Gloaming

by Rambling Writer

13 - A Minefield Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Turned? They- They couldn’t be talking about- Me? Becoming a vampire? Shit. No. That couldn’t happen. Not right now.

“She cannot be turned yet!” said Homeguard. “She is not ready!”

“And what does ‘ready’ have to do with it?” asked Rebirth. “We need to do it now. It’s how we’ve always handled this.”

I didn’t know what it would entail, but it couldn’t be good, not if it was something that’d keep me quiet. It might only be me becoming a part of vampire society and shutting up, but that was still too much.

“Maybe it is time to change our ways,” Homeguard replied. He was moving jerkily and looked like he would’ve been sweating if he wasn’t a vampire. “In the centuries since we were born, Equestria has changed for the better. Perhaps, now-”

“Would you bet your life on it?” said Tributary.

The pony known as Swan Dive would just vanish completely. Without a chance to say goodbye or apologize, I’d have to leave everything I knew behind. My family, my friends, my job, my- Hold up…

Hailey’s note flashed back to me: Vampirization time: ~3 paralyzed days. Which meant… “Turning me into a vampire would be even worse than killing me,” I blurted.

The other conversation ground to a halt. Tributary eyed me suspiciously. “Why?”

I took a deep breath and hoped to the stars that I was interpreting Hailey’s note correctly. “Because turning into a vampire takes three days, and you’re paralyzed all the while.”

Homeguard flinched as if struck, and both Rebirth and Tributary turned on him. “You already told it?” screamed Rebirth. “What were you thinking?”

Crap. I might’ve just run our luck out. If Homeguard hadn’t told me, how would I know? Think think think-

“For someone who claims she won’t be a threat, even unturned,” said Tributary accusingly, “you seem pretty intent on making sure she knows things about us. First our weaknesses, and now this.”

Ponies had heard of vampires. Stories had gotten out. A lot of those stories were incorrect. But some weren’t. So maybe-

“I told her nothing about the process of the change!” And for once, Homeguard’s protests sounded convincing. “I do not know how she knows! I swear it!”

“I did research,” I said quickly. “Homeguard was all, ‘I’m a vampire, don’t tell anypony or you’ll be dead’, and I- I did my own research. Vampires are based on legends, and legends are usually based on fact, so I figured I’d try to find out which facts were the right facts. I- gradually pieced it together from lots of different stories and guessed.” I wanted to add, Did I guess right?, but wanted more to not push my luck. Behind everyone else, Hailey leaned into the doorway, grinned at me, then leaned away.

“You knew vampires existed the night before last,” Tributary said suspiciously. “When did you do your research?”

“Yesterday,” I replied. “All day yesterday. I didn’t have any work and I was free. What, did you think he’d take me out to lunch and answer every question on vampires I had?”

Homeguard’s ears twitched and his mouth became very thin, but Tributary seemed convinced. “Fine. And why is it worse?”

“Exact same reasons. I’ll suddenly be gone — ponies saw me this morning, even — and the Court will get suspicious. And if I suddenly turn up again three days later without a story of why I was gone for three days, they’ll get even more suspicious.” Another opportunity presented itself, and I seized it. “Ponies and changelings might be allies, but there could still be some changelings loyal to… whoever their princess is. The Court will think I’m a changeling, they’ll run some tests, and boom! No more vampire secrecy.” I had no idea if the Court would ever reach that conclusion — it was farfetched even before the coup — but it was worth a shot.

“Oh, come on!” yelled Rebirth. “This is ridiculous! It’s making it up as it goes along!”

Tributary’s reaction was more reasonable, thankfully. Her eyes narrowed slightly. “You have put us in a pickle, haven’t you?” she whispered.

I shrugged and grinned nervously. “Sorry?”

“Oh, listen,” muttered Rebirth. “It’s sorry. Sure. Why don’t we apologize to all-”

“Enough, Rebirth,” said Tributary. “We won’t put our species in even more danger just to satisfy your bloodlust.” Rebirth opened her mouth, but Tributary was already ignoring her. To me, she said, “You’re right, of course. At the moment, either your death or your turning would attract too much attention. For now, at least, you can live as a pony.”

Homeguard slouched over in relief and I barely hid breathed a sigh of thanks. My heartbeat slowed; I hadn’t even noticed it racing until now.

