Fangs: The Order

by Sapphic

Motivations

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

The walk down to the back section of the bar was probably the longest walk I had ever gone through. Vinyl was a special case in almost every regard. For starters she was a vampire that seemed to be intent on starving herself rather than succumbing to the urges provoked by instinct, quite literally going against nature. And even despite that fact - one which would more than likely weaken her exponentially - she managed to be an intimidating force to odds that almost certainly had victory. I was worried that, with this recent feeding she was doing, that she might get uncontrollable after a certain point.

Something would have to give if this kept up, and it would definitely not be her.

Now if I could only find her.

"Vinyl?" I called out, but no answer came. I remembered that I didn't give her a specific place to go when I told her to go back here and felt the urge to hit myself for not bothering to go into greater detail.

I searched from room to room, opening every door including the bathroom and storage closet. It was on the final stretch of the hallway that I noticed that the lights behind my office door were turned on. I hadn't turned them on. I trotted up to the door and opened it slowly, peaking my head in and looking around.

She was inside, sitting in one of the spinning office chairs I had on the 'visitor' side of the desk and staring off into seemingly nowhere with a tiny smirk on her face. I had often wondered if that was her default look - if she was just naturally smiling - or if she always had something to be smiling about. She was swiveling the chair from side to side and I found the corners of lips tugging up as well..

"Hey Vinyl." The way I said it could have been registered as both calling her name and as a greeting.

"Hm?" She hummed, still swiveling.

"So, listen,"

This was my first approach: talking it out. I was going to see if, by some stroke of a miracle, I could see if I could reason her into not feeding anymore. Though the first step was getting her to admit that she was feeding and then to not have her get upset at me requesting she stop. It wasn't like I was expecting her, but I knew well that she could level the building if she wanted to.

"I wanted to ask you a few things."

"About the job thing?" Her tone was curious.

"Uhm, well, sorta. I wanted to ask if you had done a bit of drinking yourself." I hoped she would get the metaphor and I hoped that I hadn't came off too sudden.

"Hmm." She put a hoof up to her chin, as if it was what allowed her to remember. "No."

A lie.

"Really? No feeding at all?" I asked casually, as if it was my first implication, while taking a seat in the chair next to her.

She stopped swiveling in her chair at the use of the word 'feeding' and I could tell she finally got the message.

"No?" She wasn't sincere in her tone and her voice was barely above a whisper; it was easy to tell with her. You could read her like a book on certain things like lying but when it came down to it she could seem like nothing but nonsense.

"Vinyl," I let out a sigh and looked at her with a bit of sympathy. And hope. "I know you've been feeding on Octavia. She knows it too and I've seen the marks on her neck."

She was silent.

"Vinyl, have you fed on her?" I normally wouldn't bother treating anyone else with this amount of care, but like I said Vinyl was a special case. If she wanted to, she could probably level this bar if she wanted. She did level a castle.

"Yeah..." She finally admitted, her ears going flat and disappointment filling her face.

She sounded more disappointed in herself than I was with her. Though I wouldn't really call it disappointed so much as unprepared on my end. I had figured she would give in one day or another, I just hadn't expected it since she had gone so long without breaking. And for all I knew, she was still unbroken in will; just not solid in mind.

"Vinyl, we both know that you can't be doing that." I felt like a mother at this point, scolding a foal for taking a cookie or something.

The room went silent after that, she seemed to be in a state of self scolding while I could only watch on in pity. Vinyl didn't waste much time feeling sorry for herself or others because of her progressive mindset, but when she was taking it out on herself or others it was always bad.

I had come to a conclusion while watching this.

"Vinyl, I don't think you should take the job. At least, not right now when you're a bit hazy in the head." I thought back on the venom theory. Was this the result?

"I know that I promised you would get it, and I still hold that promise true, but I think we can both agree that you aren't built up for it right now. I mean, think of the casualties there might be if you slip up, even a little."

