Lineage

“So?” my mother asked Celestia once she’d taken her glowing palm off my forehead. “What’s wrong with him?”

Celestia killed off the golden glow in her hand, placing a hand on her hip forehead and sighing loudly.

“I don’t know,” she said after a moment of silence. “He should be functioning at his best right now with his magic free and flying, but… he’s just not. I’ve gone through every kind of inhibitor test there is, for magic, natural, or mental blockages and he’s completely clear of those. I also checked for any kind of symbiotic leach, organic or otherwise, that might be feeding off his power and there’s nothing like that anywhere. I have no idea why Richter’s magic resealed itself.”

“So despite pushing boundaries and breaking the limits of what this family is known for-” I began. “I somehow found a way to fuck up being super-powered, too?”

“You don’t have a good track record of success, do you?” Luna asked with a smirk.

“Apparently not,” I nodded.

“I’ll consult any book and source of information I can to try and find something similar to your case, but I’m not sure if anything’ll turn up,” Celestia said. “Give me a few days.”

“Grael mentioned something about subconscious resealing?” I offered. “Could it be that?”

“No. You don’t know how to create a barrier to seal a tap much less your entire energy store,” Celestia said with a shake of her head. “Subconsciously or not.”

“Right,” I nodded, running my hand through my hair and looking down at the floor, pondering exactly what to do. “Maybe I could try and recreate the scenario? Less life-threatening, obviously, but try to force myself to go through what I did back in Winter’s Maw to try and break the barrier again.”

“No, absolutely not,” Celestia said in a suddenly-stern manner. “The mere act of you being able to unlock your power in such a manner, no matter how brief, was one of the stupidest things you could’ve done.”

“I agree, I totally think it would’ve been a better idea to fucking die as well, Grandma,” I snapped, irritation rising rather fast, even for me. “Thanks for the vote of fucking confidence.”

“Do you have any idea how dangerous allowing yourself to funnel anger as power fuel is?” she snapped back. “Do you have any idea how much danger yourself and the rest of the world would be in right now if you’d accidentally unleashed your Nightmare Form?”

“So you’re saying I should’ve just let myself be killed?” I asked.

“I’m saying that you should’ve tried to calm yourself and use that new spark of emotion to access your magic the way we taught you,” she responded.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but the way you guys have ‘taught’ me has done shit all when it comes to keeping me safe and keeping me alive,” I growled, standing up out of the chair I was sitting in and jabbing a finger into Celestia’s collarbone, not being the least worried about the angry expression she gave me. “You taught me to keep calm and rational at all times, even when against stronger opponents. I’ve done that every time I’ve gone up against a stronger opponent and every time I either came too close to, or actually did die. I have more defeats on my card than any of you three because I’m trying to conform to a fucking regime that doesn’t suit me.”

“I suggest you watch your tone,” Celestia snarled.

“I suggest you shut the fuck up and listen to me for the first time since I was born,” I hissed, poking her even harder. “You, none of you, have ever made an attempt to play to my strengths, try to teach me the way I might find easier. You have set me up with challenges, tasks, and quests that I can’t do because you’re trying to teach me how to fight and survive with techniques that just don’t work for me. You have brought me up to be docile, untrained, and pathetic from the day I was born, whether it be Cadance refusing to have me be trained properly, to you refusing to teach me any kind of method or technique to unlock my magic that works for me, and Luna trying to bend and force me to fit into a training style that just doesn’t work for me.”

“Who the hell do you think you’re talking to right now?” Celestia demanded.

“I think I’m talking to a bunch of fucking idiots that don’t listen to any will or want except for their own, mostly because they adore the sound of their own fucking voices way too much to ever let anyone try to tell them they’re wrong,” I continued, digging myself as deep as possible into the hole I’d started, determined to get as much of this out of my system before they either knocked me the fuck out or I finished ranting. “I have tried so hard to keep up with a family that has never made any attempt to make sure I was keeping up, and I’m fucking sick of it.”

“You really have no idea what you’re talking about,” Celestia said, her eyes lighting with a fire of anger behind them.

“Because none of you have taught me anything!” I bellowed, finally breaking into anger and now screaming in the face of the older Alicorn. “I don’t know what I am, I don’t know how I work, and nobody has made any attempt to teach me about anything! I found out two weeks ago that my parents were half demons, I found out two weeks ago I was a demon, I found out a week and a half ago that my Grandfather is the Archfiend of the fucking demon realm, and I just found out that I’m one of the strongest creatures on this planet only to be berated and scolded for using a power I didn’t even know I had! I am the definition of a walking time-bomb and the only reason I know anything about myself is because I’ve been told out of reluctance and desperation, never because anyone wants me to understand anything!”

