Lineage

Svea lead me to an enormous set of doors, hidden away in a valley between two large mountains some distance away from the lake I’d met her at. The large dragon stomped her way through the snow, carving a path through the substance to allow me to walk behind her.

“So…” I said, after a short silence as I examined the doors. They were titanic pieces of wrought iron, dyed as black as obsidian with grey, well-worn handles. They were the kind of doors that were entrances to halls and treasure troves, but the mass of cobwebs and rust on them told me they had not been opened for a long while. “What exactly are we looking for in there?”

“We’re looking for a treasure,” she said, sitting down on her haunches.

“I know that,” I said, looking up at her bright, beautiful eyes. “What kind of treasure?”

“A treasury one,” she said in a mystical tone, giving a ghostly wail after her joke. I blinked in an unimpressed manner only for her to tut in response, looking away from me and pursing her lips.

“You’re no fun,” she said.

“And you’re not funny,” I shrugged. “But I am getting the feeling you’re not gonna tell me what we’re looking for in this room.”

“City,” she said in a correcting tone.

“... pardon?”

“It’s not a room, Richter,” she repeated. “It’s a city.”

“... Fuck off,” I said in disbelief, looking back at the door with a bewildered expression.

“It’s a subterranean city that was built many, many millennia ago by the Highmoore Elves,” she explained. “It exists in fairy tales as a place of great worth and wealth, and has attracted treasure hunters all over the world ever since it was rediscovered two hundred years ago.”

“Wait… the Highmoore?” I asked in surprise, turning to look at the much larger dragon. “As in the ‘Not proven to exist Highmoore’?”

“The very same,” Svea nodded. “They do exist, they’ve just disappeared somewhere is all.”

“How does a species just disappear, Svea?” I asked in a scrutinizing fashion.

“How does anything?” she asked with a cocked, scaly eyebrow. “We know where it is at one time and then not at another.”

“Isn’t it a little harder for a species to just up and disappear?” I asked.

“Perhaps, but maybe we’re not looking in the right places,” she finished before moving onto another subject. “But back on topic of the treasury treasure.”

I groaned in annoyance.

“I’ve been able to narrow down the item I’m looking for thanks to runes, scriptures, books, and hearsay, but upon attempting to claim the prize for myself… I was unsuccessful.”

“Why’s that?” I asked with a confused look.

“The creatures that dwell within this place are immune to my magic,” she admitted, looking away from me in an ashamed manner. “And as much as it hurts my pride to admit it… I’m no warrior.”

“So you need my help?” I asked with a smirk.

“I’d like to hire your services,” she said, still not admitting it.

“Help,” I repeated.

“It would be astoundingly easy to eat you, you know?” she asked in a miffed tone.

“But then who would help you?” I chuckled, patting her on her firm leg. “After all, you do need my help.” She looked at me with a displeased expression before sighing and moving towards the door.

“Just kill the things we encounter here, help me recover the treasure, and I’ll allow you to have your way with me,” she sighed.

“Right,” I said, holding up a finger. “If I learned anything from my Aunt Luna’s teachings, besides how to suppress homicidal rage and unwanted anger-based sexual frustration, it’s that you never set off on an expedition without necessary preparation.”

“Hmm… how long would you need to prepare?” Svea asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“A day, two at most,” I answered. “This whole thing would go a lot better if Luna came along with us.”

“I’d agree,” Svea nodded, turning back to me with a sigh. “Fine, you take your day to organise what you need and then come back here.”

“Actually, I think it’s best if you come with me,” I said, sticking my thumbs into my belt and letting my hands rest there. “You seem to know a lot more about this place than I do and It seems like a better idea if you explain everything to Luna so she can formulate the plan.”

“I… well,” she sighed, shaking her head. “I’ll assume a human form to get through the human settlements without causing a panic and then we can get Luna to help us.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she’d be more than willing to help,” I nodded.

Aaaand one short trek back to the Academy later:

“Yeah, you’re on your own for this one,” Luna shrugged as she examined one of the swords in the armoury.

“What?” I exclaimed in horror. “I thought you said you were coming along to help me-”

“Find the dragon,” she interrupted, pointing at the sword handle at Svea who had positioned herself against a wall. “And find her you did, so my job’s done already.” She then turned to Svea with a smile and greeted her:

“Its an honour to finally meet you, Ancient One,” Luna said.

“The feeling’s mutual, young princess,” Svea nodded. “I apologise for not showing proper respect upon meeting you, it’s just that I didn’t recognize you at first glance.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Luna responded. “It’s to be expected for a woman that’s seen so many people in her time, many more important than I.”

“Wait… how old are you, exactly?” I asked Svea with a cocked eyebrow.

“Rapidly approaching eleven thousand years old,” Svea shrugged. “Though if anyone asks, I’m over twenty-one.”

“So she’s-” I began.

“More than twice as old as Celestia, yeah,” Luna nodded. “Svea, being one of the children of the High Dragoness herself, would’ve been a small hatchling at the time the Alicorn race was relatively strong… and not barely more than just a dying cinder.”

