Lineage

“Right… so not only are you telling me that this little vampire rebellion has been in Falketurm for nearly as long as I have-” I began.

“Yup,” Verella nodded, swilling a glass of wine as she sat in a comfortable chair.

“But they’ve all got a vendetta against me, but for some reason have never come after me until today?” I asked.

“Yes. The reason they’ve never come after you is that,” Verella said, pointing in Luna’s direction. “Everything that knows anything wouldn’t dare come after their target if they stay on the home turf of one of the world’s strongest creatures. Even if they managed to kill you, they’re terrified of Luna or any other Alicorn taking it personally, as they should, and start hunting them down.”

“So what changed today?” I asked her, drawing a chair out next to her and sitting down.

“In case you haven’t noticed, infighting is kind of a big thing in the vampire world,” Verella smirked. “If I know the vampire I fried, which I do, he was one of the ones that proposed a suicide run on you. Get you out of the way and if he died, who cares? He’s done his job and appeased the Vampire Gods.”

“There are Vampire Gods now?” I asked in surprise.

“Yes,” Luna growled in an angry tone. “Three of them: Vintinya, Orselia, and Cymaron. And they are three of the cattiest, stuck-up, backstabbing, mean-girl bitches you will ever meet.”

“That sounds like it comes from a place of experience,” I said, looking at my aunt with a smirk.

“Don’t get me started,” she snarled. “I’ll be here all week.”

“Indeed,” Verella nodded. “When I took power from my sister a few hundred years ago, the first thing I did was abolish any worship of those soul-sapping cunts, cleared out their religious symbols, artifacts, and scriptures and sold them for an extremely large amount of money to refill the treasury my sister seemed so intent on permanently emptying.”

“She a religious woman?” I asked.

“Devout. She’d cut off her breasts and feed them to her dogs if one of our crotchety old cunts asked her to,” Verella snarled. “Aleksandra was a damn fool and was ruining what was left of our society.”

“You wanna explain the story with you two?” I asked. “Because from where I jumped in, it seemed to be the end of the war.”

“Aleksandra was my older, idiot sister, and due to her age it was her that was given the throne when she was seventeen,” Verella began, taking a large drink from her wine glass in an attempt to cool her boiling anger. “And from the day she sat down on that throne, she began the process of burning our kingdom down settlement by settlement. Ordering the elder vampires on her council to be executed for ‘heresy’, forcing the young to abandon their training in using their powers to blend in and adapt to a more human lifestyle and instead focus worshipping the three goddesses, leaving them to be caught and murdered by humans when they didn’t know how to escape pursuit.”

“Sounds like there’s a lot more in that list then we’ve got time to sit here for,” I whistled.

“Richter, if I had a month I still couldn’t list all of the horrible things she did,” Verella nodded. “So I did what anyone who doesn’t wish to see the remnants of her kingdom destroyed: I gathered an army and cast her out of her rule. I thought she’d have been smart enough to just hide in a cave and live out her days with her idiot supporters, but… well, you saw what happened.”

“And I’m guessing the fuckers you’re hunting here are leftovers from that group?”

“Yeah. I’m trying to put a stop to them before they become something that’s actually dangerous,” she nodded.

“Two questions for that: Why Falketurm and why did you come yourself?” I asked.

“Falketurm was the opportune location to set up a new vampire rebellion because it’s a lawless land where nobody cares if people go missing,” Verella explained, pouring a new glass of wine with her magic as she moved her chair around and draped her legs over my mine. I removed her boots and began to massage her feet and thighs, the vampire queen smiling contentedly as she continued to explain her reasoning. “And I came here myself because I was the one that started this war a very long time ago. It was by my hand and my decisions that caused the rift between the vampires, and it will be by my hand and my decisions that I close it once more.”

“A reason I’m familiar with, Verella,” Luna said, walking over to the table and sitting down on it as she eyed Verella with a cocked eyebrow. “But being the one to strike the final blow doesn’t mean you’ll ever opt to carry the whole load yourself. Where are the rest of your forces?”

“Aren’t you a clever girl?” Verella chuckled. “They’re stationed outside of Falketurm and waiting for my signal before they enter the city to take care of the rebellion.”

“Mind if we borrow a few?” Luna asked. “Only for a while?”

