Gloaming

by Rambling Writer

21 - Bad to Worse

“Crystalline’s coming?” I whispered. “Here?”

Hailey blinked and refocused. “Less than a week,” she said. “Five days, I think.”

“Why so long?” asked Homeguard. “Did you see?”

“I, I dunno.” Hailey waved both of us off. “Gimme a moment.” She rubbed her temples and stared off into the distance again.

“This is revenge, isn’t it?” I asked Homeguard quietly. “We killed off two of their vampires, so now they’re going to kill us and all of Delta just because.”

“I would imagine so,” whispered Homeguard. “Presumably performing their ritual at the same time.”

“Sun blast it. How many of them are there?”

“I- I cannot remember the exact number, but… slightly less than two dozen. Perhaps twenty.”

Twenty. Twenty sunblasted vampires, all coming here, all ready to kill every single pony in Delta. Holy-

Homeguard and Hailey stiffened again. “Ooooooh, fuck,” said Hailey. She kept staring at the wall. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck-”

“They- They cannot,” whispered Homeguard. “They cannot. Do they know of the risks? They- No. No!”

“Hey!” I yelled. “What’s going on? Normal pony here, remember!”

“You know why it’s taking them so long to come to Delta?” Hailey said dully. “They’re waiting for a transformation to complete. They vamped the chimera north of here.”

“A- A chimera?” I shrieked. “They’re turning a chimera into a vampire?” Motherfucker, sunblasted stars above, holy and damned princesses past and future, sweet harmony, shitfuck. This was going to Tartarus so quickly I could barely keep up with it.

“It’s taking longer to turn than a pony,” said Hailey. “Big body, I think. More blood they need to convert. But yeah.”

Son of a bitch. Vampires were bad enough. Chimeras were bad enough. Put them together, and I was in for a world of hurt. Chimeras were already big, tough, and almost unstoppable if they got going. Add in near invincibility on top of that, and… well. Heck, the last time I’d faced a chimera, I’d-

The last time…

The last time I’d faced a chimera.

A strange feeling came over me. Part of the reason I was scared of vampires was because I didn’t know them. But chimeras? I was a ranger; of course I knew chimeras. Their multiple heads were their greatest weakness, if you could exploit it. Unless they were particularly focused, it made them argumentative with themselves, easily distractible as each head tried to take control. If you kept moving, they had a hard time bothering you. Heck, if you caught them at a bad time, you could subdue them with a chair, a flute, and cheese. They were already bloodthirsty, so no real change there. Of course, a vampiric one would be harder to kill — and since the recommended method for killing a normal one was still the “shove a lead-coated spear down the cat’s throat and poison it” technique used by Commander Hurricane, that was saying quite a bit. But I’d dealt with a chimera or two. Even if I needed help, I could do this. I really could.

Hailey nervously drummed a hoof on the ground very, very quickly. “Okay, okay, um.” She licked her lips. “Need clear head. Visions. Going out. Be back soon.” And she shot out the door before I realized what she’d said.

“No, no, no…” Homeguard paced back and forth. “They- cannot- We do not have time for this! They cannot know what they are unleashing! But- Rebirth- No, no!”

“What about Rebirth? Is it about her power? You never did-”

“Rebirth can brainwash people with but a touch,” said Homeguard darkly, “force them to agree with her. After she is finished with them, they cannot deny the truth as she sees it. That may be why she has held power in Crystalline for so long in spite of being… eh… impulsive.”

“And if she brainwashes the chimera into serving her…” I ran a hoof through my mane. “Okay, um, I might be able to handle the chimera,” I said. “I, I’d need your help, but I’ve faced chimeras before.”

Homeguard’s ears went straight up. The corners of his mouth twitched, like he was almost smiling. “You have?”

“Well, yeah. I’m a ranger, aren’t I? Didn’t I tell you about the time I punched one of them in the faces?”

“I- assumed you were exaggerating!”

I shook my head. “Not really, no. It was- And before you say anything, yes, it was a fully-grown, healthy chimera. Not a vampire chimera, but, still.”

“That-” Homeguard nodded. “That is fortuitous. Was the fight difficult?”

“Yes- No- Not- Let me put it this way: it’s not easy, but with you or Hailey at my side, I’m sure I could do it again. Even accounting for its vampirization.” If worse came to worst, we could dismember it to make it easier to stake or burn.

“Good. How-” Suddenly, Homeguard locked up, his jaw dropping as he gave the thousand-yard stare to one of the walls. “Oh, Celestia, no,” he whispered. “No, no-”

Half a second later, Hailey charged back into the cottage, her pupils very small. She looked like she ought to be sweating. “So, heh heh, um…” She licked her lips. “Do you want the good news or the bad news?”

