Gloaming

by Rambling Writer

22 - Out in the Open

“Vampires invading Delta,” Cascadia whispered to herself. She snorted. “That’s a new one.”

“Hailey said we have four or five days,” I said. “And she-”

“Can see into the future, you said that.” Cascadia was taking this a lot better than I thought she would be. I’d expected her to be slack-jawed, unresponsive, skeptical, just in some way unhelpful. Instead, she was staring at the ceiling, drumming her hoof on her desk, deep in thought. She said, “So. Weaknesses. Fire and wooden stakes, right? But not garlic or holy water or silver. And the fire needs the whole body to be destroyed, while the stake needs to go through the heart.”

“Right.”

Cascadia didn’t take her eyes from the ceiling for a full five seconds. When she looked back at me again, she was grinning slightly. “We’ve got plenty of repeating crossbow harnesses. Do arrows count as stakes?”

---

“I… I am not…” Homeguard swallowed as Cascadia’s eyes bored into him. “I… would assume so… It is the- the wood that is important, not the design. And, and it must penetrate the heart.”

“So if we remove the arrowheads and sharpen the shaft to a point…” Cascadia said to herself. “Not bad, but… Vampires don’t wear armor, do they?”

For a guy who was supposed to be able to read minds, I’d never imagined Homeguard could be so flustered. Of course, Cascadia showing up on his doorstep apropos of nothing and promptly grilling him about vampires was a bit of a shock mind reading couldn’t really prepare you for. “Well, they- I am unaware of- I do not think so,” he babbled. “At least- Particularly not- I do not believe Crystalline assumes ponies are capable of wounding them, so I do not see why they would bother with armor.”

“Hrrng. Probably a bit much to ask for, but just in case. Swan, you wouldn’t happen to own a blunderbuss, would you?”

“Huh?” It was the first time in the conversation I’d even been acknowledged.

“A blunderbuss,” Cascadia said casually. “One of those pony-portable wide-bore cannons. I want to load it up with stakes and shoot it like a sunblasted cluster bomb at the vamps. That many stakes, even if none of them hits the heart, it’s gotta slow them down a little. Maybe we can improvise a cannon.”

“That- might certainly be- possible,” said Homeguard. It almost looked like he’d been left in Cascadia’s dust, thought-wise, and now was struggling to catch up. “If- we can-”

“Do you know how many vampires are coming?”

“I- Twenty. About. Probably. In addition to the chimera.”

“Let’s say twenty-five, to be safe,” muttered Cascadia, tapping the floor with her hoof. “Plus the chimera, of course. And they’re fast, right? Fast enough to run us down if we tried to send somepony for help?”

“More than fast enough,” said Homeguard. “And they have their scriers to watch the borders at all times. That’s not even supposing…” He swallowed. “That whoever you found would believe you soon enough to send sufficient help back.”

“Crap. Okay, we’ll need to alert the town ASAP, get everypony helping…” Cascadia’s voice degenerated into mutters I couldn’t make out.

I gave Homeguard a pointed Look. He cringed slightly. “She is… certainly… taking this well,” he muttered. He looked away, rubbing one leg against another. “Perhaps I… misjudged the circumstances.”

Which practically gave me a coupon to say “I told you so” at him for as long as I lived, but now wasn’t the time. “What can I do to help?” I asked Cascadia.

“Just let me think,” said Cascadia. “I need a moment or two.” She began pacing around the room.

“You seem to be taking this rather well,” hedged Homeguard.

“Homeguard,” said Cascadia. She cleared her throat and held herself high. “I am the Sheriff of Delta. I have one job: protect the ponies living here. From animals, from criminals, from monsters, even from vampires if it comes down to it. Granted, I…” She flicked her ears and twisted one of her legs a little. “…never actually thought I’d be protecting them from vampires, but vampires are still threats. I’m a cop. I serve and protect.”

“And… the… truth about me?”

“We’ve all got skeletons in our closets. You’re not hurting anypony, you’re keeping yourself from hurting anypony, so I don’t think it’s a big deal.”

