It was odd to say the least, being so close to a pair of vampires that I had really no idea what the extent of their strength was. On one half, I'd never felt more insignificant than I did the moment that Vinyl and her mother looked at each other. Two extraordinarily powerful beings looking to each other while I could do nothing but sit there with a dumb, slackjaw look on my face - as if the sister princesses themselves were in front of me.
Though, on the other half, I could also be considered the center of attention. And that's not to sound egotistical at all, but when I thought about it, these two were fighting for me. One, Vinyl's mother, to defend me from the other, Vinyl, who was trying to get me from what I could tell.
To think that I was actually the object of desire of one of them - now that I think of it - was a true honor.
Speaking of the two, for being so immensely powerful and capable, they were doing nothing.
Vinyl's mother had been in a staring contest with her daughter for the most part, both of them looking at each other with an intense look in there eyes. But Vinyl's mother kept pouring magic into the air from her horn, as if to serve as a statement, and in all honesty it was working. I wouldn't even dream of thinking bad on someone with that kind of look to them.
It reminded me much of Vinyl when she got serious now that I thought about it, which I guess could be expected since it was her mother, but it was still an experience in and of itself.
Half-lidded eyes with a saturation of color coming from them, bright enough to make everything else look dark by comparison. It was a fact that made the grim look on her lips seem even more profound, straight for the most part but with a small dip down in them towards the end. And I had already observed her horn in all its glory, letting out magic energy like how a chimney would let out smoke.
But as for them staring at each other rather than taking action, I'd come to the conclusion a long time before this that one's eyes can speak for themselves, more so than the spoken word could, so I assumed they were having a conversation with looks alone.
Vinyl's mother was the first to break the silence.
"Very well..." She said silently, her eyes dipping down and gently shutting themselves.
The hairs on the back of her neck visibly bristled, muscles I had never seen on her tensing and bulging past her typically smooth exterior, grimace fading into a more familiar looking motherly smile and a single twitch from one of her ears.
She lifted her hoof upwards, holding it at eye level before it began to glow in a gentle red hue.
Her eyes opened again, a much different look in them from when they had first closed, this time with a very clear intent in them. A look that suddenly made her statement from before a bit more clear. There was a spark of crazy in it, which was a hereditary thing I assumed at this point, that was only made more clear thanks to the red color emanating from her hoof.
Vinyl didn't seem phased at all by the display, but she did do something that looked like it might have been considered a response.
She turned around, looking fully away from her mother, and down at me with what I could only make out as a mix of both lust and longing.
I could have sworn I saw her lick her lips.
The sight was interrupted suddenly by a glow coming from my right, and a look to said right showed me that a familiar face had made its way over from behind Vinyl.
And that familiar face didn't look particularly happy about being ignored by her daughter.
Her horn sparked once before a bright light overloaded my sights, though I made out the swift movement of a hoof just before that light overcame me.
*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*
Ironically, after the overwhelming light, there was an equally overwhelming dark that came over my sights. As if I had been put into the polar opposite of the area, where even the smell had taken a sharp contrast from just moments ago. A stingy smell filled my nose, oddly familiar yet just as oddly unique.
I felt something like bricks against my backs and figured I was propped up somewhere, and that my first instinct was to feel around to attempt and figure out where "somewhere" was.
I placed my hoof away from my eyes and felt around on the ground, feeling a distinct feeling of slightly wet dirt on top of something solid like concrete. I moved my hoof back to feel what I was propped up on and felt something like rusty metal, and the adjustment of my eyes to the dark confirmed to me that it actually was rusty metal.
I looked around a little bit, finding that where I had ended up was just ever so slightly lit with a tint of an almost orange light that seemed to come from nowhere and favored no direction in general to light. Some places were dark and others dimly lit, but no one place was lit entirely. A steady trickle of water dropping completed the whole look, giving the place a rather eerie feeling to it.
