Lineage

“So…” Karra said, fitting the steel war axe she’d been given onto her hip as she turned her head to look at me. “What are we gonna do first?”

“First we’re going to look at some of the murder locations,” I answered. “They’ve more than likely been cleaned up, but it’s worth a shot.”

“Right,” Karra nodded, rolling her shoulders and beginning to walk alongside me. “Then what’s the plan once we find something out?”

“If we find a piece of evidence that leads us to wherever our busty beauty ended up,” I explained. “We’re gonna go and ask her a few questions.”

“And by that you mean cut off her head, right?”

“Indeed I do,” I nodded. “Her’s and anyone else’s that needs to be taken out of the picture.”

“Any idea on where to go after we look at the places people were killed?” Karra asked.

“Yeah, but it’s not gonna be easy,” I said with a sigh. “Since these murders would’ve been brutal, untrained vampires and all, they would’ve had detailed reports from both the royal guard and the city’s morgue, run by the hospital, done on each of them. I think it goes without saying that those reports aren’t available for civilian viewing at your local library.”

“So how do we get a look at them?” Karra asked. “We gonna steal them?”

“Not quite,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m going to go to the town hall and announce that I’m making an National Status Inquiry into the crime rates of Winter’s Maw on the behalf of the Equestrian Crown. That means they’ll legally have to give me access to all of the reports and filings of all crime in the past year due to a rule set forth where a country with a ruler registered with the Council of Nations must grant any request by another member of the Council to look into their records for purposes like wanting to see if they’re worth trading with, what kind of venues they possess, and if there’s any dangerous places they wish to avoid.”

“Sounds simple enough,” Karra nodded. “What’s the problem?”

“They probably won’t allow me to look at them,” I answered. “Because they’ll probably think I’m lying about being the Prince of Equestria.”

“Why would they think that? They’ll recognise you as the prince, won’t they?” Karra asked.

“Did you?” I asked, looking down at the Neko.

“...” she was silent for a moment. “Shit.”

“Yep,” I growled. “We can try without asking my family first, but don’t be disappointed when we get turned away.”

“No promises,” she muttered.

So the two of us went to the town hall and made the request to the serving secretary and were laughed at almost immediately.

“Boy,” the stuffy old man working the desk laughed. “How stupid do you think I am?”

“You don’t want me to answer that,” I shrugged before getting back on topic. “I’m advising you now to just let me in on my word before I go and drag one of my relatives away from their God-Slaying preparation and come here to talk to you, which I’ll warn you will not have them in a good mood.”

“Yes, of course you will, boy,” he said, wiping a tear away from his eye as he continued to laugh. “You run off to your Prince-boy throne and get the lovely Princess Celestia to come with you, and once you and her return to this land of fantasy you’re in, I’ll give her access to the files as soon as she gives me a blowjob. Now get out of here, brat. And don’t dare waste my time again.”

“I’ll be back in about an hour,” I said with a kind smile. “Thank you for letting us know your terms.”

The two of us left the town hall, Karra visibly angry about the encounter while I remained unnerved.

“That guy was such a prick,” Karra said. “Why’d you let him talk to you like that?”

“Because it’s more satisfying to see people like him bluster like that and then hear their apologies and promises once they’ve been proven wrong,” I shrugged. “So that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.”

“I’d have just killed the fucker,” Karra snarled. “Does it not bug you that nobody knows you’re royalty?”

“It did when I was a little younger, around ten or eleven,” I nodded. “But I realised that not being recognised meant not having people constantly running up to me and begging for help and money, or praising me with gifts and kisses. It’s nice to be famous, but from what I’ve seen from my family, they don’t appreciate it very much in this day and age, especially Luna and Celestia.”

“I can imagine,” Karra nodded. “There isn’t a person alive that doesn’t know who those two are. There hasn’t been a place I’ve visited where I haven’t heard them mentioned, or pictured, or sung about in some form or another.”