“But-” -and the way Tributary said it implied decades, probably centuries of power speaking in a way you couldn’t just ignore- “-if you even think about telling another pony about us, I will find you and I will kill you. I don’t care if you’re in the middle of an audience with every single princess simultaneously, you’re dead.” She leaned close enough to almost bump muzzles with me. I recoiled; I could faintly smell something like rancid meat on her breath. “Got it?”

I nodded quickly. “G-got it,” I said.

Tributary grunted. “We’re done here,” she said. “Come on, Rebirth.”

“Hang on a sec.” Turning to Homeguard, Rebirth said, “Hey, uh, I’m feeling a bit peckish.” She smiled. “Hope you don’t mind if I-”

“Should you kill anypony in Delta,” said Homeguard, standing up, his face knit with anger, “and I will kill you just as thoroughly as you were planning to kill Swan.”

“I’ll help!” Hailey said from a room over.

Tributary gave Rebirth a nervous, “don’t push it” look, but she was too wrapped up in herself. “That escalated quickly,” she said, and laughed. “What, you’ll kill me just because I make different lifestyle choices than you? Somepony’s overreacting!”

“My lifestyle has nothing to do with it. You remember the old ways of hospitality, yes?” Homeguard asked quietly. “You remember the old ways of everything else. The host is gracious to his guest, regardless of how much he despises her. The guest follows her host’s rules, regardless of how much they inconvenience her. I cannot tell you to stay away from ponies on your own time. But while you are forcing yourself upon me and my family, while you are making yourselves comfortable under my roof, you will follow my rules. You can be civilized. Or you can be dead. And I know how to give a proper burial.”

Right on cue, Hailey slid into the room from the kitchen, her hooves wrapped around a shovel. “Does somevamp need a grave dug?” she asked brightly, waving the shovel. “ ’Cause I’m reeeaaally good at that!”

Tributary looked nervously back and forth between me and Homeguard, but Rebirth chuckled. “If you even try to go after us,” she said, “you’ll need your own grave soon enough.”

“I have been prepared for death for quite some time. Have you?” said Homeguard.

“A-as a matter of fact, yes,” snapped Rebirth. “Even though I, unlike you, accepted who I was and attempted to keep go-”

“Rebirth,” said Tributary. “Leave him.”

“But then he’ll win!” Rebirth yelled. “I can’t let him! I need to show him how wrong he is, I need to-”

“No, you don’t,” said Tributary. “He’s not worth it. Are you really going to let him get to you? That’s pretty pathetic.”

Rebirth glared at Homeguard. “I swear, one of these days, I’ll-”

“So does somevamp need a grave dug or not?” Hailey said loudly. “I had to walk ten whole yards to get this-” She waved the shovel again. “-from the shed! That’s, like, thirty feet! That’s three tens! And that’s terrible!”

“You quiet down! This is-”

Hailey spun the shovel around and poked Rebirth with the haft. The wooden haft. Which had been sharpened to a point. “Ten seconds,” she said, smiling nastily. “After that, we won’t need a grave for you.” She leaned over and said to Tributary, behind Rebirth, “Not you, though! Well, okay, we won’t need a grave for you, either, but for totally differ-”

Rebirth gnashed her teeth at Hailey — sweet Celestia, was she ridiculous— and turned, leaving the room in a huff. Tributary cleared her throat. “I… apol-”

“Do not apologize for her,” said Homeguard. “When I need an apology, I will demand it from her. You do not need to stand by her. You can join us, live a life free of murder.”

“It’s not murder any more. We’re above them. A pony is just an animal with a very high opinion of itself.”

I opened my mouth — somepony running around killing animals just because they could would still be committing animal cruelty — but remembered Homeguard’s warning. I closed my mouth.

“You know, dude,” said Hailey, “have you considered just how weird you sound? You were a pony, so you used to be an animal and you’re not because… potatoes? I don’t even remember being a pony and I think that’s a headscratcher!”

In a long-suffering tone, Tributary said, “We were uplifted. We were given gifts far beyond ponykind. Don’t deny it; you both use them yourselves. It’s our right to be treat them as we want. They die in less than a century; who are they to tell us how to live?”

After a moment, Hailey nodded. “Oooooh, I see. Because poh-tah-toes. Gotcha.”

“And so we find ourselves at an impasse, as usual,” said Homeguard. He pointed at the door. “You may have infinitely more of my respect than Rebirth, but you should leave.”