That feeling didn't help when the sound of hoofsteps came gently into audibility.
The steps were gentle and coming from the left, following a pretty consistent pattern like most people did when they walked, but it also had some sort of oddness to it. As if every step had different amounts of care put into each other rather than just walking steadily; some steps sound heavier than others, but all of them sounding generally gentle in nature.
I tried to move away from the incoming steps, like most rational people would when they heard ominous steps coming towards them from the darkness, but a queasy feeling from what had to have been a teleport still held me down.
"One...two...one...two...one...two..." A calm voice said from the dark.
'And there we go, nothing quite completes this whole scenario like a good old fashioned voice from the dark saying something so vague it only makes you more nervous the more you think about it.' I inwardly ranted, but despite that inward annoyance with the situation, I was more than scared.
I began to force my body to move, resulting in myself trying to get up only to slump downward after trying to use my front hoof to push up from the floor.
Hoof steps drew closer, and as they did the voice became more obvious.
"One, two...one, two....one, two...one, two..." She said, her pace increasing.
I stopped my struggling to leave, instead pushing myself back up onto my haunches and leaning back against the wall, an uncomfortable feeling of dirty brick rubbing into my back.
I knew who it was, and despite that, I felt the feeling of fear fade slightly. Instead, my sympathy and kindness began to grow as if it were second nature. I'd realized whose hoof that was that moved upwards towards Vinyl's mother's horn at the last second and I also realized just what they had accomplished by doing that.
White hooves moved in front of me, stopping and turning towards me.
A gentle whisper invaded my ear, tickling slightly.
"You're heart's a bit fast Tavi..."
I didn't look up for some reason, which emotion told me not to was anyone's guess. Fear told me I wouldn't like the sight, anxiety told me I shouldn't see the sight. But sadness screamed that I'd regret the sight.
As soon as those emotions flowed through, I felt a pair of hooves gently pushing my body completely up against the brick. Following this was a white body coming down onto her own haunches, using me as support. After she finally got settled down, she continued pushing on my shoulder, keeping me pinned against the walls.
I made out her breathing, oddly loud all things considered, but I guessed it might've been in anticipation. Whatever the motive, they were oddly gentle and steady.
I wasn't sure why she was just staring at me, but then again I wasn't even sure what she was going to do anyway, so I guess this wasn't so bad.
Her head moved slightly, the feeling of her lips pressing down gently on my own, a sudden warmth coming from my body as I felt a little gasp come from my throat at the tender kiss. The second her lips left mine, she moved to my neck and opened her mouth.
I had expected her to bite down and drain me, but a sudden girly grunt came out instead, followed by her hooves being removed from my shoulders.
I looked over to see that she was holding her nose, her eyes crinkled up and tears swelling at the sides.
'So...this is what a feral Vinyl is like.' I thought to myself.
She got over it, sniffling slightly, and then readjusted my neck and her head before moving back down towards my neck. She trailed little kisses on the way there before finally reaching what seemed to be her favorite spot to feed on, and bit down all in one motion.
There was no hesitation like usual, where she would try and restrain herself. She just bit down without a second thought.
I thought I'd be feeling a bit more saddened to see the state she was in, but rather I wore a small grin. Though she did what I had hoped she wasn't going to do, she had also done something that I hadn't expected. Where she had looked feral, I had expected her to be akin to an animal with her treatment to others, but here she was showing affection. Then again, affection wasn't a limited emotion, so perhaps even her instincts were to show affection to people. But then why did she seem so hostile towards her own mother? You'd figure that'd be the most basic instinct.
Her mouth came off of my neck, a feeling of a little trail of warmth coming down my neck from where she let go. Though she didn't speak, seeming oddly content with the silence.
I felt the need to say something, and as a result a rather cheesy sounding sentence made its way out.
"I'm going to fix you Vinyl." I said, hoping that it'd get some sort of reaction, but none came.