“My Mom and Dad get it a lot in Equestria, not so much in other countries, and they’re never recognised in the East and people only seem amazed by them because they’re white, which isn’t a common thing around there,” I explained. “But nobody pays me any attention because I’ve been around for less than two decades. I don’t even think there’s ever been a portrait painted of me, never mind songs and ballads of my achievements.”

“I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but… does it sting being that much in your family’s shadow?” Karra asked in a tentative manner. “That so much achievement is in your family and that you’re expected to live up to it?”

“Not really,” I shrugged. “Maybe I feel a little bitter about it in a place so deep down in my psyche that I don’t know what the name for it is, but on the surface, I’m happy being just ‘Richter the Swordsman’, not ‘Richter, the last male of a dying race and the descendant of some of the greatest rulers in history.’”

“I… I guess that’s a good way of looking at it,” Karra nodded.

“Though it can get a little annoying, like right now, where I use my title as a prince to try and get something,” I began. “Only for the person I’m asking to take one good look at me and say ‘Kid, go get your Mom.’”

“Ugh. I can imagine,” Karra said. “So who are you gonna ask?”

“Celestia,” I answered. “Mostly so I can see what her response is to that prick’s ‘conditions’. Though I do hate distracting them from something that’s not as important as what they’re doing.”

“You think this isn’t important?” Karra asked with a confused expression.

“If you grew up in my shoes, you’d have learned that bleeding to death isn’t worth interrupting Celestia writing a letter,” I responded. “Because most times if she didn’t finish that letter, even more people would die. I think my willingness and understanding of the fact that my own life isn’t as important as the business my family conducts is one of the three things my Aunt Luna actually likes about me.”

“What are the other two?” Karra asked.

“I can’t legally tell you,” I answered quickly. “It’s a matter of national security.”

“Right,” she nodded, rolling her eyes at me.

The two of us continued to make smalltalk as we headed back to the Academy, making good ground over the time it took and crossing the drawbridge, Karra spotting something on the bridge that made her eyes light up with childlike wonder. I turned back to look at her as she took off towards the creature, chanting like an evil priest:

“Dogdogdogdogdogdogdogdogdogdogdog.”

I looked at what she was sprinting over to and recognised the enormous pile of fur, teeth, and claws immediately.

“How’d you end up here?” I asked him.

“I walked,” Grael answered. “Kitty tagged along too. She’s not really that good for polite conversation.”

Grael’s next sentence was interrupted as Karra launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and rubbing her face into his thick fur, purring loudly as she did so. Grael was confused for a moment, looking back and forth between me and Karra before addressing his new acquaintance.

“Hello there, large-breasted catgirl,” he said slowly. “May I help you?”

“You’re so soft,” she said, her voice muffled by his fur. “I love you.”

Grael blinked twice before looking back up at me with a cocked eyebrow.

“Where do you keep finding these women?” he asked.

“I found this one living in an old fort killing people for a living,” I shrugged, chuckling quietly to myself as Karra rolled over, sitting with her back to Grael’s chest and in between his front paws with a contented expression on her adorable face.

“I love him,” she stated.

“It’s rather atypical for a cat to be this enamoured with a canine species, is it not?” Grael said, closing his legs around Karra’s waist and giving her cat ear a quick lick.

“I’m an atypical kind of girl,” she smiled, nuzzling closer to the enormous wolf.

“Good to know,” he nodded before looking back at me. “And where have you been these past few days?”

“I got kidnapped by vampires and possibly turned into one,” I said in a calm manner.

“Right,” Grael stated with a quick nod. “I can never accuse you of being a boring man, can I?”

“No you cannot,” I said. “Anyway, Imma go get Celestia, then we’re gonna head back into the city to get some shit, and I want you to come with us.”

“Fair enough,” Grael nodded. “I’ve needed a good excuse to stretch my legs since getting here. Oh, and Mother wished to have a word with you on your return. She seemed quite adamant about it, in fact.”

“Right,” I nodded. “Can I trust you to entertain Karra while I’m away?”

