19 - Backlash
Levanta’s screams were still echoing around the area when I bolted for the house. In my hurry, I didn’t even bother removing the nailgun. Oh, Celestia, no, no, no. Not Levanta. How could I have been so fucking stupid to forget her? I thought she’d be safe with me close by, but-
Half a second before I blew the back door off its hinges, I heard someone yell, “Stop!”
I faltered, dug my hooves into the wet grass, slid, and hit the door. My cheek throbbed as I put my hoof on the knob. “What do you want?” I screamed, almost sobbed.
“Come in slowly,” said the voice. I might’ve been imagining things, but I thought I recognized Speckle. “We’re in the living room. Charge me, and I’ll turn your daughter.”
But- that meant Levanta wasn’t dead yet! But- that meant- I blinked back tears and cautiously pushed the door open. My hooffalls were heavier than usual, like I was trying to let Speckle know I was coming slowly.
I turned the corner. Speckle was in the center of the room, pinning Levanta beneath her. Levanta was whimpering, squirming, trying to get free — I could hear her wings beating fitfully — but Speckle held her effortlessly. She smirked. “Hey.”
My mouth was dry and my knees were knocking. “Wh-what do you want?”
“M-Mom?”
“Oh, you know what I want,” Speckle said, snickering. “You’re going to sit there and you’re going to watch as I drain your kid.”
“Don’t touch her!” I screamed shrilly. “Please! I- I’ll-”
“Too late for that.” Speckle leaned down and licked Levanta’s ear. Shocked by the sudden touch, Levanta redoubled her squirming. She got a hoof free and awkwardly punched back over her shoulder. It was feeble, haphazard, panicky. Even if the punchee hadn’t been a vampire, it would’ve been useless.
The pencil strapped to her hoof, though, drove right through Speckle’s eye.
I don’t know if it actually hurt or if it was pure reflex, but Speckle screeched, twisted away, and clapped a hoof to her eye. It was enough for Levanta to wrench herself free; a few flaps took her to the other side of the room in less than a second. And suddenly, there was nothing standing between me and Speckle.
I charged and slammed into Speckle before she could recover. The impact carried us all the way to the wall and we hit hard. One of her front legs was sticking out awkwardly and mine was near hers and it was the one with the nailgun attached and before I knew it, whchunk, I’d nailed her leg to the wall.
Speckle recovered quickly, snapping at my throat before I’d pulled the nailgun away. I pushed off her. Her teeth missed me by an inch. She tried to charge, but her leg was still pinned. Her head snapped around to look at the nails. She snarled, pulled. I jumped forward again. I shoved her other front leg against the wall. Whchunk.
I fell back. Speckle thrust her head forward, gnashing her teeth. She didn’t have the reach. I rolled over and swiped both her rear legs off the floor. The two nails in her front legs were the only things holding her up and I pressed the nailgun against her rear legs- Whchunk whchunk whchunk whchunk. Speckle screamed in rage and twisted. No leverage. I jumped to my feet again and batted her head aside. First one leg — whchunk whchunk — then the other — whchunk whchunk — and any leverage she had was gone.
I backed away, nailgun up. Speckle twisted and pulled. No dice; she had nothing to brace against. Super strength alone can only get you so far. She went limp, then looked up at me. With her destroyed eye and her crooked, lopsided grin, she looked damn near animalistic. “Heh. That’s a new one. Not bad.” She spat. “For a pony.”
I kept the nailgun aimed at her. “Keep your mouth shut, you-”
Levanta screamed. She was on the other side of room. Shaking. Pressed against the wall. Wide eyes. Shrunken pupils. Chest heaving. Wings twitching. Her gaze flicked back and forth between me and Speckle. “W-what’s g-going on?” she asked.
“Go to your room,” I said. I looked back at Speckle, resolving to not look away until Homeguard or Hailey returned. I couldn’t risk her getting away. “Lock your doors and windows. Don’t let anyone in except me. And if someone tries to get in, scream bloody murder.” I didn’t know how well it’d stop a vampire, but at least I’d know where Levanta was and she wouldn’t have to look at her own mother threatening a pony with a nailgun. Probably not the best choice at the time, but I was stressed.