There was a moment of quiet, my chest heaving from so much yelling, Luna and Cadance waiting nervously for Celestia’s response, one of them fearful and the other seeming to want her to lash out at me, before the Solar Alicorn opened her mouth.

“Get. Out.” she spat.

“Mother, please-” Cadance began before being cut off.

“No, if little Richter wants to throw a temper tantrum and act like a little brat, he can do it in front of people that are willing to hear it!” Celestia roared, scaring both Cadance and Luna to a certain degree. “So go on then, boy. Go kick and scream to the nearest audience that wants to listen to a childish little prick piss and moan about issues he doesn’t have the scope of mind to comprehend. And then once you’ve realised how unbelievably wrong you are about everything you’ve just said, then you can come back and apologise to the people that know things. Does that sound fair?”

“Fuck you,” I growled, turning tail and storming out the room, kicking the door off and nearly off its hinges as I soared to a height of rage beyond my normal barrier. “Stupid cunt.”

I ignored Celestia’s angered yells, demanding me to repeat myself to her and hearing Luna and Cadance trying to calm her down, Mom trying to reason with her while Luna continuously repeated that I wasn’t worth the anger at this point. I made a quick pace out of the castle, ignoring everyone’s greetings and nods of respect, getting out into the cold night and feeling nothing but hate and disgust for everything in the world.

I first took to the streets and then to the rooftops, climbing and leaping around to try and blow off as much steam as possible, more than prepared to spend as much time as I needed to before going back and grovelling to them for forgiveness, explaining away the anger that genuinely came out of nowhere on my end, and having to see their smug expressions judge and look down on me like they would.

Like they did.

Like they always did.

“Wow, boy,” a female voice said from behind me in an impressed manner. “I’m used to sensing large amounts of anger in a city, but I can feel you burning from a mile away. Long time, no see, huh?”

I turned around and spotted the familiar blue-skinned, smug-faced Futa Demon I’d come across in Winter’s Maw, dressed in a set of armour bearing the insignia of a local mercenary group that operated around Equestria: Karver’s Guard. The armour was your atypical chainmail-under-plate armour get-up, decorated with a large painting of a golden sparrow on the chest, the family insignia of the leader of the group, Anton Karver. Anton used to be the head of the Andalusian Royal Guard before he was banished by the king after he discovered Karver having an affair with his wife, Calatera’s mother. He set up the group a few years later and they’ve been growing bigger and bigger ever since, so I figured the Demon was working for them for now.

“Advalia,” I said in a dry tone. “What’re you doing here?”

“Acting as a little hired muscle,” she shrugged. “Guarding an opium shipment delivery with the other jokers in this Militia so it doesn’t get stolen by bandits. I got the job off a board in Winter’s Maw, took out the contract, got measured up for the uniform, fucked the blacksmith that made it, and here I am with a female set of armour that has a codpiece big enough to hold a six-inch flaccid cock. How about you?”

I chose not to answer her, merely turning around and heading on my way before she teleported in front of me, eyeing me up with her demonic eyes before smiling.

“Fancy a drink with me?” she asked. “The shipment’s delivered, I’ve got my pay, and I’m gonna be heading down to a tavern to get a few pints of ale down my gullet. You wanna tag along?”

“No,” I growled, moving past her and leaping over to the next building only to have her teleport in front of me again. “Will you leave me alone?”

“C’mon, hun,” she chuckled. “I’m only trying to be friendly with you. Just wanna have a nice chat before I go back to work, so I think it’d be fun if-”

“Richter,” I heard Luna announce behind me. I turned around to see the dark-skinned Alicorn standing on the edge of the roof with a cocked eyebrow.

“You catch up quick,” I snarled. “What? You here to drag me back and apologise to everyone?”

“No, I’m here to take you to Falketurm,” Luna said, holding her arms out by her sides in a shrugging manner. “You ready?”

“I thought you said we weren’t going until the start of the frost season?” I asked.

“Your little speech changed my mind,” Luna said. “You’re completely right, by the way.”

“Excuse me?” I asked in surprise.

“You heard: You’re right,” Luna emphasised. “About not being trained properly, about not having anything explained to you, and about not being supported in terms of learning to master your power. I’m taking you to Falketurm and changing all that.”