My spirits plummeted. Of course. I was on a high right now; I needed something to bring me back down to earth. Otherwise, I might be content with my life. “Bad news,” I said.

“That ritual River and Speckle were scouting out for? They’re gonna kill all of Delta to rejuvenate Sombra.”

The last few weeks had made me prone to believing the unbelievable. My mouth went dry and everything around me felt cold. Sombra, the first vampire, who’d single-hoofedly brought the Crystal Empire under his sway. He couldn’t be brought back. Fuck, no. This just wasn’t fair. I did my best to swallow. My saliva congealed in my throat. “Okay,” I asked hoarsely. “And the good news?”

Hailey giggled nervously. “That’s the only bit of bad news.” Which was as much as we could hope for. “Um… More visions. Maybe. Be back.” She was gone again.

Desperate for some form of… sanity, I turned to Homeguard, but he was still as unmoving as a statue. I cleared my throat. “She- She can’t be serious… right?” I laughed nervously.

“I’m afraid so,” Homeguard whispered, not moving his gaze an inch.

“But- But Sombra- Sombra was killed. He was exploded. He’s dead.”

“He is a vampire. So long as part of his body remains, it can be used to regenerate the whole. Why do you imagine he was turned to shadow, rather than killed or imprisoned? The Princesses tried those to no effect. Converting him into a shadow was the only method that seemed to work, and they had hoped the isolation would drive him mad, rendering him harmless. Had they waited another week, I would have arrived in Canterlot and told them what I knew. As it was, although they searched for him in the hopes of turning him back and ending him once and for all, he could not be found.”

“But- he was-”

“Perhaps some small part of him remained after the blast, such as his horn. Crystalline would search for years to find it, if necessary. They were loyal to him.” Biting his lip, Homeguard tapped his hoof on the floor. “This… would explain much of their activities. If they were expecting him to return, somehow, then keeping vampires in a constant state of paranoia over discovery would leave them ripe to fall under Sombra’s leadership. He had always claimed vampires ought to rule over ponies. Once word of his return begins to spread, vampires will fall in line under him, if only to avoid hiding any longer.”

“Sun blast it.” I began pacing. “You’re, you’re over a millennium old. Do you have any vampire friends that can help us? Or just vampires that want to destroy Crystalline?”

Homeguard laughed bitterly. “Even the strongest of friendships would be tested against a force of this might. Should they fight alongside us, they would only die, either during the fight or as punishment for fighting afterwards. More likely, they would wait until the fight is over and strike Crystalline while they are still vulnerable.”

“Fucking great.”

“And that is presuming I could find them, convince them, and bring them back here in time. We have but days to do that.”

“Shit shit shit…” I stared at the floor passing by beneath me. We — me, Homeguard and Hailey, Levanta, Bay, all of Delta — were dead. Sombra, back from the dead. I couldn’t imagine the kind of devastation he would wreak on Equestria. Assuming he stopped there. We had, what two vampires and me capable of fighting against an army of almost two dozen? We needed more vampires to have a hope of-

No. Not necessarily more vampires. We needed more people who would fight for us, regardless of species. So maybe- “We need to tell Cascadia,” I said. “Get some help from her. Cops, woodsmares, adventurers, anything. We can-”

“No,” Homeguard said. Somehow, I could tell it was a knee-jerk reaction, not something he’d ever truly thought about. His voice was weak, somehow. “We- cannot do that. We- should not- worry her. No, s-she does not need to know this.”

His declaration hit me like a slap to the face. He couldn’t be pulling this stupid crap, not now of all times. “You don’t want to tell her?” I gasped. “But- why? I mean- She’s the sheriff! Yes she does need to know this! She’d rather worry than be surprised!”

“And when she learns that Hailey and I have been lying to her for years,” Homeguard shot back, “I doubt she will be particularly inclined to listen to us. She may accuse us of attempting to spread fear for-”

“For what? You’re paranoid! You’ve got all these mays and mights and have you ever tried opening up to ponies? You yourself just said Crystalline was full of crap! It’s like you-”

“I have not tried because, should the situation have proved less than ideal, the consequences for myself and Hailey could have been death. I do not-”

“Death? Really? For the love of- Give me a break! You’re practically invincible, sun blast it! The only things that can kill you are, what, fire and stakes? And they don’t know that yet! Even if they drive you out of town-”

“I cannot be certain of how they would react! It is more prudent to prepare for the worst, rather than the best! Ponies are easily swayed by mob mentality, and should even one or two turn against me or Hailey, we-”

I was damn near seething. For a millenarian, he was ridiculously closed-minded. How many times had we gone over this? “So, what, you’re gonna just sit back and let Crystalline massacre Delta and bring back Sombra? Or did you really think you could protect the entire town without any of them knowing?”

