Bite Me. . .Please?

Chapters

Dealings with the Devil
Ghost in the Piano
Octavia's Journal: Entry 1
Crashing and Guests
Behind Closed Doors
Trust
Friends with benefits
Too Bright
Expectations
Off-Balance
Repartations
667 Dorothy Avenue

Dealings with the Devil

Octavia’s eyes flickered open as she regained consciousness. “Where am I? What am I. . .?” Her hand flew to her neck as her memories came back to her, only to come away disappointed when she couldn’t find any bite marks, not even a trickle blood running down her throat.

“Dammit, I thought vampires were supposed to be blood thirsty, emphasis on the thirsty.” Sighing, she tried to sit up only to find that she couldn’t. Every time she even attempted to move a splitting pain shot through her body stopping her.

A scream started to gurgle up in her throat, but it was stopped by a disembodied voice. “Hmm, I was a bit gentler with you then I thought. You shouldn’t have been able to move at all when you woke up. But don’t worry, I fixed it."

Ocatvia gulped, “F-fixed what? Why can’t I move?”

“I have a better question,” Forces beyond her control turned Octavia’s head to the side. “What exactly possessed you to break into vampire's home?”

Octavia’s eyes bulged. “It’s you. You’re the girl from the photo, the one with the fangs. The one. . . “ Octavia gulped, full comprehension finally dawning on her, as the blue-haired girl stared at her with—red eyes? “I could have sworn they were violet in the portrait. I know the beady red eyes are customary of vampires, but—

Just as Octavia was about to go into the implications of the change in eye color, her train of thought was stopped by the vampire opening her mouth to speak. “You know, when most people figure out a creature of the night is in the vicinity, they try and get as far away as possible. You on the other hand ran straight into danger, fully knowing or at least believing you’d meet a vampire.

“That leaves me with one question for you. One I’d suggest you answer quickly because it will determine how quickly I kill you.” Leaning forward so that they were face to face, the vampires gaze pierced her searching for the truth. “You’re not one of those Twilight fans are you?”

“What!?”

The girl stood up straight, obviously not amused by the little outburst. “You have to admit it’s a valid question. One moment you’re biting into a girls neck, the next thing you know she’s moaning and trying to grab you shouting ‘Oh Edward, take me’." She shivers in disgust.

Octavia’s mouth hung open. Forget being sucked dry, her pride had just been insulted. “I’ll have you know that I am a vampire purist. I like the classic vampires, Nosferatu, Dracula. You know, the ones that don’t sparkle.”

The girl cocked an eyebrow, clearly not impressed. “Well if you’re not one of those lunatics who wants me to make them into my love slave, then what the hell are you doing in my house?” That was a good question. What was Octavia here for? She'd wanted to meet a vampire, but even more than that, she was hoping that her life-long dream could be fulfilled.

Octavia gulped, “I-I want to be a vampire, b-but it has nothing to do with Twilight. It's been my life-long dream to become one and when I realized that you were here, I just—" If Octavia could have moved, she probably would have shrugged at this point, "Decided to take a chance." The vampire-girl blinked, a curious look on her face. But Octavia was too busy smiling and basking in her accomplishment to really notice. “There I said it, though I have to admit that involved a lot less disembowelment then I thought.”

“I have to admit I was wrong about you. You're not a lunatic,” Octavia smiled, “You’re just insane, which frankly isn’t much better.” She snapped her fingers and Octavia’s muscles instantly started relax. Octavia sat bolt upright, wiggling her fingers just to make sure she could really move. “Come with me. I’ll show you the way out.” The vampire turned and began walking.

“Wait please.” She shouted, as she pushed herself onto her knees. The vampire sighed, but she turned around to face her, an annoyed look on her face. “Please, just wait, I’ve always wanted to be a vampire and I’m willing to give you anything in return. I know I don’t have much you’d want, but there must be something I could trade you.”

The vampire cocked her head at the girl. This girl had broken into her home, and now she was asking for her to make a deal with her. The offer was tempting in its own ways, and the fire in the girl's eyes told her that even if she kicked her out she'd be back. So as long as they weren't going anywhere, she might as well test the waters and see how far this naive girl was willing to go.

“You do realize you’re making a deal with the devil right?" She began as she started to stalk back over towards the bed. "Someone who is, as far as you know, a satanic spawn, and could weasel her way out of the deal.”

Octavia frowned. Of course she had thought of that, which is why she already had a response for when someone asked her. “I’m fully aware of the risks, but I’m willing to accept them if it means I can become a vampire.” She smirked, “Also, I’m pretty sure that a satanic spawn would have sucked me dry by now and dumped my body somewhere.”

“Touche.” She grimaced, the last thing she wanted was a Fresh-blood vampire mulling about the place. They were annoying, overconfident, and had a knack for getting in the way. But if the girl was really ready to give anything to become a vampire, than she could use this.

“Fine," she relented after a moments thought. "If you’re truly willing to give me anything, then you’ll agree to become my Knock.”

“You’re what?” She asked confusion marring her face. Out of all the monster lore, that Octavia had both read and seen, a 'Knock' was not on her list of known creatures. Or her list of anything major pertaining to vampire lore.

The vampire scoffed, “Didn’t you say you were some true vampire fanatic?” Octavia nodded, “Then you must have seen Noseferatu at some point. You remember, Knock?”

Octavia's face fell. “Wait, do you mean that short little chubby man that Count Orlok enslaved?” Octavia vaguely remember the man. Mostly she remembered just how insane the man had become under his master’s control.

“Exactly,” she said, her eyes lighting up at the clear dread on Octavia’s face. “You’d be less of a slave though and more of a. . ." she paused trying to think of the right word to make this sound less terrible then it was. "Indentured servant, with a certain amount of free will.”

“That’s the same thing!”

“No it’s not," The girl defended, moving a bit closer to Octavia. "Indentured servants get paid. In your case you get to become like me." The vampire motioned to herself, indicating the to fangs peaking out slightly from beneath her lip. "Also, there’s always a time limit on their service.”

Octavia thought about it, licking her lips she spoke up “Alright than, what’s the time limit.”

The vampire grinned, now she had her. “The time limit is until I think you deserve it.”

“What, that’s totally unfair.” And it was, depending on what exactly the vampire had in store for her. It could take years for her to get her fangs. Maybe even decades if the vampire was being cruel. And since vampires can be naturally pretty cruel already, Octavia's chances did not bode well.

The vampire chuckled, “You have to remember that what I’m giving you is an enormous amount of power. Power that according to the rules I’ll have to teach you how to use. On top of that getting bitten by me specifically gives you a certain amount of, let’s just say “social status”. Add all of that together and you’ve got quite the deal. It may take a couple of years, maybe a decade or two. But you’d get your power—eventually."

Octavia knew what she was trying to do. She was trying to make her back out and send her running for the hills. And it was working to an extent. There was no telling when the vampire would deem her “worthy,” if ever. “What guarantee do I have that you won’t go back on your deal?”

The vampire cursed, she had hoped that the girl would overlook that detail, but she couldn't have everything now could she. “Fine, if you really don’t trust me, we can make an Orpheus compact. First person to go back on their end of the deal, has their soul ripped out of their body.”

Octavia blinked, “You have a soul?

The girl growled at her, “Lesson number one of dealing with the supernatural: 'A body is just a husk.' if it’s walking talking, etc. then it has a soul in it. But the real question is, are you willing to bet yours?"

She said this with just enough smugness leaking out o her very being to get on Octavia's nerves. It was if she already expected Octavia to bail out when things got rough. That wasn't the type of girl she was though, she was a fighter. So she nodded, “Yes, I want to become a vampire, and if that means betting my soul on it then I will.”

The vampires shrugged, “Fine, if you’re so adamant about this then climb off the bed, we’ll make both contracts right now.” She said as she started flexing her fingers, preparing for what was about to come next.

“Okay,” Octavia said as she jumped off the incredibly soft bed. “So how do we do this?" She asked. "Do I sign something in blood, or do you draw a rune on me or something?”

The vampire waved her hand dismissively, “No, nothing like that. We could, but you want something more concrete. All I really need to do for this is rip out your soul." She smiled, "Don’t worry though I can probably put it back in.” Before Octavia could open her mouth to protest, the vampire had already plunged her hand straight into her chest.

She let out a sharp gasp as she felt the other girls hand moving around inside of her, looking for something. It wasn't a painful sensation, just strange, but more and more as the other girl moved, Octavia felt a chilling sensation taking over her body. Until finally, the girl found what she was looking for , right near her heart. Grasping a hold of it she pulled, and Octavia lost consciousness for the second time that night.

Octavia wasn’t sure where she was exactly, but she felt at peace. It was like she had been locked in a cage all her life, and was suddenly set free. No pain, no fear, not even the cold was here to torment her, just the presence of being surrounded by a void and voices. Voices from all directions, calling out to her by name.

But there was one, that seemed to drown out all the rest. It's call was a pure symphony to her, and it seemed to make so may promises to her. Warmth and protection, but most of all a peace f mind that even her present state couldn't fufilled

She longed to fly to the voice, be engulfed in it's majesty and stay there, but she was being held down by something. And it was pulling her, farther and farther away from the voice. Deeper and deeper into an indescribable darkness. Octavia fought and strained against the force, but it was useless. She wanted to fly to the voice, but the more she struggled the more the darkness seemed to seep into her very being. And with it brought back familiar sensations, the cold, pain, death.

But then the most unexpected thing happened. The darkness spoke. The voice sent another chill through Octavia, but it instantly calmed her. The other voice was suddenly gone, as the darkness held her close. It coddled her and whispered things to her. Words and secrets that she didn’t understand, but they seemed to wrap around her, restricting her and binding her. They felt nice though, hugging her tightly, the darkness became a source of warmth. At one point there was a brief pinch but that was it.

Floating freely in the darkness, Octavia felt like she could stay there forever. But just as quickly as it had come it all seemed to end. The darkness grasped her again, hurling her away from the mass. Set adrift and lost, Octavia tumbled through the abyss until she connected with something that felt familiar and latched onto it.

Octavia opened her eyes for the second time that night. The only difference was that this time she awoke on the cold hard floor. Her head hurt from where she had fallen, and standing over her was her new mistress looking more ticked off then happy about her new servant. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to charm a soul away from the gates of heaven?” The vampire growled

Octavia blinked, still not clearly understanding what had just happened to her. All she knew was that she was back, no voices, no darkness, she was alive or at least she thought she was. She sat up feeling her chest, and the very apparent lack of a hole there. “Heaven?" She whispered, " Is that where that voice was coming from?”

“Well it certainly wasn’t coming from the gates of hell." Retorted the vampire, still angry at the extra work she'd had to put in to keep her servant from dying.

Octavia didn’t know what to say, she’d almost willing crossed over, and it was only by the will of this vampire that she’d been saved. Even if it was for completely selfish reasons, the vampire still deserved her thanks. She opened her mouth to speak, and was immediately silenced. “Don’t thank me. Your body is practically useless to me without you in it.”

“Practically?”

She smirked, before turning to leave “Along with its other uses, a body without a soul can catch quite a pretty price if you know where to sell it. But that doesn’t matter now, come along Octavia Philhamonica.”

Octavia stood shell shocked, as images dissection tables and voodoo charms flashed through her head. She snapped out of it though as soon as the vampire called her name. and she ran to catch up she called out to her. “How exactly do you know my name?” That was the second time the vampire had used it, and Octavia couldn't remember ever introducing herself.

“I held your soul remember,” she said as she led her down a set of stairs. “I preformed the rituals on you, that means we are now bound together. You’re servitude comes with a few added perks, most of which I will explain later. For right now head home and get some rest. If I remember correctly tomorrow is a school day, and I wanted you well rested.”

“Wait you still want me to go to school. I kind of assumed that I’d be stuck with you now.” Or at least that's how it worked in most movies. She sort of qualified as the vampire's apprentice now, so it only seemed logical she'd stay here and learn.

The other girl turned to her, throwing her a glare that she was slowly becoming used to. “Do you want me to have an uneducated servant? Do you want to be an uneducated nitwit?”

“No, but—“

“Good,” she turned right back around and continued walking, "Then it’s decided, after school you’ll come directly here for a few hours or so. You’ll clean, cook, and whatever else I need you to do. Occasionally I might have you do things that involve you being away from home for a bit. I don’t care what you tell your parents just make something up.”

When they reached the front door she stopped and turned her head, giving Octavia a quick look up and down. “I guess I should introduce myself. I am the Countess Vinyl Scratch. Welcome to my service Octavia, and I assure you that if you can actually prove yourself useful—which I doubt—then I’ll grant your wish.”

Author's Note

Finally, It's 3:00 in the morning. I'm dead tired but it's done. Like I said in the blog the edited version should be up soon. I plan on sending it to my editor as soon as I catch some z's. You also might notice that Vinyl is acting extremely un-Vinylesque. (I butchered that word but I'm too tired to correct it).

Anyway expect the next chapter in the next couple weeks or so. I have some projects to do, plus I should be starting my new job soon. . . I think.

Ghost in the Piano

“’Go dust the furniture'" she says. ‘Stop being a nuisance’. Oh, if I had a stake I could show her what a nuisance really looks like.” Octavia had been working for Vinyl Scratch for little over a week and her “Mistress” as she liked to be called (probably because she knew it was starting to grate on Octavia's nerves), had made it painstakingly clear how much she both needed and wanted Octavia there.

For instance, most areas of the house never seemed to attract dirt which had left Octavia confused for a while, until Vinyl explained that there was a spell cast over them to keep them that way. There were still a few areas of the house where the spell seemed either weak or just plain nonexistent, but for the most part everything was kept nice and tidy without her.

Since the house did such a good job of taking care of itself, Octavia decided she could best serve Vinyl by being near her. . .constantly. It seemed like a good idea at the time. She would be close at hand should her -ugh- Mistress need her, always at her beck and call, a loyal dedicated servant, worthy of becoming a vampire.

The problem she soon encountered was that Vinyl was completely independent. Anything the vampire needed done, she would just do herself. She didn’t find it beneath her to get up and grab a book from a shelf or clean up a mess she’d made. Which left Octavia feeling like a hood ornament.

Actually, that wasn’t quite true. People paid attention to hood ornaments, because they were big, flashy, and utterly pointless except for decoration. But Vinyl didn’t even seem to want Octavia for that. Taking every opportunity to shut the girl out, and put a real damper on her plans to know ergo schmooze the vampire.

It was fine though. The way Octavia saw it Vinyl was stuck with her, whether she liked it or not. She'd had made a pact with Octavia, and she was going to have to keep it. If she didn’t want her around she shouldn’t have made the deal in the first place.

Octavia stopped her tirade for a second, all she was doing at the moment was going in circles around the west wing of the house and her feet were starting to hurt. Truthfull, she'd already accomplished more walking in circles then she normally did. But now it occurred to her that as long as she was here she might as well do something productive. If not for Vinyl than at least for herself.

With that in mind, she resigned herself to finding a place to sit down and think about what she’d learned about her Mistress and vampires in general. It was topic that never seemed to come up, despite Octavia's near constant barrage of questioning towards her Mistress. Vinyl was stonewalling her, but that wouldn't last forever, Octavia would find her answers.

Taking a quick survey of her surroundings, she found she was in a rather empty hallway. It was long, but unlike the rest of the house there weren’t any portraits hanging, no vases for Octavia to knock over, and only a few dim lit bulbs to light the entirety of it. There were two doors on either side of it and, curious, Octavia opened one.

Inside was the most all-encompassing music room Octavia had ever seen. True, Octavia had heard Vinyl playing the piano when she’d first entered the mansion, but she never would have believed that the house had an instrument collection that was so . . . huge. Most of them were familiar, but a few were strange. Not just to her, but they weren’t the type of instruments that she would have associated with her mistress or Mr. Paole.

The room was a sort of organized chaos in the room, wind instruments mixed with percussion, violins hanging next to piccolos. There was a whole section, pushed into a corner devoted to the most basic instruments that you would find in any orchestra, with the odd lyre lying around. There were other oddities as well, like a drum set sitting next to a theremin, or a harmonica lying on a set of turn tables. All instruments she couldn't picture her Mistress with her stoic stoic demeanor or Paole in his bunny slippers picking up, let alone playing.

What really caught Octavia’s attention though, was a set of four custom cellos sitting in the corner. They were beautiful hand-crafted things, pushed up against the window and almost hidden by the curtains covering a few of them. Octavia's eyes had picked them out of all the other clutter though, and from the moment she saw them she was determined to give each of them a try, and possibly a tune up as well. A good majority of the instruments in the room were just starting to collect a fine layer of dust.

Right now though, she just needed a place to sit and think. Which she found in the seat off an old grand piano, that seemed a bit more well taken care of then the rest of the instruments in the room. Unlike the parctically every other inch pf s[ace there, the piano was easy to get to. A clear path of pushed aside banjos and xylophones marking the way. Also unlike anything else in the room, the piano was given a wide berth of space, everything had been pushed out of the way. Even the layer of dust that had just started to settle on everything else in the room seemed to show the piano some respect.

Normally, she would have thought about this a bit more, but at the moment there were so many questions about Vinyl that needed answering she couldn't be bothered with anything else. Heck, there were questions about vampires in general that needed answering. Every theory and crackpot movie trope she'd ever seen was now on the table for questioning, and if she was lucky, she might even get a quick answer.

TBut there was one question that porceeded to stump all the others, and derail any reasonable train of thought she could muster. Why had Vinyl made the pact with her when she could obviously take care of herself?

“Maybe it’s a sort of show of power, after all, Vinyl did call me her ‘Knock'." She thought to herself. "Maybe all vampires have knocks that they’ve barred into their service.” That seemed to make the most sense. But then Octavia remembered the Knock from the movie, who had been little more than a mindless psychopath after his ‘Master’ was done with him. And even though Vinyl had made it clear that she didn’t want some mindless idiot serving her, she had shown herself perfectly capable of controlling Octavia if that first meeting was anything to go by.

That train of thought only left Octavia even more confused. Vinyl didn’t want her to be a mindless slave, but she might as well be since, either way, she’d be utterly useless to the vampire. Vinyl had made it clear from the beginning that she didn’t want Octavia around, so why make the deal in the first place? Why not just kick her out of the house, or make her into a late night snack right there? Why agree to this deal and then completely ignore her? None of it made sense really, and thinking about it left Octavia’s mind running around in circles.

“You know what?” She said to no one in particular, “It’s fine. I’m not here to be friends with Vinyl Scratch. I’m here to serve her for as long as necessary until she agrees to make me into a vampire. If she wants to completely ignore my existence, that’s fine." she said, once again, to absolutely no one. "Because the deal was that she would have to make me into a vampire, no matter what . . . or does she?”

It wasn’t the first time Octavia was left questioning the deal Vinyl had made with her. But this was the first time, she was really sitting down and actually thinking about what she'd done. “She said that our souls were forfeit if either of us went back on the deal, but is that really the truth? I don’t know anything about this deal or hr for that matter. For all I know I’m the only one who’s in trouble and she’s just fine. After all, she did say a body without a soul was worth a lot of money." It was a troubling thought, her lifeless body being sold off like a sack of meat to some shady back alley goblin. That's why she usually she'd tried to avoid at all costs, but now that she had a moment to herself she'd couldn't help but let it surface, and it sent a shiver rippling down her spine.

She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to beat back the more unsavory images that were entering her head. Luckily, another thought crossed her mind to refute the others. "If that was true, though, she could have just let my soul drift off when she was doing the ritual, and—Ugh, this is all so frustrating." She said as she leaned back against the, thankfully covered, piano. “It would all be so easy if Vinyl would just take two seconds talk to me and explain what she wants.”

“That’s not really Vinyl’s style though, she likes to do things the roundabout way.” Octavia whipped around to see the source of the voice and paused, her eyes went wide. Because if seeing Vinyl for the first time had blown her mind, then seeing what was behind her had razed whatever was left.

Right behind her was a young girl about her age, dressed in what Octavia knew was the typical, slinky, sparkle dress style of a 1920's flapper, with the high-heeled shoes to match. "Thank you Jazz Appreciation.” The girl was lying on top of the piano, her head propped up on one elbow as she smirked down at Octavia with a face that reminded her somewhat of Vinyl’s. They even had the same familiar spiky hairdo, which was weird because girls back then either went curly or straight. But no, that wasn’t the surprising part, the surprising part was that if books and media were anything to go by then this translucent girl (because she was translucent, Octavia could see a bass through the girl's head), was very, very dead, and very much a ghost.

The next few words out of Octavia’s mouth probably would have sounded like something Shaggy would say (singer or cartoon, take your pick). Luckily, she was saved from making a fool of herself by the ghost speaking introducing herself.

“Hi, I’m Lyra.” The apparition held out a clear gloved hand that Octavia just stared at. “Don’t worry, I can be solid if I want. It just takes a bit of focus.” Octavia took the hand, and immediately filled with a sense of regret. The girls hand felt light and cool, almost like she was shaking hands with a cold autumn wind that was slowly curling its way up her legs and grab a hold of the rest of her body. She grit her teeth and bore it though, not wanting to mention the ghost’s solidity was the last thing on her mind. It was on a list of like ten other things, but it was still at the bottom.

“O-Octavia Philharmonica,” she replied, somewhat shakily.

The ghost, Lyra, quirked an eyebrow, surprised at the statement. “Oh, last names, no one told me about last names.” Just one look at the blank expression on Octavia’s was enough to make Lyra bust out laughing. Apparently, having tickled her nonexistent funny bone. “Ha! I can’t, I-I just can’t."

Octavia pursed her lips. she didn't appreciate being laughed at, especially when it was something so small. ] Finally, the laughing stopped, much to Octavia's relief. "I can tell I‘m going to have a lot of fun with you, Doll.”

"Doll?” Octavia shook her head and glared at the ghost girl. She wasn't going to allow this ghoul to make her into a laughingstock. “What exactly are you doing here anyway?” She persisted

And with that Lyra burst into another fit of laughter. “Oh man, that is probably the stupidest thing anyone has ever asked a ghost. I’m haunting this place, duh. What else would a ghost appear for?”

“You’re haunting the house?” Octavia thought about that for a second, choosing to ignore the underlying cynicism in the ghost's comment. “Does Vinyl know?” If not then Octavia planned on telling her immediately. "Maybe we can call Bill Murray to get rid of her.” Octavia snickered as she imagined the annoying apparition being captured with a proton pack.

“Did you know ghosts can read minds?” No, Octavia didn't know that. She froze, she’d been caught red-handed and now the ghost— no, Lyra, was looking down at her with a very disapproving gaze. “And here I was thinking that I might help you with your little Vinyl problem, but no. You’ve been thinking about siccing Bill Murray on me." She sniffed the air, almost like she was about to cry but decided against it. "Granted, that might still turn out pretty fun but still not cool, Doll."

Octavia shrugged, “I’m sorry.” And she was was just the teensiest bit if what the ghost said was true about helping her.

Lyra sniffed, crossing her arms, and refusing to look Octavia in the eye. The effect of which made this very old spectre look very, very childish. “It’s fine," she said finally. "And for your information, I’m not haunting this house, I’m haunting this piano.”

“The piano?” Octavia, stared at the instrument. Wondering if she'd managed to wake the ghost up by accident when she sat down. And if so, their was probably a way to put her back. She would have to read up on it later.

Lyra turned her head back to glare at Octavia. "Okay, first off, what part of mind reader don't you get?" Octavia shrugged a small blush on her face" And second of all, yes, the piano. Let’s just say that when a mobster needs to hide the body of someone who’s seen too much, a piano in an old storage room works wonders." She talked about her own death in such a nonchalant way, that it scared Octavia a bit. the very idea that something can be that disassociated from life, almost had her feeling bad for Lyra. "At least until it starts to smell, then you’ve pretty much screwed the pooch.” And now they were back to normal. Still, that didn't stop Octavia grimacing as she imagined Lyra's grisly murder, and the much more grisly smell it probably left afterward.

“But enough about me," said Lyra, snapping Octavia out of her delusions, "I’m here to tell you how to deal with Vinyl.” Se was smiling now, like a cat that had just found a new plaything. Octavia chose to ignore this though, if Lyra could help her then she'd let her.

“Please do," Octavia pleaded. "I have no idea how to talk to her. First she wants me gone, then she makes a deal so I can stay, now she doesn’t want me here anymore. I’m not sure what goes on in her head half the time, and I really don’t know what she wants with me." Octavia sat panting, it felt good to let all of that out. Even if she had the sneaking suspicion that talking to Lyra about all this, was a bit like talking to an emotionless brick wall. it didn't care what you had to say, it was just waiting for you to crash into it.

And she was right, because while she was pouring out her frustrations, Lyra was simply shaking her head. “Tsk-tsk . . . Vinyl really isn’t as complicated as you want to make her. You already said it yourself, Vinyl is cold, she doesn’t let people into her life easily, and she likes to push people away.” She floated a little closer so that she was face to face with Octavia. “You’ve already done the hard part, you’ve managed to grab her attention." she clapped a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Good work, I had to knock over every vase in the house before she admitted I wasn’t just the wind. Now you have to figure out a way into her heart.”

Octavia raised her eyebrows. “I don’t think Vinyl will be very receptive to a moonlit dinner.” Even if she was, the cellist had no idea what to serve the vampire except blood.

Lyra crossed her arms, “That’s not what I meant and you know it. Even though that would be pretty fun to see." She tapped her chin for a second as if she was seriously considering the idea, and then waved her hand dismissing it. "No, what I’m saying is that you need to get Vinyl to trust you." she explained. "Now, you could go the long route; wear her down over time, continuously pestering her until she gives in.” Octavia’s face fell.

“Ha, keep making those faces, they're hilarious! But no, seriously, if you want Vinyl to pay attention to you, there is a very simple solution."The ghost beamed, and Octavia got the sneaking suspicion she really wasn't going to like this idea. "Hold on a second while I get everything ready.” she watched as Lyra disappeared through the floor until even the points of her were gone.

And just like that she was gone and Octavia was left alone with her thoughts. She mostly thought about what Lyra could be preparing for her. Whatever it was it couldn’t be good though. The specter seemed dead set on tormenting her after all. “Heh ‘Dead set' that’s a good one. Maybe I should come up with a few more of these before she comes back.”

Unfortunately, Lyra was back before Octavia could assemble her stand-up act. She fazed back up through the floor, a bright red notebook cradled in her arms. "Here," she said as she opened up the book and started skimming through the pages. "Play. . .this!”

Lyra shoved the notebook into her face, and Octavia was presented with two pages filled entirely with music. Octavia took the notebook out of the ghost’s hands and looked the music over. It didn’t seem too complicated for someone of her skill. Slowly, she let the notes sink in as she let the piece play in her head. It was a beautiful melody, light and airy. Simple as it was, it felt like the introductory to a certain style of music.

Octavia looked up from the piece, “It’s beautiful, but what does this have to do with getting Vinyl to open up to me.”

Lyra groaned, “Just trust me and play the damn piece, if you do you’ll move miles ahead with Vinyl.” Octavia was skeptical, as far as she knew Lyra was just looking for an excuse to laugh at her again. she decided “Why not?” It wasn’t in bass clef like she was used to on the cello, but she was experienced enough that she could probably make her way through, or at least fake it and come out with something presentable. After all, it was a fairly easy piece.

Octavia got up and started making her way through the maze instruments, headed towards the cellos. “Woah, woah, woah, where do you think you’re going, Doll?” Lyra placed a hand on her shoulder sending a cold chill up her spine.

“Over to the cellos." She pointed to herself, "I’m a cellist.”

Lyra shook her head. “You misunderstand me. If you want Vinyl to pay attention to you, you’re going to have to meet her at her own level." She pointed towards her piano and smiled, but Octavia paled.

“B-but, I have little to no experience with the piano. I know where all the notes are, mostly, but I don’t have any actual experience playing the damn thing.” A friend of hers had tried to give her lessons a long time ago, but she'd given up after about ten minutes, spouting some joke about the cello master-race.

“Tough,” Lyra said as she spearheaded Octavia back over to the grand piano. Pushing her down, somewhat roughly, back into her seat, as she used some sort of unknown force to lift the lid off the keys. “Trust me," she said as Octavia twisted around in her seat, to face this new challenge, "If you want Vinyl to open up, you need to play this on piano.”

“Fine,” Octavia said, taking the notebook and placing it in front of her. “Now let’s see here." She combed the keys, looking for the right one, "D,” her finger traced along the keys until she found the next note. “A,” her finger reached over to hit it.

And that was how it continued for a while. Not a steadily flowing melody like she'd envisioned, but a somewhat disjointed chorus of notes. A chorus that began to come together the more Octavia found her bearing. Note after note, it began to play out just like it had in Octavia's head. It didn’t even matter that she was—

“Off.”

Octavia froze, her fingers an inch from hitting the next key. She turned in her seat to discover that while she had been playing, her Mistress had snuck into the room. Using a drum as a makeshift seat, she had been listening in on the performance.

“You’re off tempo. This song was meant to be played faster and you’re achingly slow.” The vampire got off her makeshift seat and walked over to Octavia.

Octavia swallowed a lump she didn't realize had been in her throat as Vinyl sat down next to her. Forcing her to scoot over. “I know, it’s just—I don’t have much practice playing the piano.”

Vinyl glared at the notebook, and then at Lyra. “I don’t suppose you know how she got this do you?”

“No clue.” Vinyl stared daggers at her, but Lyra just shook her head, smiling down at her. “Really, I have no idea." Her smile transformed into a pout, "Maybe you shouldn’t leave it out where people with sticky fingers can get to it.” Vinyl’s brow furrowed and Lyra relented. “Fine, fine, I can tell where I’m not wanted.” She turned to Octavia and waved, “See you later, Doll, have fun.”

Lyra disappeared into thin air, leaving Vinyl and a very guilty Octavia alone. Vinyl glanced over at her servant, waiting for an explanation. “I’m sorry," she squeaked out, "I didn’t know it was your notebook. You see, I was kind of mad at you, so I was pacing back and forth in the halls, and then I found this room and it's really, really, amazing. Then Lyra popped out and startled me, then she kept laughing at me. Finally, I asked her to find me some music to play, and I didn't know it was yours I swear!” Octavia was left panting after her rushed explanation, but Vinyl didn't answer her. Instead, she glanced at the music in front of them and then like magnets her fingers were drawn to the first keys and she began to play.

Octavia sat stunned. It was just like the first night she came here where she was left absolutely mesmerized by Vinyl's playing. “She was right, I wasn’t doing this piece justice.” Octavia could have sat there the entire day just listening to Vinyl play, but she had questions to ask.

“Why did you make the pact with me, Vinyl?” Vinyl ignored her and kept playing. “It’s not like you need my help or anything, so I can’t imagine why I'm forced to stay here.” Vinyl still didn't answer and Octavia’s lip thinned. “You didn’t have to make the deal you could have just kicked me out or killed me the first time we met. It doesn’t make any sense!”

“Do you have any idea how much trouble it would have been to kill you?” She didn’t once tear her eyes away from the music in front of her. “There are people that watch for things like that, and they would have put my head on a pike if dead bodies started showing up. As for making the deal itself, I wasn’t lying to you. I do need a servant, to help me cook and clean, among other things. But like I told you earlier, the house is under a spell that lets it take care of itself. The spell was placed by my former benefactor and now that he’s gone, the spell is dissipating.”

“’Former benefactor’? Do you mean Mr. Paole? And what do you mean by the spell is dissipating?” she knew she was pushing it, but as long as Vinyl was in an talkative mood, she might as well exploit it.

Vinyl looked at her for the first time since she started playing. “Don’t you find it odd that the spell only affects most of the house, not all of it?" Octavia had wondered about that. "Point blank, the spell won’t last forever. I could cast a new one, but that’s costly. And right now, I don’t have that kind of money to throw around. When that day comes I’m going to need a capable staff to help me sort everything out, and on top of that I’ll need someone who can handle all of them.”

Octavia pointed at herself, “Me?”

“Yes, 'you'. I signed you on for a good reason, Octavia. I have bigger plans for you than a simple maid, and if you prove yourself, you’ll get your reward.” She stopped playing and turned so that she could face Octavia fully. "And make no mistake, that etcetera was there for a reason. Occasionally, I might call on you to do things . . . outside of your job description. Some of it, you won’t agree with, but remember what’s at stake.”

Vinyl turned back around in her seat and started playing again. Meanwhile, Octavia’s mind was buzzing. “So she does need me, just not yet. But what did she mean by things 'outside of my job description'?” Octavia sighed. Vinyl’s explanation had answered most of her questions, but she was left with a whole crop of new ones. “It’s fine,” she thought as she watched Vinyl reach the apex of the song, the vampire’s fingers a blur hitting keys. “I guess I’ll just figure it out as it comes.”

“By the way” said Vinyl as she hit the final note of the song. “What’s a cellist doing playing the piano?”

“How did you-“

She smirked, and it was the first warm smile Octavia had actually seen on the vampire. “I held your soul, remember?”

Octavia blushed, wondering exactly how deeply Vinyl had looked into her soul, and how much had she seen. “Well, when Lyra brought me the notebook she insisted that it be played on piano. Even though I have no experience actually playing the piano.”

Vinyl's face fell and sh sighed. “Of course she did.” She rebounded quickly though, her smirk was back on her face a few seconds later, “You know, now that she knows you exist she’s not going to leave you alone.”

Octavia paled. “Oh God, what have I done.”

“Don’t worry, if you ever want her to leave you alone just say you’ll play her piano later. Works every time."

“Well that’s all well and good, but I think we’ve both made it clear that I suck at playing the piano.”

“Hmm, I wouldn’t say that, with a little practice you could. . . “ Vinyl seemed to hesitate before she said her next thought, but after a second she seemed certain. “Would you like me to teach you? After all, you won’t have much to do for a while. The spell is disappearing, but it’s a slow process. In the meantime you could be taking lessons from me."