“Really?” I asked in amazement. “Did you know any of them?”

“Of course I did,” Svea nodded. “I grew up around one of the strongest there was, King Vorrath, his wife Eleyna, and their two children Valan and Cindres. There was the great Queen Rosylin, who was able to slay a Leviathan on her thirteenth birthday before marrying another alicorn, Prince Torrethen, a man of great size… but not great intelligence.”

“Wow… so, there were a lot more Alicorn than just my family”? I asked, wondering why I’d never heard this all before.

“Yes, but over the millennia they sadly died out, some through betrayal, others through war and one specific family just… disappeared one day,” Svea said before looking at Luna. “And it does often surprise me that it was your family that survived to this day despite… well…”

“Despite the fact that our family was one of, if not, the weakest alicorn family that ever sat atop a throne,” Luna continued, looking back at her. “You can say it, I’m not going to kill you for it.”

“Whoa, whoa… weakest?” I asked in confusion. “I thought alicorn were supposed to be the strongest creatures there are?”

“We are, or were at the time,” Luna nodded. “But like any race or species, there are those that are a higher class than others. Think of it like this: while the great King Vorrath would be a cut of the finest grade filet mignon… our family would be closer to a box of dried beef jerky.” I blinked in complete shock, having never heard of anything of the sort before, and now having to learn that the two women who I’d been brought up to believe, and had once seen one of them do, could fire a beam of energy so strong it could destroy a mountain, were supposedly the weakest of their entire species.

“That’s… that’s…” I began, unable to find the words for it.

“Soul-crushing?” Luna suggested.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Holy fuck.”

“Indeed,” she nodded, putting the sword back in its sheath and on a rack before patting me on the shoulder. “Buck up, kid. Just feel confident that you’re, by process of elimination, the… fourth strongest Alicorn on the planet, right behind Celestia, myself, and your mother.”

“Wait… I thought you said mom had trained mostly in politics and negotiations while ignoring almost all of her combat training?”

“She did.”

“And she hasn’t attempted to train since then?”

“She did not.”

“And she’s still stronger than me?”

“She is.”

“Why?” I asked in confusion.

“Because, while the both of you are half-breeds, Cadance’s demon half is a lot stronger than yours, whereas your demon side comes from a measly, common incubus,” Luna explained. “And that makes you a lower pedigree than a purebred alicorn or even a half-breed.”

“But I’m still stronger than Twilight, right?” I asked with a glimmer of hope in my eyes.

“Yes, but only because Twilight’s an alicorn in the same way that taping a dagger blade on top of another dagger blade makes it a sword: it technically is thanks to the adjustment you’ve made, but it doesn’t do the job nearly as well as the real thing.”

“And if she was a purebred, natural alicorn like me?” I asked a sinking feeling in my stomach.

“Oh, then she’d be even stronger than Cadance,” she chuckled, patting me on the head. “Which would make you the weakest of our kind not only in existence, but also in history.”

“Oh, that’s… nice,” I said with a heavy sigh, once again feeling my self-worth plummet off a cliff. “Weakest in history… great.”

“Indeed,” she grinned, placing her hands on her hips and taking a breath before continuing. “Anyway, the real reason I’m not going to assist you in your treasure hunt is because we’re still here for your Rite, remember?”

“Oh shit, that’s right,” I nodded, having completely forgot about that whole thing. “Fuck.”

“And I don’t know about you, but I think delving deep into the long-abandoned ruins of an ancient civilization’s city in search for a legendary treasure sounds like one hell of a Rite of Kingship,” Luna said, gesturing with her hand. “It reminds me of this one book I read once, a very long time ago about a knight and his ward fighting hordes of demonic monsters.”

“Was it any good?” I asked.

“It was an erotic novel actually,” she shrugged. “There was quite a lot of action in it, to be fair. Much more than I expected for a story about sex.”

“How’d you manage to keep yourself excited for the parts where there weren’t sex?” I asked.

“The writing was good,” she shrugged. “But enough about my awkward teenage years before I indulged in the beautiful world of alcohol, drugs, and incest. We need to get you sorted out for your Rite, young man.”

“... why does your life sound so much more fun than mine?” I asked.

“It sucked until I started fucking my sister, if I can be honest,” she said with a nostalgic grin. “Then it picked up in a huge way.” Luna turned to Svea and pointed a finger at her. “You didn’t hear anything, okay?” she asked.

“Eh, I already know about the incest from reading the boy’s mind,” she shrugged. “Dragons are no strangers to the act of familial breeding. After all, when the migration area is lacking in females to breed with, your own daughter, sister, or mother does the job as good as any, so I’ve been told.”

“I like you,” Luna grinned. “You’ve got a good head on your shoulders.”

“Thank you,” she said. “Now, may we prepare for our expedition please?”

“We can as soon as you give us any kind of information about where we’re expeditioning to, exactly,” Luna said. “Is the area big enough to take multiple days to get through? do we need to bring food, water, and other supplies? are we going to need any special kinds of equipment like rope, tinderboxes, blankets, or a change of clothes? Are we gonna need to brew any specific kinds of potions beforehand to deal with anything like darkness, poison, or large stretches of underwater area? You can’t just pack a few items and shrug it off when going on an expedition. If there’s one thing the boy knows well enough, and it’s one of the few things he knows, it’s that preparation can mean the thing between a close call and a call to the funeral director.”