“It’s a shame, isn’t it?” asked Tributary, grinning wrly. “The ones we most want on our side are the ones least likely to come over.” She looked at me and sighed. “I wish I knew why you… protect them. They’re our food.”

“I was once one of them,” said Homeguard. “I have fond memories of my former life and I prefer to not cannibalize.”

“You’re not a pony anymore, it’s not cannibalism. Ponies or animals, either way, they’re less than us! Why bother hunting animals when you can just find and kill some bum in the city? Nopony’s going to miss them.”

“Um, hey,” I said, waving a hoof. “I’m right here.”

Tributary blinked owlishly at me. “Yeah, I know.”

“So do you mind not talking about killing and eating my species?”

Tributary’s wings twitched. “…Why?”

It really, truly hit me, then. I was sapient — fully sapient, cognizant, intelligent, capable of language and reasoning and abstract thought — but Tributary paid no more attention to me than I did the celery on my plate at dinner. We were the same thing: food, nothing more.

“You should leave,” Homeguard said levelly. He looked calm, but the same way a big cat looks calm before pouncing. Hailey looked away and whistled “innocently”.

“Fine, then. Goodbye.” Tributary gave a small bow and brushed past me to get to the door. She flinched slightly and Homeguard gasped, but nothing came of it. She was gone before I knew it.

Already, Homeguard was staring at me. “She can’t read you, either,” he said, as if he’d just learned some interesting fact. “Fascinating. Truly fascinating.”

“What? What do you mean-”

“Tribble’s vamp superpower,” said Hailey, “is to read allllll the thoughts you’ve ever had in there.” She lightly poked me on the forehead.

I swatted her away. “Everything?” I asked. “How-”

“Dunno. Magic?”

“-can she keep it- all… straight.” I stared at Hailey and opened my mouth.

“Because getting interrupted all the time and never saying anything is super annoying, even if all your questions get answered,” replied Hailey. “So I let people say stuff, even though I know what they’re going to say before they do.”

I closed my mouth.

“Clairvoyance rules,” she said with a grin. “Anyways, Tribble needs to touch you to read your mind, but when she bumped you, she couldn’t see anything.”

“It must be related to my own inability to read you,” said Homeguard thoughtfully. “Perhaps you have a natural immunity to mental magic. I suspect-”

“I- What? No.” Somehow, even among vampires, mental magic simply having no effect on me just seemed too out there. “That’s ridiculous. Why me? How?”

“How can an earth pony and a unicorn have a pegasus child? Why is it possible that the parents’ colors have no effects on their children’s?” Homeguard shrugged. “I will make no pretense in completely understanding how magic works. Perhaps you simply won a metaphysical lottery before you were born.”

“Okay. Immune to mental magic. Cool.” My voice was flat. “So, uh, who were those gals? Yeah, they were talking about killing me, but aside from that, I had no clue what was going on.”

“They were the leaders of a group known as Crystalline,” said Homeguard. His lip curled. “An ancient, cobwebbed organization from the early days of vampirism. They reckon themselves royalty, and with the powers of some of the vampires under their command, they can back that claim up. They enforce the secrecy of vampires in Equestria — with violence, if need be. If a pony becomes aware of vampires, Crystalline declares they must be turned into one themselves or be killed. For them, concealment is paramount.”

“Ah. Okay.” The would-be “rulers” of vampires. Tributary, at least, made sense — forceful, yet reasonable — but I was surprised they lasted long with someone like Rebirth leading them. Maybe it was related to her power. I’d have to ask Homeguard once this died down a little. However- “But how could they know about River so quickly? He only died, what, thirty-six hours ago? Do they have, what’s the term, scriers?”

“They do…” Homeguard turned to Hailey. “But you said they were not watching us when River died.”

“For the last time, my visions aren’t perfect,” said Hailey defensively. “And they only made the decision to come yesterday afternoon, or I’d’ve seen it sooner. Besides, since they don’t — didn’t — know Swanny existed, they couldn’t look for her. I know they couldn’t know she knew-”

“-unless somebody told them,” said Homeguard, standing up as if shocked. His ears went perfectly vertical and he twitched his tail. “Were there any other vampires in Delta?”

“There shouldn’t’ve been. I spent a long time searching the ether for them.”