Octavia wasn’t sure what to say. She loved the cello above all else, but to be able to play like Vinyl did; that was a dream come true. “I would love to.”

“Then it’s decided" Vinyl held out her hand for her to shake, "We have another deal.”

Author's Note

Finally, It's here, It's finally arrived and it still doesn't feel up to snuff. Normally I would take this opportunity to apologize and say exactly why this took so long, but I'm not gonna do that this time. Nope, this time I'm writing a blog about it.

So anyway, Lyra's a ghost. more on that in the blog. Where's BonBon, I'm not telling. What I am going to say is that Flapper Lyra should be sticking around for quite a while and will be essential to the plot. which is weird because I seriously just came up with her yesterday when this chapter was halfway done.

Octavia and Vinyl are a bit closer, but make no mistake it's going to be awhile before those two actually get together. To put it simply, this fic is slow-burning, what's that mean. It means that this ship is going to take awhile to reach it's destination.
Comment and I hope you enjoyed. The edited version will hopefully be up soon with the help of my new friend Not Professor Kokonoe

Octavia's Journal: Entry 1

This is my ‘vampire journal’. (Originally, it was supposed to be my vampire diary, but once I realized the reference I’d just made—in permanent ink—I trashed that one and bought a new one). Inside is information on my time under the service of Vinyl Scratch, from the day to day challenges I face, to the information I manage to pick up about her and vampires in general. I’ll attempt to write in this at least once a week, but I’m not sure when I’ll find the time.

May 1, 2014

I’ve been Vinyl’s servant for little over week and a half, and things have been . . . strange to say the least. The relationship I have with Vinyl has been on a talking basis ever since the piano incident, but she still seems distant.

Occasionally, I’ll ask her a question and she’ll close whatever book she was reading to answer me. If Lyra is any indication, there’s an entire world that’s being hidden from me filled with who knows how any other creatures. And from the look of things, Vinyl is my gatekeeper to all of it.

But like I said, she is giving me glimpses into that world. I’ve learned a lot about vampires that both helps and confuses me. Like weaknesses for instance. Vinyl seems to debunk some of the classic vampire weaknesses from stories and books. For instance, she likes garlic in a lot of the food she eats, mostly because she knows it throws me off. The first time I saw Vinyl eating pasta with garlic and herb sauce, I started to question whether she was a vampire at all. And then the incident with the window happened.

It was the weekend, so I just happened to be there early. That was another weird thing about Vinyl. Even though I’d never seen her go outside during the day, she seemed to spend a good deal of time awake during it.

I would know, seeing as one of the few rooms I actually have to clean is her bedroom. It’s the exact same room Vinyl brought me to when she knocked me unconscious that first night. She made sure everything was put back into place and clean in every other part of the house, but her room was always a mess each day.

Piles and huge stacks of books would be lying on the floor. None of which came from the actual bookcase in her room, and had to be carted back to the library,and placed in their respective spot. Think the Dewey decimal system is hard? Try organizing books when you have no idea whether they belong to fiction or not?

Her clothes would be thrown in the corner, a few feet short from a clothes hamper. I know she can sort her own clothes, I've seen her do it before, but I'm pretty sure she still does it just to give me something. And there's always a half-eaten meal on her work desk, presumably because Vinyl had left to get something more “fresh” to eat.

Since Vinyl had assured me Mr. Paole was in fact a vampire, and since he never seemed bothered by the sun I assumed Vinyl had no problem with it either. So, like an idiot, I left a window open after I was done cleaning the room. Not just any window though; the big one that has light hit you directly in the face as soon as you open the door to the room. But can you really blame me? With Vinyl defying almost every normal vampire convention, why would I think the sun would hurt her?

I didn’t think it would be such a big deal, until a few hours later when i heard an ear-splitting shriek coming from the room. I dropped what I was doing and rushed up the stairs. When I got there, Vinyl was curled up on the ground, her cloak pulled over her head to try and block out the deadly rays streaming through the window.

I ran over to the window and tugged on the rope cord to close the curtains. A process that would be a lot easier if they weren’t so damn heavy. But eventually, they did close, and the both of us were left in darkness. The only light left was coming from the hall, trying to fill the room, but only stretching far enough to cast a shadow on Vinyl’s crumpled form.

With the light gone though, she was no longer pinned down, and started to slowly pick herself up. She was unstable though, and she kept staggering back and forth, as if any moment she might slip and lose her footing. “She’s weak,” I thought.

I ran back over to help her and placed her arm over my shoulder. She was lighter than I expected for a girl her size, so it was no trouble pulling her to her feet and keeping her there. For all of five seconds until she snatched her arm out of my grasp. She shoved me away and immediately started to lose her balance. She fell, tumbling back into her bookcase, knocking down some of it's contents in the process.

“Don’t touch me!” She snarled. All the sophistication and snark was gone from her voice, replaced with pure rage. She was keeping her face covered with her cape, but it didn't stop my imagination from running wild. What had the sun done to her? Had it left burns like the stories said it would, or did it something more sinister like melting away her skin and letting it fester?

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know if—” She growled at me.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the expert on vampires?" She snapped. So you should know that vampire plus sun equals dead bat, shouldn’t you?!” She was panting like she'd just run a marathon, and the hand that wasn't being used to hide her face was digging her very claw-like nails into one of the bookcase shelves.

I stared at her cloaked face, wondering just how badly the light must have hurt her. I wondered if she was still in pain? But most of all, I wondered what exactly was she hiding behind that cloak, “It can’t be that bad,” I thought, “And if it is, I should at least see how bad the damage is so I can help her.”

I reached my hand, intent on pulling away the silly piece of cloth and taking a look at the damage i'd done. “I asked you a question Octavia.” My hand stopped in mid-air, hanging there for a few seconds before dropping back to my side. Most of the anger in her voice was gone, but it was obvious she was still seething.

I gulped. “I-I just assumed since Mr. Paole . . .”

“Well you know what they say about assuming things, Tavi?”

“Tavi?” I questioned. I opened my mouth to say something else, but before I could even formulate the words, Vinyl was already out the door. slamming it behind her as she left and leaving me standing alone in the dark. Not really sure what to say i could only repeat myself, "Tavi?"

Vinyl holed herself up in the library after that, telling Lyra to keep me busy and as far away from her as possible for awhile. An hour later though when she finally rejoined us, her face seemed perfectly fine. She gave me a big speech about letting the entire incident rest in the past and then had me scrubbing on my knees to clean a floor she swore was dirty.

And so I learned two things from that incident. One, Vinyl is weak against the sun. Two, she's extremely petty. Which I have to admit is a bit of a double edged sword. On one hand VInyl's opening up, and showing me more emotion. On the other hand, so far they've mostly been negative.

Extra work beside the point, the whole situation did get me thinking though. What other weaknesses does Vinyl have? If I plunged a stake through her heart would she die, or would she just rip it out and return the favor? Can she cross moving water or enter a church?

That night I made list of as many vampire weaknesses I could find, from silver to holy water. I would ask Vinyl which actually existed and check off the ones that were just superstitions. Or at least that was the plan anyway, the explanation Vinyl gave when I approached her with my list was a bit more complicated than that.

“It really depends on the vampire,” she said as she set her book down, on a nearby stand. I'd manged to corner her in the library, during her reading time, and thankfully, she'd worked off most of the rage yesterday. "Or more specifically it comes down to what family they’re from and how much power they have.”

Needless to say I was confused. “Explain, please?”

She sighed, “Let’s go over power first, since that’s a bit less complicated. It all ties back to your soul really. Believe it or not, there’s an incredible amount of untapped energy in there, known as spiritual energy.” She tapped at my chest, close to where my heart and I guess my soul is.

"Wait, spiritual energy?" I asked not exactly convinced she wasn't pulling my leg with this. "That sounds like something you stole from a cartoon." She glared at me and I shrank back, motioning for her to continue."

“Anime, actually." She said continuing as if I'd never interrupted. "And as I was saying, most people only use a small portion of that energy to do important things, like not being a lifeless husk of a person waiting to die. It takes practice to use more of it, otherwise you might die. Creatures like me can naturally tap into more of it, but even we find limits somewhere. Spiritual energy has an abundance of uses, to the point where some people even manage to pawn it off on the black market." She scoffed, as if the mere idea was ridiculous. "Don’t ever buy any though; it’s the basic equivalent of those breast enhancement pills."I blushed, covering my chest.

Vinyl didn't seem to notice though. She was to busy concentrating, trying to ind a way to explain everything to me. “This is where it gets complicated, and I don’t know everything myself. So if my knowledge turns out to be a bit lacking don't judge me." She explained, I nodded my head in understanding. I could look more into this topic later. " I don't' exactly understand how it's done, but being able to use more of this energy this power can actually keep you from dying. Some supernatural creatures such as vampires do this naturally, with our inability to die of from age. Now imagine that power in the hands of someone who actually knew how to use it. They’d be haunting this plane of existence until the end of time.”

I clutched my shirt where Vinyl had touched me. I knew my soul was important, but I never knew it was so powerful. And Vinyl had literally ripped that out of me when we’d first met. I'm still trying to keep my thoughts at bay about that, but if what Vinyl said was true, then I shudder to think about what she could have done to it.

Trying to keep my mind from travelling own an increasingly dark route, I changed the subject, “You said something about families?” Vinyl shifted in her seat and her lip thinned into a straight line. She gave me a look that said she would rather talk about anything else, but I motioned for her to continue. She glared at me, but after a moment of silence, she let lose a sigh and began to explain.

“When a vampire turns you, you’re instantly considered a part of their family or clan. There are several families, The Gangrels, The Assamites. I myself am a part of the Ventrue," a fact she seemed infinitely proud of. “There are several perks depending on who bit you and what clan they're from, but there’s also certain luggage you have to carry.”

“You mean weaknesses.” I guessed

“Curses, actually. You see a long time ago, some creature—probably a faerie, they think everything’s so funny—decided it would be funny to curse a vampire. And wouldn’t you know it, if a cursed vampire bites someone that person instantly has the curse as well.” Her eyebrows furrowed, and I could see her teeth clench. ”We vampires used to be practically invincible, now we’re running away from vegetables. It’s pathetic.”

I didn’t argue with her. I just stood there for a couple seconds, waiting for her to say anything else. But she didn't, she just stared off into space for a few minutes and then picked up her book and presumably started reading again. I went back to cleaning after that, with a new-found sense of wonder at everything I'd just heard

I’m beginning to learn so much about vampires. But not just them, there’s a whole other world that I’m being introduced to. A world with fairies and ghosts, and who knows what else. But I also get the feeling that the more I’m drawn in, the closer I’m getting to something. I'm not sure if this thing is good or bad, but Vinyl seems to be preparing for something big, with all the reading she’s doing. Which, according to Lyra, isn’t ordinary for her in the slightest. But that also begs the question: What is normal for Vinyl? All I’ve ever really seen her do is read.

Oh brother, It seems like the more answers I find, the more questions keep popping up. It doesn't matter though, not really. I have one foot in the door of this world now that Vinyl isn't keeping me out, and I fully intend to find out whatever I can.

Until next time,

Octavia

PS: What was up with that "Tavi" thing?

Author's Note

There this was done almost entirely during the day, so if there are any major grammatical mistakes, I really have no excuse. Besides that what do you think of this chapter and Octavia's journal. This was intended to be a short vignette of a chapter, but I have a bad habit of making things longer then I should.
I probably won't do whole chapter of Octavia's journal again, but it might start showing up at the beginning of chapters from now on, depending on how you guys like it.

But most importantly what did you think of my ideas on vampires. My hope is that I've added something new to vampiric lore that isn't completely cheesy. That's why I've been steeping myself in actual legends and folklore.

Anyway, comment and i hope you enjoyed it.

Crashing and Guests

It’s coming up on two weeks since I made my deal with Vinyl. I’ve been able to visit every day since so far. How’s that for loyalty, you ungrateful vampiric succu- best not to finish that thought.

Anyway, I’ve been telling everyone that I have an after school job to explain why I’m suddenly unavailable for everything. So far it’s been working great, minus the complete and total destruction of my social life. But there’s one glaring flaw in my lie that all those books and movies forgot to mention, and if I don’t take care of it everything is going to come crashing down on top of my head.

Vinyl is going to kill me for this.

After pumping herself up for over an hour Octavia finally opened the door to Vinyl’s room. According to Lyra, who had rushed to fill Octavia in as soon as she stepped through the front door. Vinyl had locked herself away in there early on in the day with a pile of books and hadn’t come out since.

“You know, I always thought vampires were supposed to be nocturnal. Creatures of the night that slept during the day?” She’d told the ghost, as she made they made the journey up to Vinyl's room.

”They are,” she shrugged. “Vinyl’s just weird like that.” Octavia really couldn’t argue with that. Her mistress was an aggravating mystery that needed to be solved. But for today at least, she could put that aside, and use what little information and sway she had with the vampire to get what she wanted. "Exploitation, it's fun in so many ways!"

When they reached the door to Vinyl's room, Lyra decided to make herself scarce, saying that Octavia had a handle on things. Octavia rolled her eyes at the ghost's laziness, but didn't call her back. This would be a lot easier without Lyra breathing down her back, cracking jokes very three minutes.

Gripping the door handle, Octavia turned it and pulled. Her senses were immediately bombarded by the smell of pancakes. She glanced at Vinyl’s desk. “Correction,” she thought, “Half-eaten pancakes, with sausage and some eggs on the side.”

Weirdness aside, practically every vampire story ever had to be right about something. Vampires slept during the day, and from the way things looked inside that room, her mistress was no exception. Vinyl was lying face down on her bed, surrounded by notes and random loose leaf pages, stacks of open books ling on the floor and next to her, one of which she was using as a pillow.

Octavia sighed and started picking up the notes and marking the pages of the books her mistress had left out. Partly because it was her job, but mostly because she wanted to know what Vinyl had been looking at. She took a quick glance at everything she picked up, but, as usual, she couldn’t read a thing. Everything Vinyl wrote or read was in some strange language Octavia had never seen before. “It keeps away pesky humans and prying ghosts,” or so she'd been told when she first got caught peeking.

Speaking of the snarky vampire in question, Octavia took a good look at her. Her shoes were kicked off, thrown towards opposite ends of the room and per usual, her hair was a mes. Her jacket was gone though, presumably put way in a closet and her cape had . . . surprisingly been hung up on a coat rack. “She remembers nothing else about keeping this room straight, but she remembers to hang up her coat.”
Octavia felt like face palming at the pure insanity that was Vinyl Scratch, but then a thought struck her.

This was the first time she’d actually seen Vinyl without her cape on. Usually, the vampire would be holed away in the study or some other part of the building where she could be alone. Her face more than likely twisted into a scowl as she combed over a book's pages and then wrote something down. Even if she did take some time to talk to Octavia, she usually only used two expressions; annoyed or apathetic.

But looking at her now, Vinyl was practically unrecognizable. For once she looked at peace with things, and for the first time Octavia didn’t want to run from her presence. Usually, when she was this close to Vinyl, she would get this feeling of imminent danger. Some common sense part of her brain, screaming that she had to get as far away from the vampire as humanly possible. She never listened to it, but she was always left a stammering mess any time Vinyl walked into the room.

Seeing her now, though, Octavia couldn’t imagine what she had been afraid of. The serene look on Vinyl’s face was—dare she say it—cute. Actually she would say it, “Cute.” Seeing the normally uptight vampire this relaxed was just too good a chance to pass up. Reaching into her pants pocket, she pulled out her phone and opened it up to her camera. Giggling, she snapped a quick picture of Vinyl’s sleeping face.

“Delete it.” Octavia froze, even exhausted, the voice still managed to send a chill running down her spine. “Delete the photo, Octavia. I’m not going to ask you again.”

“E-heh, how long awake you been awake?” She asked nervously, watching as her mistress eyes slowly started to crack open.

“Since you came in. I just didn’t feel like moving.” Vinyl let loose a yawn. “Now delete the photo, or you’ll need a new iPhone.”

“Actually, it’s an Android.” A growl rose from the bed. “Fine, I’ll get rid of the picture.” Octavia deleted the picture from her phone, fully aware that there was still a copy of it waiting in her Dropbox. “There, it’s done,” she said as she shoved her phone back into her pocket.

“Good," she said, still not moving from her position splayed out on the bed. "Now what do you want? I doubt you snuck in here just to take pictures of me for your perverted fantasies.”

Octavia’s jaw dropped, “You’re impossible! I had absolutely no intention of doing that with your picture.” Vinyl was many things in Octavia's mind; stoic, reserved,smart, compelling, and yes, even beautiful. But the idea of her as some sort of object of lust was appalling.

“Oh really?” Vinyl murmured into her makeshift pillow. "Then what exactly were you going to do with a picture of a sleeping vampire?”

That was a good question. What was Octavia going to do with it. It wasn't like she could post it on Facebook, or use it for friendly blackmail. It probably would have just ended up wasting space on her phone. “I-I don’t know.” Octavia spluttered. “You were just—and it was so cute, and—argh! Would you just sit up, we need to talk!”

The vampire groaned, “No. Come back in a couple hours.”

Octavia breathed in and out, trying to calm herself down. She bent down to look the vampire in her closed eyes and tried to speak to her in her nicest voice possible. “Look, I realize you’re tired, but this is really important. So if you could just open your eyes and sit up we can get it over with quick—” a thought struck Octavia, as she stared down at the sleep addled vampire. “You can't get up can you?”

Vinly scoffed, her eyelids fluttering back open after drifting closed. They were half-lidded butstill open “Of course I can get up.”

Octavia crossed her arms and smirked, “Do it then.”

Vinyl made a show of grunting and flexing her muscles trying to move her arms for about three minutes before she finally gave up. “Fine, you win, I can’t move from this spot.”

“Ha! I knew it, you crashed. That’s what you get for staying up so . . . early, I guess.” Octavia couldn’t help but laugh. This wasn’t the first time she’d seen someone crash like this. It wasn’t uncommon to see Twilight Sparkle face down in her lunch every now and then. One of her friends would take her to the nurse and they’d see her again at school few days later, no big deal. But seeing Vinyl like this was hilarious.

The thought that finally sobered her up was the fact she had absolutely no idea on how to take care of someone in Vinyl’s condition. “Oh shit, you’ve crashed. What do we do?” For a few seconds Octavia thought about calling the paramedics until she realized exactly how horrible an idea that was. “I could ask Twilight what to do. But dammit, I don’t have her number, and I can’t just show up to her door unannounced. On that matter, I don't know where she lives either.”

Vinyl groaned, “Don’t worry about it Tavi, just let me rest for the rest of the day and I’ll be fine. There’s nothing to do so just rest for the day, you can come back tomorrow.”

Octavia bit her lip, that wouldn’t work. Tomorrow was Friday, and they had to get this situation taken care of as soon as possible. But one look at the sleeping vampire told her that she’d just have to wait until Vinyl was at least able to move. "No

Sighing, she turned around and left the room. Letting the door to Vinyl’s room shut behind her, Octavia pulled out her phone for what she hoped would be the final time that day, and started dialing. “If Vinyl can’t talk now, then I’ll just have wait for her." She put the phone up to her ear, “Hey, Mom. Is it okay if I stay at BonBon’s house tonight?”

Vinyl woke around 7 o’clock in the evening. She was hungry, her head was pounding, but most of all she was embarrassed. To think she’d let anyone see her like that. Hell, if she didn’t need Octavia, the annoying girl would probably be gone about now, just to make sure no one would ever here about this.

But she did need Octavia at the moment. And as much as it wounded her ego, she’d just have to make due. Time was short, and the girl had at least displayed a healthy work ethic, which Vinyl planned to use if not outright exploit in the future. It wasn't her fault that the girl was painfully naive.

Crawling her way out of bed, she let her feet hit the floor. She took things slowly, not wanting to overtax herself as she pushed herself to her feet. She'd underestimated just how weak she was though, and it wasn't long after getting onto her that feet that she began to feel her knees beginning to buckle underneath her and had brace herself against her night stand to keep from falling over.

Taking a look at the eight or so feet that separated her from her door, she sighed. “I could try to make it myself, or I could suffer through another round of embarrassment.” Vinyl took another look at the floor. It didn't seem that far, but then if she fell she’d have to call for help anyway. She groaned, there really was no choice. “Octavia!” She cried out hoping the girl hadn’t left yet.

Her prayers were answered a few minutes later, when the door flew open to reveal a panting Octavia. “Y-yes, did you want something?”

“Well, for starters, you could get rid of this cackling specter.” She said pointing to the ceiling where Lyra was rolling around laughing. Lyra had phased through the floor as soon as she’d heard Vinyl’s scream. When the ghost realized exactly what had happened to Vinyl, she had burst out laughing, clutching onto her nonexistent ribs.

Lyra stopped laughing. “I’m ‘cackling’ because it’s hilarious. The dark and mysterious vampire has to call for help, because she can’t even walk. Aha-wait,” A suddenly serious expression on her face, “Now that I think about it, that’s depressing more than anything.”

Octavia glared at the spirit. "Not helping, Lyra." Her face softened though as she got a good look at Vinyl. She'd thought the vampire looked weak before, but this was pitiful. Her legs kept wobbling back and forth, unable to sustain the weight baring down on them. And her mistress was gripping onto her night stand as if if it was wreckage and she was lost t sea.

Vinyl noticed the look and snapped at her. "Forget her, and come help me." Octavia rushed over to put her arm under her mistress, and give her legs a much needed break. "Help me get down to the library. After which there are some packets of blood in the fridge bring me three of them, labeled AB.”

Octavia pursed her lips. There was no way she was going to let Vinyl work more when she could barely stand. "No."

"What?"

"I said, no. I'll bring you the blood, you're going to need it. But otherwise I'm taking you back to bed."

Vinyl gawked at her. "I think you're forgetting who's in charge here."

She shook her head, "I haven't forgotten. But its my job to keep this place looking respectable," she looked the vampire dead in the eye, "And that includes you. Now come on," she said, pulling on her arm. "Let's get you back into bed."

Vinyl’s eyes narrowed, “Make me.”

Octavia sighed, and with one quick motion she let go of Vinyl’s arm, sending the vampire careening back into her bed. “Whoah-ugh,” she said as her head fell back into a carefully placed pillow. Lyra let out another chuckle, but didn't make any other comments.

Octavia reached down, grabbing both of her legs and placing them onto the bed. “Now,” she said as she let her arms stretch out. “Stay there while I get your blood. When I get back, we can talk about my problem.” She pointed to Lyra, who had been strangely silent. “Lyra, watch her. If she tries to move call me.”

“Ay, ay, Captain.” She said, her hand raised in a mock salute. Octavia just shook her head as she left the room and walked down to the kitchen.

Vinyl had obviously been underestimating when she’d said she only had a few bags of blood. Either the vampire was stocking up for the apocalypse, or vampires drank a lot more blood, then Octavia guessed. She grabbed a couple of the bags labeled AB, which for some reason looked like those little packets of Hawaiian fruit punch—straw included. Octavia stared at the packet, “They even have a little vampire mascot in swim trunks.”

Choosing to ignore this clear act of vampiric plagiarism, Octavia ran back up the stairs to Vinyl’s room, the pouches cradled in her arm. As she let the door shut behind her, she was greeted by the sight of Lyra floating a few feet above Vinyl. The ghost and the vampire both locked in what can only be described as a staring contest of sorts.

A scene that made absolutely zero sense until she remembered that hr last words before leaving the room had been for Lyra to "watch her". Apparently the flapper ghost had taken things too far. “Alright, that’s enough Lyra,” she said alleviating the ghost from her duty. Octavia walked to the bedside table and placed two of the bags down, then swiveled around to face Vinyl's stalwart guardian. “I’m back now so you can lay off of Vinyl.”

“Ah,” Lyra pouted. “But this is the most fun I’ve had in the last three years. Vinyl’s been too busy, and the old man was getting too-”

“Lyra!” Vinyl shouted, causing Octavia to jump back, almost dropping one of the bags. The look on Vinyl’s face made it pretty clear that if it were possible to strangle the spirit, she would. For her part, Lyra just crossed her arms and pouted, pretending to stare off into another direction.

Octavia handed one of the bags to Vinyl, then took a seat on the edge of the bed, a worried expression on her face. Part of her wanted to pressure Vinyl for more information on Mr. Paole, but another part knew she'd just be shut down. Since the beginning Vinyl hadn’t mentioned him, and Octavia hadn’t brought him up. Now, however, Octavia was wondering what exactly was the connection between her mistress and the former owner of the house? She sighed, “Oh well, it doesn’t matter right now. The only thing that does matter is getting Vinyl back on her feet . . . and making sure she doesn’t kill me later.”

Vinyl was halfway through the first bag when Octavia opened her mouth to speak. Lyra was still refusing to say anything, having floated off into a corner, so Octavia hoped she’d stay quiet. This situation needed to be handled with some semblance of delicacy and she couldn't do that, if Lyra was bursting out in laughter after every other sentence.

“Now that you’re feeling a bit better Vinyl, maybe we can talk about that thing I mentioned.” She smiled, but truthfully, she was even more nervous then that first night she'd come to the mansion.

Vinyl glanced at her, still sucking blood from one of the bags. “Hmm, oh yes, you did say you had to talk about something. Well, what is it then, something about the mansion or just another question about the supernatural?”

Octavia gulped, “Well, you see—the thing is, Vinyl, I kind of told my parents that the reason I was staying out so late was because I had a job.” Vinyl stared at her, “And it’s been two weeks since I started said ‘job’.” Vinyl blinked, still not sure where Octavia was going with this. “Oh, for the love of—you need to start paying me.”

Vinyl hiked an eyebrow at that, “If I recall, I’m already paying you.” She took another sip of her drink. “You work for me, I turn you into a vampire. That's the deal we made, and a very fair one I might add, considering all the perks that come with it.”

“Well, yes,” Octavia shrugged. “But I meant an actual paycheck.” It was a good thing Vinyl didn’t have the straw in her mouth, or there might have been some very convincing murder evidence on her sheets.

“Are you kidding me?” Octavia shook her head. “I’m pretty sure that I already told you that I’m in no position to be spending money.” She pointed at Octavia. “Thus my need for you. Heck, have you seen the blood bags?” Octavia nodded. “They’re knock off Hawaiian Fruit Punch, Octavia. The knock off version of anything you can buy for a dollar, is not going to be high quality.”

“But I need a paycheck to show to my mother." She pleaded, "Otherwise, she's going to get suspicious, when I don't start paying for things on my own and keep asking for an allowance.” Octavia grimaced, this was not going according to plan. The original plan was to have Vinyl yell at her for being greedy, then convince her it was necessary. She hadn’t considered that the vampire didn’t have the money to begin with.

After staying quiet for a few seconds, Vinyl let out a deep breath, “Fine. I suppose we could squeeze you into the budget somehow.” She pointed towards her desk. “Reach in there and bring me what you find.”

Octavia hopped off the bed and walked over to the desk. She pulled out a drawer, and was surprised to find a laptop with a little cartoon bat where the logo would be. She gave Vinyl a questioning look. “You have internet access here?”

“Please, Octavia, I’m a vampire, not a savage.” She held out her hand. “Now give me my laptop. If we’re going to get you a paycheck then we have work to do.” Octavia handed the laptop over to Vinyl, and then sat back down on the bed, leaning into Vinyl as she watched the vampire boot up the computer.

“It’s about time I got some answers out of you.”

Vinyl stared at her, “What do you mean?”

“Well, I finally get an answer to one of my questions. Chrome or Firefox?” she teased.

Vinyl rolled her eyes, “Firefox." she replied, "But that's not important at the moment I won’t be using your regular Google search for this. I need to access the Deep Web.”

“The what?”

“You know, The Deep Web.” Octavia still had no clue what Vinyl was talking about. It must have shown on her face, too, because Vinyl groaned. “You know how there’s talk about all these illegal dealings that go on, on the internet?” Octavia nodded. “Well, have you ever wondered why you don’t discover any of these deals while surfing the net?” Octavia shook her head. “Well that’s because they're all on the Deep Web, which in actuality makes up ninety-six percent of the internet.”

Octavia sat up straight. “You’re joking?”

“Nope,” she said as she opened up a program on her computer labeled ‘UnderRealm.’ “This is where all of the secret drug, weapon, and just about anything else deals happen. It’s also where people like me make our online homes.”

A window popped up with a purple background and a standard search engine box in the middle. Octavia was not impressed, “They really didn’t put much effort into this, did they?”

“Oh, shut up.” Said Vinyl as she started typing. “We’re not going to be dealing with the supernatural or even illegal part of the deep web.”

Octavia’s face sunk. She knew it probably shouldn’t have, but it did. “So what are we going to do on this top secret part of the internet?”

“Access my bank account, what else?” Vinyl typed "Pyramid" into the search box, then pressed enter. A whole list of things that were apparently pyramid related popped up.

Octavia still couldn’t see what was so great about this. So far it looked like a regular Google search. Or at least it did until she started reading the results. “Can you actually rent out one of the pyramids?!”

“Yes, but most people only do it when they have a corporate party. Something about the great majesty and class of the tombs. Anyway, here’s what we’re looking for.” Vinyl clicked on a sign-in link for a site called ‘Pyramid Banking’.

Octavia quirked an eyebrow at that. “’Pyramid'? They aren't—”

“Mummies?” Vinyl finished. “Strangely enough, no. They just use it as a clever reference, most mummies are actually lawyers nowadays.”

“Really, that’s it?”

Vinyl shrugged, “That, and the main branch operates out of an actual pyramid. Don’t ask me which one. I went there a long time ago to set up an account, and have absolutely zero intent on going back.”

The site itself was surprisingly statuesque. They weren’t allowed in until they’d watched a video about a werewolf who’d fixed his bad credit through something called ‘Pyramid Plans’. As shady as it seemed, Vinyl assured her that Pyramid was a legitimate business. Then they were ushered to the main page, where it talked about investing, and loans, and saving for your future. All of it very bright and cheery, to the point where it actually started to make Octavia’s eyes hurt.

Vinyl was about to click on the button labeled, “Transfer funds,” when Octavia stopped her. “Wait!" she cried out grabbing a hold her mistress' hand. "Are you sure all of this is legal?” Vinyl gave her a look that said ‘Really?’

“Octavia, we’re on a site for supernatural creatures, in a part of the internet partially funded by the US and Swedish governments, that sells everything from cocaine to baby emus. Are you really going to debate legality with me?”

Octavia rescinded bot her comment and hr hand. “Point taken," she said softly.

“Good, now let’s get this over with.” Her finger paused as it was about to click the button. “Oh, and if you scream into my ear, I swear I’ll take it out of your paycheck.”

“What are you talking abou—”

Vinyl clicked the button, and immediately a blinding white light came shooting out of Vinyl’s computer. Octavia shielded her eyes from the glow, which seemed to last a good minute. As it faded, she slowly opened her eyes, only to rub them to make sure she wasn’t imagining things.

Vinyl’s screen was blank, but slowly a face was staring to emerge. This wasn't some paltry Skype or chat roulette, no, there was an actual face beginning to jut out of Vinyl’s computer. He, or at least Octavia assumed it was a ‘he’ with its sharp jaw, and crook of a nose, looked like some sort of dark void. Almost as if it had punched his head through the back of the laptop and the blank screen had somehow molded around his face. His eyes, like dark pits, narrowed as soon as they locked onto Vinyl.

“You!” it said in its snarl of a voice. “Do you have any idea what your balance is?” Vinyl flinched at that, but the face didn’t seem to notice. His attention had shifted to Octavia, “Who’s this?” He asked, clearly not amused that some stranger was here, while he was sharing sensitive information.

Vinyl cleared her throat. “Ballard, this is Octavia. She’s recently come under my employ, and, due to certain circumstances, I have to start paying her.”

The face, Ballard, huffed. “Sounds pricey.” His face suddenly twisted into a smile. “A much better option would be to enslave the girl and be done with it.”

Octavia leaned back in her seat, appalled, but Vinyl rushed to her defense. “Octavia is not just a servant. I have bigger plans in store for her, and they require her the use of her mind. I will not enslave her.”

“Well, why not?” He sniffed the air, his nose growing an inch or two as he did so. His face twisted into a grin again, as he looked at Octavia. “It smells like she’s already halfway there.”

Octavia felt a small sense of panic. “What did he mean by halfway there? ?”

Ballard didn’t answer though, he just shifted his gaze back to Vinyl. “By the by, getting a human servant Vinyl? How naughty of you! I take it you’ve filled out all the proper paperwork and procedures?”

Octavia looked at Vinyl and for the first time, the vampire actually looked unnerved. “I-I was getting to it.”

He huffed again, “Well, get to it faster. If you really intend to have this girl,” he nodded at Octavia, “As a servant then we need to make her aware of certain things.” He smiled, “That or get a leash, a leash would work quite nicely.”

“Excuse me,” Octavia had, had quite enough of this, thing whatever it was. “Who do you think you are?”

Vinyl and Ballard exchanged a look, “Octavia, this is Ballard,” she gestured to the face. “He’s my accountant slash advice giver.”

Ballard perked up at that, “Oh, ‘advice giver’ am I? I could have sworn I was your nanny.”

“Pay no attention to the face coming out of the computer Octavia.” Vinyl leaned over to look Ballard straight in the eyes. “He may look intimidating, but it’s all a dream, thought up in his big fat head.”

Ballard scowled at her, “Wizard of Oz jokes, like I haven’t heard those before . . . I believe you told me most of them.” He sighed, “Now how much do you want to pay Toto, Dorothy?”

“Right,” said Vinyl suddenly straightening up. “I think minimum wage will do for now. She turned to look at Octavia, “Is that all right with you?” Octavia nodded, and Vinyl turned back to Ballard. “I also need a check in her name for today.”