Minutes passed on end, her body going more and more slack as time went on, to the point where I feared she might end up falling asleep on me. That wouldn't have been that bad honestly; I could've gotten her mother and we could have gotten out of here and tried to start fixing her.
But her ears suddenly pricked and she stiffened up.
She moved off of me, getting up and staring down the corridor where she had come from herself.
I noticed my eyes seemed to be a bit more adjusted to the dark, and also seemed to be registering things as if they were in slow motion again. I realized that it was Vinyl's presence that sparked it to happen, particularly from her calling out my heartbeat as she closed in.
A small flash sparked from the corner of my eyes, coming from somewhere far down the hallway, but I didn't take my eyes off Vinyl.
A second white figure suddenly entered the picture, a pair of ice blue eyes holding a look of determination in them. Her body was leaned back, leading with her back hooves that were cocked back in preparation to buck. She looked to be gently floating across the ground in my eyes, though she must've looked like she were flying in reality. Her eyes stayed locked with what had to have been Vinyl's as they closed distance with her until her cocked back hooves were only an inch or so apart.
My eyes looked to Vinyl for a final glimpse, one that showed her doing one thing and one thing only.
Staring off into space, like she didn't even notice her mother coming.
I blinked.
Vinyl was gone, the only thing left being her mother who had since landed on the ground. She was keeping her eyes forwards for a second or so until she turned to me quickly with a look of maternal tier worry.
"Are you hurt dear? What did she-" She began to ask, but she cut her questions short as she seemed to spy the gentle trickle of warmth going down my neck.
"I see." She said, turning back ahead. She sounded odd, where she had sounded concerned before, it was as if seeing that Vinyl had fed made her annoyed.
"You know dear...you really must've burrowed down into Vinyl over the time you've been with her, haven't you?" She asked, her voice hardly a whisper, but it was plenty loud for me to hear.
I was a bit too shocked by what had just happened to answer, but she seemed to know that I wanted an elaboration.
"Even her instincts are telling her to keep you alive." She said quietly. "That, or to just drain as much blood as she can from you."
It went silent as she simply stared down the hall, as if she was waiting for something to come down it, but the silence continued on until she broke it again with another question.
"U-Um, Miss Scratch?" I asked, a bit hesitant because of what had happened, as well as the fact she looked about as approachable as an executioner right now.
"Yes dear?" She said, almost snapping out of her half-lidded-eyes-intimidation-look and bringing her gaze over to me, her eyes now having a small spark of readiness.
I took note of her ability to change emotions seemingly on a dime, going from annoyed with me to concerned and ready to help in any way possible within the span of two words.
"What, um, what did you mean?" I began, but quickly realized that that was about as vague as anything and decided to elaborate.
"What did you mean when you said you'd hoped to never do this again?" I re-asked.
In truth, I had no idea as to what it was, but figured I'd waste less time getting an answer straight from the source rather than letting my mind build up on its own irrational thoughts fueled by emotions. Not to say emotion fueled thought is bad, just that it can sometimes skew perception and inflame anxiety.
"Oh yes...that." She said, sounding like she regretted saying it in hindsight.
"You'd say that...I have a very-" She paused. "-attached, relationship with my daughter, correct?" She asked.
I nodded, not needing any proof of that claim thanks to what I'd seen her already do.
"Well, as much as I love my daughter, there are times when even she needs to be set back in line." The pain of a memory blanketed her expression.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I've fought my daughter before Octavia." She said deathly void of emotion.
I stiffened up and felt my stomach tie itself in knots, the very idea of someone as maternally adept as Vinyl's mother ever coming to blows with someone as innocent as Vinyl being enough to almost make me call her a liar.
"She...it was one of the first times she had drank blood. It was a bit too much for her to handle and ended up sending her into a sort of frenzy the likes of which you've never seen before, and it is the reason she has been hunted by organizations such as this one for a long, long time now - to the point where most think she was a myth. And even they couldn't stop her on their own, which is why I decided to step in." She said softly.
