Vinyl Scratch is (not) a vampire

Vinyl followed Yellowjacket off the train, continuing to scribble some notes down with a will and paper she had in a magical grip.

Swerving around a filly who was in quite a rush to board the train she had left, Vinyl almost crashed into the back of Yellowjacket. The yellow mare backed into her when a stallion rushed past the both of them.

"Wait, Babs! You forgot one of your bags!"

Shaking her head and taking a moment to straighten her glasses, Vinyl pushed Yellowjacket away from her.

"Hey! Don't be rude." Yellowjacket said indignantly. "You're in my town now."

Vinyl rolled her eyes, though it was difficult to see due to her glasses currently being near opaque to compensate for the bright sun. "Like that's going to be a problem."

Yellowjacket stuck out her tongue.

Sighing, Vinyl allowed herself to sag. "Let's just find Plow when he gets here, kay?"

Taking a moment to look around, as well as put up the notes she had taken on the train, Vinyl almost allowed her glasses to fall off her face when she saw the massive buildings around her. The towers of concrete, metal and glass seemed to have been risen defiantly against the sky, daring nature to try and bring them down. Or the architects were just really compensating for something.

Yellowjacket grinned. "Yeah, they had the same effect on me, too."

<><><>

"So, I never asked. Where did you actually come from?" Vinyl asked, following Yellowjacket into a cafe. "I mean, you don't have the accent for this town. None of you do."

The building they now found themselves in was small but well kept, with just a few customers scattered about. There would undoubtedly be more once rush hour hit, but that wasn't due for another hour and a half.

"Oh, some of us do, you just haven't met them yet." The mare took a glance at the menu. "That cappuccino with the whipped cream looks good. What do you think?"

Vinyl absently mumbled an agreement. "So, you. Where's your home?"

"Here, now." Yellowjacket shrugged. "Before, I lived over in Hoofington."

"Before?"

"The Dawn's Light, of course!" Yellowjacket smiled, placing her order. "What else?"

Vinyl swallowed, nervously ordering a latte. "You just talk like that in public?"

"And why not?" The cashier asked, winking.

Vinyl jumped while Yellowjacket let out a snicker. "Mocha, I told you to be more careful with the newbies."

Mocha, a light brown stallion with a light blue mane, nodded in response. He then gestured at a table in the corner of the cafe.

Vinyl and Yellowjacket sat down, the latter immediately looking comfortable while the former was still undoing the knot in her stomach. Taking a deep breath, Vinyl breathed in some of her latte, using it to clam her down. For a moment she contemplated pulling her headphones out of her saddlebags and listening to some music, but she still had a conversation to keep.

Just as Vinyl was about to open her mouth, Yellowjacket started talking for her. "It feels so far away, doesn't it?"

"What?"

"The danger. Look around, Vinyl. Ponies, just going about their days. Less than one in a thousand even know about the struggle we are in. Fewer if you just want us."

"So, it's everywhere?" Vinyl asked incredulously. "There's no way. The princesses--"

"Must not know." Yellowjacket finished, shooting down Vinyl's sentence. "We have no way of knowing how they'll react to us. They might protect us, they might see monsters and destroy us. The same logic keeps the Dawn's Light from giving themselves--and in turn, us--away to the rest of the world." Sighing, she frowned. "But no, it's not everywhere. Appleloosa, Cloudsdale, Ponyville and countless other towns don't have any of us. Vampires or otherwise."

Vinyl hooked onto her last words. "Or otherwise?" She thought to herself. "So, I was right?"

"Las pegasus is a warzone, though."

Vinyl furrowed her brow. "Las pegasus?"

"Yeah. Eastern sides where most of our fights against the Light take place. The western is overrun with ferals and the south... I don't even want to talk about it. Yet those gamblers are apparently too drunk or too high to notice."

Vinyl was about to ask what she meant by 'ferals', when a familiar pair of stallions plopped down in the seats on either side of her.

"Hey, Scratch? Make it without a scratch?" Plow asked, grinning.

Silver spear snorted with amusement. Vinyl leaned back in her chair, grinning herself as her legs wrapped around the stallion's shoulders, one for each.

"Yeah. Too bad about those bumps on your heads though, huh?"

Plow's smile immediately turned upside down. "Well, shit."