“Fine, how many hours has she worked?”

Vinyl glanced at Octavia, a questioning look on her face. “How many hours did you work?” Octavia shrugged, she hadn’t even realized that she’d need a paycheck until her parents brought it up last night.

“I can answer that.” Rang a voice that they’d honestly forgotten was in the room. Lyra floated over on her back. Her arms behind her head and a smug look on her face. “She’s worked forty hours these past two weeks.”

“Hmm, let’s see,” said Ballard, “Minimum wage of eight twenty five, times forty, minus a standard tax of fifteen percent which in actuality is going to be staying with Vinyl, because she’s a vampire and they don’t pay taxes, and . . . oh no.”

“What do you mean by ‘oh no’?” asked Vinyl as she leaned in to hear the accountants answer.

“Vinyl, that’s a little over half your current balance.”

“Say what?” she shrieked.

Ballard seemed to sink a bit, “When all the math is done that comes out to a three hundred and thirty-four dollar paycheck for the girl here. And an even three hundred left in your bank account.”

Octavia gasped and Vinyl’s jaw hung open. She turned to look at her servant, still slack jawed. “Octavia don’t come in on Mondays, or Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays for that matter, and hell, as far as I’m concerned you can have the weekend off.”

“Don’t you think that looks a bit suspicious?" Octavia questioned. "Me only working once a week?”

“I don’t care, I can’t afford to keep paying you like that. And who the heck told you to come in so much anyway?!”

“Well, excuse me for trying to be a good servant!” It wasn't her fault that the vampire was running low on money

“Good servants don’t drive their masters into the poor house!” She shrieked

“Especially when said masters have no discernible source of income,” muttered Ballard.

“Ahem,” said Lyra drawing all eyes on her (Except for Ballard, who had an unfortunately small field of vision). “If I can make a suggestion, Vinyl. You could always ask ‘Him’ for help.”

Vinyl seemed to have trouble figuring out exactly who "Him" was but once she did, her lips pursed. “I can take care of things myself, I don’t need his help.”

“Hmm, that might be true,” Lyra said as she floated in circles above their heads . “But things would be a lot easier if you gave him a call. You could pay Octavia, keep the house afloat. And you might even be able to convince him to help you get a little extra time.”

It was clear to Octavia that Vinyl was struggling with the matter. She obviously didn’t want to call “Him”, whoever he might be, but from where Octavia was sitting it seemed like a good idea. Still, Vinyl sat in silence for what seemed like forever before, finally she relented.

“Alright, I’ll call, but he’ll want to visit. And when he does,” she shoved a finger into Octavia’s face, “He’ll be your responsibility. Understood?” Octavia squeaked out a yes. “Good, then go clean the foyer. He’ll arrive within a few days, and I don't want this place looking like a pigsty when he arrives.” And with that Vinyl began to close down her laptop. Ballard's face slowly fading back into her regular screen.

It had been a few days since the meeting over Octavia’s paycheck. In the meantime, Vinyl had been running Octavia ragged trying to prepare for this mystery guest. Most of the preparations included Octavia cleaning things that were already clean, but apparently everything had to be perfect for this mystery guest whoever he was. A person both Vinyl and Lyra kept aggravatingly referring to as ‘Him’, more then likely because they knew Octavia was dying to know who was coming. Or more specifically what was coming.

Everyone was in the study when it happened, a heavy knocking on the door echoing through the hollow home. Lyra immediately fazed through the roof headed towards her piano, because as she put it, "She couldn't be caught dead, in this old thing." A comment Octavia found hilarious, but the ghost was gone before she could say anything. Her mistress followed suit soon after, which left Octavia alone to answer the door.

She ran to the front door, not wanting to keep their guest waiting as another steady stream of knocks echoed out. Taking a few moments to compose herself and straighten out the maid’s outfit that Vinyl had insisted she wear for the duration of this persons stay, Octavia gripped the door handle she opened the door and opened the door. “Hello, Sir, we’ve been expecting. . .”

Octavia froze. In front of her was the last person she’d expected to see. His cold dead eyes seemed to pierce through her as they shifted back and forth, examining her and the inside of the house. His tall, imposing stature let him peer over Octavia to the staircase and beyond. His skin was just as pale as she’d always imagined, and his ears and bush-like eyebrows stood out almost like a set of horns on his head. Even though it was near the beginning of Autumn, he was buttoned up in the same long black trench coat she’d always seen on him in pictures.

He held a hand out, and Octavia hesitated to grab onto the long twisted fingers that looked like knives ready to slice open her flesh. He smiled at her, revealing dagger like teeth, that could rip her apart if he wanted. “Nosferatu, my dear, in the flesh.”

Author's Note

Haha, finished, this turned out longer than expected, you're welcome. But I finally got to introduce Nos. he'll be a semi-important character for now.

Bigger news is I have successfully mapped out, the entire first arc of this story, and have an inkling for the second. Oh, and warning, things might get a little dark with this first arc, with some pretty dangerous mystical creatures here. Anyway, I'm opening things up to questions, if you have any just leave em below, and I'll answer. Comment and I hope you enjoyed."

P.S: I may need another editor. I've PM'd my current one, but he's not answering. So anyone willing to help me edit these past three chapters, send me a PM.

Behind Closed Doors

Question:What do you get when you mix together a ghost, two vampires and place them all in one mansion?

The answer: Hell. Pure unadulterated hell.

Octavia was on her hands and knees, scrubbing at some blood that had been spilled on the carpet. Nosferatu had only been here a day, but already he was giving her a headache. He wasn't as bad as Vinyl could be at times, but he managed to be uniquely annoying in his own way. Plain and simple, the vampire hadn't been quite what Octavia was expecting.

"Nosferatu, my dear. In the flesh." Octavia's eyes drifted down to his extended hand, wondering if it would be a good idea to shake it. Part of her felt like shaking it and then asking for an autograph, but the other part of her said that as soon as she did she'd be impaled on the other hand. "Death or fandom," she thought. "Tough choice."

Lucky for Octavia, she was saved from making that tough choice by her Mistress. "Stop it, Nos. You'll break my servant." Vinyl was making her way down the staircase, decked out in her usual suit which she'd had Octavia clean this morning. But somehow she managed to look more imposing then usual, more powerful. For the first time since that first night they met Vinyl seemed to embody what Octavia thought a vampire was. Octavia glanced at their guest. Who was still standing in the doorway, unmoving.

Vinyl marched up to the front door and Octavia scrambled out of the way. Standing in front of the legendary vampire Vinyl crossed her arms and frowned. "Seriously, I'm not letting you into this house until you take that the ridiculous thing off."

Nosferatu quirked one his demonic eyebrows and sighed. "You used to love this look," he said in a voice that sounded nothing like the raspy hiss, he'd been using only moments ago. That wasn't his only surprise, though, as with a snap of his fingers a dark flame enveloped the legendary where he stood.

Octavia took a step back, trying to protect herself from the blaze, which strangely enough emitted no heat. She looked towards her mistress for, answers, but found none. Vinyl's attention was still trained on the roaring fire in front of them. And with a slight wave of her hand, she indicated that that's where Octavia's should be as well.

As the flames began to clear, it became apparent that the Nosferatu that had greeted her at the door was gone. Instead, he had been replaced by a slightly younger man with a more wild, but still dangerous look in his eyes. Octavia guessed he was somewhere in his forties a grey streak in his otherwise pitch black hair confirming her suspicions. The dark cloak from before had been replaced with a suit like Vinyl's. Unlike Vinyl, though, his suit didn't look like he'd pulled it straight out of the 1800's. Instead, he had on a nice, modern day, pinstriped suit, and Octavia had to admit looked pretty handsome in it.

"Better?” He said, as he held his arms out to his sides.

Vinyl nodded, “Much.”

Meanwhile, Octavia stood slack-jawed, not really sure what to say about the sudden transformation. He smiled at her, “Oh, come on. You didn’t actually think that I looked like that did you.” He rolled his eyes, “The only reason they used the name ‘Nosferatu’ in that movie is because they couldn’t get the copyright for Dracula.” His face fell, “It’s actually kind of depressing when I think about it. It’s almost like they’re calling me second rate.”

Vinyl rolled her eyes, as she glanced at her very confused maid. “Octavia, let me introduce to you, the nigh immortal Nosferatu, leader of the Nosferatu clan. You’ll be taking care of him for the duration of his stay.” He cleared his throat, causing Vinyl to sigh. “He’s also my uncle,” Nosferatu face brightened, “But in name only, we’re in no way related.”

Vinyl was quick to clarify that fact and her surrogate uncle’s face sagged, “Oh, Vinyl, how you wound me.” He clutched at his chest, falling back against the door frame in an over-dramatic fashion.

Vinyl crossed her arms “You know, this scene would be a lot more convincing if I knew for a fact you don’t have a heart.”

He stood up straight, readjusting his tie, “Touché.” His eyes locked on Octavia, and he smiled. He brushed past Vinyl until he was standing directly in front of her. He grabbed one of her hands in both of his and in a gentle voice he he apologized to her, “Dear, Octavia. I’m sorry if I scared you when you first saw me. I like to keep up that illusion, for—basically that exact purpose, but it was still rude of me to scare you like that.”

Octavia was still a bit dumbstruck, but she managed to form a few words, “U—um, it’s okay. I was just caught off guard, that’s all." She relaxed slightly, it didn’t seem like the vampire was going to hurt her. Even though he was looking at her with the same expression Lyra did at times.

Which is why she slightly flinched when he leaned in to whisper in her ear. "I also apologize, if my young Vinyl hasn’t been taking care of you properly."

“Oh no she’s. . .”

“Honestly, the girl has no idea how to properly romance a woman.” He shook his head. “All it is for her is wham bam, in bed by the nights end.” Octavia could feel the blush developing on her cheeks. But much more important was the twitch starting in her left eye. She’d probably need to get that checked.

Apparently, Vinyl had heard her uncle’s comment, because the second Octavia's twitch started, she started screaming. “I do nothing of the sort! I'm a respectable lady when it comes to people that catch my eye.” Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “And for your information, Octavia is a servant, nothing else.”

His eyes widened, “Really?” He stared at Octavia’s neck, leaning in to get a better view. Chin and hand, he circled her and occasionally tilting her head looking for bite marks. Finally, he stopped and shrugged, “Congratulations, Vinyl. It turns out you have more self-control then I originally thought. Hmm, unless . . .”

He gave Octavia another look, “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to lower your collar for a bit, and let us. . .” Octavia covered her chest, defensively, her blush darkening a few shades,

Vinyl groaned, “Well that answers that question," She turned on her heel and began walking back up the stairs. "If either of you need me, I’ll be in my room.”

Nosferatu’s lips pursed together as he watched his niece walk out of sight. “I suppose I came at a bad time.”

Octavia shook her head, frantic, “Oh, no, no, no. I assure you, Nosferatu, Sir. Vinyl has been nothing but excited to see you ever since you sent her that note saying you’d come. She made me clean out the whole house for your arrival." It was true, and she still had the feint scent of lemon pledge on her clothes to prove it.

He raised an eyebrow, “Did she now?” He gave one last look at the spot where Vinyl disappeared, and then he turned to Octavia. “I guess our reunion can wait a little while. Vinyl will talk to me when she feels ready. That’s how she’s always been and I doubt some time apart has changed that much.” He threw his arm around Octavia pulling her in uncomfortably close, “In the meantime, we’ll just have to entertain ourselves.”

And entertain themselves they did. Nosferatu, or "Nos" as he liked to be called, was a lot more active then Vinyl. He had a million ideas on what they should do first, and he wanted to get through at least half of them while he was there. The first of which was trip around town. Because if him standing outside in broad daylight wasn’t a big enough tip, he could survive in the sun. Which left Octavia questioning for exactly how powerful the vampire was for awhile, but not much though, the vampire kept her busy.

They spent the day walking around town as she showed him the sights, pointing out new buildings and tourist sights that hadn’t been here the last time he was here. Which according to the vampire himself hadn’t been since Paole's funeral, and even then, he was just there to mourn his friend and leave. Why they couldn’t just use the limo he’d parked outside of Vinyl’s house she’d never know. But it probably had something to do with the fact that Nos wasn’t satisfied to just sit and look. Nope. He wanted the full experience. Everywhere they went, he had to stop and take a look around at everything, and possibly buy up a bunch of souvenirs.

And Octavia had to admit, it had been fun to go to the mall and stop by the Doughnut Joe’s. Especially since Nos insisted on paying for everything. Which is why she had a very nice new bow and a brand new rock stop in a bag on Vinyl’s dining room table. On top of that, Nos had given her, her biggest breakthrough yet when it came to understanding Vinyl.

They'd had just sat down to eat. She’d ordered both Nos and herself a couple of bear claws, and the legendary vampire himself had found them both a booth back in the corner. She was contemplating th possibility of getting a drink, when she finally worked up the courage to ask him about Vinyl’s studying.

“Ah, that,” he said as he took his first bite of bear claw.”

“Yes ‘that’!" she stressed. "There hasn’t been a day since I started working for Vinyl that she hasn't been working around the clock." Octavia sunk back into her seat, it was nice to have someone to talk to about these things. Lyra was nice, but the ghost couldn't hold serious conversation for the life of her (no pun intended). "I normally wouldn’t mind something like that Heck, I'd usually admire it, but the day she agreed to call you I found her lying passed out on her bed. When I asked her to move she couldn’t”

Nos paused mid-bite, a curious look on his face as he pulled the pastry out of his waiting jaw. “I’ll talk to her about that," he said in a voice more softer then any Octavia had heard him use since he arrived. "But you have to understand, Octavia, Vinyl is under a lot of pressure at the moment.”

Now he had Octavia’s attention. “What kind of pressure?" she asked, scooting just a bit closer to the ancient vampire. "I’ve talked to Vinyl about it, but she keeps saying that it’s 'none of my business' and that she can 'take care of herself'.”

"If Vinyl doesn’t want you to know, I’m not sure I should tell you.” Octavia's face fell, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by her blood-sucking companion. Which was good, Octavia wanted him to see her pout, and feel an explosion of guilt unequaled by man. “But then again, Vinyl never listens to me so I don’t see why I should follow her rules.”

Octavia felt like she could jump up and dance on one of the tables. She was finally getting answers, clear cut answers about Vinyl. “Has Vinyl explained anything to you about clans?”

“A little,” she responded, “She named a few, and said that she was a Venture. She seemed awfully proud of the fact.” She said, remembering the smug face Vinyl had as she named her own clan.

He nodded, “As she should be, the Venture, have quite the proud history. A history that would become yours once Vinyl turned you." Octavia's eyes went wide. Vinyl had mentioned something along those lines before. "Each clan has its own leader, and the last leader of the Venture was, emphasis on the ‘was’, Mr. Paole. When he died his position was passed on to the next recipient. Normally it would go to the next of kin, the spouse, child, or more often than not, the first person they bit. If they’re not available then it’s the person after then that, and so on, and so on." He explained.

Octavia sat wide eyed, “He passed the position down to Vinyl, didn’t he?”

Nos nodded confirming her suspicions. “There were other candidates" Nos interjected." Vinyl is Paole’s granddaughter with a staggering amount of 'greats' in-between them. There were members of his clan that he turned personally, other members of his personal family that had a rightful claim on the job, but at the end of the day he chose Vinyl.”

"Vampires can have children?”

Nos groaned, “I assume, or at least I hope, Vinyl told you lesson number one about spiritual creatures.” Octavia nodded. “Good, lesson number two: If a creature has sexual organs they’re there for a reason.”

Octavia blushed, “So Vinyl’s going to be head of the Venture clan.”

Nos gave another nod, “Yes, and there are a lot of people, in the loosest sense of the word, waiting for her to screw up. Especially, considering the fact she wasn’t supposed to be in charge in the first place.” He shook his head, staring at the bear claw in his hand. “But Paole always did have a soft spot for her. I suppose he wanted to teach her some responsibility with this, but I wouldn’t wish something like this on my worst enemy. I would, I am the leader of the Nosferatu clan.”

He turned to face Octavia, “Now Vinyl has to learn everything she can about leadership, vampiric history, her clans history, and just about everything possible about the world around her; surface and hidden. It’s a monstrous task, and she can’t afford to make any mistakes lest her critics gain even more ground to attack her.”

Octavia’s lips thinned into a straight line. She’d known Vinyl was busy, but she’d had no idea just how much weight was on the vampire’s shoulders. Her mind was abuzz with this new information. Wondering when Vinyl would have told her this or if the vampire was planning to tell her at all. But most of all her head was awash with plans to help her. Most of which she knew her Vinyl would shoot down immediately, but she couldn’t let her carry all of this responsibility alone.

Just when she was coming to the conclusion that it was hopeless, she felt a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Vinyl is tougher then you’d believe. Paole wouldn’t have given her this title if he didn’t think she could hold up.” He frowned, “The only thing I’m worried about is what she may become in the process.” Octavia waited for him to elaborate on that fact, but he didn’t. Instead he just took another bite out of his bear claw, signaling that the conversation was over.

The rest of their tour was fairly simple, but as eye-openingly fun it had been, it had also caused a lot of problems. Ponyville was a relatively big town, but it was still the kind of town where everybody knows everybody in one way or another. So when a stranger shows up in town out of nowhere, being escorted around by a local teenager, people ask questions. Unfortunately, though, whether by accident or on purpose, they rarely ever actually come up with the right answers.

And no doubt the worst of the rumors would come from Sunset Shimmer. Honestly, if Octavia could have avoided anyone today it would have been Sunset, but by some stroke of luck, she'd manage to bump into not only her, but also her two stooges, Trixie and Lightning Dust. The pompous little witch and her friends were probably already posting messages about her 'prices' online.

Octavia sighed, throwing down the rag, which was now a bloody mess from Nos’s drink. “A Bloody Mary, with real blood.” The vampire had brought a bottle along with him because he refused to dine on the cheap stuff in Vinyl’s fridge. After going through a good third of the bottle because, “Vampires don’t get drunk that easy,” or so he claimed, he went in search of Lyra and her piano.

After a good ten minutes of scrubbing there was still a gigantic stain on Vinyl’s carpet that was probably going to be there for the rest of eternity. And strangely enough, she was okay with that. part of her thought It would serve Vinyl right for being so secretive. However the part of her that actually had control of her body new that it was possible to get revenge, while still doing hr job. Just as Octavia was contemplating how angry Vinyl would be if she ruined her carpet with an entire bucket of bleach, she heard the music. "It must be Nos,” she thought.

The vampire played beautifully, tapping out a ix of wild jazz and swing. Requested, no doubt, by his captive flapper audience. The natural acoustics the manor had, amplifying his playing for the whole house to hear.

Placing her rag back in its bucket, Octavia pulled out a chair, and decided to listen to the vampire’s solo performance. It reminded her of her first night here, when she’d been captivated by Vinyl’s playing. And although Nos’s playing was good—brilliant even—it just didn’t leave her with the same burning desire as Vinyl’s. Vinyl’s playing left her in a trance; a dream she didn’t want to wake up from, and felt like she was lost when she did.

“Which is why it’s so frustrating that I still haven’t gotten any lessons from her,” she grumbled. Both Vinyl and Octavia had been so busy lately that the lessons her mistress had offered had completely slipped her mind. “I’ll have to remind her the next time she has some free time, but who knows when that could be."

She groaned, letting her head slip into a waiting palm as she reached into her pocket to pull out her phone. It was eight thirty, her mother was expecting her back by now. Her ears perked up again, as she tuned in to the music that didn’t seem to be stopping any time soon. “If anything, I’d say he’s just getting started.” She smiled as she slipped her phone back in her pocket her mother could wait a little while longer.

It was Thursday and Octavia was heading to work. Octavia didn’t want go to work, but apparently Nosferatu had requested it, and so Vinyl had called her in. “Didn’t Vinyl explain that this was supposed to be my day off?” She grumbled. “And how the heck did she get my phone number in the first place?”

As she reached the front door of the manor, though, she could feel her anger diminishing. “It doesn’t matter, I suppose. This just means more money in my paycheck.”

Throwing open the door, she was greeted with the strange sight of the two vampires standing around rather awkwardly. They were pacing back and forth almost like they’d been waiting for her. “Well, of course they’ve been waiting on me, but they look really desperate.”

Vinyl’s eyes locked on her servant, and her face split into a somewhat creepy grin. “Octavia,” she said as if she was greeting an old friend. She ran up to girl placing both hands on her shoulders. “We have a guest in the dining room that we’d like you to take care of.”

Before she knew it Nos was leaning over Vinyl’s shoulder to talk to her. “It’s the cops, Octavia. They’ve found us and they want to bore us to death.”

“Huh?” Octavia was officially confused.

Vinyl pushed her uncle out of the way, “Pay no attention to him Octavia, we haven’t done anything wrong. It’s just that there are certain procedures that have to be dealt with when Nos visits.”

“Boring ones,” he chimed in.

“Right,” said Vinyl, “Boring ones. Nos and I have some business to take care of ourselves, so we can’t go over it with them. But it’s right up your alley,” she gave the young human her winningest smile, hoping she'd just go along with it and not ask a million questions like usual.

“So basically you have to go through a mountain of paperwork with some sort of clerk because you decided to ask him,” she pointed at Nos, “To visit.” They both nodded and Octavia’s shoulders slumped in resignation. “Where is he?”

“'She' actually,” Vinyl corrected, as she took Octavia by the arm and began to lead her toward the dining hall. Nos hung back, preferring not to follow them to death by boredom, but he gave her the thumbs up, shouting that he was "With her in spirit". Octavia grimaced, if both Vinyl and Nos were terrified to go through with this procedure, she couldn’t imagine how grueling it must be.

When they reached the somewhat ornate door, Vinyl let her hand drop. “Good luck,” she said as she hurried off to find her other guest.

Octavia paused before opening the door. Images fluttered to her head of an old woman sitting at the end of the table with a scowl that could cut diamonds in half. She’d be in a tan business suit with a pair of old bifocals on. And the papers, there would be piles of them, up and down the table, that she would need to sign. Octavia shuddered, “Yep that sounds about right.”

Bracing herself, she twisted the handle and flung open the door. Octavia was slowly beginning to learn a lesson, a fairly important one at that. The lesson being that when someone opens a door that has anything to do with the supernatural, they should get rid of all assumptions. Nothing can or should be expected from this world.

So when she opened up the door to the dining room, expecting to be met with coldness and cruelty, she was pleasantly surprised. Instead of piles and piles of paper there were only two, set in front of the very young woman. Much younger then she expected actually. Instead of a business suit, she was wearing her everyday, comfortable, clothes. Clothes Octavia had just seen her wear a little over an hour ago.

The minute the blond saw her she stood up. A big smile spreading on her face as she walked the length of the table. Her hand outstretched and a smile never leaving her face, as she went to greet her good friend. Octavia realized that she’d be expected to shake when the woman reached her, but she was still stunned. The only thing she could really do was mutter the woman’s name. “Applejack.”

Not put off in the slightest by Octavia’s unwillingness to shake. Ponyville’s resident farm girl grabbed her hand in both of hers and shook vigorously. “Howdy, Sugarcube.” Yes, Octavia was learning a very good lesson about doors.

When Vinyl found Nos, he was sitting in her study. One leg crossed over the other as he read a book on depictions of Vampire in film. She snickered “He’s probably just re-reading the chapter that deals with him.”

“Ehem,” she cleared her throat. She’d expected him to jump, slamming the book shut because she’d caught him with his narcissistic pants on. Instead he closed it gently, placing it in his lap. “Vinyl,” he said in a serious tone, “We need to talk. I admit you've done a decent job avoiding me so far, but there's no escaping this and I think you know that.”

Vinyl gulped. She couldn’t remember the last time her uncle seemed even vaguely serious about a topic.Even during her grandfather's funeral, he'd tried to remain upbeat. In the grand scheme of things it was irrelevant though, she could handle this. “You’re right,” she said, putting on her most serious face. Trying to stand up straight, while she placed her hands behind her back. “I didn’t call you here for just a visit.”

He raised an eyebrow, a look of disbelief on his face “Oh, really?”

Vinyl bit down on her lip. He was toying with her. He knew exactly why he was here, he just wanted her to admit she needed his help. “Yes.” Her eyes drifted down. “The fact is that certain circumstances require me to actually pay Octavia. As you know, I’m slightly strapped for cash right now, so I was hoping for . . .

“A loan?” he finished. Vinyl nodded, and he paused for a second. When he finally spoke it was with a question Vinyl had been dreading answering “What happened to the money Paole gave you?”

“Gone,” she muttered, “I spent it on his funeral arrangements among other things.” He cocked an eye at the implications of “other things” but thankfully he didn’t ask her to clarify. Nos was her last resort, if he wouldn’t give her the money then both her and Octavia were in trouble.

After a moment of silence Nos stood up. Vinyl braced for a rejection, but slowly his usual smile returned to his face, and she relaxed. “Of course you can have a loan, Vinyl.” He said, as he walked up to her and enveloped her in a hug. She gave a sigh of relief as she returned the favor. “There’s just one thing you need to do for me.”

“What’s that—OW.”

Vinyl rubbed the spot on he forehead where' she'd been hit. You think she would have noticed that he still had that very heavy book in his hand for no specific reason. She grit her teeth and hissed, barring her fangs at her currently less then beloved uncle. “What the fuck, old man that hurt.”

Nos grinned, “Much better.”

Author's Note

Yep, instead of one cliff hanger I decided to give you guys two. This officially begins the very first arc of my story. So far i only have two completely figured out, but I'll add on more as I see fit. Or maybe I'll just end it at three *shrugs* we'll see.

P.S i discovered the horizontal rule, no more X's dividing up my story. Also once again, making edits to this at 3 in the morning so yeah. Don't be surprise if it's somewhat shakey on the grammar

Trust

Octavia blinked, and then she did it again just to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. Sitting right in front of her was her classmate AppleJack. After the initial shock, they had both sat down and the tan blonde had poured both herself and Octavia a drink from a bottle of apple cider she’d brought along. With the sincere promise from AppleJack that it wasn’t any of the “hard stuff,” as she put it. Which is a shame, because Octavia really could have used a drink to calm her nerves.

After working for Vinyl, she’d thought she’d get used to these kinds of things. She’d met two vampires, a ghost, and seen an underground, mostly illegal part of the internet, but it looked like this “Other world” still had a few surprises up its sleeve. It didn’t help that the current surprise in question seemed completely undisturbed about the fact that Octavia was working for a vampire. “Maybe this is just an ordinary day for her."

Her brow furrowed as she took a look at the girl who was already pouring herself a second cup. “Come to think of it,” she thought. ”I don’t really know much about AppleJack as a person. I know she’s an Apple, one of the oldest families in Ponyville, so named for the actual apples and apple products they sell.” She took another sip of her drink, “Which, judging by this cider is well worth the hype. I know she’s good friends with another group of girls at school that are relatively popular, and that’s about it. I’ve never really had to sit down and talk with her for an extended period of time.”

Her brow furrowed, “Actually, now that I think about it I don’t really spend an extended period of time with anyone at school besides BonBon.” Octavia stared down at the cup in her hand’s contemplating her apparent lack of friends. It was a thought that would have to wait though because Apple Jack was already finishing up her second cup, and looked like she was ready to talk.

“Ah,” said AppleJack as she slammed the cup down on the table, “That hit the spot.” She smiled at Octavia, “You feeling any better Sugar cube?”

Octavia blushed, remembering how she had frozen up at the sight of the girl. “Yes, much better now, thank you. I was just a little . . . surprised that you were the big bad official that had Vinyl and Nos so paranoid.”

AppleJack chuckled as she started pouring herself another glass. “Well, that just means I’m doing my job right.”

Octavia blanched, “Uhm,” she started nervously, “What exactly is your job?”

AppleJack blinked, slightly put off by the question. “Vinyl didn’t tell you about us?”

“Well, no, but—“

Appleack groaned, as she took a big gulp of the cider trying to calm her nerves. Only to remember it wasn’t alcoholic. “Typical, Vinyl putting something off until the last minute. Probably hasn’t even gotten you registered yet, has she.” She pointed accusingly at Octavia.

Octavia’s face fell, her eyes drifting back to the drink in her hand, as she blushed. Too ashamed to admit the vampire hadn’t told her anything about a registration of any kind. “I don’t really know. Vinyl’s been keeping a lot from me. What information I have, I’ve had to pry out of her or other sources, primarily Nos and Lyra.” She looked back up at AppleJack, whose face remained contemplative. “I mean you saw how confused I was when I saw you, but from the way Vinyl talked beforehand it sounded like she was expecting this.” She gestured to the space between them, “Expecting us to be close friends who could just—you know—talk.”

AppleJack, somewhat reluctantly, set her drink down. “Look,” she leaned back into her chair. “I’m not blaming you for not knowing anything, that’s Vinyl’s fault. But if you’re going to be dealing with this sort of stuff, there are some things you need to know, like the existence of The Order.”

Octavia raised an eyebrow, “The Order?”

AppleJack waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah, I know not the most creative name, but that’s what happens when you get a bunch of old stuffy white guys to come together and create an organization. Anyway, you’ve heard of Van Helsing right?”

“Didn’t he slay vampires or something?” She said, eyebrow still raised in what she hoped was a dumbfounded look on her face. Octavia knew plenty about Van Helsing. After all, how could she claim to be a vampire expert if she didn’t know about one of their mortal enemies? But as long as AppleJack was in an informative mood, why not let her talk and see what she could learn?

“Yeah, that’s the one. Any who he spent his entire life hunting down vampires and other creatures of the night that he discovered. I’d recommend looking up his autobiography, it’s an interesting read. There’s one part where he—“

“Perhaps I can borrow it sometime.” She said cutting her off abruptly. Octavia had just stumbled upon a gold mine, she wasn’t going to let it slip away. “Can you continue with the story please?” She asked a little more nicely

“Oh, yeah, sorry about that.” AppleJack blushed, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment as she realized she’d been rambling. “Sorry, it’s just that he’s a bit of a hero of mine and I look up to him.” She smiled smugly, “He’s also family.”

“Wait, what?” Yep, definitely a gold mine.

“Helsing spent his entire life hunting down monsters, protecting the innocent. But near the end of his life he realized that in the grand scheme of things he had basically accomplished jack squat. Take vampires for example,” she took another sip of her drink that had managed to find its way back into her hand. “Vampires multiply like flies. If they’re not having kids, they’re turning regular people into vampires. I assume, or at least I hope, you know about the clans and the different weaknesses and such.” Octavia nodded, “Even in Helsing’s day, there were hundreds of them. Different families within clans that considered one thing toxic, meanwhile for another part of their clan you might as well be trying to poke them in the face.” She leaned forward, “And trust me, you do not want to poke a vampire in the face.” Octavia could pretty easily imagine the end result if she ever tried that with Vinyl.

Apple Jack shuddered, shaking her head. “Plain and simple, it was ridiculous, and he had no way of keeping things in check. So, finally, in his old age he decided enough was enough. He rounded up group of extraordinary individuals with like-minded views to help him fight. People that were also fighting the good fight, trying to keep things in order. Together they went on the warpath, with Helsing leading the charge. Eventually, they would go on to create an organization hell-bent on exterminating, everything undead, hell spawned creature they could find aka The Order. With Helsing’s post as head of the organization taken over by his daughter after his death.

She took a short pause, almost as if she was trying to collect her thoughts about what to say next. “Nowadays, though, the organization is almost entirely Helsing’s descendants. We set up shop in different parts of the world and watch over things.”

She took another sip to wet her lips and give Octavia time to take in everything she’d said. But most of what AppleJack had said didn’t make sense to her. “Wait a minute.” She blurted out. “That’s a completely different story from the one I heard. Didn’t Helsing’s daughter die? And if your organization started out trying to kill vampires and creatures like them, when exactly did things change? After all,” she pointed out, “You don’t seem very interested in exterminating Vinyl.”

AppleJack shrugged, “Things change,” she explained. “Somewhere along the way we realized that trying to just kill everything wasn’t really getting us anywhere, so we decided containment was the best option. We started striking deals, making agreements. The basics of which, pretty much say that as long as none of them step outta line we don’t interfere. We keep them a secret from regular people and keep things stable. Also we’re a top secret ancient organization, Sugarcube. If we want you to believe something did or did not happen, we can do that.” She winked, but the context made it come off as more menacing then charming.

“So basically, what you’re saying is, your entire family are—“

“Monster hunters, eeyup. Hmm” she crinkled her nose. “Now that I think about it we’re more like the secret police than anything else.”

“But wait,” she said pausing Apple jack from chugging the rest of the bottle. “If you’re supposed to stop creatures from killing humans and things like that, then why haven’t you been after Vinyl? She’s been draining half the town lately. And why is it so important that I have to be registered.”

AppleJack’s face twisted into a look that told her she was missing something pretty obvious. “Well, we have to get you registered to avoid any slip-ups."

“Slip-ups?”

“Yeah, suppose you stumble across something like a werewolf in the park. It’s not likely though, werewolves aren’t really frequent in this area of the country.” She tacked on after seeing Octavia’s eyes widen in shock. “Anyway, a werewolf shows up, then someone from The Order shows up to take care of things. Make sure everything doesn’t end up on the national news or Facebook, though we’ve got those pretty locked down from the inside.” She scratched her neck, “Photoshop is probably one of the best things that ever happened to us at The Order.”

Octavia glared at her, but she just rolled her eyes. “Anyway, The Order takes care of things, and then we have to perform cleanup. Now if you’re registered we know to leave you alone, and let you carry on with your life. But if you aren’t, we erase your memory, all of it.

“You’re not serious.”

“Completely and totally.”

“You’re just trying to scare me.”

