Vinyl Scratch is (not) a vampire

The stallion took a step back, putting himself between Vinyl and the group now blocking their exit.

Looking between the stallion and the other arrivals, Vinyl quickly ran a scenario of her trying to run past them in her head. The chances of her escape weren't very good, and that's before she took into account her injured leg. One of the ponies raised a spear of his own, giving Vinyl more than enough cause to limp several steps away, trying to keep her destroyed bass cannon between herself and everypony else in the room.

Taking a calming breath, Vinyl quickly made her way to her supply closet, a repository of her rejected experiments in weaponry, most of which was sonic or sound-wave involved in some manner. Hey, her talent was still music, this is just a day job.

Shutting the door behind her, she dug around for anything she could use and easily carry around, hoping for something she could use to fight her way out, if necessary. The welcome sight that greeted her when she stumbled across her quad-pack of flash-bangs was much appreciated, the grenades lack of lethal power far outweighed by their strategic usefulness. Of course, that didn't reduce the sting of the flash-bangs ultimate rejection. For even with their amazing ability to both blind and deafen those near the blast, they still failed in one aspect: They weren't idiot-proof.

Despite her best attempts at explaining how the shiny metal ball worked, the tester tried to activate the grenade, then ran up and bashed the target in the head (or whatever they thought was the head). The resulting blast ended with the stallion needing the immediate attention of a unicorn medic who had been on standby. No lasting damage, except for the flash-bangs being declared too dangerous.

Shaking her head as she returned to the present, Vinyl stuffed the grenades into several pockets of her lab coat, donning the garment as she made her way back to the door to the supply room. Cracking the door open, Vinyl saw the stallion from earlier grab the spear when its wielder jabbed at him, snatching the weapon out of the wielder's grip and bashing him with the butt of it. Two more ponies were closing in from flanking positions, while another was making his way to Vinyl's hiding place.

Shutting the door again, Vinyl scanned the small room again, looking for an easy way out that wouldn't involve the fight going on in her lab. Her eyes lingered on the ventilation grate, but she quickly discarded the thought. Ventilation ducts never held up in real life.

Several loud bangs erupted from the door, the stallion on the other side forgetting to check if the door was even locked, which was a safety feature that it didn't have. Vinyl made a mental note to scream at whoever made that blunder.

"Come on, come on..." She chanted under her breath, as if it would help her find a way out. She checked her injured leg again, before her eyes went back to the ventilation grate. "Oh man..." She muttered disappointingly.

Vinyl replaced the grate just as the dumbass on the other side managed to break the door down, still never realizing that it hadn't even been locked.

Vinyl sighed at the sheer stupidity.

She backed further into the shaft, keeping out of sight while watching the stallion's shadow. He took several tentative steps in, stopping when a large triangular point burst through the shadow's throat. The explanation came a second later when blood splattered onto the floor inside Vinyl's field of view.

Backing up and turning a corner in the shaft to remain hidden, Vinyl heard the stallion's amused grunt. "Into the vents, huh? Damn I love it when they're smart enough to run away. Saves me the trouble of an escort till later." After waiting a moment, he called down into the vent. "If you can hear me, get to the easternmost bar in town; The Gryphon's Aviary. Don't worry, It's just a name, there's always more ponies than gryphons there on any day."

Vinyl paused, straining her hears to see if she could make out any hoof falls as he left. She heard nothing, as if he had simply vanished into thin air. Rather than look around the turn in the duct to confirm this, Vinyl Scratch made the appropriate move and continued on her way, deciding that he might simply be waiting for her to peak out and give away her position.

Some minutes later, Vinyl peered through another grate--this one with an air filtration spell on it to siphon out anything that might be dangerous coming from the room--overlooking the chemical laboratory. Several noxious fumes wafted up from the lab after she removed the grate, bringing with them a severe longing for a gas mask.

Putting the sleeve of her lab coat over her muzzle, Vinyl slipped her shades on, aiming the magic detection capabilities beyond the evacuated room to the doors beyond. A pair of white hazy silhouettes appeared beyond, a pair of unicorn by any accounts. She couldn't tell if they had company or not, but it was a safe bet. She double checked with her infrared setting, but it was marred by the standard heat and fumes often created in this section of the building. It likely wouldn't have been able to see through the wall anyway, Vinyl reasoned.

Using her own magic, Vinyl silently lowered the ventilation grate to the floor and jumped down, softening her landing with a minor levitation spell but still wincing at the contact to her injured limb. Stalking over to the door, Vinyl placed her ear against it, hoping to listen beyond.