“M-Mom? What-”
No, no. I didn’t have time for this. “Go. To. Your room. I can’t explain right now, but I promise I will later. Right now, go to your room.”
“I- I don’t-”
“Go to your sunblasted room!”
I immediately knew it was the wrong thing to say, but before I could take it back, I heard Levanta gasp and stumble up the stairs, maybe sobbing. I blinked a few times and wiped my eyes.
“Ooo,” said Speckle. “Damn. I barely touched her and I hit a nerve with a sledgehammer.” She snickered. “Yeah. Her blood’s gonna taste good.”
My regret drained almost immediately. There was a reason I was talking to Levanta like that, and that reason was nailed to the wall in front of me. I waved the nailgun in her face, just out of reach. “What makes you think you’re getting out?”
Speckle grinned. “It’s only a matter of time, really. You’re mortal, I’m not. I can wait. And when I get out of here…” She licked her lips. “I’m gonna drain that kid of yours dry, an-”
I nailgunned her in her good eye. “That’s for Clearwater.” Then I nailgunned her in her bad eye, just to be safe. “That’s for Levanta.” Nopony gets away with killing my friends. Nopony threatens my daughter.
The fact that she had nails sticking out of her eye sockets didn’t bother Speckle much. She was moving like she didn’t feel the pain. Given some of the things Homeguard had said, she probably didn’t. “I don’t need eyes,” she said, smirking. “I can still smell you just fine.” She sniffed exaggeratedly. “And let me tell you-”
I jammed the nailgun under her chin, forcing her head up. “I will not let you tell me. Shut up before I nail your jaw shut.”
She twitched, then laughed, but I could hear she was nervous. “Come on. Like you really-”
Whchunk. “Yeah. I really.” Honestly, vampire or not, you really shouldn’t argue with somepony who’s shoving a nailgun in your face.
Speckle made some muffled sounds, but with the nail pinning her jaw shut (and probably going through her tongue to boot), nothing coherent. I dropped on my rump and settled in to wait for Homeguard or Hailey to return.
I waited. And waited. And waited.
It was almost familiar for me. In stalking animals, you sometimes need to sit and wait and wait and wait. I had my terrible thoughts on Levanta to mull over, but I’d had terrible thoughts to mull over before. I waited. Speckle sometimes tried to move, but she had no slack. She tried growling at me once. Once. I nailgunned her through the throat.
I wanted nothing more than to run upstairs and hug Levanta and reassure her that everything was going to be okay, but that would mean leaving Speckle alone, and I didn’t want to take my eyes off of her for a second. For all I knew, she might decide to just rip off her legs (somehow) and let them grow back. Could vampires do that? Whatever the case, I wasn’t leaving until Homeguard or Hailey returned. As much as I hated it.
I waited. It felt like hours. I risked a glance at the clock; more than half past noon. Were Homeguard and Hailey coming back at all? It sounded like there were a lot of vampires in Seaddle, even if they were inexperienced. Maybe they couldn’t-
The door banged open and Homeguard was in the room. “Are you alright? Are you hurt?” he asked. “Our trip did not go as…” He swiveled to stare at Speckle. “…planned, so… we… suspected…” He blinked twice. “How… Why is there a vampire being crucified on your wall?”
I tossed the nailgun aside. “Meet Speckle. She attacked Levanta and me when I had a nailgun and she let herself get distracted for a second. It was enough.”
“…That merely raises further questions.”
“I’ll answer them later. Right now, I need to tell Levanta what’s going on.” I made for the stairs.
In a fraction of a second, Homeguard was blocking my way, a hoof on my chest. “No,” he said angrily. “You will not tell your daughter why Speckle is here.”
“Yes, I will.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You will tell her nothing,” said Homeguard.
“I’m telling her everything,” I said solidly.
“Give me one good reason,” snarled Homeguard, “that you should tell your daughter about us, expose us to the world, risk bringing Crystalline down upon us, destroy the secret we trusted you with.”
“Because she needs to know just why she got attacked in her own home and her mother had no problem attacking the assailant with a nailgun.”