“Well it should, because that’s what we do.” Another sip from her cup that had mysteriously emptied without her realizing, causing her to frown. “Plain and simple, Octavia, we aren’t the men in black. We don’t have a little device we can flash when you see something we don’t want you to. Messing around with people’s minds for any reason is a disaster.” She tapped her head trying to get her point across. “Science or magic, it doesn’t matter, it’s messy.

“We either do a complete mind wipe of who you are and try to start you over, or we risk destroying most of it trying to target that specific memory. We’ve tried it before and it never works completely. It leaves people broken, and hollow inside. It completely distorts who they are and any memories they still have are going to be warped. Heck, you could keep the best memory you ever had, but remember it as a complete and total nightmare. So I’d recommend making sure Vinyl gets you registered.”

It was said as more of a warning then a threat, but Octavia could tell AppleJack wasn’t playing around. “Duly noted,” she squeaked out

A crease appeared in AppleJack’s forehead, as a thought crossed her mind “Honestly, I’m surprised you slipped through the cracks for this long without us noticing. As for Vinyl though, well, the key word in that sentence is ‘kill.’ Vinyl hasn’t actually killed anyone in town, she’s drained several people looking for a meal but that’s perfectly natural. I mean, she is a vampire after all. How would you like it if I tried to stop you from getting a meal just because I didn’t like where it was coming from. Ya' gotta eat, ya' gotta eat.” She shrugged again, and Octavia had to admit she had a point.

“Besides, even if we wanted to go after Vinyl, her position makes her a might too important to apprehend.”

“Do you mean her position as the leader of the Venture?”

AppleJack nodded. “Now, if she was up to some real world ending business, then no one would kick up a fuss when we took her down. Heck, they’d probably help us stop her if we asked. But as she is right now, we can’t touch her.” She explained.

Octavia sat back in her chair, trying to digest the information she’d just learned. It made sense, Vinyl was a big name vampire so normal laws didn’t entirely apply for her. She was too important to get rid of, and if they did, they’d have a legion of vampires trying to take revenge after them.

“Wait a moment!” she screamed, rocketing into a sitting position in the chair and startling her company. A new thought had just came to mind, and it brought with it an unexplainable fury towards the woman sitting in front of her. “Don’t tell me you’re here because you think Vinyl and Nos are plotting to create some sort of doomsday device? I know the two of them can be pretentious, annoying, infuriating and just downright assholes sometimes, but they’re not evil.”

“Whoah, whoah, whoah,” she said holding up a hand in her defense. The smaller girl actually looked ready to hit her. “No one ever said they are. This is standard procedure whenever we have two or more high profile creatures meeting. I’ve known Vinyl for a good long time, and I know she’s not the type to go on a kill all humans kick, but this is my job. Why do you care anyway? What exactly did they do to you?” Applejack cocked her head to the side, for the first time actually wondering how the girl in front of her got involved in all of this.

Slowly, Octavia sat back into her chair, feeling herself shrink under AppleJack’s scrutiny. The flush of anger she had felt earlier was gone, replaced by embarrassment and confusion. Why did she care? True, Vinyl was supposed to grant her, her heart’s desire, but they weren’t friends. Mostly, the Vampire acted completely indifferent to her, treating her like a servant. And why wouldn’t she? The contract they’d made said that Octavia would work for Vinyl until Vinyl made her into a vampire, nothing more; nothing less.

Vinyl said she had bigger plans for Octavia, but did she really? When she kept Octavia completely and totally ignorant of a world that, from the looks of it, completely and totally surrounded her without her knowing.

“I-I’m her servant.” She said shakily, trying not to look AppleJack directly in the eyes. “We made a deal.” I’ll serve her for,” she wasn’t sure what to say, “A time, and then she’ll make me into vampire.” Octavia caught a glimpse of a frown on Applejack’s face chose not to say anything.

“Well, I wish you the best of luck with that, but if you really want to get anywhere with Vinyl, you might want a piece of advice.”

Octavia leaned forward, “What’s that?”

“Don’t trust her."

“What the hell, Nos? That hurt,” said Vinyl, still rubbing her head. Meanwhile, the elder vampire just smiled in response. Gone was the stiff, tightly round, girl he’d seen every day since he had arrived. Here was the Vinyl Scratch he knew.

“Please, Vinyl,” he said as he marched back to his seat, plopping down into it, and then tossing her a glare. “Did you really think that act would work on me? I can understand the girl, and maybe the council, if you ram that stick a few more inches up your backside. But did you really think I would fall for that, prestigious and noble act.” He huffed, “You’re about as noble as McDonalds.”

“Hey,” she shrieked, “I’m plenty noble.”

He scoffed, “Look, Vinyl, I know the council is asking a lot of you, but if you think acting like one of them will get them to lighten up you’re sadly mistaken.” He visibly shuddered, “Believe me I’ve tried.”

Vinyl crumpled into a nearby chair, her scowl slowly morphing into a look of disappointment. Nos always did have the ability to take her down a notch when she was really getting worked up. And from the looks of it he always would. “So what do you think I should do?”

He sighed, “Honestly, I don’t know. The best you could do is try to prove yourself. Take the reins of things. The Venture haven’t had a strong leader for a very long time. Paole—as much as I loved the old fool—was very lax with how he handed things.”

He held up a hand to silence any possible outbursts, from his very wounded looking niece. “Don’t get me wrong he got things done when they needed to be but, he didn’t really rally the Venture together like the old days.” He let lose another sigh, leaning his head back against the chair. “I don’t think anything short of a disaster could bring them together like the old days.”

His head shot back up to look at her. “Now what are you planning?”

It was Vinyl’s turn to scoff. “I’m not planning anything Nos,” she rolled her eyes. “I’m just trying to keep everything together. With Paole gone, I’m on top of the Venture.” She bit into her lip, “But no one will listen to some spoiled brat Paole just decided to hand the title to. I have to act like I’m in charge if I want to be treated like it.”

Nos face palmed, “I know, Vinyl, we just had a very nice conversation about that, and I told you that wouldn’t work. When you’re a leader actions speak louder than appearances. Although those can be pretty helpful at times too, especially when you’re trying to get the attention of that pretty, young, Beelzebub at the bar, who’s been giving you the smoky eye. . .”

Vinyl glared at him and he cleared his throat, trying to regain his train of thought that had been slowly traveling into the gutter. “Anyway, that’s not what I’m talking about.” He bridged the gap between them poking her in the forehead, “I’m talking about the other plan that’s been cooking in that head of yours. The one that involves that human girl you’ve made a deal with.”

She smacked his hand away, the glare returning to her face. “While we were out yesterday, Octavia asked me about the deal you two had made.” For a brief instant, a flash of worry appeared on Vinyl’s face. Indiscernible to an untrained eye, but to someone like Nos it was practically a Neon sign.

He waved his hand dismissively, “Don’t bother scolding her.” He leaned forward to the point where his face was inches away from hers. “I have very old eyes Vinyl,” he whispered, “Eyes that have seen things beyond your comprehension and still see them just as easily.” Vinyl looked into Nos’s eyes. The orbs that had been green and white a few minutes age were now a deep shade of red with a spot of black in the middle. Almost like a void or a pit, waiting for her to willingly fall in.

Vinyl forced herself to look away. One of a vampires most effective weapons were their eyes. For Nos to use that kind of look on her, meant he wasn’t playing games. “Look at me,” he snapped.” Vinyl forced herself to look back, but she was worried for nothing. Nos’s piercing gaze had returned to normal. “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice the ties you had to that girl? Putting your soul on the line, what were you thinking, Vinyl?”

Vinyl’s hands were still shaking, but she forced herself to at least sound like she was stronger than she felt at the moment. “I was thinking I needed cheap labor for a little while. I was broke and this place was slowly falling apart.”

He sneered, “Quit lying Vinyl, you know just as much as I do that this is permanent until the deals finished. As for workers, there are a million other ways you could’ve gotten it, and still had a better deal. You know why?” She shook her head, “Because you’re selling your soul, practically everything is a better deal than that!” His eyes softened, and he let out a deep breath trying to calm himself. “Now when do you plan on turning Octavia?”

“Never.”

“What!” Nos shouted. His niece had gone insane, completely and totally insane. “There’s no weaseling out of this deal Vinyl. You either turn that girl into one of us or you surrender your soul to the gates of The Nether Realm.”

Look, Nos, Tavi is . . . nice, but she’s not exactly the type of person suited for this type of life.” Vinyl had suddenly become vastly interested in her finger nails. Mostly because she didn’t want to see the disapproval on Nos’s face. “Besides, there are ways to get out of everything,” reverting her gaze back to her now steaming uncle. “You told me so yourself.”

Nos clenched his teeth together, trying not to shout at his niece’s thick-headedness. “But Vinyl, aren’t you forgetting the fact that she’s a human. At some point she’s going to die, and when that happens, you’ll be doomed. No if ands or buts about it, she’ll be at the pearly gates of heaven or wherever else, and your soul will be burning in eternal damnation.

“Well I guess I’ll just have to make sure she stays alive for a very long time.” She mocked.

Nos froze, “Vinyl, you wouldn’t.”

She crossed her arms in an action she hoped looked commanding, but instead made her look rather childish. “I would, my soul is on the line remember.” She stated matter of factly. “And think about it this way, the more time I have to spend with her the more she might change my mind. I know what I said about saving her the torment, but the main reason right now is that she kind of annoys me. She has her good parts too,” she added on quickly, seeing that her uncle was about to scream again. “But yeah, kind of annoying.”

Nos, shook his head, not exactly sure what to say about his nieces arrogance, “Fine. But what about in the meantime? I assume you’ll be using the money I give you to put the spell on the house back into place.”

Vinyl nodded, “Once the spell is back and working at full strength I can focus on other more important things. It’s been, what? A couple months or so since I first went into seclusion to train? Once the house is taken care of it’ll be back to business as usual.”

“It’s hard to go back to something that never started.” He said a smirk returning to his face, as he stood up, working his way over to the door and throwing it open. “But if I recall, your old business, involved alcohol, lots and lots of alcohol combined with women for a dangerous mixture.”

Vinyl blushed, “Shut up, you old geezer. Now let’s go get Octavia, before the goody two-shoes spills all of my secrets.”

“What do you mean don’t trust them. Didn’t you just say, Vinyl and Nos couldn’t hurt a fly?”

“Yeah,” she grudgingly admitted. “But that doesn’t mean they as vampires can’t be conniving, egotistical, and have their own agenda almost ninety percent of the time.” Octavia gulped, that captured Vinyl to a tee. Well, she didn’t know about the conniving part, but it seemed like a trait Vinyl would have.

“Now, I’m not saying Vinyl’s guilty of anything,” she leaned in. But do you know why she’s the leader of the Venture.

“I-um- Nos, said that Paole left the title to her when he died.” Had Nos lied to her as well?

“Oh, he did,” Octavia mentally sighed. “But not before—

“That’s enough, AppleJack!” The pair jumped in their seats, turning to look at the open doorway that was currently occupied by the two vampires in question. Neither one looked especially pleased with the conversation they’d just dropped in on.

AppleJack recovered first, standing up to greet the pair. She threw her arms wide open, with a warm smile making its way across her face in much the same way she’d greeted Octavia. “Vinyl, Nos, how’ve you two been? Hope immortality has been treating you two

Vinyl stared at her, “Considerably less, since you showed up.” She eyed Octavia. “I take it you got everything settled for Nos’s visit.” She scanned the room, “I don’t see any paperwork.”

“Yeah, where’s the mountain of paperwork that has to be signed in triplicate.” Said Nos, clearly miffed at the idea Octavia had been given special treatment.”

Applejack just chuckled, “Don’t worry,” she said. “It’s all in here.” Indicating to tight leather brief case that was now in her hands. “All forms signed in triplicate.” She gave Octavia a wink, asking her to play along.

Octavia blinked “Where did that come from. I could have sworn her hands were empty until now.” Octavia did a double take as her eyes wandered to the table. “Also, where did that bottle of cider go, I’m pretty sure AppleJack didn’t finish all of it off. even though she gave it hr best try.”

Those were questions that would have to be answered another day. After assuring Vinyl that all the forms would be processed correctly and reminding her about Octavia’s registration, the farm girl waved good bye, with Nos volunteering to show her out.

As soon as they were out of sight, Vinyl turned on her. “What exactly did she tell you?” She snapped.

“She told me a bit about her organization, what they were, how they came about, that’s all.” Vinyl seemed relieved, but against her better judgement, Octavia continued. “She, she also told me not to trust you.”

Vinyl stared down at her with her usual cold expression, “And what do you think?”

“I-I-I don’t know what to think,” she stammered. “You just keep so much from me, Vinyl.” She gave the vampire a pleading look, hoping for some sort of apology or sign of regret. “I’m not always sure that the small pieces you give me are real. The more people I talk to, the more it seems like there’s so much more to the story, but you won’t tell me any of it.” She shook her head, “What am I to you Vinyl?” Their eyes locked, and Octavia searched for an answer, but was greeted by the same off-hand coldness she’d received in her first week working for Vinyl.

“The information AppleJack was about to give you was classified.” She replied coolly. “Not just from you, but from any outsider to the vampiric clans.” She smoothed her hair back onto her head, a fruitless endeavor since it was determined to spike out into the air. “If it had been discovered by vampires other than myself or Nos, that you knew more than you should, you’d more than likely be killed. Your soul stuffed inside a bottle or a jar for all of eternity.” Octavia paled, she knew she had been getting good information from Applejack, but she had no idea it was that good.

Vinyl saw the look of distress on her servants face, and for the first time since she’d walked into the room her features softened, if only slightly. “Octavia, you are correct. There is a very vast and interesting world hidden beneath your nose. You are also correct in the fact that there’s a lot of it, I’m keeping from you. But you should know that most of it is deadly.”

Vinyl turned to leave, but not before sending a final message. “Remember, Octavia, I’m giving you all of this information in pieces to help you digest all of it. Eventually, you’ll know almost everything I know,” she let out a breath she’d apparently been holding in. “In the meantime, your ignorance is imperative to your survival. Understood?” Octavia didn’t respond, but the vampire went on anyway. “Good, when you’re done being shell shocked, I have a note for you. It’s important you deliver it to someone important at your school tomorrow.”

And with that the Vampire swept out of the room, closing the door behind her. Leaving a very lonely and slightly confused Octavia to like she said, “Digest” all of the pieces she’d been given. The one that just wouldn’t seem to go down, to the point she felt like she might choke on it eventually, was her trust in Vinyl Scratch.

Author's Note

Haha. It's finished, and might I say this is pretty much the best chapter I've written for this story so far. For once I actually went back through and performed edits Instead of deciding to post it and go back and rewrite parts I didn't like later once the story is finished.

I cut back on the internal monologues with Octavia because I felt like they were holding me back a bit when I was writing, but i still managed to convey her feelings and thoughts pretty well I think. Mostly because I've actually been reading book while I was writing this (Dorian Grey) and I drew inspiration. Been busy with college planning, my reading list is huge.

Also let it be know that The Order has nothing to do with The Order:1886 That was just a neat coincidence I did on complete and total accident.

Friends with benefits

“Fuck my life.” Octavia muttered as she ran down the sidewalk at seven o’clock in the morning. It was the morning after her meeting with Applejack, and if she didn’t hurry she’d be late to school. She already didn’t have enough time to deliver Vinyl’s note like she’d planned, the last thing she needed was for her perfect attendance to be ruined because a stupid bus decided to break down.

After snapping out of her stupor last night, Vinyl had handed her a small envelope sealed with some sort of crest. She’d explained that it was very important that it was delivered properly, and that she’d snap Octavia in half if it wasn’t.

Octavia had just nodded curtly. She was still having a tough time dealing with everything she’d just learned, from Applejack and her secret society to more missing information about how Vinyl became leader of the Venture. Now Vinyl was handing her this note that she was supposed to deliver to another student at her school.

“Locker 1364,” Octavia whispered as she turned a corner nearing the school. “Another person at school who knows more about this other world than I do.” Yes, Vinyl hadn’t bothered to tell her who it was she was actually supposed to deliver the letter to, only their locker number. Apparently, Vinyl wanted her mystery friend to remain just that.

The joke was on her though. Octavia was going to wait by that person’s locker until they showed up. Then she’d deliver the letter personally. “Or, at least she was until the freaking bus broke down!” Octavia was still fuming over the destruction of her carefully formulated plan when she saw the school coming up on her right.

When Canterlot high had been rebuilt 3 years ago after a fire, the designers and the school board had set out to build a model high school. A high-tech learning environment for the students to spend seven hours a day in. It was going to be a glowing beacon of education that would make the whole nation collectively drop their jaws, and say, “Are you sure that’s a public school?”

Plans for an actual training gym to be installed in the school had been drawn up, along with a full size Olympic swimming pool. An auditorium capable of seating five hundred at the least, and a proper prop room for the Theater kids was being put into the works. For food, negotiations for local businesses to set up shops in the lunchroom had been set. Those brand new high-tech projectors all the private schools were getting had been ordered, along with a sauna in the teachers’ lounge. You know, for educational purposes.

But, after realizing they had money for pretty much none of that, they said to hell with it, built a normal, slightly half-assed school with a very shitty air-conditioning system. Which is exactly what Octavia saw as she turned a corner onto Boise Avenue and made a bee-line for the front door. An average, one-story school building, with a flagpole outside.

Octavia threw open the double doors to the school, and was shocked to see . . . people still milling around in the halls. It’s not uncommon for kids at a high school to say, “Fuck it” and just disappear for a period or two if they feel like it. But this was pretty much the entire student body.

Octavia pulled her phone out of her pocket, unlocking it and taking a quick glance down at the time display on her screen. “7:45.” Octavia’s mind was sent reeling over the fact she’d just run what basically amounted to a marathon in under an hour. Before her jaw even had the chance to drop though, she found herself thrown dangerously off-balance, when a petite figure smashed into her. A pair of arms wrapped around her neck, bringing her into a hug.

“Octy,!” It was her friend Bon-Bon. Octavia didn’t know anyone else in her life that had such a ridiculous nickname for her. “Actually, scratch that. We can add Vinyl to the list of people with ridiculous nicknames for me.” She chuckled, “Ha, ‘Scratch that’ I’m most definitely getting punnier. Maybe I should—Ack.”

Octavia’s thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of her friend’s arms tightening around her neck, and the warm embrace slowly slipped into a choke-hold. “We haven’t talked properly in weeks, and now that we finally get to see each other you’re laughing.” Said Bon-Bon. Clearly mad at being pushed to the side while Octavia went to work for Vinyl. True, she’d been under her new work hours for almost a week now, but she had a concert to prepare for next Saturday and very little time to prepare. she really didn't have an excuse for avoiding the girl during school hours, but to her defense she'd had a lot on her plate lately.

Bon-Bon released Octavia from her death-grip, only for the black-hared girl to start coughing up a lung. “Note to self, never go this long without hanging out with Bon-Bon again.” Slowly recovering from hacking her guts out, Octavia got a good look at her best friend.

She had known Bon-Bon aka Sweetie Drops since Middle school. They'd met during lunch while expressing their mutual disdain for their Geology teacher. They'd managed to hit it off and the rest was history. Although, sometimes Octavia really had to wonder why she was friends with the slightly shorter girl to begin with.

It wasn’t that Bon-Bon wasn’t a good friend, far from it. The pair loved spending time together, talking about whatever came to mind, sharing their interests; Bon-Bon loved going to Octavia’s concerts and Octavia loved trying out Bon-Bon’s experimental candies. But the girl was so different from Octavia in so many ways that it was just strange that they were friends in the first place.

Take what they wore for instance. Octavia liked to wear the actual school uniform most days; a nice formal suit with a white button up, bow-tie and all. “Albeit, the suit is grey instead of the actual school colors. It also happens to be the boy’s version of the uniform instead of the girl’s.” She consented. “There’s also the fact I’m wearing sneakers down below instead of dress shoes. Also, I got the pocket of my jacket emblazoned with a treble cleft. And technically no one actually follows the dress code anymore, even though it’s written in the rule book, and . . . uh. Dammit, I had a point, but it go lost somewhere. Compared to Bon-Bon, though, I’m pretty tame.

Bon-Bon always had her hair died; Pink on one side, blue on the other. Done just right so that it split her head right down the middle. She’d just started doing it when she met Octavia, Octavia commented that it looked nice on her, and she’d kept it that way ever since. Over time it just became a part of Bon-Bon’s unique style. “Even though most of the school dyes their hair, so I’m not really sure how it can be considered unique. Then again on Bon-Bon it does look better, something about conditioner she uses just—“

“Uh, Octy, can you stop staring at me? It’s getting kind of creepy.”

Octavia blinked. Had she been staring? No, she had merely been . . . observing the way her friend’s hair had a natural buoyancy to it. That didn’t stop the slight blush from spreading across her cheeks from being caught though.

Octavia cleared her throat, trying to return things to normal. “Well,” she said, straightening up her clothes from Bon-Bon’s surprise attack. “We should probably get to class.”

“Right,” Bon-Bon chirped, as she turned and started walking toward the east end of the school. Octavia’s first class, was Music theory with Mr. Balog. It wasn’t her favorite class, but it was interesting nonetheless. It was on the Far east wing of the school, the quickest route to which also happened to pass by Bon-Bon’s locker. So the pair had made a habit of walking together to Octavia to class each day—even though Bon-Bon's class was in a completely different direction.

Normally, their walks would be filled with small talk, randomness, and the occasional one-liner. But today things were oddly silent. Octavia grimaced, “I guess this is what happens when we don’t hang enough.”

Without the usual sound of Bon-Bon’s voice to distract her on their three minute journey. Octavia’s eyes began to drift back over to her friend. Not in a sexual way! But Octavia always found it interesting to see what Bon-Bon was wearing. Her friend always drifted toward lighter clothes, which gave her a more feminine look. Which Octavia always found weird considering how rugged and tomboyish the girl could be sometimes. Talking about headlocks and wrestling one minute and candies and proper baking techniques the next; Bon-Bon was ripe with contradictions.

Today the blonde (Or at least she thought she was) girl was wearing a loose, white, sundress with a light-blue trim. Combined with the fairly nice pair of sandals she was wearing and she looked fairly average. She rolled her eyes, “At least by this school’s standards." Her nose crinkled, "But seriously, what is up with this school and hair dye. It’s like someone took a neon rainbow and dumped it into everyone’s soap while they weren’t looking. But I guess that’s just normal here.”

Octavia frowned deepened as a thought suddenly occurred to her. "If that’s normal, though, what does that make me?”

Lately Octavia had been feeling very out of place. If she was truthful with herself she’d always felt like somewhat of an oddball living in Ponyville; everyone else in town seemed to pop out the moment people saw them, while she was in the background. And while it was true there was no one who could possibly mistake Octavia for anyone else in town. Everyone else seemed to be brimming with life, while Octavia seemed almost completely devoid of it half the time.

It wasn't because she was an unmotivated person. Far from it! She was just a realist and preferred to keep her obsessions and desires under wraps in case they didn't work out. She'd rather keep secrets then look like a complete and total fool in the end (Heck, the only reason she played the cello was because her parents forced her to when she was young). She hid them so well that even Bon-Bon didn’t know about her dreams about vampires.

So it wasn't too big a stretch to say Octavia felt like an outsider in Ponyville. But as stated before lately she'd been feeling considerably worse. Perhaps it came from spending time with Lyra and Vinyl where she didn’t quite fit in either, but lately Octavia was completely lost on where she belonged. She turned to her friend, “Bon-Bon?”

“Hmm,” Bonbon smiled at her. “Is there something wrong, Octy?”

He mouth formed into a thin line, “Tell me, do you think I’m weird?”

“Yep,” she chirped, without a single note of hesitation.

Octavia slumped as she felt her self-image shatter into a million pieces. “Thank you, Bon-Bon. You really know how to cheer someone up.”

Bon-Bon’s eyes widened, immediately realizing her mistake “Oh, Octy, I didn’t mean it in a bad way.” She shrugged, “I just meant that you’re unique. I can’t think of anyone quite like you, and that’s part of what makes you so great to hang out with.” She paused as if thinking for a moment, “Honestly, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend my time with?”

Bon-Bon’s slight confession, only managed to deepen the blush that was already managed to seep into Octavia’s cheeks. Shaking herself out of it, Octavia continued walking. “Maybe so, but you’re pretty much the only one.” She looked at her friend pleadingly. “Give me a straight answer, Bon? When was the last time you actually saw me hanging out with another person?”

The shorter girl stopped for a moment. Racking her brain for an answer that wouldn’t hurt her best friend. “Oh,” she said after a minute, “There was the old man you were hanging out with the other day apparently.”

Octavia could feel the twitch returning o her eye as she face palmed, “Damn you, Sunset Shimmer! God, I’m just lucky Bon-Bon is naively innocent . . . that or she knows exactly what people are talking about, doesn't care, and this is just her way of messing with me.”

Recovering slightly from her shock, Octavia spoke up, “That was for my job, Bon." She explained. "Though Mr . . .Nos, is a very nice man, I wouldn’t call him a friend.”

“Or would I?" She thought to herself. "And if he’s a friend can I count Lyra on that list, and maybe—to a significantly lesser extent—Vinyl."

Bon-Bon scratched her head, desperately trying to recall the last time she'd seen her best friend hang out with someone else. “Then I guess—“

“The correct answer is never, Bon,” she said cutting her off, her usually neutral face twisting into a hard frown, as she stared down at the tiled floor. “If it weren’t for you I’d be completely and totally alone. No one to really talk to, no one to listen to me. Hell," She said looking back up at Bon-Bon, "When the last time one of my parents were at one of my recitals? But somehow you’re there for everyone. I just—“

Octavia stopped as she felt herself enveloped in a tight hug. Bon-Bon’s head nestled comfortably into her neck, as Octavia's arms. She felt warm and soft. “Don’t worry about it, Octy," whispered Bon-Bon. "No matter what happens you’ll always have me.” She loosened the hold she had on Octavia, giving giving the taller girl some space to breathe.

Bon-Bon smiled at her, and Octavia did the same. Internally, though she was lamenting the sudden drop in temperature. “So you’re anti-social, it doesn’t matter. If you need someone to listen to you or be there for you, all you need to do is call, and I’ll be there.”

Octavia snorted, “You stole that from James Taylor.”

“What?” she shrugged. “It’s a good song. Also I was thinking of Carol King, but whatever.” Octavia rolled her eyes. This was why they were friends. Octavia helped Bonbon keep what little sanity she had left, and Bon-Bon gave her a place to go and a shoulder to cry on.

Bon-Bon took a look around. Somewhere in the middle of their talk they’d drifted over to the Orchestra room, and the bell was about to ring in about two minutes. “Well I’ll see you later,” she said, fully releasing Octavia from her hug, straightening up her book bag on her back as she turned to walk away. Or at least she was until she saw the time, and realized that if she didn’t run she was going to be chewed out in front of her entire English class.

“Shit,” she muttered, and started running full speed down the hall. Waving at her friend behind her all the way.

Octavia just waved back, even though the girl couldn’t actually see her. A dumb look, or at least what he though was a very dumb smile on her face. “Bon-Bon’s right, if worse comes to worse at least I have her. I’m lucky to have her and I-I . . .,”

Octavia let lose a sigh, “I totally have a crush on her don’t I?” She took one last look at her friend’s rapidly depleting form and thought “Yep, totally a crush. Again, Fuck my life.”

Gym had never been Octavia’s favorite sport. She was a cellist not a track star. As a result, her grades in gym, weren’t exactly top notch. Especially, when they spent it outside, and at least half of the class was spent doing laps around the track field. Today though things were looking up.

Not only was she running circles around most of the girls in class, which had granted her a few strange looks during the period. ”And by few, I mean that no one can believe that I’m not collapsed on the ground begging for the coach to end it, but leave me my dignity.” Yes, her sudden increase in athleticism had gotten her a few strange looks, but mostly it got people chanting her name to keep going, and people like Flash Sentry asking if she'd like to join the team. She had no idea which team, but it was a team and people wanted her to be on it!

The other good thing about class today; Applejack. The farm girl had been signaling her to come over and talk near the bleachers for the longest. Octavia would have done it immediately, but it was just too much fun making everyone’s jaw drop at the fact she had practically become an Olympic athlete overnight.

Eventually, she got tired of it though, and walked over to the bleachers where a slightly annoyed Applejack stood tapping her foot. “You done?” She asked, quirking her eyebrow at the smiling Octavia.

Octavia just waved her hand in the air dismissing her. “Oh please, I was just having a little bit of fun. You know how I usually am in gym. When am I ever going to get a chance to do something like that again?” Octavia was practically beaming with pride . . . or was that her ego? Either way it didn't matter, she was officially a sports super star on the high school level.

Applejack’s frown morphed into a knowing smile, “You sure about that, Sugarcube?”

Octavia frowned. It had been a strange day, sprinkled with bits of good and bad news. She’d made it to school on time, then been put into a headlock by Bon-Bon. Bon-Bon had forgiven her for ditching her so much and given her a nice pep talk, after which she’d realized she had a crush on her best friend. Now Applejack was calling into question her physical 180, after she’d finally gotten a bit of respect in the class.

Octavia looked the other girl straight in her face, trying to figure out what the blonde was getting at. Finally, after a moment or two of trying to decipher the human puzzle that is Applejack, she gave up. Flinging her arms up in the air in frustration she practically screamed, “Fine! Please explain, All-knowing Applejack.” She huffed crossing her arms over her chest.

Applejack smirked, “You're Vinyl’s personal servant. It’s not uncommon for vamps to give their personal servants an extra skill set so they can manage things bit easier.”

Octavia’s nose crinkled, “What do you mean by extra skill-set?”

She chuckled, “Magic, sugar, magic?”

Octavia blanched, It all made sense. Her gym class miracle, the run to school this morning, and Vinyl’s mansion. She’d never really thought about it before, but as much as she grumbled to Vinyl about her technically small list of chores, that she had to do sparingly. It was still a considerable amount of work for any one person to do. And it was only made harder by the fact it was spread out across the huge home. “A normal person would have been exhausted by the time they finished the work Vinyl had me do; mopping the ballroom even if it wasn't dirty, sweeping three flights of stairs, it's insane. But everyday I would just walk right up to her and ask 'what's next?'."

She slowly bit into her lower lip, trying to think about what Vinyl had said when they’d made the deal. “She'd mentioned certain ‘perks’ but I never imagined something like this. Or at least not this early in our deal." The end game might have been to become a vampire, but Octavia didn't think she'd have any actual power while she was Vinyl's servant.

Applejack clicked her tongue, looking at the other girl with an expression Octavia swore was pity. “Boy, I knew Vinyl was keeping you dumber than Winona on a good day, but she really hasn’t told you anything, has she?”

“No, she hasn’t.” she admitted reluctantly, looking away to avoid Applejack's piercing gaze. Part of her really didn’t want the farm girl to be right about trusting Vinyl. She wanted the vampire to be her saving grace, the thing that finally gave her, her heart’s desire. Meanwhile, another part of her was screaming that she couldn’t trust Vinyl, nothing about the vampire added up quite right, and that she was an idiot for trusting her. Octavia chose to go with the less insulting of the two voices. That didn’t stop the other voice from having a fair point though.

Deciding it was time to change the subject, Octavia pursed her lips together, “If I recall you haven’t told me everything either.” She said a little more snidely than she would have liked. Applejack looked dumbfounded, Octavia sighed, and started explaining in what she hoped was a politer tone. You were telling me something about Vinyl and how she got to where she is.”

Applejack’s eyes widened, “Oh,” she chuckled. “That.” It was Applejack's turn to scratch the back of her head now, obviously nervous about the turn in conversation. Octavia’s eyes narrowed, she had no idea what had happened to the blonde in the time since their talk, but whatever it was it had made her less than hesitant to talk.

“You, see . . . Nos, wasn’t exactly happy about me trying to tell you all that stuff last night.”

“Nos, are you sure?” Applejack nodded. Octavia hiked an eyebrow at that. If she’d expected anyone to try and shut up Applejack before she could get to her, she’d have thought it would be Vinyl. “Vinyl did mention it was private business.”

Applejack chuckled nervously, “Yeah, well, she’s not exactly wrong. I really had no right to go flapping my gums to you about some of that stuff at the end, and telling you more would probably just get both you and me into deep trouble.” She held up her hand, as soon as she saw Octavia start to protest. “Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t regret the official stuff, that’s my job. And if you have any more questions about how all this works, or just our world in general, just ask. But the things I was gonna share with you last night are top secret stuff I really shouldn’t be telling you.” Applejack sniffed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, “Besides it’s all just one big rumor anyway. There’s not anything to actually prove it so far.”

“Humor me,” Octavia pleaded. Trying to give her best impression of a kicked puppy.

It didn't work at first, but eventually she could see break and crumble under pressure. “Ugh, fine," she said holding up her hand to block the image of pure unadulterated sadness. "Just stop staring at me like that.” Octavia mentally fist pumped, she'd have to use that move more often.

Applejack looked left and right, which Octavia found weird seeing as their wasn’t anyone around to listen to them. Finally when she was sure the coast was clear she turned back to Octavia and leaned in whispering into her ear. “Let’s just say people expect unfair play in how Vinyl got to the position she’s in and leave it at that.”

Applejack backed away, and Octavia mentally screamed. “What do you mean by unfair play? Was there a vote and Vinyl stuffed the ballot?” Tell me already, I need to know!” Of course Octavia didn’t say any of this out loud. Applejack had been kind enough to explain a bit about how all of this works to her, returning the favor by practically biting her head off wouldn’t exactly help her in the friend making department.