“Why are you so mean to me all the time?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at the taller woman with a confused expression.

“Constant denial of latent sexual attraction that I try to cover with a wall of anger and hatred to scare you away from me,” she shrugged in an extremely nonchalant fashion. “And because you’re a prick. See?”

“... right,” I said, turning back to Svea. “So do you know anything about the area we’re going into?”

“Quite a bit actually,” she nodded. “I know that the city itself was built in a strange way. Instead of it being a regular city with the layouts and elevations being relatively the same, the city descends further and further down into the earth into essentially an inverted cone shape, with the treasure being in the very bottom area. There are staircases and all kinds of methods to get lower into the city so you don’t need to worry about climbing apparatus, but the big problem comes into play with the monsters that inhabit the city.”

“What about them?” Luna asked.

“They’re completely immune to magic,” Svea answered. “Every one of them is able to shrug off any of my spells with no effect, whether it’s a fire spell or a kinetic blast, they just keep picking themselves up again and again with no visible damage.”

“Should be nothing a strong silver blade can’t handle,” Luna shrugged, seemingly making mental notes as the conversation went on. “So, what kind of monsters should the boy be expecting to deal with? Wraiths, Ghouls, Goblins, or Imps? Or bigger things like Basilisks, giant spiders, or the occasional Rotling?”

“Rotling?” I asked in confusion. “I’ve never heard of that before.”

“It’s the reanimated corpse of a child that died in such a horrific way that its enraged spirit came back to seek vengeance on those that harmed them,” she explained. “The problem is the body is a puppet for the spirit and is still technically dead, so the body continues to decompose until the spirit has nothing left to bind itself to and is forced to return to wherever it was sent. It’s a type of undead like zombies, Neverborn, Wights, and Conjoined.”

“I know what a Neverborn is, but what the hell’s a Conjoined?” I asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“A Conjoined is a rarer type of undead that comes to life in mass graves after wars, diseases, and plagues where the bodies of the dead begin to decompose into each other and, when possessed by a dark spirit, dig themselves out of the grave as a mass of limbs, torsos, and screaming heads that attempt to kill the living as a way of coping with the anger of having their life stolen away so quickly. They’re often under the control of necromancers and are used to scare people out of areas due to how inhumanly grotesque their appearance is as well as the shrieks, screams, begs, and pleads that come from fifty different mouths and minds stuck in one fleshy monster that are confused and scared about where they are.”

“That’s… that’s fucking horrible,” I said in complete horror.

“If you think that’s bad, try having to fulfill a contract where the Conjoined is made up of children that died in a plague,” Luna said, thinking back to the darker moment in her life. “I may be a cold bitch most of the time… but hearing the oldest voice in that pile, a girl of eight, talk to one of the other heads after singing a song about why mommy didn’t come to help me when she sang their ‘special song that means she wants her mommy to make her feel better’... that fucked me up something fierce. Ask Celestia and she’ll tell you you’d have needed a pry bar to get a bottle of vodka out of my mouth for the next month after I turned that one in.”

“Holy shit,” I said, feeling sick to the core just thinking about it. “How… how did you take care of it?”

“The most efficient way to deal with them,” she sighed. “Douse them in oil and burn the thing alive. I was in the medical wing of the castle for a week after that job was finished.”

“Did you burn yourself?” I asked.

“No, I ruptured my eardrums so I didn’t have to hear the screaming.”

“Holy shit,” I said, a pit in my stomach draining all happy emotions out of my system at hearing the horrendous story Luna told.

“And with you being trained the same way I’ve been to do the same thing I do,” she said, looking at me with an emotionless stare. “You might understand why Aunt Luna’s as cold and unloving as she is. It’s kinda hard to see the bright side of life when the brightest light you’ve seen in thirty years was burning a pile of innocent children to death for a few measly gold.”

“I… I don’t know what to say…”

“Then don’t say anything,” Luna sighed, rubbing her face and rustling her thick hair. “I shouldn’t have brought it up… fuck… D’you mind sorting this out yourself? I need a moment to… remind myself why I’m allowed to live.”

“Uh, sure,” I nodded. “Take all the time you need.”

“Thanks,” she said, walking out of the armoury with a blank expression on her face. I turned back to Svea who seemed to have the same look on her face, her gorgeous eyes having glazed over with the haze of memories, no doubt recalling horrible moments in her own, eternally-lasting life.

“Svea?” I asked gently, placing my hand on her shoulder.

“Hmm?” she said, snapping her head towards me with a confused look as she snapped out of it. “Sorry, I was somewhere else for a moment there… where were we?”

“You were telling me about the underground city and the monsters inside it?” I reminded her.

“Ah, right, of course,” she said, taking a deep breath and beginning to recount the details she knew to me as I tried to keep the sick feeling out of my stomach from all the horrendous things Luna had told me.