“... What kind of entertaining do you mean?” he asked.

“What kind of entertaining do you want?” Karra asked in a sultry tone, backing up closer against the big wolf.

“You know what,” Grael chuckled. “I think I’m going to like this one.”

“I figured you would,” I smirked, petting them both on the head. “Now, have fun.”

With that, I headed off into the Academy to try and find Celestia. Or that was the original plan before I was grabbed by the collar and dragged into a small office, having the door slammed behind me.

“Where the hell have you been?” my mother demanded in a furious tone of voice. “I have been worried sick about you for the past two days! I arrange for family time with you and Twilight and you don’t show up, I ask Zane where you are and he has no idea, Grael comes trotting in with Kitty only to tell me he can’t even sense where you are! For the love of all things alive, Richter, I thought you were dead!”

“Not quite,” I said. “Nearly undead, but not just there yet.”

“What?” she growled.

“I may have had a bad run-in with a vampire,” I said in a slow manner. “And I may have possibly, kinda, sorta ended up taking on a job which involves weeding out traitors in the last fully-assembled vampire clan before the entire race gets discovered and burned alive or something.”

My mother was silent for a long moment, her pink eyes scanning every inch of my face and body to see any kind of twitch or twinge that told her if I was lying or not. She slowly put a hand to her face and exhaled slowly, rubbing her eyes thoroughly before pointing at me with a well-manicured nail.

“Start from the top,” she ordered. “And don’t leave out any details.”

“I don’t know the whole story,” I said. “But it started when I went up to a bedroom in a brothel to sleep with what I thought was the owner-”

“Of course,” Cadance said with a pained expression. “It wasn’t gonna be anything else was it?”

“Lemme finish,” I said, taking a deep breath and laying down what Verella had helped me piece together as well as the job she’d given me, Cadance listening intently to every word with a neutral expression right up until my story had finished.

“Lemme see your wrists,” she said once I’d finished. I did so, allowing her to analyse the healing cuts and the darkened veins before sighing loudly, pinching her temples and gritting her teeth.

“So how long do I have before I turn?” I asked.

“No time at all,” Cadance said. “You should have already.”

“... What?” I asked with a shocked expression.

“From looking at the colour of the blood in your veins, you’ve already been turned into a vampire,” Cadance explained. “But from looking at your face and trying to pick up any trace of vampiric magic, there isn’t any. You’ve got a vampire’s blood in your veins but you’re not a vampire.”

“How the hell does that work?” I asked.

“I have no idea,” Cadance said with a shake of her head. “How is it this shit only manages to happen to you? I can’t leave you alone for five minutes without you breaking some kind of set-in-stone magical rule.”

“Isn’t that why you love me?” I asked, batting my eyelashes.

“No,” she answered. “I hate you.”

“Of course you do,” I smiled. “So, any idea how to fix this?”

“As long as it’s gone the way I think it has,” Cadance nodded. “All we need to do is drain your contaminated blood and replace it with a fresh load.”

“Isn’t there the slight problem of, I don’t know, me dying before my body can generate enough blood to keep me alive?” I asked.

“Richter, how well do you know me?” she asked.

“Like you were my own mother?” I suggested.

“And when at any point in your knowledge of me have I ever suggested something without having a logical reason for doing so?” she asked.

“Never,” I responded.

“Correct,” she smiled, gently placing her hand on my cheek. “So why the hell do you think I’d suggest bleeding you like a cow without having a way to do it without killing you?”

“Because I’m an idiot?” I asked.

“That’s a good boy,” she said, petting me on the head. “Now, you said you were here for Celestia, right?”

“Yeah, I need her to vouch for me that I am actually a Prince,” I nodded.

“If you’d had your crown commissioned like I’d told you to years ago this wouldn’t be a problem,” Cadance said.

“How exactly am I supposed to keep a crown on when fighting?” I asked.

“If I can keep my crown on during a gangbang, I’m sure you can keep it on during a sword fight,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Anyway, back to this whole blood thing,” I said, remembering that she’d never explained it. “How is that gonna work?”