So instead, Octavia just stared blankly while Applejack looked at her with a smile on her face. “Besides I didn’t call you over here to talk about gossip.” Applejack reached into the pocket of the gym shorts she was wearing and pulled out a small, slightly crumpled, pamphlet with the words “Welcome to Ponyville!!!” stamped on the front, exclamation marks and all. Underneath that was a picture of a small orange horse waving in the middle of what looked like a Sweet Apple Acres Orchard.”

Octavia gave Applejack a look. Applejack held up her hands, “Before you say anything, let it be known, I am contractually obligated to give you this.” She shook her head, “Contract or no, though, it’s still a pretty decent guide to Ponyville’s inner workings. Who’s in charge around here and the important figures you can find around town.”

Octavia opened up the first fold in the pamphlet. It described a brief history of the town, as well as it’s more mystical origins. She looked up from reading something about a covenant. “So is Ponyville an important town.”

Applejack burst out laughing, “Ponyville, important? Haha—No, wait, I take that back.” Her laughter quickly died, replaced with a thoughtful look on her face. She rubbed her chin, trying to collect her thoughts. “We didn’t use to be that big, but in recent years we’ve had some pretty big names show up in town, Vinyl included. Which I guess makes this," she tapped the pamphlet, "outdated" Octavia could see her body tense as a thought came to mind. "Everyone showing up, probably has something to do with—“

Octavia leaned in, one part of her hoping to hear whatever Applejack was saying. The other part hoping that mind reading was on the list of powers Vinyl had given her . . . It was not.

Applejack looked up. Suddenly remembering it was she was talking to, she decided to change the subject. “Oh,” she said as she reached for her other pocket. “There’s something else I was supposed to give you . . . Ah, here it is.” Applejack pulled out a small I.D card with her name on it. It was set up almost like a license, but not quite. It had the basic information (Blood type, age, but it also listed her species (human), who’s domain she was under (Vinyl Scratch), and the resident supervisor (Granny Smith). It also had a less than flattering picture of her that looked like it had been taken from last years yearbook

Octavia looked back up at Applejack. “As long as you have that, there’s no chance of you getting taken into custody. Just make sure you keep it on you at all times or things could get messy.” She winked. It was probably supposed to come off as charming, but the more Octavia learned about this mind-wiping process, the more disturbed she felt.

Despite herself, Octavia managed to smile back. “Well, that’s all I got for you today. If there’s ever anything you need, or if you have any questions about any of this, feel free to stop by the farm and ask.”

Octaiva blinked, “Are you sure?”

Applejack smiled, “Well of course, we’re friends aren’t we.”

Octavia felt herself tense up. Applejack considered them friends? And all this time she’d just considered the other girl a good source of information. Someone she could use to get closer to Vinyl, and all the secrets she was hiding. “And it’s official. I’m a terrible person.” She looked into the other girl’s eyes and smiled weakly.

A look that could easily be mistaken for earnestness, but in reality was laced with guilt. Applejack smiled, and walked off, headed towards the school building. Somewhere in the middle of their talk gym had ended and Coach was calling for as many people possible to help pick up equipment.

As soon as Applejack was out of earshot she let out a deep sigh, “I really don’t deserve a friend like her do I?” Applejack had been so honest and kind to her. And all she had thought about was how she could use her to get ahead.

Octavia started walking back onto the field. Berry Punch was struggling to carry six hurdles to the equipment shed, and was calling out for someone to help. Normally, Octavia would have just let someone else,help the girl and move on. But today she stopped, and watched for a moment, guilt still weighing down on her. “Maybe this is the reason I don’t have any friends,” she murmured.

Within seconds, Octavia had crossed the field and was taking a few of the hurdles from Berry's arms. Tossing back a sincere smile to the relieved girl, she started walking over to the equipment shed. Suddenly feeling a lot better, then she had most of the day.

Author's Note

I am officially a failure as a writer. Why, you may ask? Because I failed at a key aspect of writing. True it's one that a lot of people mess up. But still, I should know better.

I'm of course talking about establishing Octavia. I've already established her as a character who she is, what she likes. That's fine. But I've gone seven chapters without giving you a single detail about what she looks like. True, there are cases where you can explicitly make that work, but this is not one of those cases. Shame on me as a writer.

On the bright side though, I've managed to get pass this part of the story. Originally, I was going to introduce the school in the second chapter, but after going through major writers block and a realization of kill your darlings I scrapped it altogether. I might just post it one of these days if I'm dragging behind on the story.
As always read review and I hope you enjoyed.

Too Bright

Octavia shuffled her feet nervously. She’d decided to forgo lunch for the day and deliver the letter instead. As a result, people were now staring at her.

It wasn’t that uncommon for people to abandon the cafeteria so they could eat somewhere else in school. They weren’t allowed to leave the actual school building to grab something. So to make up for that students would mingle in the halls, usually in their own group of friends spread out across the school. But with no lunch and no friends nearby to speak of, Octavia stuck out like a sore thumb.

That wasn’t what got her the stares though. No. Most people were staring at her because she flat out refused to sit down. She’d been standing there since lunch started, which by her count was a good thirty minutes ago. Enough time for several people to pass her by on more than one occasion and ask the usual questions. “What are you doing here? Do you need a chair? Are you selling drugs?” That last one had led to a very awkward conversation with the physics teacher, who as far as Octavia was concerned had it out for her to begin with and probably wouldn’t let this go.

Octavia let out a deep sigh as she pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time. It was almost 12:30. Lunch was over in five minutes, and the person she was supposed to deliver the letter to still hadn't shown up. Octavia let loose a groan of frustration. Her head fell back against the locker door with a resounding thud, as she started to stare at the ceiling, wondering where exactly she'd gone wrong.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she’d imagined this like some top secret spy meeting. All "hush-hush", and “If you breathe a word of this, I’ll stab you in the back of your neck and drop your body in the nearest river.” Hence, the attempt to look as tough as possible by leaning against the lockers. What she got were aching feet and people asking her if she could spare an eight-ball.

Octavia let out another sigh, “I guess I could just wait until after school and hope I catch them, but that’s three hours away. And suppose I don’t catch them in time? Then I have to explain to Vinyl why I didn’t deliver her letter like she asked.”

Just then a voice called out to break her out of her stupor—not a voice from the heavens, good gods no! But a voice from the deepest pits of hell where Octavia had often imagined it burning alive. “Well if it isn’t the little fiddler.”

Octavia looked up, and instantly her features hardened into a hard glare. Right in front of her, straight from the deepest pits of hell where she’d probably been busy decapitating the devil, was Sunset Shimmer. Flanked by her two cronies—Trixie and Lightning Dust—Canterlot High’s resident bully stood tall and proud, with her trademark smug grin to top it all off. The woman's pure being radiated condescension; the full brunt of which was currently being aimed directly at Octavia.

Octavia grit her teeth, doing her best impression of a girl who didn’t want to punch Sunset Shimmer in her face. “It’s a cello, and you damn well know it,” she barked. The red head just scoffed. Which only furthered to annoy Octavia.

Once upon a time in middle school, Sunset hadn’t been that bad. She’d been a little stuck-up, but for the most part she was a nice girl. Not really part of the popular crowd—there really hadn’t been one at school—but still well known enough to be considered popular. All in all, a person you could get along with if you tried.

But like all good things that go through high school, somewhere along the line she became horribly twisted. She’d managed to pick out the two of the most annoying girls in school to act as her flunkies. Trixie, a showboat who couldn't back it up, and Lightning Dust, a showboat who could, but it was still annoying to hear her talk about it. And thus began her reign of tyranny over Canterlot High.

Sunset’s eyes shifted from side to side looking for something. “Where’s your little friend Tampon?”

Octavia felt a guttural growl starting in the back of her throat. “I think you mean Bon-Bon.”

“Nope,” she shot back, the smug look on her face only increasing.

Sunset had a knack for finding your weak points and jabbing at them until you snapped. That’s just the kind of bully she was, with her two henchwoman occasionally adding commentary, but mostly just standing by for support. It didn’t help that Sunset’s face was the extremely punchable kind. “It’s the kind of face where she could just say hi to you and you’d walk up and go. WHAM! Right in the kisser, because you’re pretty sure she has something evil planned for you.”

Octavia’s glare barreled down on Sunset, but the prima donna didn’t even flinch. “What do you want Sunset?” She asked, hoping the other girl would just go away so she could get back to her mission.

Sunset rolled, “I ‘want’ you to move out of the way so I can get to my locker.”

Octavia blanched, it couldn't be. “Your locker?”

“Yes, my locker. Now are you going to move or what?” She said mockingly, drawing out the “yes”.

Octavia felt her world spinning. She knew Vinyl was cruel and unusual, but to have her deliver a note to Sunset Shimmer of all people? That would mean Vinyl was consorting with pure unadulterated evil, and Octavia was serving it little finger sandwiches by extension.

In a state of shock, Octavia took a step away from the locker she'd been leaning on. Immediately, she was flanked by Trixie and Lightning, both throwing her weird glances. Octavia wasn’t sure what most of them meant, but she got the jest of the messages. She wasn’t going anywhere, and the thought caused a small lump to rise in her throat.

To her great relief though, when Sunset walked over to put in her combination, she went directly to locker next to Octavia's drop-off point. Octavia let out a sigh of relief. Which got her a few more strange looks, from the human bookends next to her, but she didn't care. She was just happy her Mistress wasn't asking her to do the unthinkable.

“Now,” said Sunset, turning around, a Biology book in her hands. She leaned up against the lockers so that she was taking up the spot Octavia had occupied only a few seconds earlier. “I’ve been hearing some interesting things about you band geek.”

“Band?!” Octavia was fuming.

Sunset clicked her tongue, "Something about you spreading your legs for old men who buy you stuff?” She chuckled, pointing at her. “I mean, I know those instruments of yours aren’t cheap, but I never knew you were.”

“That’s a dirty lie, and you know it,” she spat out. Octavia could feel her fists clenching, but she decided to calm herself. There was nothing Sunset would have liked more than for Octavia to lose control and get in trouble. It didn’t help that Sunset was skilled in hand to hand combat, and could probably floor Octavia, before she even got a punch in.

“I don’t know,” Sunset smirked, “Seems pretty plausible to me. Besides, at least this answers that age old question. Who do you have to blow to make a few bucks?”

"I don't have to take this! I really don't, if she would just move her inflated ego a few hundred feet to the left, and she'd be tolerable.

She clasped her hands together, “I know,” she said in a sickeningly sweet voice. “Next time, you can bring your little friend, Tampon along with you and get double the money.”

That was it. Sunset had crossed a line. She could talk about her if she wanted, but no one insulted Bon-Bon like that and walked away without at least a broken arm. Just when Octavia was about to roll up her sleeves and get down to business, a voice interrupted them.

“What are you doing, Sunset?” Someone asked in an exasperated voice. Octavia could swear she saw Sunset cringe as the voice spoke. And she turned her head, wondering who could elicit such a reaction from such an emotionless witch.

Standing only a few feet away—looking more annoyed about the situation than anything—was Twilight Sparkle. It was common knowledge that Sunset hated Twilight’s guts. The two were always competing for the top positions in school, with Twilight constantly coming out ahead. Still no one was really sure what caused the amount of pure hatred the red-head had for the . . . purple head. But whatever it was, it was responsible for Sunset’s face turning a particularly dark shade of red as her mouth twisted into a snarl.

“None of your business, Sparkle!” She barked at the other girl.

Twilight just shrugged, letting out a long yawn. If Sunset had been paying attention like Octavia, she might have noticed the bags under Twilight’s eyes. Instead she took it as Twilight trying to mock her. Which only succeeded in bringing Sunset a few shades closer to looking like her namesake.

“Well, you’d better do 'none of your business' somewhere else, because class is going to start in,” She decided to check her non-existent watch, “Three minutes. Which means if you don’t want to end up getting trampled, you’d better head to your next period.”

Sunset shot her a glare, a force Twilight met with a look of absolute indifference. After a moment or two of tense silence, Sunset motioned for Trixie and Lightning Dust to follow her as she left. That was it—no snide comments, no over the shoulder glares—they just left.

Octavia felt her jaw drop . . . or at least, she did until she felt it start to cramp and then she had to reel it in as quickly as possible. But still, pain in her jaw aside, she’d never seen Sunset just let something go like that. Usually, there would be some sort of attempt to put in her remaining two cents so she can pile it on later. But Twilight Sparkle seemed to have some mysterious power over the school bully.

“Uhm thanks, Twilight.” she answered meekly. she really did owe the girl for butting in. The last girl that challenged Sunset to a fight had to get stitches, and Octavia probably wouldn't have fared any better.

“No problem.” The school's resident bookworm replied nonchalantly, shuffling her backpack off of her shoulders and setting it to the side. Walking over to the lockers both Sunset and Octavia had been leaning on just moments ago, she stopped in front of locker 1364 and began punching in the combination.

“You!” Shouted Octavia.Pointing an accusing finger as her eyes threatened to bug out of her eye sockets.

Twilight turned to look at her. An eyebrow raised in the air as she shot the cellist a questioning look. “Yes?” She asked somewhat hesitantly.

“No-I-you-locker. . .” She floundered. Octavia’s hand shot into her pocket. Jumbling around the contents as she tried to grip the folded up letter. After being jabbed multiple times by a pencil she’d left in there, she managed to pinch a corner of the envelope. Pulling it out of her pocket she unfolded it, and presented it to Twilight, a slightly creepy smile threatening to overtake her face.

Twilight eyed the note for a few seconds, scanning it before her eyes rested on the crest and instant recognition flooded her face. The confused look she'd been wearing suddenly morphed into understanding—and then a look Octavia hadn’t been expecting; pity—as she gently took the note from Octavia’s hands.

For a second, Octavia dreaded that Twilight would just shove the letter into her backpack and read it later. But after flipping the letter in her hands, a few more times, she started to slowly wiggle it open with her fingernail. Octavia could almost feel herself bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet. This was it! She would finally get some answers about how deeply Vinyl was entrenched in her school. Who else knew about this magical world here, and would they be willing to share some of that information?

. . . Or at least that's what she thought.

When Twilight finally freed the letter from its paper prison, she didn’t gasp in shock or (more importantly) confide in Octavia what it was about. No, Twilight skimmed over the brief contents of the letter and then let out a deep sigh. Grumbling something unintelligible, she reached down and stuffed the letter into a side pocket in her bag.

When Twilight turned back to her, she had a deep frown on her face, her lips formed into a thin line. “Tell Vinyl that if she wants to do this, then she should come to my house at about Ten O’clock. Bring the money with her then, and tell her to try not to draw too much attention to herself.”

Whatever Vinyl had put in that letter it had obviously ticked off Twilight to no end. Which didn't exactly surprise her, this was Vinyl after all. “Uh, what exactly did Vinyl want from you?” She asked hesitantly.

Twilight threw her hands up in the air, “What does anyone want from a witch?” She hissed. “A magic spell to fix all of their problems.” And with a huff, she slung her backpack back over her shoulder and walked away.

Author's Note

Wohoo, another chapter bites the dust. . .on the downside another chapter that was originally supposed to be longer bites the dust. But I promised myself I'd get you guys another chapter soon and I feel like this flows a lot better than just tacking on another scene.

On the plus side, I officially graduate high school in a couple days. Yes, I'll be a free man. free to look for a job and go to college, where I'll be subject to four more years of school. Yep, liven the dream.

Anyway next chapter is when things finally start to kick off, so stay tuned as always, comment and I hope you enjoyed.

Expectations

It felt like it was going to rain. There weren’t dark brooding clouds blocking out the sun, but Octavia could feel it in the air as she walked home. The humidity; the tension closing in on well . . . everything.

At least that’s how Octavia felt about her situation. Twilight Sparkle was a witch! A witch that—from the sounds of it—had, had dealings with Vinyl on more than one occasion before. “Twilight mentioned something about a magic spell.” She wondered as she bent low to avoid being smacked in the face by a tree branch on her way home.

As soon as school had let out, she’d rushed over to Dorothy Avenue to report back to Vinyl. She told Vinyl that she’d delivered the letter, and repeated what Twilight had said about payment and the time they should be there. To which Vinyl had given her a chilling "well done". Obviously not happy the pair had met face to face before Vinyl was ready to introduce her. “Despite that fact she seemed happy though. She even cracked a smile, when I mentioned how Twilight had stormed off.”

When Octavia asked if there was anything else she could do for her, Vinyl had simply told her to head home. Saying that she’d, “Come and collect her when it was time for the meeting”. And so that’s exactly what Octavia was doing. Waiting at a stoplight, questioning whether those buttons that are supposed to make the lights change actually work, while also trying to digest the fact Vinyl was actually going to be leaving her mansion tonight.

Of course Octavia knew Vinyl left her mansion on a regular basis to grab something to eat. Even if the reports of mysterious attacks had all but disappeared from the local news (To which Octavia suspected was in no small part thanks to their local apple farmers). But for Vinyl to actually leave her home and B-line to Octavia’s? “This spell must really be important to her.”

Tired of waiting, Octavia broke out in a run across the street, praying that no one hit her. “But that brings up the question of what this spell is supposed to do?" She questioned as she stepped onto the opposite curb. “The only spell I can really think of is the one on the house. Is that what all of this cloak and dagger stuff is about?” She asked no one in particular. “Vinyl wants the house back up and running?”

All these questions and more circled around the forefront of her mind like a storm. That and the slow-moving clouds coming in from the east, she was just now noticing. Dark and heavy with rain, they signaled a storm. A storm Octavia was sure to get caught in if she didn’t hurry home.

Raising her hands over her head to protect her hair against the possibility of early raindrops, Octavia stepped up her pace. It was unnecessary though, less than a minute later she was standing in front of her house, the oncoming storm still off in the distance.

Standing at the front door, Octavia paused to look at her home. Even after years of living there it was still daunting to look at. It wasn’t a huge mansion like Vinyl’s. The white two story house was basically the average urban home, complete with a driveway, backyard and a picket fence outside. No, it was what this house represented that sent a shiver up Octavia’s spine.

Shaking off her nerves, Octavia gripped the door handle and pulled. From her first step she was enveloped in a world completely different from the one the outside of the house would suggest. Immediately, she was surrounded by the sound of music. There wasn’t a moment in the Philharmonica house where music wasn’t playing. Classical of course, Octavia’s mother couldn’t stand to listen to anything else.

Wiping off her shoes on the welcome mat, Octavia took this moment to really observe her home, and the strange majesty of it. At first glance anyone would think that her family was rich; not true, although they were fairly well off. No, all of the painted frescos and decorative white pillars in her house were to paint the illusion that the Philharmonicas are rich. Octavia blanched, “And all just to appease my mother’s bruised ego.”

Once upon a time, Adagio Philharmonica had been a promising violist (Not quite famous, but getting there). She’d had stars in her eyes, and was ready to take on a high class world that was very willing to accept her.

Then tragedy had struck. She'd gotten pregnant. Not from one of her high society friends; she hadn’t broken up any marriages or caused a scandal. She’d had a one night stand with a plain, very average, business man from a small town called Ponyville. Suddenly the world that had been so open to her Adagio before, looked down and didn’t quite like what they saw. And so the gates were closed for her. Even worse were the rumors her so-called friends had spread without her knowing.

They had ruined her reputation. She was an out-cast, not just from high society, but most of society. So with a weary heart, she’d hung her head in defeat and returned to Ponyville, demanding the business man take responsibility for his slip-up. And so Adagio Phiharmonica had married Filthy Rich. They’d settled down in Ponyville where Rich’s growing business was located, and he’d bought her this house as a testament to what she could never have.

“Octavia, is that you dear?” Octavia cringed. She’d been hoping to just sneak up to her room and disappear until Vinyl came. But of course her mother had to pour a bucket of cold water on her plans.

Hanging a right from the parlor, Octavia entered stepped into the sitting room. Which in most houses would have just been called the living room or a TV room, but her mother insisted it was a sitting room. And had done her best to make it look like that. Rearranging the furniture so that it centered around a grand piano that no one in the house actually knew how to play. Her mother’s violin sitting next to it, and Octavia’s cello propped up in the corner, leaning on their couch.

The same couch she found her mother lying on when she entered the room. Eyes half-lidded, and an arm laid over her forehead like she had a headache. As soon as Octavia stepped into the room, she seemed to spring to life though.

“How was school today, Sweetheart?” Octavia could hear the strain in her mother’s voice, as she tried to at least try and stay awake. She was trying her best to disguise it by sounding as pleasant as possible. Even throwing in a halfhearted smile for effect.

But that didn’t stop it from reaching Otavia’s ears, leaving her feeling very uncomfortable. She wasn’t used to seeing her mother this down. All pretense of civility out the window as she lied there. Hell, the woman doesn't even have on her makeup. Mother never leaves her room without some mascara on.

“Fine mother,” she replied, lying through her teeth. “I made some new friends.”

“That’s good,” she said as her smile broadened a bit, “My day has been . . . interesting. Your father’s on a business trip so I’ve had to deal with your sister running amuck.”

She sighed deeply, “Normally I would just leave it to her nanny, but the crazy bat quit earlier today. She just ran out screaming, ‘She’s the devil, she’s the devil. Good Lord, she’s the devil.’ And other crazy things like that. So I had to sit in on a parent teacher conference for almost an hour, while this teeny bopper teacher explained all the things Diamond did wrong in the past week. I mean honestly,” she shook her head in disbelief.

She turned her head, looking Octavia in the eyes for the first time since she’d walked into the room. “Would you be a dear and check on the little monster.” She waved her hands indicating to the stairs. “She should be in her room right about now, doing . . . whatever.” And with those last few words out in the open she shut her eyes and let out what Octavia could only presume was a fake snore.

And it was at that point that Octavia realized she was being duped. “Tired or no, mother doesn’t snore.” Annoyed at having responsibility tossed onto her shoulders, Octavia turned away from the “sleeping” heap that was her mother. Grudgingly, she made her way over to the stairs and started the climb to the second floor, intent on confronting her sister, because her mother just plain didn’t want to.

“Then again I can’t blame her,” she murmured to herself. Ever since Octavia was young it had been decided that she was her mother’s child. It wasn’t like her father had no say in her upbringing, but it was miniscule compared to her mother’s. If Octavia wanted something, it was expected of her to go to her mother for it, and if she was going to be lectured her mother would be the one to do it.

Her mother had complete control of her life from the moment she’d been born, and as a result her relationship with her father was . . . well strained would be an understatement. It was more like it was non-existent to begin with. They didn’t really talk to each other besides basic pleasantries, and just preferred to stay in their respective areas of the house when they were both home. Octavia didn’t bug him and he didn’t bug her.

Not exactly the typical father daughter relationship. And from what Octavia could garner from local gossip, it wasn’t what Filthy had been expecting out of a child. So when her parents had their second child, Diamond Tiara, her father had only found it fair that he pull her under his wing the same way her mother had done with Octavia. He doted on her, gave her anything she wanted, barely punished her; in hindsight it was no wonder she had turned into a spoiled brat.

Reaching the second floor, Octavia made a b-line for her sister’s door. “Second from the right, just follow the stench of self-entitlement.” She chuckled at her joke as she stood right outside of the room. Octavia took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and then immediately burst in and started yelling. “Alright, Brat! What did you do this time?”

The whole room was done up in a pink princess style, from the bed to the wallpaper. There was a vanity that was loaded with every type of make-up and perfume, and a dresser that looked like it had hopped out of Beauty and the Beast. Mostly because their father had, had it recreated to look like the one from Beauty and the Beast. “Good God, father, what are you doing to this girl? You’ve got her wearing a tutu and an actual tiara, as if she were really a princess.

“Calm down will you,” replied the tween, obviously ticked off that she’d been interrupted from painting her toenails. “Aren’t you supposed to be the composed one?” She asked, waving the brush in one hand, “Mom is always bragging about how sensible you are.”

Octavia ignored the obvious jab, and decided to focus on the task at hand. “I don’t have time for your bitchiness Diamond, I got enough of that at school today. Just tell me what you did and who do we have to give money to, to make it go away.”

“No one,” she insisted, holding up her hands in defense. “I’m just not allowed anywhere near glue at school anymore.” Finished with the conversation, Diamond went right back to painting her toenails.

Octavia’s shoulder’s slumped, there was really only one way to solve this. “Wanna play BlackJack?” she asked. Diamond's smile couldn't have been larger as she looked at her older sister with a look that was usually only reserved for their father when she wanted something

“Sure,” she piped up, a note of excitement in her voice, that also wasn’t usually there. “The cards are in there,” she nodded her head, indicating toward the dresser. “I would get it myself, but as of the moment I’m indisposed.”She said indicating to her still drying toes.

Octavia rolled her eyes, but walked over to the dresser anyway, pulling out the top drawer and fumbling around until she found a standard deck of cards held together by rubber bands. Walking back over to Diamond she plopped down in front of her. Crossing her legs as she handed her little sister the deck and watched as she began to cut with a practiced hand.

“So what did Sunset do?” She asked, causing Octavia to groan. Over the years of dealing with the insanity that is their parents and just life in general, they’d started this tradition as a sort of bonding exercise between siblings. “Yes, most siblings wrestle, or bake, or go out and get ice cream. But no, we sit across from each other playing Black Jack and Poker, trying to psychoanalyze each other. Although, I have to admit it is a pretty great stress reliever.”

Diamond had finished cutting and had moved on to dealing the cards. Octavia looked at what she had. Diamond had dealt her a six and an eight, “Ha, fourteen beat that.”

“I’ve got twelve.”

“Dammit,” she cursed.

“Well if you’re going to whine about it. . . “

“Shut up and hit me.”

“Not until you tell me what Sunset did?” She slipped the card off the deck and playfully kept it just out of Octavia’s reach. Well, it really wasn’t out of her reach. It’s just she didn’t feel like getting up to go and get it, and crawling around on her sister’s floor was beneath her.

“Fine,” she growled, “She insulted BonBon.”

“Ah, so she insulted your girlfriend’s pride and you sprung to protect her honor.” She said, relinquishing her hold on the card and placing it with Octavia’s others.

“Nineteen,” she mumbled. “And I think I‘ll stay. As for BonBon, was I really that obvious?”

“Completely,” she said as she drew a card for herself. “Jack, dammit.” she grunted.

“That’s what you get for cursing so much,” Octavia taunted.

“This from the woman who commented on my ‘bitchiness’ the moment she walked in.” She just had to tack on air quotes.

“Fine,” she consented, shuffling their cards under the deck and drawing new ones for the both of them. “This is what you get for doing things with glue you shouldn’t.”

“What, you mean a perfect twenty-one.”

Octavia looked down at her sister’s cards, “How did--?” A wiggle of the eyebrows was all she got in response. “Ugh,” her sister had an unnatural amount of luck when it came down to it. She still wasn’t deterred though, “Glue. Explain. Now.”

“Fine,” Diamond relented, her face drooping just a bit. “I might have glued, Applebloom and Scootaloo’s hair together with the extra-strength glue.” Her sister at least had the decency to look a little embarrassed by her grade school prank.

Octavia felt like face palming. “Oh brother, why don’t you just ask the girl out and be done with it.”

“I’m not gay,” she protested.

“’Dear Diary,’” she recited, “’I still can’t stop looking at Ms. Cheerilee’s huge—“

“S-shut up, I’m not gay!” She was really flustered now. "Even if like half the town is." That was true now that Octavia thought about it. It was almost supernatural in nature considering this was a more rural old-fashioned town. She would have to ask AppleJack about that at some point.

Octavia scoffed, “The only reason you keep saying that is because dad wouldn’t like it. And he’s so deluded into the fact that you’re his perfect little angel that he’s got you half way believing it to even though you’re not. And because you know you’re not, you feel guilty and try and force yourself to believe you’re something when you’re actually the exact opposite.”

“Well, what about you, huh?" She defended. “Don’t think I don’t know about your little identity crisis. Mom sucks you into her shadow so much, that it’s no wonder this hasn’t happened before. You try and crawl your way out, but you can barely poke your head out, let alone you’re whole self. It’s no wonder you don’t have an identity when mom just copied hers and tried to paste it onto you." Diamond crossed her arms, and indignant look on her face, "And I’d say she did a pretty decent job."

If Octavia was going to be honest that . . . had hurt. But it was something that needed to be said anyway. This was the relieving part of these talks, getting all of their dirty laundry and problems out into the air, even if they didn’t want it to be. It would leave scars true, but it was better than just ignoring the problem that was there and letting it pick at them until they had a breakdown and had to see and actual psychologist.

Octavia stood up. This was always where there game ended. The both of them returning to their respective corners in their own rooms so they could think about what they’d just heard. As for the Black Jack, they always managed to fit in a couple more rounds in-between the spaces of their rants. Right now they were tied 2-2, but if things had gone on any longer, Octavia wasn’t sure how long it would have remained that way. Her sister had a natural talent for cards.

She was probably cheating in one way or another, but Octavia had neither the time or enough empathy to actually find out how. “Maybe she has the cards tagged somehow?” That didn’t mean she didn’t devote a considerable amount of brain power to the subject though.

And it was thought’s like those that entered Octavia’s mind as stepped into her room at the end of the hall. It wasn’t as big as Diamond’s room, but then again, Octavia didn’t really need that much space. She had a bookshelf, filled to the brim with, horror novels and classic movies, as well as any musical piece that peaked her interest. She had been learning how to read b ear for a while now and she was starting to get pretty good at it if she did say so herself.

She had a dresser pushed up against the farthest wall and a closet not too far away from that. Unlike Diamonds room though, Octavia’s had the fortune to be blessed with a television and a DVD player. Not because her father didn’t want Diamond to have one, but because she never really needed or asked for one.

The most interesting feature in her room though was how her walls were completely dominated by posters of people like Boris Karlof and Peter Lorre. There was even a poster of Max Schreck sans make-up, she had yet to put up. Nos had bought it for her as sort of a practical joke, which backfired completely because she loved it.

Octavia collapsed onto her bed, her feet dangling over the side as she stared up at the ceiling and the crème de la crème of her posters; Vincent Price and Bela Lugosi in all their vampiric glory. It was a good thing to fall asleep to, which was exactly what Octavia intended on doing until Vinyl showed up and hopefully woke her up without too much of a fuss.

She briefly thought about stripping out of her clothes, but decided it would be pointless. Vinyl would probably want to leave in a rush, and Octavia having to pull on new clothes would just slow them down. As she started to drift off to Vincent Price’s hypnotizing stare, Octavia’s last thoughts were that it still hadn’t started raining.

Octavia awoke to the sound of something rapping at her window. Sitting up in bed, she rubbed her eyes trying to wipe away the sleep. At first glance it looked like a branch from the tree outside was hitting her window.

Until she realized that this branch had the body of a person attached to it. Also a mouth that was asking to be let in, and a pair of red glowing eyes that threatened to rip out her soul again if she didn’t hurry.

“There’s also the fact that the tree isn’t that bi—oh fudge.” Octavia jumped out of bed, rushing over to the window in order to let her mistress inside. She jacked open the window and Octavia stepped back as Vinyl slipped inside. Almost like a cat, Octavia thought as Vinyl’s feet hit the floor without making a sound.

“What are you wearing?” asked a shocked Octavia. Her Mistress’ usual outfit was gone, returned to whatever century it belonged in. Instead, Vinyl was wearing a loose white t-shirt, a blue hoodie, a pair of jeans, and some sneakers. Topping it off were a pair of purple rimmed glasses that were completely and totally unnecessary with how dark it was outside.

Vinyl frowned, “It’s not often I get to go out this early, so I thought I’d take advantage of the situation.” She motioned toward the window. "With the storm clouds blocking out the sun I have free range to do as I please.”

“Early?” Octavia asked. Wasn’t it close ten, like they’d agreed on?

Vinyl sighed, “Octavia, when Twilight Sparkle says one time she wants you to be there early.” She crossed her arms, her eyebrow’s hiking in thought. “Right now it’s about eight I think, plus we’re walking there so that should take up some time, thankfully Twilight doesn’t live too far from here.”

“Walk?” Octavia questioned the vampire. "Wouldn’t it be better to—I don’t know, fly?” Vinyl gave her a look that clearly got across her message of “shut up”.

“Like I said,” she said trying and failing to take the bite out of her voice. “It’s not often I get free range around town. I can fly over anytime, but getting to walk through during the day is a different experience. Now come here before we lose the light, and I decide to leave you here.” Octavia walked over to the ticked off vampire and gasped as she felt a hand grip her around her waist and pull her close.

Octavia felt nervous. It was strange being this close to Vinyl. Especially considering how the vampire used every situation possible to put her at a distance. That nervousness was replaced with abject fear though when Vinyl jumped out the window, pulling Octavia with her.

Octavia screamed. Or at least she would have if Vinyl hadn’t been using her other hand to cover her mouth. They hit the ground and Octavia felt her heart finally crawl its way back into her chest from where it had been hiding in her stomach. It was a little burned from the stomach acid, but other than that it was good.

Vinyl slowly let loose of her grip on Octavia. Watching as her assistant slowly tried to steady herself. “Never. Do that. Again.” she breathed

Vinyl smirked at her, “You know that feeling you just got when we jumped.” She nodded. “Good, now imagine the rest of your time with me like that and get used to it.” Octavia groaned, but made no further complaints as they started the trek to Twilight’s.

Even though she’d complained about the walking, Octavia had secretly hoped she could use the time as a sort of bonding experience. Vinyl hadn’t been kidding when she’d said Twilight’s house was close though. If Octavia had to guess it had taken a good ten minutes to reach Twilight’s home, the majority of which was taken up by Vinyl just sightseeing. A venture that consisted entirely of Vinyl pointing out different places where she'd feasted on people and how differently they looked in the light

Octavia had managed to gleam one bit of knowledge from the vampire though. She confessed that she loved the rain. Besides being one of the few times she can step outside in the middle of the day, she said that it made her feel clean. Like everything had been washed away, and what she was seeing was a new world hidden underneath the one they were used to.

