Had there been any glass left whole in the building, it would have certainly cracked. Octavia had a considerable pair of lungs. The vampire watched the grey mare thrash about wildly and paw at the places on her body where wounds should be. If her purple shades were not specially constructed for just such sonic extremes, the vampire might have had to pick shards out of her eyes. Octy looked like a black-maned little puppy. D'awww, look at her little pink bow, an' her raggedy mane, and that waggily tail! As her friend blubbered on the floor, a whispering chill worked up Vinyl's spine. She glanced around, then shut her eyes and listened carefully. Her hearing was excellent, but she needed more than just her ears.

The pale mare pushed her hat to one side as she tugged her headphones off, then dropped flat against the ground. It was a low rumble, far away, but getting closer. Vinyl reached back through her memories, trying to find a match. There were many ways a sound could be bent, battered, or outright broken, and the DJ knew almost all of them. Even so, it was not until Octavia collapsed into a little ball and began stroking the remains of her tail that the pale mare finally found a match for the rumbling noises. Her eyes widened, and the vampire cursed her own stupidity yet again as she darted to the earth pony's side.

"We gotta move."

The cellist stared up at her, tail tucked close under her chin, eyes wide and glassy. Vinyl had been expecting that look for some time. Octavia had finally allowed herself to comprehend everything that had happened tonight. The earth pony's lips were moving, but no sound came until the unicorn nudged her belly with her nose. Now was the worst time for Octy to go mad from the revelation.

"C'mon! This place is gonna get some rowdy visitors soon, and we need to be not-here when they show up."

The grey mare swallowed hard, eyes almost as big as albums. "M-more? More like you?"

"Nah." The vampire smirked, pride swelling. "There ain't nopony else like me. I'll tell you later, we need to go," she knelt down and pulled the mare upright. Octavia wobbled, then looped her front legs around Vinyl's neck.

"Then... like him? Are they coming to keep the masquerade, to cover all this up?" She giggled. "You made quite a mess, you know. They must have such a time with you."

The DJ shook her head and started to tug her friend over the rubble. There had to be a backstage exit, maybe a sewer line or something. The street out front would soon be filled with enough firepower to fight a small war, courtesy of one wriggling tentacle from an all-seeing and heavily armed monstrosity. "No, Octy. It's... it's not like you think. There is no secret society, only a food chain. No rules, just 'guidelines', and no sanctuary." She hissed out a breath in frustration at the silly look still plastered across the grey mare's muzzle. The irony of the situation was not lost on the DJ. Usually it was Octavia who was dragging her away from the scene of a crime. "Look. Octy, focus, look at me. We need to go. There's no vampire society, but there's a lot of societies that want creatures like me dead." She grabbed a fallen lighting canister with a glow of her horn and tossed it out of their way. "They follow certain rules about when they move, how they strike, and who they go after. They can't just whack somepony on the street... most of the time. But I bit you. That makes you a target too. We need to go."

No dice. She still had a wry grin smeared over her face, and her legs wobbled when the unicorn forced her to move. Vinyl knew Octy never touched real alcohol. This was the closest the vampire had ever seen her friend to "smashed". Shock could really do a number on the brain. The vampire bit her lip, searching for something to say that would pull the earth pony back down to the ground.

Nothing. How did Octy make this look so easy?

When she and Octavia first met, the unicorn was a successful DJ who loved to live big. The earth pony was struggling to make her way in the world with little more than a high-school diploma and an incredible talent for music. For a while, Vinyl had let her stay at her penthouse whenever there was a concert, or if one of them could think of a reasonable excuse for a sleepover. For the pale mare, it was a chance to be close to somepony who really cared about her. She wrapped herself in mystery at the clubs, ostracizing many ponies out of fear that she would lose control. It was easier for her to have one mare she could never bite than to hold herself back from the many who wished to brush shoulders with DJ-P0N3. Oddly enough, even though she never truly understood the reason behind the pale mare's social struggles, Octavia could empathize. She lacked the university parchment that was all but a requirement to play her music in the higher strata of society. Time after time, she had watched parts go to other players because they had a piece of paper that she had never been given a chance to earn. Her parents had never approved of her musical interests. Vinyl had offered to put her friend through university, but she had declined. The earth pony wanted to make her own way through life, to prove that she truly was master of her own fate. It seemed silly, but all Octavia ever confided about her past was that she had grown up without freedom, and was extremely hesitant to surrender what little she had now to anypony.

It was for the best, since not too long after Vinyl made the offer, she found herself under a sudden crushing financial burden. An accident with an experimental gadget had blown the vampire out of her high-rise's window just before the secondary explosion had taken the top off the tallest skyscraper in Manehattan. Surviving that had made her embarrassingly famous in the club scene, and drawn in massive crowds. Unfortunately, most of the money from those shows went to paying off the massive debit that usually accompanies destroying a piece of extremely expensive real estate. Furthermore, no landlord in her right mind would rent to the DJ, and it was only her parents' connections that kept her from being labeled a domestic terrorist.