She was still motionless and silent and I took that as a silent agreement, but I decided to make it clear verbally since she wasn't the best at getting metaphors. Or anything non-explicit really.

"Okay?"

"No."

It was amazing how much weight a single word could carry, but when Vinyl said 'No' I could feel myself get goosebumps. The sound of her voice wasn't dangerous like it was if she were fighting, but a different type of dangerous. Her gaze was forward at the wall, and her smile had faded away to be replaced with a stoic look. I saw her jaw clinching and her brows squinting a few seconds later - as if she were conflicting with herself. She then shook her head and seemed fine.

"Vinyl-" I tried to protest, but she apparently wasn't done.

"I'm taking the job. I have to. Tavi's worrying again; I can smell it. I can't stand it"

I was a bit, well, shaken by the statement. That voice hadn't gone away entirely, but it had shifted subtly enough to show that there was more behind her words than the venom right now. It shifted the atmosphere completely. I had known Vinyl to be selfless but the fact that her motive included 'the house smelling bad' was a bit unexpected. Not to mention her look; it was serious, and serious was something Vinyl normally didn't have. Yet, despite all this, my gut just couldn't sit right with her going on the serving floor like this.

"Vinyl, please..."

She took off her glasses and looked at me.

I had seen her without them, but they always seemed to take me off guard and they never seemed to get old. I could see why Octavia kind of 'mushed' up whenever Vinyl looked at her without her glasses on. Who wouldn't?

The look they had was one of harnessed confusion if that makes any sense, like having no idea why you're doing something or what you would get out of it, yet still going in that direction with a whole lot of motivation. Even she didn't know why she wanted to get the job so badly, even if it would help out Octavia big time; it's not like her parents wouldn't step in if they ever caught wind of her being booted to the streets.

I let out a sigh, my decision finally in my head.

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

"So she gave you the job?" Was the first question out of my mouth as the door shut behind me.

"Yeah, she said I don't work til' a few days though." Vinyl said, trotting ahead of me.

We had arrived back at my apartment before I had worked up the nerve to ask Vinyl if she had gotten the job, she didn't seem happy on the walk home but didn't seem to be sad either. She expressed no signs of emotion, which was odd on it's own from her, but I wondered if she had been turned down and decided not to press her until we got off the streets.

I also noticed the lack of playfulness in her voice from before, and figured that Shakes must have done something about it when she went back to talk to her. It looked like I was worried for nothing though.

I still couldn't help but still feel a bit worried, there was still much I had to be worried about.

Vinyl seemed to pick up on this instantly with a twitch of her nose as she stopped dead in her tracks. She looked back at me and almost seemed annoyed with me, her lips turned downwards in an odd looking frown.

"What is it?" She asked out of nowhere.

"Huh?"

"Something's wrong." She added.

"W-What?" How could she know? It wasn't like she could read minds was it? Or was that also some Vampiric trait?

"You smell; what's wrong?" She was worded it so bluntly yet with concern in her voice.

"B-but I took two showers just this morning. How could I smell?"

"Come on Octy, you've got that worried smell on you again. Somethings bothering you." She said it in good spirits, but it was still a bit brash.

There were a lot of questions to raise about this claim. The first was that Vinyl could apparently smell emotion and the second was that she could tell what type of emotion it was just from the smell. She hadn't looked at me until she turned to claim to me that I was worried. And the last one was that she was correct.

I decided there was no point in not telling her. The dinner was going to happen either way so i'd be best to have Vinyl know about it.

"Well, this morning my mother stopped by and invited me to dinner at her house tomorrow night." I was a bit hesitant about telling Vinyl the issues.

Vinyl looked curious.

"Is that it?"

"Well, no. They expect me to bring a date."

"So that's it."

She turned and walked deeper into my apartment, taking her place on the couch with a content sigh. I was confused by her sudden change in attitude, but figured there was nothing wrong with it and started walking again myself.

I decided to take a seat across from Vinyl, hugging the other end of the couch in a comfortable silence.