“…Ah. I- assumed-”

“Never assume. It only makes an ass out of you and me. Apologies to donkeys, but yeah.” Cascadia looked at nothing in particular for a second. “Say, can we go for a walk? I want to ask you about vampire powers and motion makes me think better.”

“Of course,” said Homeguard. “Come.” He motioned Cascadia out the door.

Once they were gone, Hailey — who’d been so still and quiet I’d nearly forgotten she was in the room — clapped her hooves and rubbed them together. “Welp! That went well.”

“I figured it would.” I paused. “You knew what I was going to do, didn’t you? Seconds after I decide to tell Cascadia, you run into the room and pull Homeguard away to let me go.”

“If Homeguard had stayed the course, we would’ve all died,” Hailey said flatly. “Or only told Cascadia when it was too late. Then you make your decision, and I get another vision where our odds of survival go up a lot. I mean, like, a looooooot.”

“Was the cave just the first thing that came into your head?”

“Yeah. It was far away, which I figured would give you enough time, so…” Hailey shrugged. “I kept a tight control on my thoughts for a while — it’s just kinda something you learn when living with a mind reader — but he was piiiiiissed when he realized what I was doing. I managed to persuade him to let it happen, ’cause things couldn’t possibly get worse, right?”

“You shouldn’t’ve said that. You were practically begging for things to get worse once you said that.”

“I can see the future. I’m the only one alive allowed to say things like that.”

I chuckled, then said, “Uh, listen, I should get back to my house. Levanta’s probably worried about me, since I ducked out so quickly, and, well, she needs to know about… what’s coming up with Crystalline.”

“Oh, yeah, sure. If we need you, we’ll come get you.”

---

My mind felt like it’d done a hundred-meter dash, flopping about limply just doing ordinary things like thinking. It’d entered some sort of safe mode; I stopped reacting emotionally to events and started just doing whatever it took to survive. Maybe my freaked-out-o-meter had rolled over and reset to zero. Now, I was just thinking, “Vampires coming to kill me. What’s the best way to stop them?” Stakes wouldn’t be a problem, not in a logging town like Delta. Cascadia could organize the town better than I ever could. Delta outnumbered Crystalline by… I wasn’t sure of the exact number, but I was guessing over a dozen to one. Hailey could see the future and anticipate the likely ways Crystalline would attack. Homeguard could track them with his mind reading. And Crystalline was made up of a bunch of tribalist idiots who’d probably underestimate us since they saw us as not much more than food.

…You know, put like that, the situation didn’t seem quite so hopeless.

I tried not to get too upbeat. Overconfidence would be murder in the coming days, and if I thought we could ride out the storm just because one or two things had gone our way, we’d be sinking in seconds.

I’d only just opened my door when Levanta screamed, “Mom!” and jumped on top of me. I staggered and bumped against the wall as she hugged me tightly, whispering, “I- I was so-”

“Hey, hey,” I said, running a hoof through her mane. “I’m fine.”

“I know.” Levanta rubbed her head against my neck. “I- just-” In a flash, she disentangled herself from me and stood in the stiff, self-conscious, “you didn’t see that” pose of embarrassment. “I knew you’d be okay,” she said.

“Well…” I really, really didn’t want to unload even more onto Levanta, but there was nothing else for it. I couldn’t allow her to be ignorant now. “Remember that Crystalline group? They… They’re coming to try to kill us.”

Her expression didn’t change, but Levanta’s wings slowly went limp as she stared; eventually, the tips touched the floor. “…Oh, come on!” she yelled. “For fuck’s sake!”

“Language.”

“But… seriously! I mean…” Her voice suddenly dropped. “A-are we gonna have t-to run?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “We… might not even be able to. But we have five days before they get here. The sheriff thinks we can fight them off. And Hailey — she’s the one who can see the future, remember — she hasn’t collapsed into despair, so… hooves crossed.”