“D’you remember each of your mutation overviews?” she asked. “We take a blood sample both before and after each additional mutation to make sure you’re blood hasn’t become toxic or started breaking down in its composition.”

“Yeah?”

“Well we can get Twilight a sample of it, use her to synthesise a shit load more of it, drain your blood from your dirty blood from your body, clean you out with a special solution in a matter of moments while keeping you oxygenated and sustained through magic , and then start pumping the clean blood back into you with no problems at all,” she explained.

“That’s… rather convenient,” I nodded. “Where did Twilight learn to do that?”

“She got bored one day and started testing it on mice,” Cadance shrugged. “Because she wanted to see if it could be done.”

“She’s… she’s kind of a mad scientist, isn’t she?” I asked in horror.

“Oh my, yes,” Cadance nodded. “But we let her get away with most of her crimes against humanity because she’s brought amazing innovation to several different fields.”

“Wow,” I nodded, scratching the back of my head. “That’s… horrible.”

“Yup,” Cadance nodded before falling silent for a second. I was confused for a moment before she snapped her fingers loudly and pointed at me again.

“Oh, and there’s someone upstairs looking for you and Svea,” she said. “Svea never said who it was, but she said it was beyond important and was a matter of life and death. You might wanna go talk to her before you get back out on the road.”

“Right. Where are they?” I asked.

“Same place Svea always stays,” Cadance answered. “You be careful while you’re out, okay? I’ve already spent the past two days worried sick about you. I don’t wanna spend any more.”

“Alright,” I nodded, hugging her tightly before taking a step back. “I’ll be careful.”

“Good,” she said softly, bidding me farewell. I watched her walk away from the office, straightening my thoughts out and deciding what I was going to do next. I figured that tending to the needs of the woman bearing my child was more important than bureaucrat horseshit, so I decided on seeing what Svea needed. I ran my thumb over the symbol on the back of my hand as I walked up to the bedroom Svea would be in, curious as to how Grael was getting along with Karra, only to have waves of pleasure and lust transferred across our link, giving me more than enough info to know that they were getting along fine.

“How’s she treating you?” I asked him through our connection.

“This bitch is tight,” he grunted in response, his usual calm voice and large vocabulary having been replaced with aggression and profanity as his animal side took over. “She can’t take all of me, but what she can take she takes well.”

I wasn’t surprised in the slightest upon hearing that. Grael’s enormous size was also complemented by an enormous cock, with it being over twice as big as mine in both length and thickness. And that monster was also backed up with balls that were each the size of a red apple that could each pump over a pint into whatever got him off. Direwolf dick was also radically different from all other canine species, with it resembling an enormous, skinless human cock, complete with the thicker mushroom head designed for penetration, but also had an even thicker knot at the base, which made it lethal to any normal human, and retreated into a sheath when flaccid. Grael was the only creature in the world that I would ever say I was jealous of when it came to dick size, and he often made fun of me for it.

“Well try not to stretch her out too much,” I said, heading up the stairs. “I still need to use her.”

“No promises,” he growled in a deep tone, the shakiness of his voice and the pleasure wave that rocketed over our connection informing me that he’d just cum inside Karra. With that, he cut the connection and allowed my senses to return to the front of my mind. I shook the thoughts from my head and entered the bedroom, closing the door behind me and coming face to face with both a familiar and unfamiliar person.

For all intents and purposes, this person was a palette-swapped version of Svea. Every feature down from her huge tits, wide hips, big ass, and thick thighs pegged her as Svea, but slight differences in the face and a completely different hair and eye colour told me this was someone much different.

“Oh,” she said, bringing a nail up to her rogue lips, her red eyes narrowing as she stared at me. “She’d told me you were cute… but I didn’t think you’d look this delicious.”

“I have an idea as to who you are,” I said, walking towards her. “But just to be clear, mind introducing yourself?”

“I’m Suomi,” she said with a chuckle. “Svea’s big sister.”