“Why’s that?” Verella asked, leaning back in her seat.

“Richter here decided it would be a good idea to kick off a gang war between everyone that’s worth a damn in this shithole,” Luna said, nodding in my direction. “And to be fair, he’s handled the situation in the way any good king would: Relying on getting everyone he can to help him so he can throw forces at the enemy and hide behind his walls like a pussy.”

“That is not how this is going,” I growled.

“You’re right, we’re doing all the work while you’re whoring it up day and night,” Luna nodded before looking at Verella. “No offense.”

“None taken. I know what I like and in what amount,” Verella smiled. “I’m not ashamed of it.”

“So?” Luna asked. “Mind lending a hand to your useless baby-daddy over here?”

Verella was quiet for a moment, mulling it over in her head before reaching a decision.

“Eh, fuck it. Why not?” she shrugged. “It’s the least I can do for him after all he’s done for me and my lot. Consider this your first use of a force that is rightfully yours.”

“Awesome. Vampire army at my beck and call,” I smiled.

“Don’t forget the women. They’re there, too,” Verella pointed out.

“Bring any with you now?” I asked.

“As a matter of fact, I did,” Verella nodded. “I brought my scout master, Tiana, with me. She’s a little frosty to new people, but use the same level of charm with her as you do everyone else and I’m sure you’ll be eating your way to her heart in no time.”

“And I am so happy that my tower that I fought and died for has now became Richter’s House of Harem,” Luna sighed, rubbing her eyes. “So if I can count up every woman we’ve got in here just for you, we’ve got Advalia, Kalla, Verella, Annerose-”

“I’m not one of his whores,” Annerose interrupted.

“I give you a month,” Luna shrugged. “And now the Goddess of Chaos herself who, for the last twelve hours, hasn’t taken her tongue out of Twilight. Go fix that, will you?”

“Does ‘fixing’ include ‘watching and cheering’?” I asked.

“Sure, whatever,” Luna said before turning back to Verella. “And since the boy’s far too incompetent to do anything right, let me ask you a question.”

“Go on,” Verella urged.

“Is your scoutmaster any good at arson?”

And with that, I took my leave to go and find Eris and Twilight, wandering through the corridors of the castle before a familiar voice chimed up in my head.

“Richter?” Grael asked in an unsure tone.

“Yes, my boy?” I asked him.

“So… you know how humans can break their arms?” he asked.

“Yes,” I nodded.

“And you know how Nekomata can break their arms…”

“Yes…”

“Did you also know that Nekomata children can break their arms?”

“What did you do?”

“I swear, I only took my eyes off her for a second, and by the time I turned back, she was on the floor below the wardrobe laughing hysterically,” Grael said in a panicky voice.

“Wait… which twin was this?”

“Tarra.”

“And she broke her arm?”

“Yes.”

“And the five year-old girl’s response to having a bone broken… was to start laughing?”

“Yeah. She’s not even crying about it either, she laughed for a while when the pain was at its worst… and now she’s just sort of staring at it.”

“How bad’s the break?” I asked him.

“I… I don’t wanna answer that,” Grael said in a guilty tone.

“Grael,” I growled angrily.

“Well… I can see the bone,” Grael whined.

“And she’s laughing about it?” I asked in disbelief. “She’s bleeding as well, right?”

“Quite a bit, yes,” Grael nodded. “We’re going to find your mother now and Tarra’s… well… she keeps poking it.”

“She’s poking the bone?” I asked, coming to a standstill.

“Yeah,” he nodded.

“Switch with me, right now,” I said, hearing a confirmatory whimper from the wolf as my mind leaped into his body, everything going black for a second, senses dying out, before light, sound, and consciousness returned to me as I was back in my home. I turned to my left and looked down, seeing an adorable little Neko in a pair of leather pants and a cotton shirt with bright blue eyes and a dark blue, high ponytail staring inquisitively at the blood-soaked, bone-protruding left arm.

“This feels weird, Uncle Grael,” she said in a rough voice.

“Sweetie, this is Dad,” I said, Tarra clearly recognising the change in Grael’s voice as she turned to look at me with a confused expression.

“You ain’t dad,” she said. “You dog.”

“It’s complicated to explain and I don’t have the time,” I said, walking around to her left side to get a better look at the wound. “Are you feeling okay?”