Homeguard looked indignant, opened his mouth, and said nothing. He made a confused sort of sound, as if his lack of response puzzled him.
“You might think ignorance is bliss,” I said, “but it’s also terror. Levanta is not blissful.”
We stared at each other for several long moments. Homeguard stepped aside. I didn’t say anything to him as I climbed the stairs.
When I reached Levanta’s door, I put my ear to the crack. I couldn’t hear much; a few gasps, some heavy breathing. I knocked. “Levanta? It’s me. Can I come in?”
“N-no!” sobbed Levanta. “I- I don’t- M-Mom, what the fuck d-did you DO?”
“I can explain. It’s complicated.” I jiggled the knob. Locked. “Please, Levvi?”
Levanta whimpered. I couldn’t imagine what she was thinking. Was she scared of me? Did she think I would hurt her? It was hard to blame her, to be honest. I’d kept too much from her.
“Please,” I said. I pressed myself against the door. “I- I swear I’ll explain everything. It’s- I’m not going to hurt you, and-” Well, if she wasn’t thinking that before, she was now. Fuck, what was I supposed to say? “In my- In my job, I- found something that- that I shouldn’t have, and- and- P-please, Levanta, I- I-it’s… Everything’s okay n-now, I- I’m so sorry, and I n-need to t-talk to you…”
I heard a swish of wings and a faint click as the door was unlocked. I rubbed my face and cautiously pushed the door open. Levanta was on the far corner of her bed, trembling, curled in a fetal position and shielding her face with her wings. She peeped out between two feathers; what little I could see of her face was tearstained, her eyes were still wet, and her ears were pinned to the back of her head.
I didn’t move from the doorway. “I’m sorry, Levanta,” I said, “but please. Trust me.”
A moment’s hesitation. Levanta nodded jerkily, uncurled, and folded her wings back up, too tightly to be natural.
I sat in the corner of the room furthest from her. I didn’t know why. “Before I can tell you anything,” I said, “you need to know that everything I’m going to say is true. Okay?”
Levanta jerked her head up and down.
“We were attacked by a vampire.”
After a second, Levanta laughed bitterly. “M-Mom, I’m not a foal any-”
“Everything I say is true.” Levanta needed to accept this. She had to. What would she think of me otherwise? I wasn’t sure I could live with that. “She was a vampire. Her- Her boyfriend was the monster killing Delta’s animals. He was a vampire, too. She blamed me for his death, and- she was trying to make me suffer.” I swallowed. “She was the one who killed Clearwater.”
“S-so…” Levanta rubbed her eyes. “You… nailed her through the legs…”
“But didn’t hurt her,” I said quickly. I was vaguely aware of how rump-covering that sounded. Nothing for it. I’d rather sound clueless than psychotic. “Not really. I don’t think I could’ve done it to a normal pony.”
Levanta’s chest moved in and out a lot as she breathed. Her eyes were still on me, but I got the feeling she was lost in thought rather than looking at me. Her ears twitched and her wings slowly untensed. “M-Mom,” she said, and swallowed. “What, exactly, i-is going on?”
“Settle in,” I said. “This is going to take a while.”
I told her everything important, and a few things unimportant. How could I not? She was my daughter and she was nearing adulthood. I couldn’t lie to her now. I told her about Homeguard and Hailey. I told her about River and Speckle. I even told her about Tributary and Rebirth and Crystalline and Sombra. When she had questions, I answered them as best I could. Whatever fear she encountered in the future, it was not going to be because she was underinformed.
Levanta had a blank look on her face the whole time. I’d probably looked the same when Homeguard had first told me he was a vampire. At least she wasn’t skeptical. When I finally finished, she looked down at her bedspread for a few moments. “So…” She looked up. “Th-that mare… She really was a vampire.”
“Yeah.”
“…You fought a vampire for me?”
“Yeah. You’re my daughter.”
Levanta crossed the room in a blur, and before I knew it, she was hugging me tightly. I hugged her back and started sobbing as my emotions bubbled over. Tears ran down my muzzle and soaked her coat. She was safe, she was okay, she understood everything. I couldn’t have asked for more.
