as the stallion hurriedly tried to reopen the door all while not spilling his coffee.
Vinyl's mother screeched to a stop and quickly shoved a hoof to the stallion's throat, dragging him up the nearby wall and sending his coffee skywards.
He looked desperately at it as it flew through the sky before smashing crudely into the ground, the soul in his eyes breaking about as harshly as the coffee cup.
"Where's my daughter?" Vinyl's mother asked.
"W-Who?" The stallion sniffled.
"I don't think he knows who your daughter is, Miss Scratch. Perhaps you should explain it to him?" I suggested, trying hard to fix my mane from the harsh whiplash it had received.
"S-Scratch? Like Vinyl Scratch?" He asked, still on the verge of tears.
"Yes, my daughter. Where is she?" Vinyl's mother asked, her clenched eyes shaping into the look of anger.
The stallion cast a glance down to the puddle and shards of his coffee that had since passed on to greener pastures, before looking back up to Vinyl's mother with a look of teary eyed vengeance.
"Like I'd tell you, you demon..." He began shouting, following it up with a string of insults all while Vinyl's mother's horn lit up in a bloody red color and took her hoof's place in holding the stallion against the wall.
His flurry of slurs came to a close as soon as a shard of the stallion's coffee cup came up to his neck, pressing down just before the point of breaking the skin.
"A...as if this would b-break me-" He began, holding onto his resistance.
"I wouldn't push her." I said, trying to help him out, but it seemed as though Miss Scratch's patience was thinner than ever.
The shard moved over a few inches before pressing down to the point where a yelp came from the stallion, and a trickle of blood ran across the white of the tea cup. When he didn't immediately tell us where she was, Vinyl's mother snorted and moved the shard half an inch to the left, opening the wound even more, resulting in more howls of pain from the thick and rigid shard.
"L-Look, I don't know where she is! I just do maintenance!" He said, a bit of blood rolling down his lip.
"Then you know the layout of the building. Where is she?" Vinyl's mother said tonelessly, not asking but commanding him to tell us.
"T-They only let me operate up here. If I'd guess, she'd be down below in the lower floors." He stammered, his voice wavering from blood loss.
I truly felt bad for him, and if it were any other situation then I'd opt to help him, but he was associated with the ones who took Vinyl - excluding Shakes of course - and that was something I was still a bit uppity about. I could actually feel my face twisting in discomfort as he bled out in front of me, what was I expected to do really? I mean, I know Vinyl's mother might be used to doing things like this, but for me this was just disturbing.
But I kept my mouth shut.
"Basement then. Would it be below us?" Vinyl's mother asked the stallion.
"Y...Yeah?" He said.
"Very well." She said, letting him go.
The next thing she did was rather odd, and it made her previous question seem very literal.
She turned her head to the ground and lit her horn, letting it charge up again as it had before when she was aiming it at the wall, and tapped her horn to the ground. The result, this time, was much quicker - possibly thanks to gravity immediately taking effect - as the ground in front of her simply collapsed in on itself and left a gaping hole that stretched downwards maybe twenty or so feet.
We both stuck our heads above the hole, looking down to see that the hole led to a pristine white room. It would have been impossible to tell how deep the room below went thanks to its pure white color, however, what looked like a crater was also in view, and gave a bit of perception as to how far down the hole actually was.
From where we were at, it looked like that if we dropped from here, we'd plummet well over a hundred or so yards downwards into that white room before hitting the ground.
"To the youth go the opportunity." Vinyl's mother said, not looking up from the hole.
"Are you truly suggesting that I jump first?" I asked.
"...Possibly." She said.
"But...you're a vampire...and a unicorn as well. Could you not just teleport down? In fact, I bet you could jump down without worry. I've seen Vinyl do plenty of things more harming to the body without a scratch." I said.
"How about we both jump at the same time?" She suggested.
"You realize I'd die from this jump if I went first, or even at the same time, right?" I said.
"Okay, how about this, I hop on your back and then you jump, so that we both jump... technically?" She said.
I gave her a deadpanned look.
I wordlessly backed up from the hole and positioned myself behind her, coiled my legs, and jumped as hard as I could onto her back.
Though vampires may be able to stand their ground against thundering blows if they so willed it to; when they weren't expecting it, they were just as vulnerable to momentum as anyone else. As a result, my body weight going into the back of Vinyl's mother was enough to send us both over the ledge and down the hole, with myself gripping tightly onto her back.
Wind whistled past my ears as we dropped as fast as, well, two horses.
The impact was pretty small all things considered, despite Vinyl's mother implanting about a foot down into the room's floor. I half expected another crater to form when we hit, but the damage was actually fully contained to just Vinyl's mother.
Though, that didn't exactly take away the impact from hitting myself, knocking me fully off of her back and off to the side all while leaving me dazed.
Though when my eyes opened back up, my eyes blurry for some reason, I saw a figure standing tall and looking at me from about twenty meters away.
I cocked my head up, rubbing a hoof across my eyes and blinking a few times as my eyes readjusted.
A slender, white body with a two toned blue mane - one part electric blue while the other was neon - that rested across the eyes that must've been red as rubies.
"V-Vinyl?" I called out, pulling myself up to my hooves with a wobble.
I got a better look at her and felt my heart flutter at the sight of her, throwing caution to the wind and running over to her.
Her coat felt as soft as ever, something that I had missed ever since she was taken away. I nuzzled into it further, almost shivering at the feeling as I tightened my grip.
And I actually did shiver.
Though it wasn't from her soft coat, and it wasn't even a shiver of happiness either.
I could physically feel something wrong. Something wrong with Vinyl.
"V-Vinyl?" I asked looking up into her eyes only to feel my previously fluttering heart get wrenched.
Though her eyes weren't directly visible thanks to the failing lighting in the room as a result of Vinyl's mother turning some of the wiring into sand with her spell, I could make out an evil glow of red coming from her eyes. A menacing look for her, and one that sent fear running through my body rather than comfort.
I didn't have much more time to look at it, as I suddenly felt myself being jerked and stilled all in one motion.
I refocused my eyes and found that I was back at the spot where I had fallen in from, maybe twenty or so meters away from Vinyl, and this time cradled in Vinyl's mother's arms.
At first it was only curiosity that compelled me to look at Vinyl's mother, though the sight of Vinyl in such a shape overpowered that urge, but it was something that I felt that made me pry my eyes from Vinyl's figure, and over to her mother's.
She had a look similar to one that I might have after having seen the one when I had first told my father about Vinyl, one of absolute terror and that spoke volumes about how much this had hit her. I wasn't sure who had been shaken more, though from the looks of it, it was her. In all the time I had seen her she had kept a calm and unwavering attitude, also much like my father, but to see it broken only made that fact the more scarier. But there was something else that scared me, more than seeing her face twist in emotion.
She was physically shaking.