Octavia couldn’t quite see Vinyl’s point of view, but she had smiled anyway as her mistress looked up at the sky expectantly. It was really humid out now, to the point it felt almost suffocating with each breath she took. So it was something of a relief when they finally reached Twilight’s home.

It was a nice house, almost like a little slice of suburbia had been set aside in this more upscale part of the neighborhood. Built up with brick, with a yard large enough to protect against the pretentiousness of the mansions right next door. Octavia couldn’t help but help but smile at the modesty of the home. This seemed like someplace that Twilight Sparkle would live.

Vinyl didn’t waste any time in walking up to the front door and ringing on the door bell. When that didn’t yield any immediate results she started knocking. “Are you sure you should be doing that?” Octavia asked hesitantly, “I mean Twilight is a witch she could turn you into something or—," Octavia stopped talking once she noticed the look Vinyl was giving her.

“Octavia if I was afraid of Twilight, I wouldn’t be making deals with her.” She said that as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The door suddenly flung open to reveal a very ticked off Twilight Sparkle. “You know, you’re lucky my parents aren’t home or you would be a newt right about now.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Vinyl, brushing off the threat as she moved inside with Octavia hot on her heels.”

“I’m serious,” Twilight closed the door behind them and began ushering them inside. “You know my parents don’t like you, so why would you purposefully try and tick them off?” Vinyl just shrugged and let Twilight lead them down the hall.

If Octavia was looking for a word to describe the Sparkle home, that word would be books. Books, novels, chronicles; whatever you’d like to call them they were everywhere. All placed on bookshelves stacked side by side right next to each other up and down the hall. almost as if they were in an actual library. Every once in a while, Octavia would pass, a movie version of something, or a skull or candle set up for atmosphere, “Then again, this family knows magic so maybe not.” But mostly it was just books, in what was otherwise a fairly normal looking/non-magical home.

Twilight led them into the sitting room. Years of living with her mother had trained Octavia to call it that, but the difference was she got the feeling Twilight’s family actually used it to, you know, sit down as a family instead of just using it as a decoration for guests. And Octavia wouldn’t blame them, it was incredibly comfy looking. There were the usual wall to wall bookshelves, but besides that floor was covered in a sort of thick white carpeting. In the middle of the room there were a couple of couches and sofa chairs surrounding a clear glass coffee table, but all still aimed at a flat screen TV propped up on an entertainment system. The existence of which shocked Octavia. Just the idea that this family still found time to sit down and watch something as mindless as TV, with all the reading they were apparently doing, was astonishing.

Twilight waved for them to take a seat. “Please, sit; pour yourself something to drink.” For the first time since she entered, Octavia took notice of the slightly impressive spread that had been put out for them on the coffee table. All sorts of desserts and pastries all lined up in a row, organized a canister of what she assumed was tea, but was giving off a faint chocolatey smell.

Vinyl took a seat on the nearest couch, crossing her legs and looking as nonchalant a she always did. “Well,” Octavia thought as she sat down next to her, From the way Twilight and her talk, she’s obviously been here before. Why would she be surprised?” Finally, their host sat down in a seat across from them, and they began.

“Do you have my payment?” Twilight asked, right off the bat.

Vinyl groaned, and then did something that threatened to make Octavia’s eyes bug out of her sockets. Reaching out, Vinyl’s hand seemed to almost disappear, as the air around where her hand seemed to shift and warp. Almost as if the disappearance of her hand was causing reality to be torn apart at the seams.

Vinyl’s arm moved back and forth, grunting in frustration she tried to latch onto what she was looking for. Finally, feeling something solid enter her hand, she pulled her hand back into this plane of existence. She hated using pocket dimensions. She never cleaned them and they always ended up too cluttered for her to find anything.

With the eyes of her visibly astounded servant on her, Vinyl handed Twilight the object she had pulled back from the rift. A very rare copy of a history book, which had probably been sitting in her library at home ever since Nos had first built the place. Most people would have demanded money for their services, but not Twilight Sparkle. No, her witch friend much preferred to be paid in knowledge she could use. That made her easy to work with, but also quite dangerous in certain ways.

Twilight let out a very undignified squee as the book came into her grasp, clutching it to her chest like her life depended on it. “A first edition history of the underworld! I can’t believe you actually had it.”

Vinyl decided to take this moment where their host was distracted in order to appease her curious servant. Who at the moment, was sending her big questioning eyes, that had about five different questions brewing in the back of her head. “I know what you’re going to ask,” she whispered, “But the answer is; shut up and eat a cookie.”

Octavia huffed, but complied with her mistress’ will. Not because she’d ordered it, but because they were cookies and they looked good. Taste good too she thought, as she proceeded to start stuffing her face with a few.

Octavia was already making her way through her fifth cookie and her second cup of hot chocolate by the time Twilight came down from her Book high. “Well, now that that’s over,” said Vinyl, “We can start focusing on the deal at hand.”

“Ehem, quite right,” said Twilight, trying to regain her composure. Setting her payment down, she poured herself a cup of coco and began to talk. “I’ve studied the enchantment around your house and I have to say it’s a pretty unique piece of work. Excellent craftsmanship on the runes especially,” she took a sip from her drink and then placed it down on a cup holder. “I’ll be honest with you Vinyl, I can’t replicate that kind of work. Not with the equipment I have on hand.

“So you can’t do it?” Vinyl asked.

“I didn’t say that,” Twilight replied coolly. “It’s just going to take a bit more time than I’d imagined, and even then the spell won’t be as powerful as it once was.”

Vinyl leaned forward on her hands, resting her elbows on her knees. “Twilight, how long would the spell last.”

Twilight shrugged, “A couple of months,” Vinyl cringed. “I could probably add on an extra year if I got the right materials. But those specific materials are very expensive.” She put extra emphasis on “expensive, and Vinyl’s eyes widened in understanding.

“Exactly how much do you need?” She sighed.

A devious look appeared on Twilight’s face. “Well,” she started tapping her chin. “I might consider tapping into my savings and buying them myself if you do me a slight favor.”

“Name it.” Vinyl ordered.

“Give me a few minutes alone with her.” She pointed at Octavia.

Vinyl blinked in disbelief. She wasn’t sure what game Twilight was trying to play, but she knew she didn’t like it. Because for right now at least she was a pawn, and that did not suit her well.

“Fine,” she snapped as she tried to suppress a growl. Vinyl stood up, and marched out of the room. Leaving behind a grinning witch, and a thoroughly confused Octavia. For Octavia though, that wasn’t an unusual feeling. She was used to understanding less and less every time Vinyl left a room. But now she had Twilight thrown into that mixture and she wasn’t really sure what to make of that.

Twilight looked at the doorway where Vinyl had left. Wiggling her fingers, she uttered something that to Octavia’s ears vaguely sounded like “silence” and then turned back to her guest with a smile on her face. “Good, now she can’t eavesdrop on us.”

Octavia swallowed he last piece of shortbread that was still in her mouth before she began to speak. Deciding to get right to the point she asked “Uh, Twilight, what is it exactly you want from me?”

“Elementary, my dear cellist. I just think we can help each other out in our joint mission.” She proclaimed as an even broader smile overtook her face and she took a bite out of what Octavia could only assume was cheesecake.

“Joint mission?” Octavia quickly searched the darkest corners of her mind searching for anything that Twilight and her could possibly be working on; and came up empty.

“Yes, our research into this other world of ours, that seems so closely tied to our own.

“You mean the supernatural world?”

Twilight shrugged, “The underworld, realm of darkness, whatever you’d like to call it, its hidden right under everyone’s nose and nobody ever notices.” Her brow suddenly creased and her lips pursed as stared down at the piece of cake in her hands. “I’ve been living in this world all my life, but now I’ve suddenly discovered theirs a lot more too it then imagined. Secrets upon secrets, hidden away and no one will tell me anything; Not Vinyl; Not Applejack; Not even Principal Celestia.”

Octavia blinked, trying to figure out if she'd heard that right.. “Principal Celestia? What’s she got to do with this?”

Twilight looked up, snapping out of her moment of pity to help teach someone something. “Principal Celestia is the leader of my Covenant.”

“Covenant?”

“Did you not get the brochure?” She questioned. Octavia nodded, remembering the small pamphlet Applejack had handed her earlier. “It should have given a description of some of the important things around Ponyville." Octavia nodded again, she remembered that, although she hadn't had really taken the time to read through the whole thing. "Well in there it should have told you about the Covenant of the Sun, an ancient order of witches with Principal Celestia as our head. Though in actuality it’s more of a school for those adept in magic hidden within our normal school.”

“You don’t say?” The way Twilight made it sound, it was as if being a part of this school was some huge honor.

“Yep,” she chirped. “And I just so happen to be Celestia’s Private student. That means she gives me more hands on training than anyone else.” For a second Octavia was afraid that she’d be subjected to another squee but Twilight seemed to be fresh out for the day.

“You mentioned something about secrets?” Said Octavia hoping to get back to the matter at hand.

“Oh, yes. While I don’t know all the details, I can definitely say this. Something fishy is definitely going on in the supernatural world. I don’t know if we’re being attacked or some shift in power, but a lot of odd things have been happening over the past couple years. “

Twilight had Octavia on the edge of her seat now. If Applejack wouldn’t tell Octavia what she wanted to know then Twilight would. “Like what?”

“Well for one thing Ponyville itself. Ponyville used to be a relatively unimportant town. Sure it had a few big names, like Vinyl’s grandfather and Principal Celestia, but other than that, the count of supernatural beings was relatively low. The ones that were here were mostly older ones, living out here because they didn’t want to be bothered by any of the big city business.

In the last few years though the numbers have spiked. Supernatural creatures of all shapes and sizes have been piling in to towns like Ponyville. And whatever it is pushing them into these town, and I believe it’s also the reason my family moved here at the begging of Middle school. A decision my parents didn't exactly explain very well to either me or my brother”

“It’s almost as if they were running from something.” Octavia theorized.

‘Exactly!” Twilight exclaimed. “ Not only that, there’s also the sudden drop in power some of the more influential members of this world seem to have. I can’t speak for Vinyl, but Principal Celestia is definitely slipping. Remember the fire,” Octavia nodded. “Well isn’t that weird? Celestia is one of the most powerful witches in the world, but she can’t stop her school from burning down, and when they want to build this new state of the art school, she doesn’t flex her skills or her influence to get it done. She just goes with the school boards decision that there’s not enough money.” Knowing what she knew now, Octavia had to admit that was weird. If Celestia was supposedly this incredibly powerful witch, why wouldn’t she use her powers to rebuild her school, let alone save it from burning down in the first place?

Octavia looked at her new partner in crime. Trying to decide whether she should trust her or not. Those emotions only lasted a few seconds though as she finally returned Twilight’s smile. “Vinyl has been having some money troubles lately, she had to borrow some money recently from another vampire lord named Nos.”

“Really?” Twilight looked like a kid in a candy store, “The Venture are a very wealthy and influential clan, not as strong as they once were, but strong enough. If Vinyl’s having money problems then that means whatever is happening isn’t just power related, it’s affecting their economy too. So whatever this force is, it’s got both power and influence behind it. It’s probably been around for a while too, so maybe I can find something about it in the school library—the hidden section of course,” she amended, when she caught Octavia's blank stare.

Octavia watched as Twilight went off on a rant, spouting theories and possibilities, one after another. But a thought had come unbidden into her mind and she just had to speak it. “Twilight?” The young witch turned to look at her. “How did you know I was looking into these things?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” she replied nonchalant, “Applejack told me.”

Of course. Twilight and Applejack were friends. Friends who probably talked about this kind of thing all the time. Talking about their day, sharing secrets, “But apparently, friendship only goes so far with Applejack when it comes to spilling things from her job.”

Octavia snapped out of her thoughts as Twilight started to talk again, “Well, now that all of that’s settled that only leaves the question of will you help me? The young witch leaned forward expectantly, Octavia wasn’t sure why though, if she’d been talking with Applejack then Twilight knew exactly how badly she wanted to solve this mystery. If teaming up with Twilight would help her with that, she was more than willing to comply.

She nodded her head with curt, “Alright.” She reached out her hand to shake and Twilight grasped a hold of it in both of hers. Shaking vehemently.

“I can’t wait to get started,” her excitement shining through on her face. “Right now you’re in the best position to get information.” She pointed out. “Vinyl’s position makes her an important figure and with you as her . . . assistant, that means you’re right in the eye of the storm. If you find out anything tell me, and I’ll try and get you caught up on as much about this world as possible.

Octavia frowned slightly. Twilight had hesitated when looking for a word to describe her relationship with Vinyl. “Did I really get the short end of the stick with that deal? And am I really going to make another one?” The sudden realization that she hadn't really thought this through before signing on suddenly hit her.

Octavia jumped when she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. Twilight had moved closer without her noticing and was now smiling down on her from the arm of the couch she was sitting on. "Look, I know this is all really shady, but I’m asking you to trust me with this. Applejack told me about your wish, and if you really want to enter this world of ours you can’t come in half-cocked not knowing anything or you could get yourself into some deep trouble. And if what’s going on is as big as I think it is, then everyone deserves to know that we’re in trouble, the people in charge can’t keep it hidden forever.”

The way she spoke about this mystery sent a chill down Octavia’s spine. It was the same type of determination etched onto Twilight’s face that she’d had when she marched into Vinyl’s home and asked her to turn her into a vampire. Still Octavia wasn’t quite sure though.

As if sensing the doubts Octavia was having, Twilight rushed to appease her. ”Look,” she said, the smile on her face finally dimming. ”I don’t want you to think I’m trying to cheat you, or use you, or whatever. I just want to know what’s going on. And if you won’t help me as a partner, will you at least help me as a friend?” Twilight held out her hand for Octavia to take again. There were no smile or devious looks on her face, just a solemn face that was asking for help.

Without hesitation, Octavia took Twilight’s hand and shook it. “Great,” said Twilight. Leaping off of the couch and straightening out her skirt. “I’m going to use that book Vinyl gave me to do some research. I’ll meet you in the library after school tomorrow and we can discuss our plan of attack. They can’t hide the truth from us forever.” She cried out

Seeing Twilight all puffed up and determined, Octavia couldn’t help but crack a smile. “No they really can’t,” she replied, standing up and dusting off the crumbs that had gathered on her from her cookie massacre.

“Oh, speaking of Vinyl we’d better let her back in,” Octavia’s eyes widened as she remembered her mistress who was just in the other room. “That spell I cast, doesn’t just keep her from eavesdropping, I slightly modified it so she can’ actually reenter the room. Twilight waved her hand in the air, “There that should do it.” Octavia didn’t see anything, but Twilight insisted that the spell was gone now.

“Vinyl,” she called out. “We’re done in here you can come back now.”

The vampire in question peaked her head back in. “Finally,” she groaned. “I don’t know if you two realized it, but you’ve been talking for almost half an hour.”

“Oh, I realized,” said Twilight quite pleasantly, as she started to lead them back towards the door. “There was just a lot to talk about, plus I wanted you to suffer a bit.” She sniggered, but Vinyl’s eyes narrowed.

When they reached the front door, Vinyl turned to Octavia and told her to wait outside. “But it could rain any moment,” she complained.

Vinyl scoffed, “Oh, please if it hasn’t let loose in the past six hours, I’m pretty sure a few more minutes isn’t going to make much of a difference.” Octavia grumbled a complaint about Vinyl not being a weather detector, but she stepped outside anyway, into the humid air.

As soon as she was gone Vinyl had shut the door and locked it behind her. The blue haired vampire turned back around to see a pair of very accusing eyes, piercing her for answers. “What are you planning Vinyl,” the owner of those eyes asked.

“None of your business, Sparkle.” All pretense had disappeared from her voiced. Any trace of superiority or regality seemed to ebb out of her stance as she relaxed slightly. Around Twilight she could be herself.

“I think it is my business. You’re acting like those snobby vampire royals you hate so much. And you’ve claimed that poor girl as your slave.”

Vinyl shrugged, “We prefer the term, ‘indentured servant’.”

Twilight was in her face now, almost seething with rage. “Vinyl we both know that you may not have asked her to do anything to demeaning, but that girl is as good as your slave.” Twilight peeled back a bit, crossing her arms. “And we both know that it won’t be too long, before you ask her to cross a few lines she won’t want to. What happens then, huh?” She asked accusingly.

Vinyl cringed from the pure amount of venom her old friend’s words were laced with. But she knew this had been coming and she wouldn’t be deterred. “Twilight, if I’m going to be playing with the big dogs I’m going to have to play their games. If that means dressing like a clown, and acing like an ass I’ll do it.”

“Hah, you don’t need any help with the acting part.”

Vinyl ignored her interruption. “As for Octavia, I won’t ask her to get involved in anything to deeply. She’s a tool, a tool I’m going to use to set things in motion.” She pointed an accusing finger at Twilight, “That’s why she doesn’t need to get involved in things that have nothing to do with her. Do you think I’m an idiot? It doesn’t take five seconds to realize what you two were talking about in there.”

“’Nothing to do with—you have absolutely no plans to turn her into a vampire do you?” The fury was back in Twilight’s eyes again. “How dare you,” she almost screamed," stringing her along like that, she—“

“I just can’t okay,” Vinyl screamed, and then watched as Twilight put the rage she’d been about to unleash on the back burner. “Look, Twilight,, it’s better this way.” Vinyl’s shoulders sagged this wasn’t how she’d expected this to go. Twilight had always been the more reasonable of the pair of them and Vinyl had hoped she would understand. But right now her friend refused to look her in the eyes, biting her lip as she tried to keep from exploding in a flurry of curses. Actual curses, she was a witch after all

Vinyl rubbed her hand across her face, trying to collect her thoughts. “Twilight, if you know as much as you think you do. Then you know that right now things are dangerous for us, all of us. By turning Octavia into a vampire, I’d be putting her in mortal danger, and I can’t in good conscious do that to her.”

Twilight looked at her with deadpan eyes. “You’re lying,” she said.

Vinyl's eyes narrowed as she tried to plead with her, “Twilight, I insist—,“

Twilight chuckled, “Oh you ‘insist, do you?” An look of disbelief overtook her face, “Do you even hear yourself Vinyl?” Twilight took a deep breath, “This is just . . .,” she shook her head, “No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’?”

Twilight visibly shuddered, “I mean get out of my house right now, and don’t come back until you’ve regained your soul, or at least a bit of your dignity.” She hissed.

Twilight reached for the doorknob, to let her out but Vinyl stopped her. Grabbing onto her arm and holding it in front of her face as she whispered threateningly. “If you haven’t noticed, my soul has been twisted for a very long time.”

“I can see,” said Twilight in a dead tone.

Vinyl bit her lip. This wasn’t how she’d wanted things to go. “How long until the spell is ready?” She asked.

Twilight’s lips pressed into a thin line. For a second it just looked like she was going to reach for the doorknob again, but then she let out a deep sigh and looked her friend in the eyes. “It’ll take a couple of days for the materials to get here, and even then a couple more for me to set everything up. If I start prepping the potion now though, it might make things go a bit faster, so I’d say about a week and a half at most.

“I don’t have all the things I need here at home so I’m going to have to head back to school and do it there. Principal Celestia trust me enough that she lets me go in and out of the school a whim.” She chuckled again, but this time it was forced. As quickly as that moment of levity had appeared it was gone. “I’ll head out as soon as you two are gone.”

A flash of concern crossed Vinyl's face, “Are you sure? It’s late right now. You could just start it in the morning.”

“No, I don’t think so,” Twilight shook her head, giving her best impression of a heartfelt smile. “The sooner we complete this business of ours and part ways, the better.”

Vinyl nodded. And without looking back she turned, opened up the door, and walked out into the night to meet her loyal servant waiting on her.

“I don’t see why we had to come back to your home.” Said Octavia as she once again stepped inside Vinyl’s humungous mansion. “After all, my house is closer, and it wouldn’t have been such a walk for me.”

“And I told you, that I need you at the moment.” An exasperated Vinyl answered. Octavia hadn’t stopped pestering her since they’d left Twilight’s.

“Yes, but you still haven’t clarified what that is exactly,” she persisted.

Vinyl was about to walk up the stairs to her room when those words hit her. Slowly she turned to meet her servant’s eyes. “Look Octavia, right now I just need someone I can rely on. Someone who won’t pepper me with questions or put me under the spotlight to try and see what they’ll find. Can you do that for me? Just for tonight?”

Octavia blinked, at the moment her mistress looked completely and totally exhausted. And ever since she’d had her private conversation with Twilight, she’d been in a notably sour mood. “And I doubt my constant questioning helped anything.” She lamented.

Finally, Octavia shot her mistress a smile. “Alright, Vinyl, if all you need right now is someone to be here for you then that’s what I’ll do. Ask me anything and I’ll do it.”

An actual smile appeared on Vinyl’s face. “Whoa, whoa, let’s not go that far. Besides,” she joked, “It’s already your job to listen to everything I say.”

“Duly noted,” Octavia replied, which produced a snort from Vinyl.

“Come on,” she waved for Octavia to follow. “I’ll show you to your room for the night.”

“Room? But what about my parents?” It was a stupid question to ask, Filthy was out of town, and there was little chance of her mother noticing with the headache she’d had, but there was always a chance for something to go wrong.

Vinyl simply shrugged off her concerns. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of everything. For now though, here’s your room.” Vinyl opened a door to reveal a room that wasn’t too far off from her own in terms of style. The same large curtains, the same huge bed, even the dresser and the desk were there.

“There’s a door over there that leads to a shower,” Vinyl spoke up bringing Octavia out of her analysis of the room. “There should be a nightgown in the dresser over there, top shelf I believe. If you need anything, I’m just down the hall.” Octavia hadn’t noticed, but Vinyl’s room was indeed only a few doors down from her own.

“Shouldn’t I be telling you that,” she replied rather cheekily.

Vinyl was tired, but not tired enough to let that comment go without a retort. “Yes, yes you should,” she yawned. She turned to leave. “As for me I’m going to bed, I’ll see you in the morning.” Octaiva watched as Vinyl’s figure retreated to the end of the hall, turned, and then entered her own room.

The moment Octavia sat down on the bed she’d been given the exhaustion hit her. She hadn’t realized exactly how stressful a day she’d had until it had the chance to hit her full force. She’d tried and gotten mixed results milking Applejack for information. She’d been picked on by Sunset Shimmer, and discovered the existence of witches in her school, but most importantly she’d made two new friends.

And it was that thought that comforted her as her head hit the pillow and she began to close her eyes. That and the sound of rain drops hitting her beginning to hit her window.

“Wake up!” shouted a small shrill voice. Almost drowned out by the fierce storm that was battering the house. But it was just high enough that it woke Octavia up. Sending her head rocketing off the comfy pillow she’d been resting on and into what was almost a crash course collision with a tiny, glowing, person with wings.

“Uh,” Octavia was dumbstruck not really sure what to say. She didn’t have to think long, though, as the door to her room was suddenly launched open to reveal to the form of her severely out of breath mistress.

“Vinyl, what the—“

“Good, you’ve caught it. Now crush it with your bare hands.”

“What are you talking about?” She cried as the mysterious creature in question had decided that Octavia’s hair was a safe place to hide.

“It’s a fairy,” Cried Vinyl. “Even worse than that it’s a pixie. The little rats cause nothing but trouble, and in my opinion should be locked up in cages.”

“How dare you,” the pixie in question poked her head out of Octavia’s hair. Insulted and determined to defend her honor. “I’ll have you know that I am quite tame, and that I’ve come with a message from my Mistress Celestia.”

That go Vinyl’s attention, and the glare she was directing at the little pixie slowly faded from her face. “Fine, what does the old bad want?” She asked with a huff.

“Ah, how rude.” Screeched he fairy. Which wasn’t very helpful since she was right by Octavia’s ear at the moment. “And to think I came to tell you that my Mistress wants your presence at the hospital. Twilight Sparkle has been attacked.

Author's Note

Important note at end of this.

You know, it's amazing that something I write at 2:30 at night in a half fugue state is better than something I write at 12:30 in the morning when completely coherent and a large cup of coffee in my stomach.

Besides that I'm happy with how this turned out. Although most of the really important thing were planned. Most of it just came to me while I was writing. Octavia's parent's being both neglectful and controlling. Diamond, and the messenger from Celestia being a fairy were all spur of the moment. (Vinyl's fairy hate was not though). Even Twilight and Vinyl's argument wasn't planned it's just something that as I was writing realized was probably going to happen between these two characters.

So after telling you for I don't know how many chapters that things were going to get started soon. They've finally started, b warned it doesn't really get any nicer from here on out. I plan to keep up the comedy, but things are gonna get kinda dark around here.

Message

Like I said at the top I do have an important notice to make. Why didn't I put it in a blog . . . how many people actually read those things. Even with some of the more popular writers I've seen it's only a select few.The bare bones of this is, I need help.

Help finding a story, specifically. Like I said in a blog, that once again no one reads. I want to be a reviewer, as such I've decided to flex my skills reviewing and tackling some of the common problems you find with the average fanfic writer, not to bash them, but to help people out and tell them to sort of avoid doing this type of thing in their own stories. I've read up on my homework and think I'm fairly competent enough to pull that off.

So I'll be looking at stories not just on this site, but others and dissecting them apart in the form of reviews to try and address these problems. Note: I'll also be looking of for examples of these stories ideas done right. I've already put up one, it's a Harry Potter one and kind of a doozy, but now I need help combing through the stories on here.

I need help finding the worst written OOC character possible. A character that's usually one way, but has been written another way for the story, and it makes no sense how this character was taken from point A in the original and then blasted to point B by the writer. Best to look for one where the character is OOC specifically for the purpose of being made fun of/ a terrible person, etc. If you guys have any suggestions or just something you've seen a lot and think I should address in a review, post it in the comments.

Off-Balance

Trigger Warning: Mentions of Rape

Octavia awoke to a strange mix of sensations. She felt something like a pair of hands shifting along her back. Gripping her tight around her waist and then pulling her closer to something warm; another body that felt incredibly soft and pleasant. And if it wasn't for the cold chill running up her spine, Octavia wouldn't mind staying like this. "Did I leave the window cracked or something?" She wondered, as she started to shift, trying to get closer to the heat source.

"Oh good, you're finally awake." Octavia's eyes shot open. Her vision was blurred from the sleep, and she felt insanely groggy. But through it all she was able to make out the form of her mistress hovering above her.

"V-vinyl, what happened?" Her mistress' stone faced expression, mere inches away from hers and framed against a black sky, refused to answer.

"I-I remember a fairy and you bursting into my room, and there was something about Twilight being hurt," she rambled.

Vinyl's expression finally softened at the mention of Twilight, her eyes darting to look anywhere but at Octavia's. "You fainted," she whispered in a hushed tone.

"F-fainted?" Octavia asked incredulously. She'd never fainted in her life . . . except for that time when they'd first met, but that was from hypnosis not actual fear.

"Yes," Vinyl answered, trying to avoid direct eye-contact with her servant. "It happened when I picked you up, or maybe swooped down and grabbed you is a better assessment of what happened."

"S-swooped? What are you talking about, and where are we?" Octavia started to squirm in Vinyl's grasp, but the vampire just held onto her tighter. Moving one of her hands from Octavia's back so that it was gripping the back of her head. Effectively, trapping her in place so that she was staring her mistress dead in the eyes.

"You're the monster maniac. You put the pieces together," she spat, starting to become annoyed with her

Octavia blinked, as her still groggy mind started to slowly put everything together. The draft. The night sky. Vinyl's use of the word swooped as well as her current feeling of weightlessness, she probably should have noticed earlier. "We're flying aren't we?" She squeaked. Vinyl nodded, and Octavia’s eyes widened as a bright smile started to overtake her face.

Her gaze slowly started to shift downward trying to confirm her beliefs, but Vinyl wouldn’t let her. “Be still,” she barked, “The last thing I need is you freaking out in mid-air and falling to your death.”

“Sorry,” Octavia whimpered, a tinge of red starting to seep into her face. “How exactly did I—”

“Faint? Well you might have been slightly startled when I suddenly grew a pair of wings, snatched you out of bed, and then went smashing through a window you’re going to have to fix later.” For all her faults, the vampire at least had the decency to look the least bit embarrassed by her behavior. “Right now though, we’re headed to the local hospital. Twilight is being held there, and that dammed pixie didn’t have the full story for me. Some messenger,” she grumbled.

“Wings?” Octavia asked. Vinyl shot her a look that asked, “Is that all you heard?”.

“If I shake you, will you snap out of it already?” Octavia shook her head and Vinyl groaned. “Yes, wings, big ones, sprouting from my back right now. It’s the only reason we’re in the air.” Vinyl released one hand from her hold on Octavia, pointing toward the gigantic black masses attached to her just below the shoulder blades.

Framed against the night sky, they weren’t easy to see. But they looked a bit odd to Octavia. Stretching past Vinyl’s head, her hand reached out to brush against one of them. She pulled her hand away in surprise. “Feathers?” she asked curious about her mistress new attachment.

Vinyl smirked, honestly this time with no attempts to cover it up. “Not what you were expecting, huh?” Octavia shook her head. “Well, any amateur with fangs can make a pair of bat wings, but it takes some real skill to make a proper pair of bird wings. Everything from the primary to secondary feathers is in peak condition.”

Vinyl's face was unnaturally smug. But for once Octavia had to give her credit where get was due. The wings she had made were beautiful. Jet black they seemed to meld into the night sky. Moon beams bouncing off the individual feathers gave the illusion that she'd somehow trapped stars in her wings.

Octavia blinked. "Beautiful," she whispered. "Vinyl can I-uhm," she jerked her head toward the ground, trying to indicate she'd like a better view of the world below.

Vinyl groaned, "Fine but if you fall-"

"I won't," Octavia shot back. The next few moments were spent mostly shifting around in mid-air, as Octavia tried to twist her body around and Vinyl tried to keep from dropping her. After a slight struggle and a stray elbow connecting with her head, Vinyl had managed to swivel her servant around. Giving Octavia the perfect view of the roof of the local hospital.

Since her new position didn't exactly afford her the best position to scold the vampire with her eyes or physically, Octavia had to make due with voicing her annoyance verbally. "Really?" She shouted. Vinyl couldn't have let her get one good look at Ponyville from above.

"What?" Vinyl responded. Octavia's arms waved frantically, indicating the piss poor view in front of her. “In case you've forgotten we're here because of an emergency! I'm not going to stop flying just because you want to go sightseeing."

Octavia stopped flailing. In all her excitement about flying she'd completely forgotten about Twilight. While she was flying high above the town and complaining about not getting a better view, her friend was hurt lying in a hospital bed. A profound feeling of shame suddenly washed over Octavia. She had never felt such an overwhelming need to be inside of a hospital. "I don't even know how badly she's hurt. For all I know she could be half dead."

She didn't have to wait very long though. True to her word, Vinyl wasn’t stopping for anything. During their conversation, Vinyl had slowly been descending, and it wasn’t long before Octavia felt her bare feet hitting solid concrete in front of the hospital.

Apparently, her legs had decided to fall asleep during their flight. She felt them beginning to tremble and the ground slowly becoming closer and farther away as she tried to keep her balance. Just when it looked like gravity wasn’t going to give her much choice in the matter, a pair of familiar arms grabbed her and swept her off her feet.

Vinyl glared at her, her wings slowly beginning to snap, and recede into her back. Almost as if they were made out of paper instead of flesh. “We don’t exactly have time for you to be committed here.”

“Sorry,” Octavia squeaked, a blush forming on her cheeks as Vinyl carried her bridal style into the emergency section of the hospital. A blush that only increased the pair got several strange looks as they entered. Octavia wasn't exactly a fan of hospitals to begin with, and this wasn't helping. No matter how warm and helpful the staff tried to be, they couldn't wash away this unmistakable chill she got any time she entered one.

None of this fazed Vinyl though as walked right up to the front desk and greeted the receptionist, who Octavia had to admit was kind of cute. “Can I help you?” She chirped much more cheerily than anyone working in a hospital should.

“Yes,” Vinyl responded, “We’re here to see Twilight Sparkle.” The receptionist raised an eyebrow. “She should be in the VIP section,” Vinyl insisted.

Understanding dawned on the young woman, “Ah, if that’s the case, I just need to check both of you.” She pulled a small device that looked like a phone, tapping a few buttons and then holding it out to them with a smile. “Madam Scratch, you’re already cleared to head in, but if you could just have your friend place her finger inside that little hole at the top, I can escort you both towards the back.

Vinyl let out a growl, surprising, both Octavia and the receptionist who sat up straight in her chair. “What, is my word not good enough?”

The receptionist shook her head, “N-no Madam, it’s just policy, no guests are allowed back without being tested for magical resonance.” Vinyl still didn’t seem happy with the explanation, but after a moment she gave Octavia the go-ahead to place one of her fingers inside the device.

Hesitantly, Octavia placed her finger inside the little scanner, and immediately regretted that decision as she felt a brief shock was sent coursing through her entire body. “Yowch,” she yelped, ripping her hand away from machine and clutching it close to her. No one seemed to notice or care very much for that matter, as the receptionist was paying more attention to the display screen and Vinyl was too busy shaking her head in disapproval.

“I swear, I have no idea what I was thinking of bringing you here.” Her assistant put on a pout, which had the side effect of making her look even more childish than she already acted. And Vinyl thought to herself that, that wasn’t entirely true. She’d brought Octavia along with a very important purpose. If Twilight was still angry than she could act as a buffer and if that failed she could be a human shie—

“God dammit,” she thought. “Twilight was right. Maybe I really have taken things a bit to far this time.” She cast a glance down at the bundle of awkwardness that had dropped into her lap and grimaced, a small sense of guilt was fluttering around in her chest.