It was a sad sight seeing VInyl's mother get choked up. It must have been truly nightmarish if it could make someone with as much emotional diversity as a motherly rock start to look like they were going to cry.
"It's also the reason she decided to stop drinking it as much as she could. It seemed like a good idea to her at the time, but...well she didn't quite understand that the choice had consequences." She continued.
"It only takes a drop to get her frenzied thanks to all those decades of not drinking; a good way to look at it would be to imagine fasting for years, and then have someone offer you one of your favorite meals. Every bite would be much more filling than if you had that meal every day." She explained.
As hungry for knowledge of vampires as my brain always was, what she said wasn't a real priority to my right now. I couldn't help but be reminded of another question that had been floating around in my mind, one that I had thought had been answered, but had always denied ever since getting said answer.
"Did...she kill anyone?" I asked quietly.
Vinyl's mother actually looked taken aback by that, her somber mood partially shattered by the accusation.
"My daughter could never work up the nerve to kill someone." She said firmly.
I wanted to trust that, especially coming from Vinyl's own mother, but I just didn't know what to think anymore. I'd seen what Vinyl could do, and as much I would love to know for sure that she had the self control to stop herself, I don't think she could regulate her strength to that kind of degree. Maybe she didn't have the nerve to intentionally kill someone, but she must have taken at least one or two lives on accident.
Look at the Master for example.
Another thing, was that Vinyl's mother had made impeccable timing if this were the case. Why did she decided to come visit around the same time Vinyl started acting all weird?
I brought it up to her, and she seemed a bit relieved at the change of topics, but another emotion came over her face.
'She looks...oddly excited.' I thought to myself, getting a bit nervous.
"Octavia, are you familiar with the time period I believe you people refer to as 'heat'?" She asked, sounding genuine.
I truly had to admire myself after maintaining consciousness after having all the blood in body - including the stream of it rolling out of my neck - rush into my cheeks in the biggest blush I'd ever had.
Talking about going into heat, with the mother of a vampire.
"I-I, uhm, well...ah, yes." I stammered, obviously not expecting that to be the topic of choice.
"Yes, well, here's a little fun fact for you. Every decade or so, Vinyl goes through her own little 'heat' and I decide to pay her a visit to make sure she doesn't do anything drastic." She said, giggling a little bit before whispering.
I wasn't sure whether or not to be uncomfortable, disturbed, weirded out or all three.
Probably all three.
"Even if that means I have to restrain her. She makes the cutest little faces when she gets doped up on venom." She said deviously, not even checking me for a reaction at this point, just looking up at nothing with a blissful look on her face.
Definitely all three.
"Why does she, ah, go through this every ten years?" I asked, curiosity only barely beating out my desire to just stop the conversation there.
"Puberty of course. She's still such a young mare after all." She said, as if it were obvious.
I was just too confused to continue questioning, like the question that if she herself went through something similar to Vinyl. The reasoning behind that being that she had already short circuited my head with the idea that "even if we lived forever, we wouldn't know" and convincing me she just didn't age in general.
Her bubbly look faded slightly as she turned back to the darkness ahead, the smile still on her face, as she seemed to sense something.
"Speaking of her and her youth." She said, looking front and center as the sound of, well, something came towards us.
Vinyl's mother reared up, her hooves going up and coming back down only to hit another pair of matching ones.
I hadn't even noticed Vinyl arriving, practically just appearing out of thin air with her hooves locked into place with her mother's. There was no visible struggle between the two, as if they were just resting there with their hooves latched onto each other, but the second one of them budged it showed just how much force was behind those still hooves.
Vinyl crashed down to the ground, kicking up dust and making a cracking sound a the ground beneath her must've given way against the massive force.
Her mother didn't give her a chance to recover though, instead moving one of her hooves to the center of Vinyl's body and picking her right back up off of the ground and swinging her round once or twice before letting her go.