Levanta nodded glumly. “Yeah,” she mumbled. Her head fell and she kicked at nothing. “I guess.” She looked up, almost hopeful. “I- I’m not even seventeen yet. Is… it possible that-”

“A few days ago, they turned somepony into a vampire who was only fourteen. They wouldn’t think twice about killing you.” Breaking things easily: my specialty.

Levanta’s eyes widened. “F-fourteen?” she whispered. “T-that…” Her wings tightened and her legs gave out beneath her. She collapsed to the floor, shaking; I was instantly at her side and hugged her close.

“She alive,” I said, as if that would make it better. “She’s here, and Homeguard and Hailey are taking care of her. She… I don’t know if she’ll be okay, but she, she’ll live.”

“…Can I see her?”

“Levanta…” I pushed her away and fixed her with a stern look. “I don’t want you questioning her about what it’s like to be a-”

“N-no.” Levanta shook her head. “Not, not for that. It’s, I was scared crapless when I came here, and I had things way better than she did. She, she probably needs a, a friend or, I dunno.” She folded her ears back and looked away. “Just… something I thought of,” she mumbled.

She had a point, I was forced to admit. I still had trouble imagining what Bay was going through. She’d been so utterly uprooted that nothing around her was remotely familiar. The faces were those of strangers, she was surrounded by forested wilderness instead of a metropolis, she was probably missing her parents, and that wasn’t even getting into whatever vampirization felt like. But, as much as I hated keeping her isolated, Homeguard could relate to her. He’d gone through vampirization, I hadn’t. He knew what was best, or maybe just least bad.

Right?

“Sorry,” I said. “But since she’s still a young vampire, Homeguard doesn’t think she has full control over herself yet. He doesn’t want her smelling pony blood and going into a frenzy.”

After a moment, Levanta nodded, but I recognized the glint in her eye. She’d been getting into her rebellious phase before Thunderhead’s death had derailed it. Now that she was settled in, she must have been sliding back in. I suspected she’d try to see Bay before too long. Of course, I’d have a hard time keeping her from sneaking out — even if I nailed the doors shut, she could just fly away out her bedroom window.

“Look, if we’re still around when all this is over, give her, I don’t know, a week, and then I’m sure you’ll be able to see her. Okay?”

Levanta nodded again. I could tell she believed me, but that glint didn’t go away. Already, from experience, I knew that attempting to dissuade her more forcefully would only make whatever idea was growing in her head take root faster. Stupid teenage contrariness.

She must’ve noticed my look, or at least realized the expression she was making. She quickly coughed and said, “S-so, um, is- there- anything I need to do to help prepare for Crystalline?”

“Not yet,” I said. “We’re still waiting to hear from-”

Somepony knocked on the door; before I could get to it, Cascadia had pushed it open. Behind her, she was pulling a cart full of fliers. “Swan. Any chance you could help us with this?”

I glanced at Levanta. “Wanna help?”

---

It was a simple flier, plain black text on a plain white background: TOWN MEETING TONIGHT AT 6:00 — TOWN SQUARE — IT IS IMPERATIVE FOR THE SAFETY OF DELTA THAT YOU ATTEND — SHERIFF CASCADIA. The kind of thing you could make from scratch in a few seconds. Still, I was surprised- “How did you make all these so quickly?” I asked Cascadia when I returned to pick up another load.

Cascadia shrugged and staplegunned another flier to a lamppost. “Magic and vampires,” she said. “You wouldn’t believe how fast Homeguard and Hailey can work. I was making three or four fliers at once and they were still outpacing me.”

“Alright,” I said. I moved a stack of fliers to my own cart. “And Levanta’s working?”

“Oh, yeah. Keeps coming back needing fliers or staples or both. She’s great. Why?”

“Just wondering.” Specifically, if Levanta had taken advantage of being out of my sight to try to find Homeguard’s house and talk to Bay at all. Needing materials could be faked, but I didn’t think she was faking at all. Maybe she was taking advantage of being up in the air to get an idea of the layout of Delta — assuming she didn’t know its layout already — but whenever she landed, I was sure she was actually doing work. She’d leaped at the chance to do something.