It was mostly static to Vinyl, but she managed to pick up Notepad's voice, saying that there might still be survivors in the attacked section of the facility. Recognizing the voice of her closest frenemy, Vinyl pounded against the door, readying a flash-bang in the event she was wrong.

The door opened to a pair of golden clad unicorns, both of them with surprised expressions on their faces.

"Ma'am, the room was evacuated shortly after the fighting started." One of the two said, explaining the empty chemical lab. "What were you doing in there?"

Vinyl smiled thankfully. "Came in through the A/C. From weapons research and development."

One guard eyed the other, neither seeming to believe her story. "You do understand that those things never hold in real life, correct?"

Vinyl shrugged, flashing her employee I.D. card.

"Well, the identification checks out." One guard muttered, turning to his companion. "Check with that mare who worked the front desk to be sure, though. We can't take any chances."

The second guard nodded, quickly going on his way.

With that obstacle cleared, Vinyl waited for the guard to return with Notepad. It didn't take long, the mare practically rushing ahead as soon as she heard another researcher had been found. Notepad sighed when she laid eyes on Vinyl, but the exact message of the sigh wasn't clear.

"Notey, what's going on?" Vinyl demanded, more than confused by the commotion.

Notepad shook her head. "I don't know. The facility was attacked, but we don't know why. All we can get are rescued researchers and staff who keep saying the same thing: they were captured, looked over and promptly released. No spells, no explanations, at most a dental check or two."

"Dental check?" Vinyl muttered, scrunching her nose. "Bit extreme for hygiene, don't cha think?"

Notepad sighed. "It's like their looking for somepony, but I couldn't think of who. They're not capturing any equipment or experiments, they're not harming anypony who doesn't struggle too hard and they're not destroying too much, beyond the obvious structural damage."

"Say that to my cannon!" Vinyl angrily muttered. "One of those idiots isn't with the others, but he came in and ruined everything! I actually had that son of a bitch working!"

"What do you mean, not with the others?"

Vinyl snorted. "He was fighting the rest of them, along with saying something about a light or something. Dawn's Light, I think. Ring any bells?"

Notepad laughed. "A legendary group of vampire hunters I read about as a foal. They're just as fake as their quarry. That stallion must've been insane."

Vinyl frowned, moving away from Notepad into the mixed group of researchers and guards, most of whom were making their way out of the building. Once outside, Vinyl used her glasses to block out the sun's blinding rays, per usual. It kept her from having to suffer the wait a regular pony goes through to see again when a sudden shift in light occurs.

She glanced around, taking stock of the crowd around her. She noted a group of mares on the edge that immediately turned away when she faced them, whispering and gesturing to each other. Ducking her head slightly, Vinyl moved into the crowd, hoping to lose any attention she might have accidentally drawn.

Out the corner of her eye, Vinyl saw the mares follow from a distance, keeping her in sight. Luckily, this left them in sight for her, as well, allowing Vinyl to also note how no matter where they were, they made a point to avoid a trio of guards standing next to a grey stallion with a brown mane, looking very much out of place with a black cloak and a pair of white glasses with green lenses.

Vinyl recognized the glasses as the work of another researcher; a prototype heads-up-display meant for field use. Knowing full well that anypony who wore those and could still stand around guards hadn't stolen them, she marked him as someone to stick near if things went bad.

The stallion also seemed to take note of the mares, prompting Vinyl to avoid his gaze unless it couldn't be helped. If he was with the guards, he might not be friendly with these Dawn's light characters, but that didn't make him a friend to Vinyl, either.

The trio of guards closed in on the mares, stopping them for questions. It all seemed to be going well, providing just the distraction Vinyl needed to find her way away and eventually to patch up her leg properly.

Oh, how the world loves to fall to pieces.

Four of the mares jumped the guards, while the last one made a beeline for Vinyl.

Somewhere along the line, a unicorn must have become involved. This assumption came in the form of  a solid wall of stone that erupted from the ground in front of the mare, keeping her from getting anywhere.

Fighting on the other side could be heard, a metallic ringing sound that signaled metal on metal contact. Several more spells were fired before it all died down, but Vinyl was long gone.

<><><>

Closing her door behind her, Vinyl slumped to the floor of her home. She had stopped just long enough to get a doctor to cast a healing spell on her leg, then ran for her life to her home, seeking it out as a sanctuary against the storm fast approaching.

She had no clue what was going on, nor who she could fully trust. There was every possibility that whoever had attacked the lab could also infiltrate the guards, so they were out. There was no way Notepad could help.

Sighing, Vinyl realized that if she wanted answers, and possibly to stay alive, she had only one place to turn.

The Gryphon's Aviary.