"So when are we going?" She asked suddenly.

"W-What?" I must have misheard her.

"Well, if we're doing this whole dinner thing then I've gotta know what time it's going to be. Or do you wanna just surprise me when it's time to go?"

"We?" I asked her in shock.

"Yeah! Unless you're dating someone other than me." She smiled, though she didn't sound rhetorical in the last part of her sentence.

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

I was sitting on my couch alone, Vinyl was in my bedroom trotting in place. She went in there after she noticed how her fidgeting was bugging me a little; it was odd having a nocturnal pony around.

I couldn't help but let my thoughts wander. It was an old habit and it didn't even show habits of dying. Not to mention dying hard.

One of the most common of these thoughts, was of Vinyl.

After what Shakes had said I seemed to be at a revelation: that Vinyl had forcefully fed on me. Again. I knew that she, from what Shakes said, took her denial of blood very seriously and the fact that she had fed on me had me a bit concerned for her. It was somewhat stupid how I was worried if she was okay after she all but drugged me, but I couldn't help but shake the feeling something was wrong with her. I had the holes to prove it.

As worried as I was, I couldn't help but feel a little offended by the whole thing. She had done this before, and I seemed to get mad at her every time she did it. It would seem more than rational if I told someone about it, but to me it seemed like a bad thing to get angry at her and I felt offended at myself for doing it. A vicious cycle.

Another was about Shakes. I had assumed that she had something to do with the order, but how deep it ran was the new question. She had pulled out that box of hunter gear a day or two ago at the bar and I had been skeptical over it ever since. I had planned on talking to her about the gear, but I could never seem to find a convenient time to do it.

And the last one was of the dinner with my parents. Vinyl was now my date, not entirely by my choice either, and was now on a crash course to meet my parents. I guess I should have seen this as inevitable from even before the mention of the dinner to my parents, but I guess I had never even thought of my parents coming into contact with Vinyl. I wasn't sure exactly how my parents thought of filly fooling, I had never though o asking them about it, but regardless of that it was going to be a bit awkward to explain Vinyl to them.

I would imagine that they would have expected me to at least find another upper crust mare if anything, but Vinyl? Well, she wasn't exactly upper crust. I know that they want the best for me, and typically know that I know what is best for me, but they did have standards as well.

Not to mention that the single time I had talked about her to my father, he was visibly shaken by just the mention of her name and my involvement with her. His health would be seriously at risk if I told him that I was dating her.

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

I let out a sigh of relief, my magic releasing its grip on the broom and dust pan as they landed in the corner of the room. I had spent about all day trying to get the soot and char out of the carper and had only now just finished. I thought it would have been an easy task, I still didn't feel it was fair that I was stuck doing it though, but it looked like I was wrong.

When I had tried to sweep up the first part of ash pile, the entire structure had crumbled underneath the brooms touch and sunk down into the carpet deeper than I though possible. As a result, I was stuck getting most of the black out of the carpet by hoof and some magic.

Stone seemed to have some sympathy for me, casting the occasional glance my way that showed his feelings. He was on the couch reading a newspaper.

Flint had gone out somewhere.

When I had asked Stone where she went he said that she felt a little bit bad about how she was making me clean up all the ash, and had gone out to try and get some information on the mission in an attempt to make it up to me. He also said that she should be back any minute with her findings, if she got any.

Sure enough, she came in not but a half hour later.

"Honey, I'm home!" She was ecstatic, trotting in and putting a small, single, saddle bag on her back down onto the floor.

I didn't bother to say hello, but Stone lowered his paper.

"Aye." He grumbled.

She didn't seem that phased by our lack of enthusiasm of her return, but instead trotted over and took a seat on the couch across from stone. Though with Stone's stature they were practically right next to each other.

"So how'd the scavenge go?" Stone said, not bothering to look up from the rather small newspaper compared to his own size. It looked like the size of just a plain sheet of paper in his hooves.