The vampire pulled her friend onward, the grey mare still giggling quietly under her breath. She had shown up on Octavia's doorstep a week after the explosion. It had taken that long for her parents to smooth things over with the police. Dad had a real way with words. When words reached their limit, Mom took a far more aggressive approach. The rules for her kind were simple, stay out of the public eye and try to live in harmony. It was strange enough that she had managed to survive the fall, swinging from banner to banner before crashing into an awning, but looking at her bloodwork had sent the labcolt into gibbering fits. She was forged of eldritch energies, and it was not healthy for mortals to ponder those energies too carefully. Merely comprehending her existence could drop unprepared minds into madness. That was the cruel joke of it all. There was no need for a secret society to protect vampires from exposure. The vast majority of ponies instinctively blinded themselves to the paranormal to protect their sanity. They already lived in a world of evil sorcerers, a heroic Sun Princess, and ravenous manticores. Vampires were a step too far, and those creatures of Discord's taint that were not content to live in the shadows quickly found themselves immolated by the searchlights of those who dared to stare into the abyss.

All these things flashed through the vampire's mind in less time than it took to help her friend over a fallen boulder. Most of her thoughts were occupied with hoping that Octavia could cling to her sanity. Some ponies were able to handle the sudden shock, others lost their marbles and never found them again. Yet for all those who shied away from the call of the dark corners of the earth, there were a few who sought it out, thinking that the candles they carried kept them safe. Ponies had these quaint little ideas. They thought that by labeling something they could understand it. If a note is slapped on the back of a dragon reading, "harmless, poke with sticks" it is either a cruel prank or the final words of somepony about to be devoured. That urge to discover was part of the reason her parents whisked her out of the judicial system as quickly as they could. Far too many questions could be asked at a trial.

Vinyl remembered quite clearly leaving the Manehattan precinct house, her head hanging low and a spare pair of her mother's shades covering her eyes. The sun was setting, and she could see the jagged spire-tip that used to be her home in the distance. Her mother walked on her left, and her father on her right. Not until they were they out of earshot of the police did her father begin giving her an earful. He oscillated between joy at her survival, and anger at her recklessness. He dissected, corrected, lauded, and coddled. She was his little girl, always and forever. Mother was quiet, calm, staring up at the stars while her husband had carried on. A few of her servants, for there really was no other name for the retinue of hangers-on that the ancient vampire treated as a curious extension of her will, returned with icecream. They found a suitable rooftop and sat together, enjoying the sweet treat as the moon rose. Mom had a flair for the dramatic, but she knew how to make her point. Those few moments were anchored in Vinyl's memory far more strongly than her father's critique.

They loved her. She loved them. They wanted the best for her. She had messed up. Her mother had worked on the Great Crusade's Manehattan Project. Vinyl had given that phrase an entirely new meaning.

Yes, she was in big trouble.

But she was their daughter. Everypony made mistakes. Vinyl had done wonderful things here, made much of the opportunities offered. Everything she had, she had earned. Well, perhaps there had been a little behind the scenes conniving, but can you blame an old mare for wanting the best for her daughter? Even if these new "clubs" were odd, there were plenty of flashing lights and noisy instruments. It reminded the ancient vampire of the way the Dragons celebrated a victory during the Great Crusade. Except there was almost no blood, fewer skulls, and a distinct lack of creatures nearly choking to death from trying to eat a quartz vein while headbanging. More importantly than all that, it was what her little Vinyl wanted to do. No child ever asked to be born, or even conceived for that matter. She had spent a thousand years searching for a way to give her daughter the life that was stolen, it was hers to spend as she wished. Everypony made mistakes. Blowing up a skyscraper seemed to be one that attracted a lot of unwanted attention. Curious, but the old vampire supposed that these modern ponies had grown soft. They were not used to Discordant cultists setting off antimatter bombs in their villages, or plotting a spell that would turn all the hydroponic farm's water into living fire that hungered for the flesh of innocents.

The attention needed to be bled off. They would pay off her debits, relocate her to a new city. This was only her first try, and nopony was badly hurt. Best to let it be forgotten, and start life again somewhere else, perhaps on Equestria's other coast. Why, Santa Manica was perfect for a fledgeling. There was even a nasty vampire Prince lurking in the shadows, trying to take control of that part of the country. A bit of subterfuge, and Vinyl would fit in perfectly as one of the less-harmonic bloodlines. Bah, in the old days they could have just stormed the city in the name of the Nightbringer, weapons barking. Soft, these modern ponies were, but all the more precious for it. They did not live under constant threat of death, rather it was the evil things who feared the righteous judgement of those who had claimed the world in the name of liberty! Yes, yes, she would keep her voice down, sorry dahling.