Octavia took a slight break from her self-pity to take a look at her mistress, who had been abnormally quiet. Normally if something was taking this long Vinyl would have bitten its head off. She looked shaken, more so than Octavia had ever seen her. She tried to hide it behind her usual stoic face, but Octavia could feel it. With every breath she took, she was shuddering and gripping Octavia a bit tighter to her chest.

Octavia reached up and placed what she hoped was a comforting hand on her mistress’ shoulder. “It’s alright Vinyl,” she said. “I’m sure Twilight is fine.” For the second time that night Vinyl smiled at her, not because of her or something she did, but actually at her, and it seemed to lift the dismal mood that was starting to surround them both.

“No,” thought Vinyl, “I haven't gone too far. If anything I haven't gone far enough. But as long as we're stuck together like this, I can at least try and carry her.”

This truly sweet moment was naturally interrupted by the receptionist, who had placed the scanner back under the counter with a cheerful, “I’m done" startling both girls. The receptionist either didn’t notice or didn’t care, because she stood up from her chair silently offering a smile that no one should be wearing this late at night in the emergency ward of a hospital. “If you’ll follow me.” She said and started walking to a nearby elevator.

Vinyl trailed right behind her, Octavia still firmly in her grip. An image that was just now crossing their would-be guide’s mental landscape. “Oh, does your friend need any attention?” She asked as she pushed the both the “up” and “down” buttons to call the elevator.

Vinyl’s eyes narrowed “Isn’t that something you should have asked us earlier? Like—I don’t know—when we first got here!” The young, slightly ditzy, receptionist just shrugged, jamming her fingers back onto the buttons as if that would make it come quicker. Vinyl scoffed, “I know we didn’t exactly say anything, but really? Nothing about this scene disturbed her? Random girl in my arms, haven’t set her down since I came in, shouldn’t that have rung a few bells?”

Thankfully, the doors to the elevator swung open before Vinyl could make any cutting remarks fly over the girls head. The trio stepped onto the elevator, and the young girl started pressing random numbers in a pattern that can only be described as “button mashing”.

Whatever she did worked though, as everything around them started to shake. Octavia wrapped her arms around Vinyl, pressing herself even closer to the other girl. “Vinyl,” she screamed.

“Just hang on and stop panicking, we’ll be done in a moment.” The vampire replied, completely unfazed by what was happening. Instead she glared daggers down at her young charge, “Also, if you scream again, I swear I'll—” Vinyl never got to finish that sentence, because just then the elevator stopped shaking only for the floor underneath them to disappear. Dropping them down into a pitch black hole.

To Octavia’s credit she didn’t scream (Even if the eerie silence of her companions wasn’t exactly helping the atmosphere). She didn’t want to run the risk of Vinyl fulfilling whatever twisted punishment her mind had cooked up. “The fact that one of my fingernails is probably buried in her jugular right now, might just bring on something equally bad though . . . good thing we’re in a hospital.” Octavia's eyebrows furrowed, "Or at least I think we are."

Against her better judgement she gazed down to reveal absolutely nothing. No sign of life; No incoming landmasses; not even a light at the end of the tunnel. “What is this Alice in wonderland? How far down does this go?”

Octavia’s question was answered when she blinked and found herself in another hospital lobby. Not quite, what she was expecting, but it seemed right nonetheless. It had the same white tile, achingly silent tone, and a small hint of sterilization in the air.The one big difference from the one upstairs and this one however was the people upstairs were alive, and these were, well, dead. Surrounding her were a vast assortment of the undead, all with their own set of problems. A zombie whose arms were about to fall off, a mummy whose wrapping was coming undone revealing the rotten flesh underneath, or worse yet, the other side of him.

None of that was quite as unnerving as the person standing in front of them though. The person—who Octavia assumed was a nurse, was fixing them with such a hard stare, that if she’d been trying any harder her cherry red hair might have burst them into flames. “Are you the pair for Mrs. Sparkle?”

Vinyl nodded grimly, “Good, try not to be as disruptive as everyone else that’s come to visit her.”

“Everyone else?” questioned Vinyl

The Nurse groaned and began counting off the incidents on her hand. “Well, first off we have the Sun Witch and her proxy bursting in here demanding that we treat her student. Meanwhile, she’s about five seconds away from burning this place to the ground. Then we have a group of her supposed friends come storming through here demanding to see her. One of which gave me probably the dirtiest look I’ve ever gotten in my life when I didn’t move fast enough, while the others probably wanted to stab, mutilate, or arrest me if I didn’t take them back to see her."

And now we have you two,” she said pointing at the pair. “Now don’t get me wrong you’re probably the calmest pair of people I’ve had come down here all day, but you also brought her down here.” She said pointing an accusing finger at her co-worker who was just standing off to the side, smiling off into space. “And that is unforgivable in my book.” She turned to the receptionist. “You can go now, Dolly.”

“Okay, Redheart” she chirped skipping over to an open elevator.

The Nurse, Redheart-shook her head, “God, how I hate her.”

“I can see why,” grumbled Octavia.

“Eh," Redheart shrugged, "She's strangely good at her job, so what can you do? Now, if you’ll follow me, Madam Scratch, we can grab a wheelchair for your friend and then proceed back to the waiting room so you can meet up with the rest of Mrs. Sparkle’s visitors.”

Octavia waved her off, “Oh no, that won’t be necessary. I can probably walk on my own now." She looked at Vinyl expectantly, "You can put me down now Mistress.”

Vinyl eyed her suspiciously, “Are you sure, you haven’t exactly been yourself since you woke up?”

“Look,” She said as she tried to wiggle her way out of Vinyl’s arms. Stretching to place a foot on the ground. “I know I haven’t exactly been myself tonight, but I’m fine now. And I won’t have you carrying me around all night, it’s embarrassing!” With one big push, Octavia managed to free herself, landing feet first on the ground, but almost toppling over in the process.

“See,” she said as she stood up straight, “I’m fine.”

If Octavia was going to be truthful she would have admitted that, that was in fact a lie. She was in no way, shape, or form, felt alright at the moment. She was in a secret underground hospital, at night, in a very loose and somewhat skimpy nightgown. She was surrounded by dead people, and one of the few actual friends she had in this world was lying in a hospital bed in who knows what condition.

And that was only her surroundings, inside she felt like a train wreck. And that was the strange part inside, not on her sleeve like it would usually be. Most people would be afraid, or angry, maybe even calm under fire like Vinyl. But all Octavia had done since she got here was act like a complete and total goofball, and manage to get in the way. And it wasn’t like the turmoil wasn’t there, it was just locked away just underneath her skin.

No, Octavia was far from alright, but she still gave Vinyl a heartfelt smile like she was. “Don’t worry about me,” she reached out placing a tender hand to Vinyl’s shoulder. “Worry about Twilight, she’s the one who needs it at the moment.” Vinyl’s calm exterior wavered for a moment, before returning to her usual strictness.

“Um, if you’re both done we can head on back to the waiting room.” Both Octavia and Vinyl glanced at the nurse who was giving both of them an evaluating glance. “If I’d known you could stir up that much melodrama just by asking for a wheelchair, I never would have asked.” And with a click of her tongue she turned and walked away. “Follow me, please?” A slightly unnerved Octavia and Vinyl did just that, trailing behind Redheart, through a set of double doors, and into an open hall

“By the way," Said Vinyl, breaking the silence as they turned a corner. "I have no idea what you mean by ‘melodrama’. What you saw back there was simply a servant consoling their master.”

“Uhm, no offense, Madam, but I’m an empath. So even if I can’t exactly hand you a general diagnoses. I can tell that the both of you are currently an emotional roller coaster just waiting to jump off the tracks and injure innocent civilians. Honestly, if I wasn’t feeling sorry for the other of you at the moment I’d recommend you’d both seek some psychiatric help.”

“Hey!”

“Well, this is your stop,” She announced, cutting Vinyl off and gesturing to an open door. “Right now we're still working on Mrs. Sparkle. If you could just wait patiently inside with everyone else, a doctor will be out shortly to inform you on the situation.

The pair thanked her and then stepped inside. But from the moment they did they regretted it. The inside of the room looked like a battlefield completely with opposing fronts and a no-mans of broken chairs, overturned tables, and what was unmistakably a vending machine dividing it.

On one side of the room was Principal Celestia along with her sister/vice principal, Luna, though Octavia had to a double take when she saw them. The usually pristine and controlled leaders of Canterlot High were in no short measure, coming undone. Luna didn’t look so bad. At first glance, the vice principal was her usual calm and collected self, leaning up against the wall and observing everything that was going on. But if you studied her more closely you could see the signs of her cracking. Like the fact her usual dark blue jacket was surprisingly undone. Besides Octavia, Vice Principal Luna was the only one to really put any stock in the old dress code rule. Taking pride in the dark blue power suit, she’d wear as she patrolled the halls.

There was also the fact that she was currently leaning on her sister for support. Anyone who saw them would probably think she was just placing a comforting hand on her sister’s shoulder during this dark time. But no, Octavia could see the shift in weight, and the added strain of her vice principal’s weight on her sister’s shoulder. “She’s as shaken by this as the rest of us, she’s just trying not to show it. Though I’m not sure how safe it is to be leaning on the the Principal like that, she looks a bit . . . unstable.

Unstable was an understatement, Canterlot High's shining light looked absolutely shattered by what was going on. Unlike her sister, who’d presumably found time to work on her appearance before coming here, Celestia looked like a she could barely function. She was currently in a pair of yellow pajamas with little orange suns on them. No socks; no shoes to protect against the debris, but that didn’t matter seeing as she was currently curled up in the fetal position on her chair. Her mess of hair hiding most of her face, but not to the extent where it could disguise the remnants of tears that had strolled down her face blurring her make-up.

On the other side of the room were Twilight's friends from school. And while most of them were huddled together, trying to console one girl who would not stop crying. One of them, was sitting over in one of the corners, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes.

Each group was so consumed by their own drama that they hadn’t even noticed the duo’s entrance. "Dammit," said Vinyl. "We'll never get an explanation out of anyone like this?" Vinyl hummed to herself as she silently thought things over. "Alright then, I'll deal with the duel mid-life crisis, and you'll talk to the fountain of teenage angst. We need to find out as much about what happened to Twilight as possible.

“Deal.” Said Octavia. And the two of them headed towards their respective problems.

Vinyl fell into the chair next to Celestia with an oomph. She came down a little harder then she’d planned, which got her a critical look from the walking brick Celestia called a bodyguard. “So,” she said slipping into a more comfortable persona. In pain or not, either of the woman next to her could snap her in half with ease. There was no point in pretending to be something she wasn’t. “Exactly how bad is she?”

“She-" Luna started, but was cut off by Celestia’s head snapping up to glare at Vinyl.

“I don’t know Mrs. Scratch. Would you define severe head force trauma as bad. Or what about a large amount of blood loss. I know, how about several bite and claw marks that will probably leave scars even magic can’t fix.

Vinyl flinched under the weight of each and every comment. She had known her friend was in bad condition; she’d have to be for Celestia to even consider calling for her. But as each and every one of her friend’s ailments was revealed to her, she felt herself shrinking farther and farther into her chair. The well of guilt that had been building up ever since she’d been summoned was slowly threatening to break.

She was saved though, by Celestia breaking down into another bout of tears. Luna inched closer to Celestia, rubbing soothing circles into her sisters back. “Her-her friends don’t even know the half of what’s wrong with her.” She sobbed.

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

Even though the question was directed towards Celestia, Luna didn't waste any time stepping in to answer Vinyl's question. “Once the physicians are done tending to Ms. Sparkle's more serious wounds, they've prepared a-a rape kit to try and identify the perpetrator of this crime.”

She'd stumbled over the wording a bit, but Vinyl had heard her loud and clear. Twilight had been raped, defiled, and there was a silent rage taking over her mind because of it. "What did this?" she asked.

“Werewolf," answered Luna, "I've dealt with enough of them over the years to recognize the types of claw-marks on Twilight. Though I can’t think of any reason for one to be all the way out here.” Vinyl didn’t really have an answer either, werewolves hadn’t been seen in this part of the country for a couple of decades. She supposed it could have been a stray though. No pack, no family, just aimlessly wandering wherever it pleased.

She hesitantly laid a hand across Celestia's. “You have the full support of myself clan in finding the person who did this.”

Celestia sniffed, sending Vinyl a teary eyed glare. “Thank you, Ms. Scratch, but we both know that doesn’t really amount to much. Does it?”

Vinyl shrunk back again. She was just trying to help, and the old witch was still throwing barbs at her, even if they did have quite a bit of truth to them. “Look," she said tightening her grip on Celestia’s hand, “Twilight is my friend. I don’t expect you to understand, but I want to help her in any way possible.” Celestia let out a low grunt in response and Vinyl bit into her lip, she was losing her.

“The Apples are conducting the investigation correct?” She asked.

Luna nodded hesitantly, “Ms. Applejack will be headed to the site of the incident as soon as she’s finished consoling the rest of your friends, and is sure Twilight is safe.”

“Then my servant will go with her. I have business to attend to at the moment, but she can help out instead. I know she doesn’t look like much, but she comes in handy more often than you think.”

Celestia chuckled, “If you’re talking about that slave over there, I would think she’d be more of a hindrance than anything. Based on the deal she’s made, and what’s more, who she made it with, I have to question her intelligence. Which is a shame, I’d heard great things about Ms. Harmonica.”

Vinyl wasn’t going to dignify that with a response. Instead she looked to Luna again, who seemed to be the more reasonable of the two. The blue haired woman, understanding what she was doing let out a sigh. “If you truly wish to have your servant join this investigation, then we will not stop you. But warn her first. Whoever was behind this attack had been planning this for who knows how long.”

Vinyl motioned for her to elaborate. “Twilight was attacked within my sister’s classroom. Admittedly, it isn’t as heavily guarded as it could be, my sister has always insisted that her name alone was security enough. After all, who would dare mess with the Sun Goddess in her domain?” The last bit was said with a sharp glare and hint of sarcasm. Obviously this was a conversation they’d had before.

Celestia shot back a glare of equal force, but Luna just scoffed. “To my sister’s credit though, the wards on the classroom are fairly strong, getting inside without alerting her is no easy task. Which means this plan was premeditated, not just some random act of Lycan madness. We’re dealing with someone either very cunning or with enough resources to outmaneuver a thousand year old sorceress. I’d tread lightly if I were you.”

Vinyl nodded, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Octavia nervously approached the group of girls. Although she went to the same school as them, she barely knew any of them except for Applejack, who at the moment, was paying more attention to her crying friend than the cellist.

“It’s okay, Fluttershy. Twilight is tough she’ll make it through this just fine.” Applejack's kind words seemed to help at least a little bit, because the pink-haired girl she’d called Fluttershy stopped crying long enough to look at Applejack with a teary eyed smile.”

“Uhm, Applejack?” said Octavia. Four sets of eyes—two of which were still blurry—were immediately trained on her.

“Oh hey, Sugar cube.” Applejack stood up out of her seat, wrapping Octavia in what she probably thought was a comforting hug. And it would have been if it wasn’t painfully obvious how off kilter she was. “What are you doing here?”

“I-I was with Vinyl when she got the message, and she-I mean she really didn't give me a choice in the matter she just grew wings and flew out the window with me because I was unconscious.” Realizing how that sounded, she immediately backpedaled, “That isn’t to say I didn’t want to come, Twilight’s my friend too and I want to be here for her-“

Octavia's rambling was silenced by another hug from Applejack. “It’s okay, Octavia. Twilight wasn’t the type of person to turn away any friends when they needed help, so I’m sure she would want you here when she needs it."

Despite the terrible situation, Applejack gave her a genuine infectious smile when she let her go. “Here, let me introduce you to the rest of the girls. That’s Rarity,” she said pointing towards a purple haired girl who was obviously on of the few people here who’d actually had time to change into clothes before coming her. Though the seemingly all black outfit was in somewhat bad taste.

Rarity offered up her hand to shake, “I loved your last concert, darling. I’m sorry we had to meet under these circumstances though.”

Octavia took it and shook, “Oh it’s fine. I’m sorry we had to meet like this too.” Rarity offered her another smile before redirecting her attention back to soothing Fluttershy, who’s tears were just starting to dry.

“This is Fluttershy.” The teary-eyed girl waved giving her a brief “Hello” but not much else. “And you probably already know Pinkie Pie.” She pointed at at girl who was leaning on Fluttershy, most of her hair combed down to cover her face.

It took Octavia a second, but she realized she actually did know the girl in question, she'd just never seen her hair down before. She worked at the local bakery, Sugar Cube Corner, and what’s more, she had thrown Octavia a birthday party last year. How she knew when Octavia’s birthday was, was still up in the air, but it had been a great party nonetheless.

Unlike the other girls though, Pinkie seemed completely off in her own world, and didn’t even bother with a hello. Octavia said hello to the girl anyways, and then directed her attention to the girl sitting in the corner. Who Octavia didn’t have any trouble identifying as Rainbow Dash, their school’s local soccer champ, who was doing her best impression of Principal Celestia at the moment minus the tears. “What’s wrong with her, I mean I can guess, but she seems a bit more down than the rest of you?”

Applejack waved it off, “Oh, she’s just . . . upset about a few things.”

Rarity huffed, “With good reason,” she snapped. “Twilight warned us this would happen when she found out and now look at her.” Applejack looked mollified by her friend’s comments, but Octavia was just confused.

“Found out, what?” She asked.

This obviously touchy subject mixed with Octavia’s prodding, produced a fresh bout of tears streaming down Fluttershy’s face. Rarity shook her head, “ I don’t have time to explain your mistakes Ms. Order-member. Just take her over there and deal with it.” She said shooing them both away from the scene in front of them.

A frowning Applejack grabbed a hold of Octavia, pulling her out into the hallway. “Alright,” she said as she closed the door behind them, and started looked both ways, “I think the coast is clear.”

“Good, now can you please tell me what’s going on?” Octavia pleaded.

Applejack groaned, she really didn’t want to have to go into this right now, but like always, Rarity had forced her hand. She looked Octavia over, wondering if she could really be trusted. But after a good minute of Octavia looking at her with those big innocent eyes she consented. “Alright. first thing you gotta know is that in that room everyone has ties to the supernatural-”

“Well, duh.” Said Octavia. She may ask a lot of questions but she wasn't dumb. Applejack had told her what happened to normal people that found out about this secret world.

Applejack's eyes narrowed, “You didn’t let me finish," she growled, which was followed by a nervous apology from Octavia. "Every person in that room is tied to the supernatural, except for Rainbow Dash.”

Octavia’s eyes widened, “Then what the hell is she doing down here?” she nearly screamed, which prompted Applejack to start shushing her.

“She was with us when we got the summon, alright. Applejack explained. "She’d seen the pixie, heard the message, we didn’t really have any other choice but to bring her along.”

Octavia’s eyes widened even further, “You mean she never knew?” she whispered.

“Of course she didn’t.” Applejack hissed. “I love Rainbow Dash like a sister. She’s one of my oldest friends. But I also have a job I have to uphold, and it says that I’m legally not allowed to say anything to anyone who isn’t tied into our world. And neither is anyone else for that matter.”

“Well . . . have you tried telling her that?”

“Of course I have! But Dash is probably one of the most stubborn bulls you’ll ever meet. And with Twilight the way she is, she’s not thinking clearly.” Applejack’s frown dropped as it was replaced with a slightly guiltier one. “It also doesn’t help that Rarity is technically a normal human too.”

“But you just said—“

“I know what I said! But trust me, Rarity could talk her way in and out of Fort Knox. When our people came to get her she cut us a deal. We let her keep her memories and allow her access to our world, and in exchange she helps us out in her own special way.”

“Explain?” Octavia was fishing for clues, but one look from Applejack told her she wasn't getting any

Applejack ran a hand across her forehead. “The short end of it is that Rainbow is pissed off at all of us for not telling her anything. Heck, the only reason we’re doing it now is because we had too."

“And I take it Twilight was against that fact.” Applejack nodded, and Octavia’s lips thinned into a straight line. Honestly, if she was in the same position as Applejack, she couldn’t say she wouldn’t have done the same thing. Stuck between her duty and her friends, she’d chosen the former and the weight of it was pretty evident on her face right now.

Applejack was starting to ramble, “I’m not sure what to do really. Rarity wouldn’t talk to me for a month after she found out. And that was only after she’d cleared up that mess with people trying to mind wipe her. Rainbow’s a completely different monster though. She’s not as forgiving as Rare is, and Twilight’s not here to talk her down, and I just—“

It was Octavia’s turn to comfort Applejack. Sweeping the taller girl up into a bone crushing hug. “It’s alright,” she whispered. “Just give her some time and she’ll settle down.” Applejack, gradually began to relax into the hug, and when she felt this Octavia slowly began to let her go.

“There now, feel better?”

Applejack nodded, wiping away a wayward tear from face. “Yeah,” and she let out a chuckle to show it. “I’m gonna be honest with you. When I decided to spill the beans about all of this. I thought you’d have way more questions.”

Octavia joined her letting out a chuckle of her own. “I know, but I just haven’t felt very inquisitive tonight. With everything that’s happened with Twilight, and Vinyl being all out of sorts. I’ve just been too worried about my mistress to really ask about all the things going on around me.”

Applejack blinked. Had Octavia just called Vinyl her mistress. And the normally neurotic girl, seemed generally unfazed by everything around her. Zombies, a secret underground hospital; it was enough to send Octavia into a fit, but right now she was calm and smiling. “Hey Octavia could move a little closer please?”

“What, why?”

“I just need the check something, come here.” Octavia wasn’t really sure what was happening, but it was evident she wasn’t getting a choice in the matter as Applejack grabbed her by the cheeks and pulled her in close. If Octavia could have actually moved the facial muscles required to speak, she would have commented on how uncomfortable this was instead of spouting a bunch of gibberish. Instead, she just had to stay still while Applejack inspected her for, whatever she was looking for.

Just when Applejack had apparently found what she was looking for and was about to open her mouth to say something, Vinyl appeared. “Applejack, I need to speak with you.”

Applejack relinquished her hold on Octavia, fixing a hard stare on the vampire standing in the doorway. And it might have just been Octavia’s imagination, but Applejack was suddenly standing up a lot straighter than before. “Well that’s good, because I’ve got a bit of a bone to pick with you.”

Both Octavia and Vinyl stared at her for a moment. Not really sure what she was going on about, willing to play along for the moment. Vinyl turned to her servant, “Octavia, if you could leave us alone for a moment that would be lovely?”

“Uhm, sure,” said Octavia, her eyes still focused on her friend who was acting strangely. Slowly, she walked back into the waiting room, making sure to close the door behind her.

As soon as she was gone, Applejack turned on Vinyl. “You, bitch.” She hissed.

Vinyl rolled her eyes, “Oh, what did I do this time?”

“Oh, don’t even try and act innocent.” Applejack said grabbing the vampire by the shoulders and pushing her against a nearby wall. “Octavia’s acting all out of sorts, and it’s because you hypnotized her.”

“I did not,” Vinyl simply brushed her off, but Applejack was determined to get the truth.

“I saw her eyes, Scratch. There’s a flicker of magic right behind them. So unless Octavia suddenly learned a huge amount of magic in the last couple weeks, someones messing with her and my money is on you."

Vinyl stared hard at her frenemy, she could have gone on denying the allegations, but eventually her shoulders sagged, and she confessed. “I just couldn’t deal with her right now, alright? I feel guilty enough as it is about Twilight, The last thing I need is Octavia being her usual self; asking me questions, looking at me like I’m some sort of god when she thinks I’m not looking. So I hypnotized her and told her to just be calm and look after me tonight so I don’t do anything stupid.”

“Well how do you think she feels?” Applejack spat.

And Vinyl, truly had to think it over for a moment. She’d just assumed Octavia would be her usual, “I can do it” self. But now that she was actually putting some thought into it that probably wasn’t the case. She ran a hand through her hair, “She’s probably scared, worried, nervous—maybe even a bit lonely.”

It was an honest confession, but the vampire said it in such a nonchalant way, that it only made Applejack madder. “Oh, you think?”

Vinyl growled at the young order member. “Well that’s why I sent her over to you and your friends. You didn’t just send her packing did you.”

“Of course not!” she exclaimed. “But that doesn’t change the fact that, that girl knows you a lot better than she knows me. She’s not going to be looking to me for someone to hold onto, she’s going to be looking towards you.” Vinyl blinked. Octavia didn’t rely on her that much.

“And besides she’s hypnotized. On the outside she might be alright, but that's only because she's set to autopilot. On the inside she's probably terrified. Hell, this is practically torture you're putting her through."

Vinyl ran a hand through her hair again, smoothing out her normally spiky hair. This was crazy, she didn’t have to listen to any of this. Legally speaking, Octavia was hers to command however she wished. But Twilight’s words from earlier were still rattling around in the back of her head. “I can . . . fix this. Just tell her to come out and I’ll release her from the trance.”

Applejack scoffed releasing her, “You’d better do a lot more than more than that.”

Vinyl snarled at her, “Go,” she commanded. And for a second it didn’t look like Applejack was going to follow the order. But after a second she turned and then walked back inside the room.

With her gone, Vinyl’s shoulders could finally sag. This night was starting to wear on her in more ways than one. She was tired, emotionally battered, and her bank of lies was officially bankrupt at the moment. “Maybe that’s a good thing" she thought.

Twilight said that she didn’t have a soul because of what she was doing with Octavia. But she couldn’t stop now. Earlier she’d promised to take care of the girl, but how she supposed to do that exactly. “I said I’d carry her, how am I supposed to do that when I’m about to march neck deep into mud myself?”

Vinyl’s thoughts were cut off by the appearance of Octavia. “Applejack said you wanted me?” The girl asked.

Vinyl examined her assistant. Her hypnosis hadn’t been perfect; she’d been in a rush and the results were sloppy at best. Although she was trying to exude some air of calm, her assistant was tense. The small nervous smile on her face was frayed with the occasional twitch shining through, unnoticeable if you weren’t looking. Most telling of all though was the look in her assistant’s eyes. There was still the usual curiosity, a desire for knowledge about what was going on, but that was overshadowed by presence of magic; her magic that was the cause of all this.

Vinyl sighed. A lot of other vampires liked using some complicated catchphrase or a specific set of events that needed to happen before their victim was freed from their trance. She'd always been partial to a snap of her fingers though. And that’s the first sound Octavia’s newly freed mind began to register as she started to break away from her trance.

“Vinyl what-ow.” Octavia clutched at her head as the full weight of her emotions came crashing down on her. Tears started to spring from her eyes her teeth clenched as she could feel herself start to shake. “What’s wrong with me?”

Vinyl blinked at the scene in front of her. She had gone this far, there was only one way to move forward. Silently composing herself she’d began to explain. “You’ve just awoken from a hypnotic state, Octavia. It was done poorly so your body is experiencing a sort of backlash from the pent up emotions you’ve been keeping in for the past hour or so.”

Her servant looked at her, “But why I-“

“I did it,” confessed Vinyl, watching as Octavia’s mind began to piece things together. Not waiting for her to respond, Vinyl continued. “For completely selfish reasons I hypnotized you before you left the house.”

Octavia was shivering, whether out of fear or fury, Vinyl couldn’t tell. What she could tell was that she was holding herself trying to stop. “W-why.” She muttered.

“I. . .” Vinyl wasn’t sure what to say. It was one thing saying something to get Applejack off her back, but now that the problem itself was right in front of her she was drawing a blank. Why had she hypnotized Octavia? Now that she thought about it, she’d done it more on impulse than anything back at the house. As soon as she’d heard the message Octavia had started to panic, and then Vinyl was just on top of her, telling her to look into her eyes and calm down. But if she really had to think about it, it mostly boiled down to one major point really.

“I don’t trust you,” she said.

“What!” Octavia shouted incredulously. How could Vinyl not trust her after everything she'd done for her? “If anyone shouldn’t be trusted it’s you—you shyster, you cruel and wicked woman! You suckered me into this shitty deal, you’ve treated me like I don’t exist and have completely stabbed me in the back. Whereas I," she said jabbing a finger at herself, "Have been the model servant, following every single last one of your commands to the letter. No matter how insane or in the dark I was, I did it. I had enough faith in you to do that, so please Ms. I’m-so-much-more-important-than-anyone-else, explain why you don't trust me.”

No matter how good it felt to get all of that out in the air, Octavia’s rant was ill timed. Vinyl was in no mood to deal with this sort of thing tonight. And she was starting to remember; this was the reason that Vinyl didn’t trust her. She trusted her to follow orders alright. The girl wouldn’t dare risk putting her soul or her dream at stake. But did she trust her to shut-up, or leave her in peace, or to stop trying to pick her way into her brain chunk after chunk, so that she can do who the hell knows with it. She’d gotten enough of that earlier tonight from Twilight, she didn’t need any more of it from her annoying servant.

Even though they were practically the same height, Octavia suddenly felt an overwhelming presence towering over her. “Oh, model servant are you?” Vinyl asked, every word laced with a held back fury that made Octavia’s look like childish. “Tell me, Octavia, does a model servant go behind their masters back so they can try and pry into their personal life?”

Octavia bit her lip. Maybe she had been a bit too nosy, looking into things she probably shouldn’t have. Or at the very least Vinyl would have told her at one point . . . but still it didn’t seem fair. From the sound of it, Rainbow Dash had just learned today, (albeit under strenuous circumstances) but she already knew information it had taken Octavia weeks to gather.

“Oh yeah,” she said, gathering up the remainder of her courage. “Maybe if you’d actually let me in, I wouldn’t have to resort to those kind of measures.”

Vinyl groaned, “I already told you. There are things in this world that you don’t need to know about yet, dangerous things.” she persisted.

“Yes, but if you haven’t noticed, those “things” you were talking about, yeah—they’re already here!” she screamed and Vinyl took a step back from shock.

“You-you keep sending me to do all these things, and I do." She shrugged, "But you send me out completely blind, and suddenly there are witches and secret police, and Nosferatu knocking at the door.” She was crying again, Octavia didn’t want to, especially with Vinyl right in front of her, but her body wasn’t giving her any choice in the matter. “And it scares me," she shook her head, "It really does. If you keep sending me out like this, how long until I bump into something like Twilight did. What happens then, huh?” She demanded.

Vinyl wasn’t really sure what to say to that. What could she say to that? That in the most twisted way possible she was helping her? Using her, but helping her? So instead, she wrapped the sobbing girl up in a hug, letting her cry into her shoulder. As painful as it was though, there was really only one way to fix this.

“I’m afraid too you know,” she whispered.

Octavia immediately stopped shaking. “You already know part of it, about my responsibilities to my clan, but not all of it. I wasn’t lying to you when I said there are dangerous things in this world. The more you know, the more you end up being sucked into the darker side of it and you end up tainted." Vinyl said it with such certainty that Octavia was sure she was referring to something specific. "I’ve tried to protect you from most of that, but evidently you believe you’re ready for more."

Vinyl took a deep breath before continuing with the next part. “Twilight wasn’t just attacked Octavia, she was raped.” A sharp gasp filed the air, and Vinyl paused to let what she'd just said sink in. “This wasn’t some random incident, this was a carefully planned attack by a werewolf. More than likely trying to rattle the old buzzard Celestia." she sighed, "And for the most part they've succeeded."

Vinyl grabbed Octavia by her shoulders, prying her off of her so that she could look her in her tear-streaked face. “Octavia, I’ll say this one more time, so listen up. This is the world you want to enter. It’s not like your school girl fantasies. As pretty as it can be, it can also destroy you. Now” she said very matter-of-factually, “Are you ready?”

Octavia nodded and chuckled, wiping the tears from her eyes with her sleeve. “You act like I didn’t already give you my answer.” She smiled, “You told me exactly what I was getting into when you first made me your servant. To expect anything else would be foolish, wouldn’t it?” Vinyl nodded, this was good. This was the Octavia she was used to, this was the Octavia she could talk to.

“Alright then, if that’s the case, you’ll be joining Applejack and the rest of the Apple family in their investigation.”

Octavia gawked at the vampire, “You can’t be serious?”

Vinyl looked at her strangely, “Of course I am, besides obvious political reasons—I need to put my best foot forward to deal with this incident—this also helps you.” Before Octavia could open her mouth to ask how this could possibly help her, Vinyl cut her off. “Applejack is an expert in combat. I’m hoping you can learn a thing or two from her. You’ve no doubt noticed your new abilities.” Octavia nodded and explained how her new speed and endurance had come in handy earlier.

“Good, I’m hoping Applejack can provide you proper training in them. This is my first time actually having a Knock and I’m not sure on exactly what I’ve given you, or your limits. The Order keeps detailed information about this sort of thing though. While you’re out in the field you can bug her with as many questions about your position as you like.” Vinyl sniggered. And if Applejack just happened to pull her hair out because of that, well who could blame her.

Octavia was slowly starting to see Vinyl’s logic. But if she was going to be putting her neck on the line to go find this incredibly dangerous criminal, she was going to get something out of it. “Alright,” she smiled at her Mistress, “But only if you do something for me.”

Vinyl glared at the girl, “I’m not giving you a raise, Octavia.”

“Well, yes,” Octavia waved away the statement. “But that’s mostly a necessary evil on your part so that my mother doesn’t get involved in things.” She pointed out. “What I’m thinking is more along the lines of . . . motivation.”

Octavia was giving her a playful smirk, but Vinyl had absolutely zero intention of returning it. “Fine,” she growled, “What do you want?”

"Piano lessons.” She spat out without even a moment’s hesitation. “You uhm-offered to teach me, but you never followed through.” Octavia was vaguely aware of the fact she was blushing. She didn’t want to be, but, once again, her body wasn’t giving her any choice.

Vinyl blinked, and then let out a smile. “Alright then, you have a deal.” She held out her hand for Octavia to shake, but was interrupted by someone clearing their throat.