The poor wall didn't stand a chance.
Light flooded into the dark room, lighting it up as VInyl hurdled outwards and back into that blaringly white room.
"Mother loves you dear." I heard Vinyl's mother whisper before bending down and jumping after her, kicking up dust and leaving in an instant.
As the light flooded in, I realized just why the room smelled so badly.
Looking into the metal bars that I realized were now the bars of cells, I saw that there were splotches of dried blood in most of them. Matted beds and gritty looking floors marked where whoever landed here was supposed to sleep, and the splintery looking troughs marked where they were meant to eat and drink.
There was a brief feeling of guilt that ran through me at the sight of them, superstition running through my head to convince me that there were plenty of vampires who were raised here, whereas I had hardly experienced hardship in my life up until a few months ago.
I pushed it aside for now, as fixing this issue wasn't in my power, and pushed myself up off the floor. There were more pressing matters at hoof, such as the two forces clashing just outside the room.
Trotting slowly to stand in the hole in the wall, I peered out at the two mare's fighting; catching glimpses of the two throwing out hits, only to be blocked just as easily. Peering back to the cell block, I just shook my head before going back into the white of the room.
'Vinyl...what did they do to you?' I asked myself as I crossed the room, thought consuming me.
The sound of flesh hitting flesh came from just beside me, a force of wind erupting from it that was big enough to blow my mane to the side.
I turned quickly, seeing a hoof reached out to my face, and attached to this hoof was the body of Vinyl eagerly stretching out in an attempt to grab me, her eyes glazed over in a lusty look that had clear intentions. I guess that, if she was going off instinct, the urge to feed off of someone would be fighting with the urge to defend herself, but it looked like it didn't matter whichever one won that fight.
The figure of her mother was behind her, holding her by the nape of her neck just out of my reach.
Vinyl finally seemed to wrap her head around the fact that someone was holding her back, and decided to act.
Her outstretched hoof, turned rapidly and unpredictably, slapping away her mother's grasp on her neck. She then moved in closer, wrapping her hooves around her mother in a sort of bear hug before she used her back to send her mother head first into the ground behind her - or, from my perspective, right in front of me.
She only got about halfway before her mother's horn lit in a quick flash, teleporting her body out of Vinyl's grip. She ended up mid-air where she had been standing when Vinyl had grabbed her, her hooves already aimed and rocketing towards Vinyl's stomach. It made a sickening sound on impact, only a glimpse of Vinyl's body being propelled downwards a few feet before rubble made it impossible to see.
Though when it settled, you could easily see that crater formed where Vinyl had been at, not much of a surprise considering her mother hitting he had enough force to send me back a couple of meters. I kept my footing though, bracing from the wind before looking to see Vinyl in the crater on her back.
Something changed about her then, her smile fading slowly as she seemed to realize she had just been denied her snack. I felt the urge to run for some reason, despite nothing visibly changing about her other than her mouth's appearance.
Her hoof raised lazily, hovering in the air a little before coming down hard enough form a second, smaller, crater in the one she was already in.
She got up slowly, earth crumbling around her as if it were snow, walking up out of the hole and onto the solid ground.
She looked back to me briefly, her eyes no longer half-lidded, but now stretched to the point where one would call it normal - which by her standards was as wide eyed as it got. But it wasn't the wide eyes that were the most noticeable part, it was the fact that her pupils had gone from dilated like the typically where when she was all "lusty", to small dots barely noticeable from afar. The irises had seemingly shrunk as well, leaving the whites to over power their color.
It was a different look to her, the term "wolf in sheep's clothing" coming to mind with her eyes looking so drastically different. Another one would be "if looks could cut", because if they could, me and everything behind me for a few miles would have been pierced straight through.
She murmured something, silent enough to be considered a personal thought, but loud enough to be more than a warning.
"Hungry..."