“My arm hurts a little,” she shrugged. “I fucked it proper with that jump.”

“Hey!” I said sternly. “Watch your language.”

“You ain’t my dad,” she said, baring her tiny little fangs. “You dog.”

“Okay, Tarra, we’re going to find Grandma Cadance,” I said with a shake of my head, walking behind her and nudging her along to get her moving, the fact that she was so calm helping me remain calm as well. “What did you do to break it?”

“I was climbing up a wardrobe,” she said nonchalantly. “I went to reach for the top of the wardrobe, but the handle I was standing on snapped. Tried to recover but it didn’t happen. Fell, landed, and snap.”

If there was one thing about Tarra that was weirding me out more than the fact that she seemed to be made of steel, it was how well she was speaking. Most five year olds that I’d been forced to talk to, even more the intelligent ones, had grasped speaking well enough, but were nowhere near as articulate, well-versed, or as ass-numbingly sarcastic as this one.

“Wasn’t Grael watching you?” I asked her.

“He was asleep,” Tarra shrugged.

“Right. I’ll be having words with him about that later,” I growled angrily. “Where’s your sister?”

“Prolly doin’ nerd shit,” Tarra shrugged.

“Language,” I warned again.

“Sorry,” she sighed. “She’s probably with Aunt Celestia doing nerd sh… shtuff.”

“That’s better,” I said, guiding her to the left to head towards my mother’s room. “What’re you up to these days?”

“Training with Uncle Zane,” she answered. “He’s teaching me how to use a mace.”

“Aren’t you a little small for that?” I asked.

“I can lift it easy enough,” she said with a proud smile. “I killed a pigeon with it, too.”

“What did the pigeon do?” I asked.

“Shit on my lunch,” she shrugged.

“Tarra,” I growled.

“Sheesh, I didn’t realise you were so uptight,” she said, skirting ahead of me.

“Right, get here,” I growled, biting down on the scruff of her shirt’s neckline and picking her up in my jaws.

“Ugh. You’re so boring,” she sighed as she began to swing her legs back and forth. I couldn’t scold her in response due to my lack of jaw movement, but instead carried the injured kitten to my mother’s bedroom, setting her down on the ground and howling loudly, making Tarra jump in surprise.

“Fuck me!” she exclaimed, practically ducking for cover.

“Hey!” I barked. “Enough with the swearing already! You’re worse than I am.”

The door opened to reveal a Cadance having a lazy day: her hair wasn’t brushed, she hadn’t applied her makeup, and she was still in her nightgown despite it being nearly midday.

“Hiya, Mom,” I said. “What do you know about broken arms?”

Cadance’s eyes travelled off me and down to the blood-soaked Nekomata, staring up at her grandmother with a wide, fanged-smile.

“Again?” Cadance asked in a bemused tone.

“What do you mean ‘again’?” I asked in a worried tone. “How many times has she done this?”

“Three times this month,” Cadance sighed, beckoning both of us in, Tarra skipping happily inside the nice-smelling room while I followed in with a horrified gaze. “And before you get jealous, no, she hasn’t beaten your record of most bones broken in a month. You still hold the record for seventeen.”

“Yeah, but those were all at once when I fell off a windmill,” I said as I padded inside. “Surely she wins through most bones broken at different times in a month.”

“To be fair, if she needs to go through what you did to beat that record, I’d be happy if it never gets broken again,” Cadance said, shivering at the horrible memory. “I’d rather not present the award to a child with their ribs splintering out their chest, their hip shattered, and are screaming whilst vomiting blood.”

“You know, I don’t remember that,” I said, hopping up on the bed while Cadance sat Tarra down on her knee and began to use her magic to heal the injury.

“I do,” Cadance said, toying with Tarra’s ponytail as the bone moved itself back into her arm, fused with the rest of it, and the skin knitted back over without any sign of the wound. “And if I remember correctly, I cried more than you did when that happened.”

“Pussy,” Tarra sniggered, only to yelp in pain when Cadance slapped her on the thigh.

“You might be able to walk over Grael and Zane, but not me, understand, young lady?” Cadance asked.

“Yes,” Tarra sighed.

“Excuse me?” Cadance asked.

“Yes,Grandma,” she repeated in an annoyed fashion.

