Redux: Lineage

Once I'd returned home and retired to my chambers, Grael had joined me soon afterwards. Despite being the equivalent of a grown man, he often slept on the same bed I did as a dog would with their master. It was his method of protecting me and my usual lack of interest in bunking with men as a regular occurrence didn't exist with Grael, as our bond and level of closeness had long-since eroded the usual boundaries you'd expect between two men our age.

This was why I felt that I had to tell him of the 'family affairs', as he was as much family to me as my father way. I'd already confessed by pent-up frustrations towards my female family members, and he'd taken that much better than I'd expected. So I wasn't surprised to see him take the news of not just incestuous relationships on the chin, but the concept of incest being ingrained into the family as deep as our bones. He was silent for a long moment, grey eyes locked onto the bed he sat on, before he shook his head, looking at me with a calm expression and speaking in that wise, deep voice of his.

"Thank you for trusting me with this," was all he said at first, moments ticking by before he spoke again. "It may not sit well with me for now, but I'm sure that, given time, I can come to accept it as you seem to have."

"Thanks, Grael," I nodded, feeling a weight taken off my chest and being able to breathe easy yet again.

"Are you going to inform the others?" he asked.

"No," I said without a moment of hesitation. "Not a chance. I may love them to pieces, but they're not a part of the family and don't need to know this family's business."

"A fair reasoning," Grael agreed, nodding slowly before turning his eyes to the window. "Are you planning to rest for the night?"

"Yeah. I didn't realise it until I lay down, but I'm exhausted," I sighed, lying down in my bed and closing my eyes. "Goodnight, buddy."

Grael took his usual place; curled up against my stomach with his head resting by mine, and the two of us laid down for the night, ready to see what the morning would bring to further our lives.

It turns out, the two of us were awoken the next morning by a maid with a summon from my father. I woke, showered, and dressed myself, ready to speak to him about the family secret I'd learned and hoping that it wouldn't cause too much of a rift between us. That was the plan at least, only for me to be lead to the throne room where my father, several guards, and a woman dressed in armour of a foreign kingdom stood. She was garbed in light chainmail armour with purple robes thrown atop them, bearing the sigil of a golden horse against the backdrop of a golden sun on her chest.

"Here he is now," my father said, gesturing for me to come towards him before he turned to the armoured woman. "Relay the same message you relayed to me, Madam."

"Bonjour, Your Majesty," she said, clapping her fist to her breast plate and bowing her head, clearly the usual salute of her company. "I come to you with a message of disaster and a plea for help. A Vampire menace is terrorising the streets Beaumont, stealing away innocent men, women, and children under the cover of darkness, night after night. Our mages and monster hunters say they are equipped to handle this task, but their numbers grow thinner and thinner every time they meet this menace, and our regular guards are not equipped nor trained to handle this plague on their own. On behalf of Empress Clauria DeMonche, I humbly beg you aid to cleanse our city of this disease!"

It was an impressive speech, not going to lie, but I was more than baffled as to why this was being directed to me of all people. I turned to look at my father, my eyes visibly begging for some kind of guidance, before he took me aside for a moment and began whispering to you.

"You're the only Ruling Alicorn in the country right now and its kind of the job of your species to safeguard and protect the people of this world," Shining said. "And, no, I'm not just going to throw you into this on your own. If you offer her help, I'll be with you every step of the way to handle this problem."

"Right," I said, keeping a firm grip on the responsibility that had been thrown at me like a brick and trying not to panic.

I figured the best way to approach this situation was the same way I handled hunting monsters: statements and witnesses. Ask questions, request previously-gathered intelligence, and go off of what you've learned there. So, to start with:

"Are you sure that it's Vampires?" I asked, getting the obvious question out of the way first. "What evidence has been gathered to point to them?"

"I've been given investigation reports and autopsy notes by the mages that should be enough to convince you, if M'Lady's assurances," she said, handing over a large bag of scrolls, sheets of paper, and officially-signed documents, stamped with the Crown Seal.

I took them from her with a thank you, selecting one of the reports from the pile and reading through it. The general description was regarding the corpse of a Vampire they'd managed to recover after a team of mages had managed to kill them. The initial description was of dark skin, white hair, and pure white eyes, giving away immediately what clan of Vampires this was and how far away from home they were.

"House N'Vadi," I said with a sigh, baffled as to why a Vampire clan from the Arid Plains was attacking folks this far from home.

I read further through the report, seeing descriptions of their black and white combat garb, the necklaces with the iron vampire fang they often wore to show their allegiance, and the short daggers they fought with.

"N'Vadi are a long way from home and, last I checked, not too friendly with another Vampire clan that has their hands on these areas," I said, looking back at the messenger. "Were you given any reports detailing a skin of alabaster-skinned Vampires that run around in plate armour and use hammers?"

"Uh..." the messenger said, scratching her head in confusion before nodding slowly. "There... there were reports of skulls being smashed with warhammers, yes... and reports of scraps of purple cloth being stuck in the teeth and claws of other Vampire corpses."

"Wait... purple?" I asked, shock spreading onto my face.

If the intel was accurate, then that meant we had three different Vampire clans duking it out in the streets of Beaumont night after night. The House of N'Vadi, the armour-clad House of Hollander, and the purple robes that belonged to the House of Venvier, who were a group that fought exclusively using magic... this was not a good sign. I turned back to the messenger with a determined expression, her eyes seeming to light up with joy as she realised I'd come to a decision.

"This is too big to ignore," I nodded, tucking the reports back into the bag and handing it to one of the Equestrian Guards. "If we've got this many different 'flags' being flown in your city, then that means we're either in the process of watching a Vampire civil war brewing..."

"Or they're already neck deep in one," Shining sighed, shaking his head as we looked at the messenger. "We can't let this sit any longer. We have no idea how long Luna and Celestia are going to be until they finish."

"And if this war ends in a change in the Vampire High Throne, then we might be in trouble," I said, gritting my teeth in an angered manner before looking directly at the messenger. "We shall come with you back to see the Empress, learn all we can from your reports, conduct our own investigation, and make whatever decision is required from there."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" the messenger exclaimed, eyes wide in delight. "I shall await your departure."

"When are we leaving?" my father asked, a proud smile on his face as he admired the way I was handling things.

"I'm getting Grael and the others, we go to Twilight, and she teleports all of us to Beaumont," I answered. "We don't have time to waste here. A Vampire civil war puts too many innocents in danger to risk wasting time travelling by horse."

"Then I shall dress and accompany you all," Shining grinned.

"Good," I said, looking towards the door of the large hall we were in. "I'm hoping this doesn't get out of hand before we can do something..."