I took a chance. Based on the eye color, it seemed logical. “What about Speckle?”

Homeguard and Hailey both snapped to look at me so quickly I swear I could hear the air cracking. “Who?” asked Homeguard.

“Speckle,” I repeated. “River’s… girlfriend, I think. Or maybe he was her boyfriend, she seemed to be dominant-”

“Did you see her?” Homeguard asked. “What color were her eyes?”

“Red- No, sanguine.”

“Son of a-” Homeguard whirled on Hailey. “Why did you not see her?”

“The same reason you didn’t hear her,” said Hailey. “She’s really sneaky. Maybe her power’s related to being stealthy.”

“Perhaps.” Homeguard stared at the floor and paced. “Maybe… if she cannot be found if you do not know where she is…”

“So… does she matter at all?” I asked. “If she’s not around-”

“Most vampires…” Homeguard said slowly, “do not take kindly to slights, particularly from ponies. She most likely associates you with River’s death and holds you responsible in some twisted way.”

“So she’s going to come at you with a bunch of vicious vampire vengeance violence!” said Hailey. (I blanched.) “Or maybe just let slip about what happened to Crystalline and get them to kill you for her.” (That wasn’t much better.)

“That is… a distinct possibility,” Homeguard said, tapping his hoof on the floor. “And, if so, now that her first plan has failed-”

My mouth felt dry; I swallowed. Nothing quite like hearing a vengeful psycho (who, oh yeah, also happens to be a vampire) is coming to kill you to get your blood moving. “S-so, um… what’re we gonna-”

“We shall keep watch,” said Homeguard resolutely. “Physically and psychically. Even if we cannot detect her, perhaps we can track her movements.”

“Plus, she’ll want to go after us, too,” added Hailey. “And we’re the stronger ones, no offense, so she’ll probably kill us before getting you. Especially if we protect you.”

“Protect?” I asked. “Like bodyguards?” I liked the idea, but I didn’t want to force them into anything and having them follow me around would look suspicious.

“Not exactly,” said Homeguard. “More like… flies on the wall. You shall not see us, but we shall never be far from you if you need assistance.”

Which sounded a lot like stalking to me, but at least I knew they were doing it. Really, at this point, there wasn’t much one could do without being creepy in some way. “Well, thanks,” I said. “It- It really means a lot that you’d do something like that.”

Hailey shrugged. “Just because we don’t kill ponies doesn’t mean we’re okay with other vamps killing ponies. Murder is just not cool, you know? Trust us. We’ll protect you with our unlives. This ain’t our first rodeo. Our first rodeo was before rodeos.”

---

When we were done, I didn’t go straight back to the police station. I walked a few dozen yards down the path away from the house, then turned and went straight into the woods. I needed to think.

Crazy vampire lovers out for my blood. Wannabe vampire queens who would kill me if I looked sideways at them, and that was without them looking for an excuse. And my own issues with lying my tail off about Delta’s monster. Breaks? What were those? No, I had to have a constant waterfall of crap pour over me. Even my weekend had been abysmal. Finding that note on Saturday, fretting over vampires on Sunday… I hadn’t even been here a week and it felt like I’d been here a decade.

I mentally slapped myself. Stop whining, I said. Get your act together. Focus on one thing at time. Get a story for the monster. A first draft, at least.

I slipped into autopilot as I started thinking. Okay. Pick an animal. One you don’t like. Bear? Bear. Why didn’t it kill the predators? Um… it wasn’t hungry. So why was it attacking others when it wasn’t hungry? Um… bad ley energies. They… drove it into a bloodlust. Like rabies. It broke all those bones because it was a bastard. So what happened to the blood? Um… Hm. That’d need work. Why hadn’t the attacks occurred all the time? Because this close to the ocean, ley lines had their own ebbs and flows, like tides. (That was actually proven.) The ley energies didn’t interfere with each other all that much. Okay. Good start. Was I missing anything?

I stepped into a flower-filled clearing and, thanks to a sudden lack of clouds, got a faceful of sun. I flinched, blinked, and put up my hoof. The rain had stopped, there was a hole in the clouds, and sunlight was pouring into the clearing. It scattered off the raindrops and bounced everywhere, sending rainbows across every possible surface. It was like standing inside a diamond. I pivoted my ears around; the rustle of wind in the trees, a chattering squirrel, birdsong. Beautiful. I sat down, my back to a tree, and closed my eyes. I needed a quiet moment.