“I…” Levanta sniffed. “I love you, Mom. You kick ass.” She squeezed me tighter.
“Language, Levanta.” Stupid motherly instincts.
“Are we gonna be okay?”
“Now? I think so.”
“W-what about that Crystalline group? Won’t they-”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so, as long as you keep quiet. We’re- I convinced them to leave me alone earlier. If they come around again, maybe I can do that again.” I wasn’t lying. I was done lying.
“C-cool.” Levanta attempted to let go, but I held onto her for an extra second.
When I released her, I said, “I need to talk to Homeguard soon. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I-” Levanta wiped down her eyes. “I think so.”
“Good. Stay in your room, okay? I’ll be back.”
Downstairs, Homeguard was looking Speckle in the “eyes” intently. Every now and then, I heard him whisper some word or another. “Ritual. …Sombra. …Esteemed Rebirth. …Sac-”
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Interrogating her,” replied Homeguard. “Even when you say nothing, the mind dredges up relevant thoughts and memories and knowledge and brings them to the forefront when it hears an associated word. It is possible, with training, to avert this. Fortunately for us, Speckle does not have this training.” He smirked at Speckle, even though she couldn’t see him. “Your mind is astonishingly poorly controlled. No discipline in the slightest. I merely had to say ‘Crystalline’ for you to think everything about them I wanted to know.”
Even with her jaw nailed shut and another nail through her throat, Speckle was still able to snort derisively.
“She has proven most invaluable, but I do not think I can glean any further information from her,” said Homeguard. “She only knows so much.”
“So what are we gonna do with her?” I asked. “We can’t just let her go, can we?”
“No. We cannot.” Homeguard trotted into the kitchen, unscrewed a table leg, and trotted back. Before I knew what he was doing, he had thrust it through Speckle’s chest. She didn’t even have time to scream. Almost immediately after the tip pierced her skin, her entire body decayed into ash in less than a second; her remains fell to the floor, leaving behind a strange arrangement of nails in the wall.
I shivered and swallowed. Monster or not, I’d just seen another sapient being die. There was something wrong about it. “You… were a preacher, right?”
“If she refuses to change, I shall not waste my time trying to make her,” replied Homeguard. He was already screwing the leg back in. “I know a lost cause when I see one.”
Cold. I shivered again. Still, at least now, I wouldn’t be looking over shoulder, trying to watch out for-
Hold on. There was something wrong with this situation. “So where’s Hailey?” I asked when Homeguard returned.
Homeguard bit his lip and looked away. “We… ran into complications. One of the fledgling vampires surrendered to us. Hailey is taking care of her.”
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“Taking care” of her.
I don't think I've ever seen more satisfying onomatopoeias than those Whchunks. Seriously, that whole scene was the very definition of badass.
In any case, yeah, the masquerade is well and truly broken, at least on a small scale. Possibly a much larger one depending on what Homeguard was able to pull out of Speckle's mind. As for that fledgeling... well, we'll see what comes of it, and just how euphemistic Homeguard was.
That was beautiful. The Mama Bear is one of my favorite tropes.
That's one way to take care of a vampire. Badass.
Squicky shades of American PSycho there with the nail-gun. Nice to see Speckle getting some comeuppance.
"Arts and crafts project. I read in Better Stables and Gardens that Maretha Stewart says a vampire wall-hanging can really improve a home's feng shui."
You took pretty good care of yourself there too Levanta. After today, the Crystaline are going to be whispering of you in the same tones as John Wick.
"Levanta is a mare of focus. Commitment. Sheer will. She once fought off and stopped a berzerking Rogue with a pencil. A. BUCKING. PENCIL"
A (good) preacher is like a shepherd who protects his flock...Woe betide any wolf, bear, manticore, or vampire foolish enough to threaten the flock while the shepherd is near by.
9199088
Candle Wick, I think, would be the proper pony name. And she hasn't even
lost her puppygotten her art destroyed yet.Wow. That has got to be cathartic.
The best part of the chapter, though?
It's fortunate that Homeguard can easily read Speckle's mind. I doubt he'd be able to use "enhancend interrogation techniques" to het the information.