Both girls turned their heads, only to Nurse Redheart standing in the middle of the hall, looking extremely uncomfortable. “I’ve been sent back to inform you that, the operation was a success. She’s still unconscious though, and we have no idea when or if she’ll wake up.” Redheart could feel the disappointment coursing off the two girls.

“With that said, she’s in her room at the moment. Normally, we’d let her rest, but since we’re not exactly sure our sprinklers could survive another sun witch rampage, we’ll be allowing visitors back to see her two at a time. So if you could tell everyone else here to see her that, that would be wonderful.”

Author's Note

Alright then, the name of his chapter is a bit more than a clever reference, it's basically how I've felt the entire time writing this chapter. I can't tell you how many rewrites this went through before I got it to this point where I liked it. The hardest part was probably writing for Vinyl in this chapter, and that's all I'm going to say on that point before I reveal something about the future. Basically this chapter was a bit of a pain. I'm still not 100% on it, but I hope you like it, and if you feel like it's bit off too, part of it's intentional for later.

As for Twilight's rape, well it's like my writing teachers always said. It's okay to have despicable things in your writing as long as your not just throwing them in there for a cheap affect and actually have a reason. That's all I'm going to say about that, it's One O'clock in the morning and I'm tired. Comment and I hope you enjoyed.

Repartations

Every human being has a list of things they’d rather forget. This list usually exists somewhere in the back of their head, pushed there so they can retain their sanity. It only surfaces when something needs to be added to the list, or when you’re reminded of the fact your parents had to have sex to create you. Otherwise, it retreats firmly into your subconscious, never to be thought of.

But the latest addition to Octavia’s list didn’t seem to want to leave her mind. The image of Twilight lying that bed was most definitely going to haunt her for a while; the bandages wrapped around her arms and throat to hide what Octavia could only assume were claw marks. There had been a gash peeking out from underneath the bandages on her neck. The crown of her head completely wrapped up from where she been banged against something.

“And according to Vinyl those injuries aren’t even the full extent of what Twilight suffered.” A sense of uneasiness washed over Octavia just thinking about it. But that wasn’t even the worst part for her. No, the worse part had been seeing how still she was while lying there.

The Twilight that had looked at her with so much energy and life earlier while asking for her help, was silent now. And there was something about that that deeply disturbed Octavia. And that’s the main reason that she was poking her lunch with a fork—chicken nuggets that looked more like they were chipped off of a golem then an actual piece of poultry.

It was just as well, she didn’t feel like eating much anyway. But now Bon-Bon was looking at her for an explanation about her sudden down turn in mood from yesterday, and she really didn’t have a proper answer for her at the moment. So instead she moped, and hoped that her friend wouldn’t say anything.

“Alright, Octi, what’s wrong? Is this about Twilight?” Octavia looked up from her lunch she was slowly turning into gravel. Bon-Bon leaving her alone had been a bit too much to ask for, and now she was looking at her with those big doughy eyes that were completely unfair when you were trying to hide something.

Octavia’s lips quivered a bit, and she buckled, “Yes,” she replied softly. She felt like she was going to cry again, but somehow managed to hold herself together. Maybe she’d cried herself out yesterday with Vinyl.

Bon-Bon, reached across the table to place a comforting hand on her friend. “Hey, Octi, it’s okay. The whole schools a bit shook up over what happened. Hell, even Sunset Shimmer looks like she swallowed a barrel of lemon juice.” Octavia blinked, Sunset Shimmer actually showing a bit of restrain that was rare. She would have thought more on this, but Bon-Bon wasn’t done speaking. “I just didn’t think you’d be so broken up about this, weren’t you just talking yesterday, about how you don’t have any friends?”

Bon-Bon was trying to joke with her, but Octavia wasn’t exactly in a joking mood. “We-we were starting to get to know each other. She saved me from Sunset Shimmer and her goons yesterday, and then asked me if I could help her out with a-a project.” There, that wasn’t too far from the truth, and it seemed to satisfy Bon-Bon as she was nodding in agreement.

“Well, don’t worry about it too much, okay?” Bon-Bon offered her a sad smile, and Octavia couldn’t help but return it. “From the way Principal Celestia told it, she’s stable and everything, plus Twilight’s not exactly the type of person to let something like this get her down . . .,” she leaned over, bridging the distance between, the two, “Unlike some people.” She whispered, pointing down the table at one of the reasons Octavia wasn’t sure she shouldn’t put that whole night on the list, Rainbow Dash.

After everyone had had a chance to see Twilight something of a yelling match had ensued between Vinyl and Applejack. “Well, I’m not sure you can call it a yelling match, since there wasn’t any actual yelling.” Regardless, it was clear to anyone watching that two astounding personalities were clashing.

Vinyl was trying to convince Applejack that taking Octavia along was the best possible solution. It was admittedly a pretty hard sell. She basically wanted Applejack to take along an untrained, untested component into the field with her. They went back and forth arguing over whether Octavia was coming or not, but eventually they struck on a deal.

Octavia could come along, providing Vinyl looked after Rainbow Dash while the investigation went on. From what Applejack could discern from their conversation, Rainbow was important to Twilight in some way or another, and there was a risk that the person that did this might come after her specifically.

Rainbow couldn’t stay with any of her friends for obvious reasons. And there was a good possibility that whoever did this wasn’t specifically targeting Twilight, but was trying to send a message to Celestia by attacking her prized student. No matter how powerful the covenant leader was, Applejack didn’t want to run the risk.

So that left a very unwilling Vinyl to protect Rainbow Dash. The vampire had argued back and forth with Applejack for a while before eventually agreeing to take the girl home with her. “And that was it, we left after that. We didn’t mention Twilight or Rainbow, we didn’t even discuss our argument from earlier. We were both tired and it just didn’t seem like the time for it.” Octavia let out a sigh, glancing at the Rainbow haired girl with her head face down on the table. “And now both Applejack and Vinyl expect me to watch over her while we’re in school. Well, at east Vinyl expects that of me,. I’m pretty sure Applejack just hopes I can pull her out her funk, but how am I supposed to do that, when I’ve never even said two words to the girl?”

Octavia groaned, because in the long run it didn’t really matter if she knew Rainbow well or not. Right now the girl was in pain, and since no one seemed willing to help her at the moment, she supposed it was up to her. Grabbing her plate of “food” she stood up and began to walk over to where Rainbow Dash was sitting. Bon-Bon started to follow her, but Octavia waved her down. Telling her she’d be back and to just wait here for her.

Octavia sat down in the seat across from Rainbow Dash. Putting on what can only be described as her winningest look, she offered her a brief smile and a briefer “Hello”. The distraught teen didn’t answer, choosing to keep her head glued to the table and her arm pillow.

After a few moments of sitting there and picking at her plate and attempting to start up a conversation with the lump of a human sitting across from her, Octavia was about ready to give up. "You know, I don’t think anyone would fault me if I just got up and walked away right now. I could get up throw away my plate, and no one would ever call me on it, because this is hope . . .”

A loud snore rung out, disrupting Octavia’s train of thought. She stared down at the Rainbow-headed source of the commotion and blinked. “You’re asleep aren’t you?” Another snore rang out as a response.

Octavia groaned, she really wasn’t in the mood for this at the moment. Picking up her fork she jabbed Rainbow Dash in the arm, and repeated the action again, and again—“Ugh, will you just fuck off already!”

Octavia paused in her prodding, “Uhm, I—“

“I’m serious, Applejack. I don’t care about any of your fancy powers, if you don’t leave me alone I swear I’ll kick your ass.” Octavia wasn’t really sure what to say to that. It was clearly a threat, even though it wasn’t intentionally directed at her. And she’d probably have an easier time taking it seriously if Rainbow would actually lift her head from her arms. Partly because it looked adorable, and the other part because it had come out sounding like a muffled mess, though she’d gotten most of it.

“Well,” said Octavia taking a somewhat haughty tone in her voice. “It’s a good thing I’m not Applejack, huh.”

Rainbow finally lifted her head from its positioned nestled between her arms. She was confused for a second, until she realized who exactly was in front of her. “Oh, it’s you.” Rainbow shrugged, and prepared to lay back down, at least she wasn’t being bothered by one of her traitorous ex-friends.

Octavia huffed, “Yes, it’s me.” She caught Rainbow head before it could fully hit the table, “And I was hoping we could talk for a moment.”

Rainbow stared of into the distance for a moment, and then shrugged. “Sure, as long as you don’t bug me.”

Octavia frowned, she was going to put up with who know how long of this on a daily basis. “Well, I was hoping since you’re going to be living at the mansion we could get to know one another a bit better.” Rainbow Dash didn’t seem very interested. “That and Vinyl wants me to make sure your safe while we’re at school.”

Now she had Rainbow’s attention. Eyes still glossed over from sleep, she propped her head up on one hand. “You mean the blue haired chick from last night? What’s her deal anyway?”

“Deal?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, “You know. What is she? Some sort of weird exhibitionist monster.” Rainbow had snuck one of the nuggets off her plate, and was focusing on twiddling it through her fingers to see if it was edible.

Octavia blushed, flustered, “What gave you that idea.”

“I dunno, maybe the fact you both showed up to the hospital half naked.” Confirming that the item in her hands was indeed food, she popped it into her mouth and began to chew.

Octavia scoffed in disbelief, “She’s a vampire, a vampire lord to be exact.”

“Ah,” said Rainbow, mouth still full, and only slightly impressed by the revelation. “Well, if Fluttershy can be a vampire I guess anyone can.” She smirked.

Octavia blinked, “Fluttershy? You mean the girl who couldn’t stop crying last night.” Although, they’d only met last night, what she knew of the girl didn’t really line up with her perceptions of the ones she’d met so far. “Then again no one was really acting themselves last night.”

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, she—was my oldest friend?” Rainbow’s smile faded, and she looked down at the table again.

Octavia felt uncomfortable, as rude and annoying the girl had been in the past five minutes, she still didn’t deserve what was happening to her. “You know you could go talk to them,” Octavia said with a touch more sympathy then she’d had a few seconds ago.

Rainbow shook her head, “You don’t get it. I’ve known some of those girls since kindergarten, Fluttershy even before that. And just the idea that they’ve been lying to me all this time hurts.” Rainbow’s face was set into a hard line, trying to mask the deep feeling of emptiness her friends betrayal had left her with.

Normally, Twilight would be here to fix things. She’d drag both Rainbow and Applejack's stubborn asses to a nice quiet area where no one could hear the sound of their pride being shattered, and then she’d refuse to let them leave until they’d started to at least talk to each other again, even if they hadn’t entirely forgiven each other. Meanwhile, Twilight would be standing over them, easing things along, and making sure neither of them said anything too stupid. Or at least that they apologized if they did.

Rainbow huffed, as a renewed flush of anger flooded her cheeks. But Twilight wasn’t there, was she? Twilight was lying in a hospital bed, half-dead after being attacked by a werewolf, and her other so-called friends would have probably never told her if Rarity hadn’t having one of her dumb sleepovers when they got the call. Hell the only reason they’d alerted the school to Twilight’s accident was because Rainbow had thrown an outright fit about it. There was no way she was going to let everyone think her Twilight had "gone on vacation" when she knew the truth.

“And now I have to deal with this,” thought Rainbow, “Vampire Protective Services, and my very own Igor Guidance Counselor.” All of it was enough to make Rainbow want to let her head fall back into her waiting arms and never get up again. No one had asked Octavia to come over he—Oh wait, they had. And somehow that made it even worse.

“Look,” said Octavia, trying to be and look as empathetic as possible to the pissed off girl in front of her. “I’m about as new to all of this is you are, and I’m even newer to the idea of having more than one friend. But I do know that having absolutely no one to talk to when you’re hurt is one of the worst things imaginable.”

Rainbow was still angry, but her glare softened when she saw the tense look on her face. “I also know that even though we’ve only known each other for a little while, Twilight Sparkle is my friend, and…uh, I-I don’t think she’d want me to leave you alone with the way you are now.”

Rainbow blinked, “I-I’m sorry.” She said. ‘You can probably tell, but I haven’t exactly been sane since Twilight got hurt. But that’s no reason for me to be mad at you.” She smiled, “So if you’re willing to make the effort to deal with me for the next couple, I dunno weeks, I can try and not be a complete and total bitch about all of this.”

Octavia chuckled, “I wouldn’t exactly say you being a bitch, more of a moody, annoying…”

“Cunt,” supplied Rainbow, a sincere smile on her face.

" Octavia shrugged, "Not what I was going for, but sure, let’s go with that.”

Rainbow chuckled, Octavia had finally broken through to her. She stood grabbing her plate, “You’re pretty cool, Philharmonica. And I’d like to stay and talk about how fucked up I am at the moment, and how you ended up as Igor for that wicked looking vampire girl, but I have practice right now. I’ll see you after school so we can swing by my house and grab a couple things.”

Waving goodbye, Rainbow walked away, leaving Octavia to consume the remainder of her lunch. And she would have too if a pair of hands hadn’t clasped down on both her shoulders causing her to jump. She spun around in her seat, part of her expecting to see a muzzle of snarling teeth and pinprick yellow eyes, but was instead put face to face with Bon-Bon.

“That was really sweet, Octi.” At the sight of her friend Octavia calmed herself. There’s no way a rouge werewolf would attack her at school, in the middle of the day with all of these witnesses around. Now that she thought about it how would a werewolf go about getting rid of someone in broad daylight in the first place. Things to think about when she met up with Applejack later. For now though, her incredibly cute best friend was praising her and looking especially intriguing while she did it.

Bon-Bon sat down next to Octavia, “Seriously, though, Octi, that was a really nice thing to do. Pretty much everyone’s noticed that our schools little dream team has been basically destroyed by what happened to Twilight, and seeing them so broken up has just been eerie.” She visibly shuddered to emphasize her point.

“You helping you poor Rainbow is the first step in getting them all back together again. And I just know Twilight’s going to be uber happy that you helped keep her friends together once she gets back.”

Octavia was blushing now, “I was just trying to do the right thing, you know.”

“No, I don’t know, because I wasn’t considerate enough to actually go over here and talk to her, and you know what, you deserve reward.”

Octavia snorted her friend was just over exaggerating now, but one look at those puckered lips told Octavia she was serious. “Bon, seriously, I don’t—“

Bon-Bon cut her off shaking her head, “Nope, I won’t hear it. For your kindest and generosity, Lady Octavia, I am hereby granting you a day where we’ll do anything you want.”

“Wait, what?”

“How does this Saturday sound to you? I hear there’s a new movie out, and it’s supposed to be phenomenal.”

“But wait, Bon, I-“

Bon-Bon sighed, “Octi, if you haven’t noticed, this is my very over-the-top way of asking you out on a date. So could you please just say yes?” Octavia stopped. All motion, breathing, and relative brain functions were reworking themselves to focus directly on the girl to the left of her and processing what she’d just said.

Until then she was staring, deadpan into her big pleading eyes. Eyes that were starting to look more and more panicked every second that ticked by. “Or you know, don’t say yes,” said Bon-Bon nervously. “I mean you don’t have to say yes, no one is forcing you or anything. I’d just assumed, ya’ know, since you’d been staring at me so much lately and—I dunno!” she shrugged violently, her voice rising in pitch.

“It’s just you’ve been spending so much time at your job lately, and I guess I just realized how important you are to me. It’s a “Don’t know how good it is, until its’ gone” sort of thing, and seeing over here with Rainbow Dash, I just got super jealous. But a part of me was also like, “That’s my Octi, so—“

Octavia grabbed ahold of Bon-Bon by the shoulders, finally getting her chance to interrupt the girl mid-rant. She smiled, looking her oldest friend dead in the eye. She was blushing. She looked nice like that. “There is nothing I would love more than to go out with you this weekend.”

Bon-Bon, let out squeak, an adorable little thing to match the light blush. A fact that didn’t go unnoticed by her companion. And in a moment she decided that as long as Suave Octavia was making an appearance she might as well go all out.

Without a second thought she leaned forward and gave the girl a slight peck on the lips. Just enough to elicit another small squeak from Bon-Bon, but leave her wanting more. She stood up, and probably would have walked away looking like a complete and total badass if her foot hadn’t gotten slightly stuck underneath the table nearly tripping her. Instead she had to resort to hopping away from it on one foot, leaving Bon-Bon in stitches.

Well, at least for a second there she’d been cool.

The rest of the school day went by rather quickly, because as far as Octavia was concerned her day had peaked at lunch. But on top of that a lot of kids just plain hadn’t shown up at school, thus teachers weren’t inclined to actually teach with most of their classes missing. Word had begun to spread that Twilight had been attacked on school grounds, and until a culprit was found some parents just didn’t feel like it was worth the risk to send their kids to school.

Personally, Octavia wouldn’t put it past Sunset Shimmer to have spread the news, and she probably would have told someone(Bon-Bon) as much if it weren’t for the fact the Queen Bee herself wasn’t at school either. Leaving, Trixie and Lightning Dust looking about as lost as Rainbow Dash. She might have even called it sad, if they all didn’t act like terrible people on a regular basis.

As horrible as it all was, though, it did allow her to get out of school early by a whole two hours. Which meant dropping off Rainbow at Vinyl’s earlier on. They’d swung by her house once the final bell rung, Octavia had waited outside while Rainbow packed and presumably explained somethings to her parents. Whatever Principal Celestia and The Apples had organized it seemed to work as thirty minutes later, she came bursting out of her home, a blue suitcase trailing behind her and a much weightier backpack on her shoulders.

She’d dumped her on the steps to Vinyl’s mansion, giving her a swift warning about disturbing her mistress and trusting Lyra as she’d left. She’d promised Applejack she’d meet her in front of the school as soon as possible, and with her heightened speed it wasn’t long before a tan cowboy hat sitting on the head of a dusty blond came into view, standing in front of the doorway.

“Alright,” said Applejack. “Now that you’re here we can get things started.” She pulled out a key card from her pocket, unlocking the doors and pushing them open. “Look, I don’t have a lot of time to devote to teaching you stuff,” she explained as she walked inside with Octavia trailing after her.

She pressed a hand against one of the very first lockers in the hall, and kept walking running her hand over each as she went. “If you want to learn how to defend yourself and survive not only in this world but as Vinyl’s assistant, we can do that later.” They turned into another hall but Applejack kept letting her hand clang against the metal lockers. “Right now though, I want to solve this case as soon as possible and because of a bunch of political bullshit I’m stuck with you until this is all over.”

Another turn and then another, “Basically, what I’m saying is listen to everything I say and we’ll catch the son of a bitch who put Twilight in the hospital by the end of the week, maybe less if we work quick.”

“Understood,” Octavia replied rather curtly. “But just so you know I’m as out of my element on this as you are with having me along. On top of that, I’m supposed to help Rainbow Dash settle into the mansion, and the thought of leaving her alone with Vinyl and Lyra is disturbing to say the least.” Octavia shuddered, you she could just imagine Lyra goading Rainbow into doing something stupid, while Vinyl threatened to eviscerate them both.

Or at least to eviscerate Rainbow. Lyra was an ephemeral ghost, who was incapable of taking physical damage…or was she? Lately Octavia was discovering that there were a lot of things she didn’t understand about supernatural beings. And she supposed that Lyra’s spirit was tied to the piano so any damage that received may translate over to her-and where were they.

While Octavia had been lost in their thoughts, the pair had arrived at a door at the end of the hall. It looked rather normal in nature, nothing to distinguish it from any other door in the rest of the school. But the way it felt made Octavia shudder, and perhaps it’s silly to be afraid of a door, but Octavia was beginning to develop something of a sixth sense for doors, and this one felt strange. Not foreboding or inherently danger, but not right either. “Room 234” it was labeled. The only problem with that was they were still on the first floor, or at least Octavia swore they were, she couldn’t remember walking up a flight of stairs or any sort of incline.

Applejack didn’t seem to notice the strangeness though. She was too busy nursing her sore fingers, and fishing through her pockets, for what Octavia could only assume was the key. “Applejack? Where are we?” She asked.

“In school,” said the blonde as she pried the key from her pocket, placing it in the lock. “Just a part of the school people normally don’t see, because Principal Celestia doesn’t want them to.” The lock clicked, but the handle seemed stuck. “This is The Sun Witch’s class, where she teaches all her fledgling students how to use their magic. Think Xavier’s mixed with Hogwarts, but nowhere near as interesting or deadly...usually. Normally, we’d have a much harder time getting here, but most of the magical protection for this place has been smashed to Tartarus and back. It’s why we were able to make our way through the maze trap relatively easily.”

After a few moments of working with it, the door flew open. Inside was a scene that Octavia only half expected. It looked almost like a normal high school lab, with beakers and a shower to rinse off any horrible mistakes, only it was nearly the size of their gym. The right side of the room held the classroom set up, with the left entirely devoted to open space. It didn’t smell like a lab either, instead there was an unmistakable sweet smell in the air. There weren’t any strange posters either, the wall space was occupied by shelves of jars filled with-well if Octavia had to guess she’d say things like eye of newt and puppy dog tails.

Oh, yes, and then there was the blood.

Quite a lot of it really. Most of it centered at the front area where the desks had been smashed to pieces and beakers and test tubes had been thrown to the ground spilling a strange orange liquid that Octavia was hesitant to go near. But here and there, there were streaks across the walls and splatters across sinks mixed with claw marks. All of it couldn’t possibly belong to Twilight though, “Or could it,” thought Octavia pessimistically. “I don’t really know much about witch physiology either.”

Applejack answered her question when she let out a quiet huff. Stepping into the classroom and immediately gravitating towards the area with the most blood and damage. Octavia did the exact opposite, heading towards the more open area near the back of the classroom. The open space made more sense once she saw the chalk markings and overturned cauldron, presumably left by Twilight. This was still a place for experiments, just sligthyl bigger ones that couldn't fit in a beaker.

“Looks like Twi put up a pretty good fight." Shouted Applejack after a moment or two. "Though I can’t really tell how much of this is her and how much is someone else, she added. Even from across the room she could see the look of hope on Octavia's face disappear. They couldn't afford to underestimate their opponent right now.

“Twilight’s always been more about practicality and research then fighting. She knows a thing or two about brawling with magic from Celestia, but not a lot. Not enough to take down a rouge werewolf, that’s for sure.”

Side stepping a broken pile of glass, Octavia marveled at the grisly scene. “I just don’t understand how a werewolf could have done all this. I mean-” she said turning to Applejack, “I don’t mean to prejudice, but the werewolves I’ve always read about have been more snarl and bark. More animal than man, I thought that was sort of the point of it.”

Applejack snorted at the girls description as she poked and prodded at shreds of what remained of Twillight's clothing. This was probably where Twilight's shields had started to fail. “No, your right, and that’s what worries me. Werewolves aren’t exactly the most tactful creatures when they're transformed, Rouges especially. They can think, and they got animal instincts working for them, hell the older ones can even talk while their like that. But once they’re lost in the blood lust of a hunt all the pre-planning in the world won’t stop them from throwing all that out the window and just going for the throat.” Applejack knelt down, running her hands through the blood. “Hey, tell me do you see any hair over there?” shouted Applejack.

“Hair?” questioned Octavia. She gave her area a more though look. There wasn’t any hairs, but there were burn marks that Octavia assumed were left by Twilight trying to defend herself. There was also some sort of bracelet or collar cleaved in half lying on the floor. “No, no hair! But there’s this.” Carefully, Octavia picked up both hands of the collar, holding it high so Applejack could get a good look at it.

Applejack eyed the halves of the collar, her face scrunching up in initial confusion and then solemn understanding. She did one last sweep of her are with her eyes before nodding towards the exit. “Let’s go, we’ve got everything we need from here.

“What?” Octavia was confused, they’d barely been here half an hour and Applejack already knew basically everything about this place. She knew that most of what she saw on those crime dramas was horribly exaggerated, but she’d imagined that scoping out a scene for evidence would take a little more time, effort, equipment of the magical variety. Anything really!

“Yep,” she replied nonchalantly as she started walking towards the exit. This place paints a pretty good picture of what happened and who we’re looking for.”

“Well can you explain to the rest of the remedial class what that means, Detective Applejack?”

Choosing to ignore the sarcastic tone, Applejack turned back around. “It’s like I said werewolves aren’t exactly the sanest creatures when they’re fully formed. So doesn’t it seem strange that whoever this asshole was, was able to break through heavy magical security, and then go toe to toe with Twilight without transforming.”

“How-?”

“Scorch and claw marks. The marks from the spells Twilight was flinging around start over there where you’re standing. But the claw marks don’t appear until you get closer to the front of the class, which coincidentally is also where things start to become a lot bloodier. Wich means that our culprit didn't immediately transform straight out the bat. They managed to hold their own against Twilight, even trying to nullify her powers with that collar you're holding before resorting to transformation. Which means they would have had wolfs bane on hand to force a tansformation, meaning our culprit has some thrifty connections and deep pockets to buy the stuff on the black market.” The rough and tumble organization member was biting her lip, trying to see if she’d forgotten anything.

“As for more nitty gritty forensic stuff, I’m not really that good at that. My big brother Mac came by earlier though and did a nice sweep of the place. Even then it’ll be a while before we can get any kind of lock on who might have done this.” She took a deep breathe, tugging her hat down below her eyes to hide any sign of the tears that were starting to form.

“All I know is that whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing. This was a precise and well thought out plan to have gone under Celestia’s nose, disarming all her defenses with ease. Only thing I can’t figure out is why Twilight? This couldn’t be for Celestia, any enemies that old witch has died a long time ago, or are too afraid to lift a finger to her. Whoever did this knew who they were going after, and the aftermath that would ensue. Most importantly though, they knew exactly when Twilight would be alone in school.” Her eyes narrowed and Octavia blinked.

The only ones who would have known where Twilight was were Vinyl and herself. And despite the fact her new friend hadn’t said a single accusatory word yet, Octavia still found her voice rising. “Are you suggesting that both my master and I had a hand in this, because if you are—!”

“Whoa,” said Applejack raising her hands to stop Octavia from making a threat they both knew she couldn’t carry out. “I’m not suggesting anything. I’m just saying the two of you were the last ones to see Twilight and hear about her plans. You’re not criminals, but you are suspects even more so with how weird Vinyl’s been lately.

"But even with that, I still don’t think Vinyl would have any reason to attack or want to hurt Twilight.” Octavia’s shoulders were still tense, and part of her still wanted to lay into the bigger girl for even suggesting they’d planned to hurt Twilight, but before she could say anything, Applejack strode towards her. Throwing both arms around her, as she tried to ease tensions. Her southern drawl putting a bit of honey to her soothing words. “Look, I’m just trying to solve this case. And I want whoever did this to rot in a place much worse than hell.”

Octavia said nothing, her lips still puckered into a frown as she reciprocated the hug. “I know I said I don’t need any help to solve this-and before you ask I’m not taking that back- but I could use any help you’d be willing to give. Two brains are better than one- and all that.”

Applejack leaned out of the hug smiling, and despite the pepper of red that still coated her cheeks, Octavia relented under it. “Alright.” She sighed.

“Great!” exclaimed her companion. “Now come on.” She said leading her back towards the doorway. “We should probably grab something to eat. My treat. And while that’s happening you can tell me all about your hot date on Saturday.”

“How do you even know about that?” Octavia was definitely certain she hadn’t told anyone, and Bon-Bon wasn’t really the type of girl to brag about this sort of thing.

“Lyra.” Said her friend.

“Of course.” The ghost would do leak her private information like that. Walking side by side the pair walked away from the crime scene.

Author's Note

I'm back. I'd make another joke about that fact, but they're starting to get old. Oh who am I kidding they're already old. But yes I am back after another break. I've been busy with other stuff like school and writing a book. Which I'm taking something of a break from to go back to all my stories on here.

But I have nothing else to say so read and I hope you enjoyed.

667 Dorothy Avenue

Bite me. . .Please?

It was common knowledge that the mansion at 667 Dorothy Avenue had always had a vampire living in it. Or at least that’s what people said. The owner of the mansion, Mr. Paole, always had a Vincent Price look to him, and the fact that he was rarely seen during day didn’t help. But while the rest of town was content to spreading rumors about Mr. Paole and his blood sucking ways, Octavia Philharmonica, Ponyville’s resident teen expert on anything remotely creepy, never put much stock in it.

For one thing, Octavia had seen Mr. Paole out and about in the middle of the day. No screaming, no hissing at the sun, just an old man getting his mail. Then there was the fact that while he was getting said mail, he happened to be wearing fuzzy bunny slippers and a matching house coat. “Honestly,” thought Octavia, “What vampire has, let alone wears, fuzzy slippers?” She shook her head at the disturbing image, and once again for good measure. And then there was the most theory crushing evidence that the old man could in no possible way be a vampire.

He was dead.

Mr. Paole had died little over a month ago from a heart attack. Paramedics had been called to the old man’s house, and they’d found him lying on the floor clutching at his chest. Hell, she’d even asked a few of the paramedics and they’d told her the exact time his heart had stopped while they were there.

There had been a small, quiet service. The man didn’t have any family to speak of, or at least any that showed up to the funeral. Some idiot, thinking they were funny, had stabbed a spike through the old man’s heart while he lay in his coffin. Other than that though, Mr. Paole was buried without incident.

And then a few days later when a real vampire attacked. Sure, Octavia had no proof or evidence, but the signs were everywhere. There had been sightings of a bat in the area, not bats, singular, as in just one. Usually, if people spotted a bat there was a whole colony nearby, but no. People had only seen one, flying all over the area, then heading into an open window in Mr. Paole’s mansion.

Then there were the disappearances. Random people, suddenly vanishing in the middle of the night, only to be found hours later with no recollection of where they’d been. They’d show signs of feeling lightheaded and disoriented, which had been chalked up to blood loss, along with two pinpoint marks on their necks. Octavia wasn’t exactly a genius, but even she could tell that this was the work of a vampire. Not some psychopath or organ farm, like the police would have people believe.

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” she said as she stepped up to the ornate door labeled 667, “If I’m right, I’ll meet a real live vampire, and if I’m wrong.” She shrugged, “Well no one knows where I am, but I’m sure they’ll figure it out eventually."

She knocked, and after a minute or two of waiting nothing happened.She reached for the doorknob, to check and see if it was locked, but as she did it slowly begin to creek open. “Really,” she whispered, irritated, “Am I going to find a skeleton in the closet too?”

Octavia took a few steps into the house, ready to go into a full on rant. Obviously, whoever this vampire was they had no imagination. She was just about to mention how that trick hadn’t been scary for the seventy years when the inside of the house destroyed any rational argument she had.

The inside was just how she’s imagined it, incredibly cliché but beautiful all the same. She was in the foyer of the manor, a grand staircase leading towards the upper levels of the manor stood across from her and long red carpet, bisecting the room until it reached where she stood. A giant crystal chandelier, bathed light down from above. “Darker than blood,” she thought, and then shook her head. She hadn’t snuck out on a school night just to let fear get the best of her.

There were portraits, both old and new, encircling the room. A cacophony of stern faces, glaring down at her, expressing their disapproval that she was here. Each one painted in a slightly differently, and each representing a different time period. However, there was one feature that was present in all of them though, Mr. Paole. It was hard to tell because he was so young in most of the photos, but the man in the painting was undoubtedly Ponyville’s former vampire. Because he was a vampire, there was no doubt in about that now.

She turned her head to what looked like the most recent painting. In it was Mr. Paole, just as she remembered him, his trademark scowl replaced with a smile. A smile that was—unlike ever other painting in this room—shared by the girl in the painting with him. Her skin was pale just like the others, but unlike the rest of them she seemed to have a certain air about her. Her hair was blue, spiking out into the air using who knows how much hair gel. Her eyes were hidden by a pair of sunglasses, but you could still catch a glint of mischief behind them.

“She’s beautiful,” thought Octavia. And she was, but the most interesting feature about her were the twin fangs peeking out from her lip. “Are you who I’m here to see?” She whispered, entranced by the mystery woman.

Crash!

And just like that the spell was broken, replaced with a cold chill. That had come from upstairs meaning someone, or something was awake in this house. " It's just that bat," she whispered under shaky breath "It probably just smashed through a window or. . . "

The sound of a footsteps on a creaky floorboard silenced her. “Damn, damn, damn. Okay, calm down, Octavia, it’s not like you’ve gone very far. The door is literally six feet away. You can just turnaround and run very fast, you’re good at that.” She started inching toward the door, taking slow and deliberate steps to try and avoid making too much noise.

"Come on, you're almost there, Octaiva, just a little bit—wait, what's that?" A slow sweet melody had descended from above. it captured her ear, and held her there. Slowly, but surely, she started moving away from the door, headed toward the staircase, and the location of that beautiful music. Past stairwells and through hallways, she followed the tune. Weaving in and out of the maze-like building to the dulcet tempos of a piano. Until finally it stopped, leaving a G# hanging in the air, and a very lost Octavia, standing in front of a plain wooden door.

It wasn’t large and intricate, like the rest of the house. It wasn't even dark and menacing dark like what was behind it, because there was something behind it. And whatever it was it left Octavia terrified to open it.

She wasn't given a choice though. As the door was suddenly flung open, and she was confronted with a pair of violet eyes. "Sleep," they commanded. And she did. The last sight as she faded into blackness were those eyes, and her last thought?
"Beautiful."

Author's Note

Alright, here's the gist. I don't particularly love how this chapter turned out, which sucks because this is supposed to be the opening for something much bigger. So I'm putting up this version of the opening on sort of a trial period. If people like it, I'll let it stay. If people don't, well then it's back to the drawing board again for revisions.

And if you don't like it, don't just tell me it's bad, give me ideas on how to improve it, because I have no intention of giving up on this story. Especially the ending, there were two p0 endings I had and I'm not sure which would be better. I'm partially leaning towards this one but I'll let you guys decide

Thanks for reading, Comment and I hope you enjoyed.