There’s a certain expression everyone has when confronted with undeniable facts. I was beginning to recognize it on Homeguard. It’s slightly slack-jawed, with eyes not quite focused on you. Both ears are tilted forward. It’s almost like they got slapped in the face (which is probably true, in debate terms). They freeze on it for a second or two, then they pull back and look slightly to one side. I’d expect them to blink more often, but being a vampire, Homeguard didn’t blink much.

“Well?” I asked.

“I was-” His ears twitched and he pawed at the ground. “-planning on- drawing Crystalline away from… Delta.”

“Two vampires leading away twenty. Uh-huh.”

“Well, I-” he said. He folded his ears back and looked away. “It is- more- complicated than-”

“More- More complicated? Well, yeah it’s more complicated, everything is, but you can’t let that stop you from trying! You need-”

“And if she should not accept us-”

And just like that, with Homeguard failing to even consider the possibility of telling Cascadia, only looking at the potential for failure, I was done. “Fuck it,” I muttered. “I’m telling her.” She’d said she was at the police station, right?

Homeguard bristled and his ears went straight up. “No. For the final time, absolutely not. You-”

The door suddenly banged open, and Hailey slid in. “Homeguard,” she said quickly, “I just had an idea. I need another set of hooves like right now at the bone cave.”

Homeguard glanced to the door. “I shall be with you shortly,” he said quickly. “We are almost done in here.”

“No, ‘right now’ means right now!” yelled Hailey. “Come on!”

Right before running out the door, Homeguard said to me, “You shall not — you shall not — tell Cascadia about this.”

---

“So let me get this straight,” Cascadia said flatly. “The monster that’s been killing our animals is River, who’s a vampire. Except ‘is’ should be ‘was’, because he’s dead now.”

“Yes.”

“Killed by Homeguard and Hearty Hail, who are also vampires. And they’re trying to stay as moral as possible by drinking animal blood instead of pony blood, but they hid the bodies afterwards in that cave you found.”

“Yes.”

“And River was trying to only drink animal blood, too, but eventually couldn’t take it anymore and tried to hunt you, which was why Homeguard killed him.”

“Yes.”

“But he was the boyfriend of essentially a vampire hitmare, and she ran wild across the countryside, scoping you and the nice vamps out, trying to get revenge.”

“Yes.”

“And she’s the one who killed Clearwater, making her wounds as close as possible to the animals’ to make life miserable for you, as well as the Seaddle spree killer.”

“Yes.”

“Then, when Homeguard and Hailey went to Seaddle to deal with her, she slipped past them and tried to go after you, but you killed her with a nailgun and a table leg.”

“Yes.”

“So now her boss is pissed, and in a few days, she’s bringing her vamps in, complete with a vampire chimera, to destroy Delta out of spite.”

“Yes.”

“And, in the process, resurrect King Sombra himself, who was also a vampire.”

“Yes.”

Cascadia blinked and cocked her head. “…That explains so much.”

I didn’t know what Homeguard would think of this. But I was well past caring. Fuck keeping secrets.

Comments

[Julian the Dreamer]

Huh, Cascadia took it better than I expected.

[goldfencer]

YES! Screw your damn masquerade, Crystalline! Have fun being horribly outnumbered!

[FanOfMostEverything]

Motherfucker, sunblasted stars above, holy and damned princesses past and future, sweet harmony, shitfuck.

Huh. Is Swan one of Littlepip's ancestors? I wouldn't be surprised.

Didn’t I tell you about the time I punched one of them in the faces?

"What, all of the faces?"
"Pinning down the snake was tricky, but yes."

“…That explains so much.”

Magnificent.

I can hardly blame Homeguard for unthinkingly reinforcing beliefs he's treated as truth for over a millennium, but it's clear that the entire point of the masquerade was to prepare vampires for Sombra's resurrection. Breaking it wide open is exactly what's needed right now. Heck, five days is probably enough time to get word to Canterlot and/or Ponyville, assuming the Map hasn't already dispatched the big guns. On the other hand, if the ponies of Delta already have this... I suppose we'll see what happens.

[River Babble]

I DID NOT EXPECT HER TO BELIEVE ALL THAT BUT IT IS PRETTY GREAT XD

[Bugsydor]

Cascadia blinked and cocked her head. “…That explains so much.”

I didn’t know what Homeguard would think of this. But I was well past caring. Fuck keeping secrets.

YES!

[BlueMoonHarlot]

YEAH BABY LET'S GO!!

[AppleTank]

do ballista bolts count as wood?

[redmar]

Given how fucked up the supporters of secrecy are this really is the best Swan could have done. Also at this point keeping secrets would do more harm then good.