Silver Spear gave the two of them a questioning glance. "Wha--"

He was cut off when Vinyl slipped under the table, pulling the two stallions towards each other. Silver was shocked, Plow was resigned. The two of them crashed into each other headfirst and fell to the floor. Vinyl popped up on the other side of the table, laughing. Yellowjacket had her mouth held shut with a hoof.

Plow was the first to rise. "Thank you for the concussion and ensuing mental problems. Hopefully it won't turn into a genetic thing and get passed along to the kids."

Biting her tongue to prevent herself from pointing out the scientific impossibility of that scenario, Vinyl watched as Silver Spear slowly rose with a long and drawn out groan.

They all heard Mocha yell out from behind the counter. "Two bits off, for the next thirty minutes only. Get your coffee decked with an extra serving of your choice of cream, whipped or otherwise, sugar or--our house favorite--cherries!"

Vinyl glanced at Yellowjacket. "Cherries? In coffee?"

The yellow mare shrugged. "It's actually pretty popular around here. No idea why."

Several customers rose to accept the unexpected discount, one even throwing a "thanks!" to the quartet of ponies in the corner. Mocha shared a high hoof with another stallion, allowing Vinyl to glance his 'manager/proprietor' nametag. The other stallion had an 'assistant manager' tag.

"They have any other employees?" Vinyl asked.

Plow rubbed the back of his neck. "Two others. Probably in back or something."

Vinyl took a drink of her latte. "They...you know?"

Plow grimaced. "What? Oh, no. Jeez, I can't even imagine any of those three being a part of all this. Especially Bucky Star. Poor mare would probably have a fit if she ever found about this. I really wonder how Mocha does it."

"So, you just have normal lives?" Vinyl asked. "Like any other pony?"

"Vinyl, I told you this already, remember?" Yellowjacket said. "On the train?"

"Yeah, yeah, but to hear it from multiple sources..." Vinyl took another drink. "How'd I get involved?"

Plow, Silver Spear and Yellowjacket all shared glances. In the end, they all shrugged. Plow then left to place an order for himself, leaving Silver and Vinyl alone with Yellowjacket.

Vinyl had one more question to ask. "Is there a reason you're all earth ponies? Or do you just like not having any magic users or flyers in here?"

Silver Spear immediately cast a surprised glance at Yellowjacket, who also seemed to sit up just a bit straighter. Silver then sighed. "I thought you said you wanted that thing off as soon as possible?"

"I did!" The mare shot back.

"Then why not on the train?"

"I... You..." Try as she might, Yellowjacket couldn't come up with a good reason for her absentmindedness. In reality, it was Vinyl's questions that had driven the thought from her brain, but she wouldn't think that was a valid excuse in Silver Spear's eyes. So, she silently ran her hooves across her stomach until she stumbled across a zipper, located just below her chest. Pulling the zipper down, a portion of her coat fell away, allowing two wings to breathe in fresh air since their entombment in the disguising piece of cloth. Which now looked like a zip up corset.

"What?" Vinyl asked, lowering the opaqueness on her glasses to let more light in.

"Why did Crystal Shard have to make this thing for me?" Yellowjacket muttered, a disgusted look on her face as she held the obviously enchanted cloth in front of her. "What's the point of hiding wings?

Silver Spear shook his head, smiling. Plow returned, right on cue to ask "What'd I miss?" as he sat down.

Vinyl facehoofed. This group she was with was worse than some of her friends in Canterlot! Then again, some of her friends were worse than this, so it balanced out.

"So that's why you need to wear that thing outside of Manehatten. Got it?" Plow finished as Yellowjacket pouted. After a few seconds of thinking, Vinyl finally realized that in a few short moments, she had missed a chunk of conversation that might have been interesting. Or boring. It was hard to tell with reasons for another's behavior.

Licking her lips, Vinyl looked out a nearby window. There, one of the skyscrapers she had gaped at earlier stood on the other side of the street, several ponies walking and trotting along on their personal day to day routines. One pony ran by in a full sprint, followed closely by a pair of guards.

Vinyl raised her glasses to her forehead. Manehatten was just full of surprises when you stopped to take everything in.

"Equestria to Scratch!"

"Whoa, wha?" Vinyl asked, spinning around to face the trio of ponies sitting at the same table as her.

Plow raised an eyebrow. "Did you hear any of that?"

"What?"

Plow's shoulders sagged.