What about Speckle?

I sat bolt upright and looked around, my heart pounding. The rainbows colored the scene strangely, keeping me from getting a good look at anything. I listened; the wind and animals kept me from hearing anything quiet. The flowers seemed to mock me with their overt happiness.

Groaning, I planted my face in a hoof and dropped down. I didn’t think I was going to sleep well again until I had some way of knowing Speckle wasn’t going to hurt me. And from what little I knew of her, that would only happen if she was dead. Well, if a vampire was hunting me, out in the middle of the woods was the wrong place to be. I got to my feet and turned to head back for the path.

Homeguard came walking out of the forest, silent as mist. “Are you leaving already?” he asked. “It is beautiful, and I thought you might want to stay.”

“Well, it’s just- You know. Vampire stalking me, dense woods, horror-story scenario. I don’t want to tempt fate.”

“If I stayed and protected you, would you stay?”

“Sure. It is a nice place.”

We sat down with our backs to a tree. I reached out and plucked a few flowers from the grass around me. They were wildflowers, the taste wouldn’t be strong, but they’d make a nice snack. I started chewing on one. Yeah, nice and soft. I swallowed. “You know,” I said, “back in the house, from ‘our father’, it sounded like you, Tributary, and Rebirth were all turned by the same-”

Homeguard immediately tensed up. He went as still as a statue, without even his chest moving to show he was breathing. “I…” he said. “…would prefer to not talk about it.”

“Sorry,” I said quickly. “Just curious.” I nibbled on another flower. Pretty good, all things considered.

After a silent moment, Homeguard spoke up again. “A proposition,” he said. “This information exchange needs to be two-way. I shall tell you a short version of my history as a vampire if you answer a question of mine.”

My ears perked up. That was… pretty reasonable. “Alright, shoot.”

“How did your husband die?”

I felt like a knife was being pushed between my ribs. I knew he wasn’t doing it on purpose — he probably didn’t even know how recent it was — but still. “It’s not much,” I said. Maybe, if I could dissuade him, I wouldn’t need to say anything. “I could tell you in a few seconds. Just a sad, pointless accident. It’s not a fair trade.” Plus, I felt like it needed to be fair; he’d been telling me so much while I just sat and listened.

“Nevertheless,” Homeguard replied, “I wish to know. Those are my conditions.”

I didn’t really want to, but… I was probably making Homeguard do something he didn’t really want to do, either, if I went through with it. And the pain was going away. Yeah, I could do it. “Fine,” I said. “But you go first.”

Homeguard swallowed. “Very well. The vampire responsible for our… turning was one who, as far as I know, was one of the oldest vampires in the nation. Perhaps the first. He has a certain infamy in Equestrian history.”

And immediately my interest was piqued. A vampire who I might have heard of? Wow. I swallowed my flower and leaned forward, both my ears turned towards him, my tail twitching. “Really? Who was it?”

“Sombra.”

Comments

[DashEight]

I like Hailey. She’s just so enthusiastic about her murder shovel!

[draconequus07]

Sombra!? Now you've hooked me into this story even more!

[River Babble]

Sombra was a freaking vampire???? I did NOT see that coming! Clever, clever. Also Hailey is great. She kind of reminds me of Pinkie Pie, except a little less overtly childish, maybe? But that same silly level of do-crazy-silly-things and such. Interested to see where this goes!

[FanOfMostEverything]

The red-eyed vampires show a truly chilling lack of empathy in their double standard. I have to wonder how they feel about alicorns. Of course, if the potential to be turned doesn't dissuade them from preying on ponies, I doubt the potential for ascension will sway them any.

In any case, this promises to be a fascinating backstory indeed. Eagerly looking forward to seeing what Sombra did in this worldline.

[Bugsydor]

I suspected Sombra since the mention of the Crystalline. Amusingly enough, I've had a similar thing planned for MH:E for a while now.

Also amusingly, this gives you an excuse to make some vampires sparkle.

However, it also means that Sombra could come back, since his horn still survives...

[redmar]

Those vampires of Crystalline are a bunch of hypocrites that's clear. By their logic they should be considered more durable toys of Discord. I'm totally not surprised about Sombra since I read another story where he created unded vamponies. Sadly that story has been cancelled.