Across the street from Cascadia, I stapled another flier to another lamppost and examined it again. Between the simplistic design and the sensationalistic language, it looked like something a fringe movement would put up: The end is nigh! Come to this place to learn more! I’d asked Cascadia about it, but she waved it off. “I’ve put up posters like this before,” she’d said, “and Delta knows I don’t really do panic. Coming from somepony else, yeah, maybe it’d be something to roll your eyes at, but from me, you know it’s serious.” Which made me wonder what would happen if somepony else put up similar fliers claiming to be from her, but I decided not to push the issue too much.

We’d been at this for… two hours, I guessed, just putting up fliers and stapling them. And, as Cascadia had said, we weren’t even getting all of Delta; Homeguard and Hailey were covering part of it for us. I hadn’t realized before just how large small towns could be when you needed to zig and zag across them. Still, it was satisfying to finally, finally, finally be doing something. It was just a shame it had to be in these circumstances.

When I ran out of fliers again and trotted back to Cascadia, I decided to bring up a matter that’d been bouncing in my head for a while. “Cascadia?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think we can actually convince Delta about, well, vampires?”

I’d never imagined you could staplegun viciously until Cascadia did it right then. She looked like she was almost stabbing the lamppost. “Yes. We will,” she said darkly. “And if we can’t, I’ll press-gang them into helping anyway. These… Crystalline vampires… They’re not taking this town from us.”

She plucked another sheet from the stack. “But, honestly, I think everypony in Delta’ll listen.” Her voice was back to its usual tone. “If not immediately, then before Crystalline arrives, at most. The whole animal business has been going on for so long that we’re all kind of expecting something out of left field, anyway. Honestly…” She smirked at me. “You almost went mad in days. Now imagine being worried about it for moons.”

I clouted Cascadia on the back of the neck. She barely budged. “And when Homeguard or Hailey do some vampire-y things,” she continued, “like, I don’t know, stabbing themselves in the head and coming out fine, that’ll be a bit of a wakeup call.”

“Well, if you say so. You know Delta best.” Another stack of fliers changed carts and I muttered, mostly to myself, “I really hope you’re right.”

“Trust me, Swan. The rest of the town does.”

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Oh, how I wish I could see the look on Homeguard's face for myself...

I'd say Levanta's reaction to the news was entirely justified.

I’d never imagined you could staplegun viciously until Cascadia did it right then.

Says the mare who staple-crucified a vampire to her wall.

Eagerly looking forward to the meeting. This may go well, or it could go very poorly indeed.

[goldfencer]

9220044
She didn’t staple the vampire. Swan was using a nail gun.

[FanOfMostEverything]

9220125
Ah, point. I suppose vicious nailgunning is much easier to envision.

[Written fluke]

Outstandingly picturesque! Your focus on the color of their eyes adds a new level of uniqueness to each character. You upload schedule is probably the best part so far. Someone with an amazing story and a constant upload schedule? Unheard of! Amazing work. Props to Bugsydor for the play on words by the way. Cant wait for more.

[Bugsydor]

Lamenting the return of Levanta's rebellious phase was the most heartwarming thing this chapter.

[AlsoSprachOdin]

No one's going to bring up the option of turning some townies to better defend Delta? I get that they'd be a double-edged weapon, but even one or two could help a lot, some like Cascadia would be less likely to drink ponies, and Homie & Hailey should be able to control a small number of caged vampires.

[EatenbyaGrue]

Now, I was just thinking, “Vampires coming to kill me. What’s the best way to stop them?”

First thing that came to my mind (didn't even read the chapter to its end): assemble town meeting, explain situation with maximum graphics possible (like let Hailey munch on a bear, oooh, can vamps reconnect sliced-off limbs? something along those lines) - up to the point where it a)convinces everyone vamps are real, and, much more importantly, b)encourage them to have nightmares when they go to sleep.
...you see where I'm going with this, right?

[redmar]

Informing the town will be of great help. I like how Hailey lured Homeguard away to help Swan.