“What about what Mom and Celestia?” I asked.

“This doesn’t concern them,” Luna said with a shake of her head. “The only thing that matters right now, and for the next five years, is making you into the Alicorn you were meant to be.”

“You’re seriously going against Celestia on this?” I asked in surprise.

“Of course I am,” Luna nodded. “She’s smart, but she doesn’t know everything. And with how you two just parted ways, she’s not gonna be willing to help you for a long time. So I say: Fuck her. I’m doing what I think is right, regardless of what she says.”

“I’ve never heard you talk that way about her before,” I said.

“You haven’t been around for very long,” Luna said. “And the two of us have been much worse than just mad at each other before.”

“Nightmare Moon, right?” I asked.

“Yes, and the Bloodwell Revolution, the Doc’hamery Massacre, the March of the Knights of Norn, and The Winter-Weather War, just to name a few,” Luna listed off. “Celestia and I have not only had disagreements that lead to us fighting from opposite sides of the room with each other, we’ve had disagreements that have lead to us fighting across opposite sides of the battlefield with each other.”

“Seriously?” both Advalia and I asked in shock.

“Yes, and she’s lost against my assaults as many times as she’s won,” Luna said. “There’s a reason why we have two thrones each, as the biggest one belongs to the person that slaughtered the other’s forces and took control of Equestria while keeping the loser in a lower position.”

“Holy fuck,” I said. “You two have tried to kill each other before?”

“No. Neither of us have ever attempted to take the other’s life,” Luna said, shaking her head. “We’ve merely forced the other to surrender the war and continued life from there. I’m hoping to avoid yet another civil war over you, but if it comes down to having a male Alicorn that can not only defend himself, but slay nearly any creature on the planet with ease and having the last hope of our race die to a pack of slimes, I’m willing to beat my sister’s face into the dirt to make sure my side of the argument wins.”

“Wow,” Advalia said. “You girls don’t fuck around.”

“And you are?” Luna asked, noticing the Futa Demon for the first time.

“I’m Advalia, sword-for-hire, master of Dark Magic, and-” she began.

“One of the Rether Pits dick-girls, right?” Luna interrupted.

“... The official term is Futa Demon, thank you,” she said in an unhappy manner.

“Whatever,” Luna said in a non-caring manner. “How good are you with your sword?”

“Which one?” Advalia asked.

“Either or,” Luna shrugged.

“Extremely skilled with both of them,” Advalia answered. “I’ve been able to slay upwards of one hundred and twenty nine armoured knights by myself and have been able to turn three hundred and forty six straight, married men into personal cock-sleeves for myself. Which qualification do you like more?”

“Since Richter is the only member of our family that doesn’t swing like a pendulum on a gyroscope, I’m more interested in your fatality qualification. Is your kill count from a single battle or one-on-any-specific-multiple, in battle with others on your side, or any other exception?”

“All single-handed kills, Your Majesty,” Advalia nodded. “Are you interested in hiring me?”

“That depends,” Luna said. “Have you got five years of your immortal life to spare for three hundred and ninety thousand bits and a mansion in a southern vineyard?”

“I… yes, of course I do, Your Grace,” Advalia nodded, her eyes lighting up brightly as she nodded furiously.

“Good to hear,” Luna said, walking over to both of us and holding out her hands. “Then I’m taking you on as Richter’s sparring partner on fuck-buddy. The first because he needs someone to test his skills against and the second one because Incubus get sick and transform if they don’t get any sex for three weeks.”

“I’m so excited,” Advalia giggled, bouncing on her toes.

“Try to curb it,” Luna said. “We’re not going to a holiday resort for half a decade. We’re going to a lawless hellhole that’s run by a militia of thieves, murderers, and rapists.”

“What?” I asked. “How is that a good place to train?”

“It’ll kill your soul, harden your body and mind, and force you to test your combat skills constantly with the amount of times you’ll be attacked, mugged, or attempted to be molested. If you never stop training, you can never become rusty.”

“Anything else we should know?” I asked in a bitter tone.

“Yeah, Falketurm is a grey, stone prison-like city state where it never stops snowing, there’s no wildlife or vegetation, and everyone’s always drunk,” Luna answered. “If this doesn’t harden you into a killer, nothing will.”

“I look forward to these five years more and more, Luna,” I sighed, rolling my eyes.

“Good,” she nodded. “Now take my hands, both of you, and prepare for the hardest training the body can go through without breaking.”