“Good,” Cadance nodded, letting Tarra hop down onto the floor. “Now, get down to the main hall for lunch. If I find out you went anywhere else again, you’re not training with Zane for a month, you hear?”

“Yes, Grandma,” Tarra nodded, walking out the door with an irritable expression. The door closed behind her and Cadance turned to me, gently stroking my head as I lay curled up on the bed.

“I gather you’re not here to fuck me again, are you?” she asked.

“No. I needed to take up dad duties for a while,” I answered. “And speaking of dad duties: why’s she so smart?”

“She’s a Nekomata. Their brains develop much faster than humans do,” Cadance answered. “If you think she’s smart, you should go and talk to Ceralia. She’s the same age as the twins, but she’s rocketed past them in terms of intelligence.”

“How smart is she?” I asked.

“About as smart as Twilight was when she was fifteen,” Cadance chuckled. “And Twilight was beyond genius level when she was fifteen.”

“That’s… that’s unbelievable,” I said in amazement.

“Svea told us all to expect it, but it still came as a shock to see a three year old girl performing advanced calculus,” Cadance said, scratching my sides and making my leg kick instinctively. “So, what’s new on your side of the world?”

“Ran into some vampires, met one of my baby-mommas and she’s agreed to help speed things up a little,” I shrugged, turning over and allowing her to scratch my stomach.

“Any closer to coming home?” she asked.

“I hope so,” I nodded. “All we need to do is get McGraw down to his last scraps and then deliver the finishing blow.”

“That’s good to hear,” Cadance smiled. “It’ll be great for you to be home for a while, especially with all of your little spawn finally getting to meet their daddy properly.”

“Tarra didn’t seem too fussed,” I chuckled.

“Did that upset you?” she asked.

“No, not really,” I smirked. “If she doesn’t wanna spend time with me, it just means less responsibility and more sex with her mother.”

I received a flick in the ribs for that answer, wincing in pain before chuckling quietly.

“Are you mad because I didn’t say sex with you?” I asked.

“A little,” Cadance said, yawning loudly. “You do realise that when you get back, you’re gonna have to wait a while before we can fuck the way we’re desperate to, right?”

“Lemme guess: the pups?” I asked.

“Yeah, you flooding my womb with enough cum to fill a bath isn’t gonna be too healthy for Direwolf fetuses,” Cadance nodded. “So until their three-month gestation period is over, it’s gonna have to stay with blowjobs and titfucks.”

“That’s fine by me,” I smiled. “And besides, I’ve got plenty of other women to pass the time with if you’re not available.”

“Speaking of women, you gonna try and patch things up with your grandmother any time soon?” Cadance asked.

“Do I have to?” I asked.

“If you wanna fuck her sometime, then yeah, you have to,” Cadance nodded.

“To be honest… I don’t really need Celestia,” I shrugged. “If I’ve got a hard-on for a seven-foot tall, super-thicc, ancient being with tits big enough to lose myself in, I’ve got my wife and her sister ready to bend over and spread for me if I just ask nicely.”

“Wife?” Cadance asked.

“Svea, remember?”

“She performed an official mating ritual with you?” Cadance asked in surprise. “She’d only known you for a few days at that point, right? Seems odd for a woman like that to bind herself to someone in such little time.”

“Her mother hates me,” I admitted.

“She would,” Cadance said with a shake of her head. “She’s a cunt.”

“So I’ve heard,” I nodded. “Svea and I discussed knocking Suomi up, just to piss her off more.”

“You two are perfect for each other, you know that?” Cadance asked with a laugh. “It reminds me of the stuff your father and I used to do. Remember Fleur De Lis and her two little girls?”

“Yeah, what about them?” I asked.

“Both of them are Shining’s,” Cadance sniggered. “Fleur got pissed off at her husband constantly ignoring her, so when she brought it up at a party thirty years ago, we offered her to join us, the topic of children got brought up in between the fourth round… and she and I came up with that as a little bit of committed revenge.”

“Isn’t there a five-year age gap between her daughters?” I asked.

“Yes,” Cadance nodded with an evil twinkle in her eye. “Yes there is.”

“You’re pure evil, Mom,” I smirked.

“I’m a demon, honey,” Cadance sniggered. “Evil’s my middle name.”