Vinyl had a different solution. She would pay back the money herself, and stay in Manehattan. The DJ had made a name for herself here. More than that, she had friends. One really good friend that she could not leave. Still, there was a problem. Nopony in her right mind would lease her an apartment. Her mother had offered an obvious solution with a wide smile. Her father mentioned that he was looking to acquire a few buildings anyway, might as well buy up some habitation towers. Vinyl had said no to both. She wanted to earn her own way, safe in the knowledge that she had her parents to lean on if she needed them. This was her life to live, and she wanted to mix the songs she had been dealt. Besides, it was only money. Vinyl knew how to make money.

That was why she went to Octavia. After reading about the horrible explosion in the newspapers, the grey mare had been overjoyed to see the unicorn alive and well. She had been half-right, but Vinyl had decided against correcting her on the 'alive' bit. Her situation was simple. The DJ needed a place to stay. Even with her monthly tithes, she would be more than able to afford the entire rent of the best suite in Octavia's building. All she needed was somepony to convince the landlady that renting to the mare who was responsible for that smoldering crater in the sky was somehow an acceptable risk. Vinyl had never seen the room Octavia lived out of before. The cellist had a sleeping bag for a bed, a half-working refrigerator, and a nonaggression pact with the Union of Soviet Spiders and Rats. It was signed by "General Secretary Charlotte XIII and Commissar Templeton".

After seeing that, Vinyl had expected her to jump at the chance. Instead, the cellist had laid out her terms. She would pay a third of the rent, since her conscience would not let her accept Vinyl's charity. More than that, she knew that it would give her leverage whenever the unicorn got out of hoof. It was still less than what she had paid for her far humbler abode. The vampire readily agreed. So, sweet Octavia, the perfect tenant that every landlady would give her eyeteeth for, hoodwinked the mare who owned the apartments. The two musicians were roomies. Somehow, they had managed to live in harmony for far longer than either had ever imagined possible.

Vinyl huffed out some of the air in her lungs and drew in a fresh breath. "Octy." She hugged the earth pony tight. "I... You've always been there for me, okay? I need you to trust me now. We gotta go." The vampire bit her lip. "I can handle what's coming. You can't. You're... you're my best friend, and I'm not gonna lose you. Not to the monster in me, or a stray las round. Okay?"

The earth pony nodded, eyes still glassy. "I do trust you, Vinyl." A wan grin crossed her face. "And... and thank you, thank you for all you have done for me this night." She leaned against the vampire, limbs still weak. "I... I cannot get those images out of my head. When he just stood up from the front row, leapt right onto the stage, I... V-Vinyl, I have seen many horrible things, but what..."

"It hurt because you felt safe here." The pale mare nodded thoughtfully. "Y'know... it wasn't getting blown out of my window that really got under my skin. It was 'cause the explosion happened in my penthouse. I felt like nothing bad could happen there, but all it took was one slip... well, okay, more than one slip, but still, I didn't expect it. That hurt worse than gettin' turned into a kinetic projectile."

Octavia whimpered softly. "And now it is all gone. Gone, gone," the grey mare sung softly, "ashes, ashes, we all fall down."

"Not you. You got back up."

"Because you helped me, Vinyl."

The vampire grinned as she pulled the earth pony atop a fallen chunk of scaffolding that had once held the Concertorium's massive curtain. She was sure that Blueblood's face was on it somewhere, but that part seemed to be buried under rubble. "Least I could do."

"Vinyl," her friend smiled, "y-you know I will always be there for you." She swallowed hard as the vampire looked around for a back exit that remained intact. "But... what will become of us now?"

"There's ARG... there's these groups." Vinyl said quickly. "They come down hard on weird stuff. Equestria's got enough problems. Manticores, dragons... hades, I've even heard about these things called Changelings. Vampires, zombies, brainsuckers... we live in a crazy world, Octy." She waved out at the concert hall. "Stuff like this? Way too much of the wrong kind of attention." A glint of red caught her eye, behind the rubble of a scaffold that had fallen backstage. Maybe an exit? "There's one group who only thinks about crushing the problem as brutally as possible. I can feel them coming. After we're gone from here, we'll figure something out. They have rules they have to follow. Thin as those rules are, I know how to play by them."

The grey mare let out a long sigh, then chuckled. This was all so absurd, and yet she knew too well how true it was. "Spy games, Vinyl? Is that what you have been playing at all these years? Saving the world, then darting into the night before the monster police arrive?" She glanced up at the sky. "Am I an agent of intrigue now, too?"

The vampire quickly shook her head. "No. No, Octy, no way I'm letting you near this. You're a soft target, and you don't know what you're getting into."

Octavia breathed in slowly, her eyes starting to focus again as she stared at the blood on her friend's fetlock. "No, Vinyl. It is you," she weighted her words carefully, "who does not know what she has gotten into."

Author's Notes:

There's a treat in store for you faithful readers. As mentioned in past blogs, I've been working on multiple chapters at once, so I can release them on a more aggressive schedule. What does this mean?

Monday. 2013-05-20. Another chapter. +5k words.

How was this chapter? More of what you love? A horrible travesty that should be expunged from the Internet? Did anybody catch the VtM:Bloodlines and Charlotte's Web references on their first time through? Toss me some feedback, it's what I live on, and as always, thanks for reading!