"Well, bad for the most part." Her voice didn't seem to agree with what her mouth was saying, the optimism still slightly present.

She decided to continue while I took a seat on the newly cleaned space on the floor.

"I searched everywhere logical - late night businesses, asked a few street bums - but they all didn't have much of an answer."

'Logical' I thought in my head, mocking her idea of logical.

"Though, one of the bums suggested going to guards if I wanted to find someone. "

"So did you?" Stone asked.

"So I did." Flint replied.

"They were hardly any help, saying that finding a pony without some sort of valid reason wasn't permitted. Of course I couldn't tell them that we were looking for a potential killer either, that would have brought on too much attention."

"The effort wasn't worthless though; I did manage to overhear some of them talking about one of their guard stations going dark. They said that none of the guards down there where reporting in anymore."

Stone dropped his paper at the sound of that.

"So you went?" He asked, sounding more and more critical the farther Flint went on about her search for information.

"Yeah, I thought that maybe the reason it had went dark was because Vinyl Scratch had attacked them and then escaped the city; that we had been found out."

"And what did you find?" I jumped in. Flint's face twisted a little bit n discomfort as she began to speak again.

"Well, when I went over there I did find the guards."

"So that was a dead end too?" Stone asked, leaning forwards.

"In a way. The guards I all found were near dead when i got there." She sounded sad about it, her optimism had faded.

"What?" I asked, shaken by the claim.

"They were scattered around the station; two out near the gate, one near the door to the guard house and the last one I found in the broadcasting room. Looked like he was try send out a message before whoever it was got them. But one thing they all had in common was the blood scattered around them."

We were all dead silent as she spoke.

"Find anything else while you were there? Stone asked, his tone matching his name.

"Yes."

She took a shaky breath.

"I took a look at their bodies. The first thing I looked for was any cuts or signs of what weapon whoever did it was using. I didn't find any cuts, but I did find puncture wounds. Each of them had two fang marks on their neck, obvious sign of vampires."

"Vinyl Scratch?" I suggested.

"Not likely, the guards around Canterlot may not look like it, but they can definitely hold their own against one of them. It would've had to have been a group of many to over power all of them." Stone said sagely, though Flint seemed to have more to say.

"That's what I thought too, but when I looked at the one in the broadcasting room I found something else."

Me and Stone were listening intently.

"The stallion in the broadcasting room was sending out a message before whoever it was got him and it looked like he finished the message, but never managed to send it." She began.

"The letter described the situation leading up to it all. Why this stallion would feel the need to write out the entire summary of the night was beyond me, but it was helpful for me. Maybe he knew he wouldn't make it and made the letter for someone to find."

"It said that it was single figure that wore a cloak and came from the outside of the gate. Said that the voice of the figure confirmed it was a mare. They also noted that she was attempting to enter the city to 'find Vinyl Scratch'. They denied her entry because she didn't have any papers and that's when she decided to attack them. There isn't much talk of how she got to all of them, and that's where the letter ends."

We were all in shocked silence.

"So it was one vampire?" I stammered.

"Aye." Stone said gravely. "But why is a vampire after another one?"

"Not sure, but one thing is certain," Flint joined in, her voice almost boiling with a hatred that was indirect.

"Is that we aren't the only ones after Vinyl Scratch."

Author's Note:

Have a great day.

Comments

[Witchery]

The plot thickens.

[Twiggy Vampony]

God damn. The story just keeps getting better, im still feeling as if for every question that gets answered, another 2 just pops up...
You are doing a really great job on the story Sapphic, i'd like you to know that ^^

[HeartfireFirebrand]

"Well, if we're doing this whole dinner thing then I've gotta know what time it's going to be. Or do you wanna just surprise me when it's time to go?"

"We?" I asked her in shock.

"Yeah! Unless you're dating someone other than me." She smiled, though she didn't sound rhetorical in the last part of her sentence.

Well you are dating, why is this a surprise.