//------------------------------// // Peace Talks // Story: Common Ground // by LunasCaptain //------------------------------// "Ye say she saved ye?" the old mare asked incredulously. Twilight nodded vigorously, wincing as yet another sliver of crystal was pulled from her chest. "Don't you see? We were totally wrong about them!" she exclaimed. "What if it was just the Queen the whole time and the individual Changelings are like, well...ponies?!" "Dinnae aboot that," the mare replied warily, reaching up to rub at the bandage around her neck. "Gut bit by somethin' that looked an awful lot like one of them buggers." "Well, maybe, but--" Whoosh. A heavy curtain suddenly whisked along its rod, cutting Carapace off from Twilight and the one-eyed pegasus mare, who were chatting on the other side of the room, apparently oblivious to her. Ears twitching in mild irritation, she turned her attention to the nurse who had drawn the curtain. "What in the name of Celestia were they talking about?" the golden-maned mare muttered, bustling away from the curtain and fetching a roll of bandages from a nearby cabinet. "I have no idea," Carapace replied, laying one ear against the curtain. Nope, it was no use. The material was just too thick. She was in the palace infirmary, an almost-comically tiny maze of beds, tables with padded tops, and white-coated healers. The hooves that she had cut were soaking in bowls of warm, soapy water, and she was both surprised and pleased to see that she was still bleeding red. "Wasn't talking to you," the nurse said curtly, igniting her horn and whisking the bowls of warm water away. Carapace's lips curled back, exposing the very tips of tiny fangs--partly out of distaste at the wave of prickly irritation that suddenly hit her, and partly out of pain as the air hit her wounds. She gritted her teeth and kept her temper. "i'll try to hold my tongue from now on." The nurse sighed, patting her hooves dry with a disposable-looking piece of cloth. "I'm sorry, filly, it's not your fault. We just have a very...difficult patient in here right now." "Hm. I see." Carapace really couldn't care less, but the nurse must have had a hard time differentiating between apathy and interest." "They brought Lord Grayfeathers in last night," she sighed, plucking a tub of antiseptic cream out of the air from where it had been drifting in a pale aura. "The griffon king. He's asleep now, but he's the most obnoxious, stubborn--oh, dear, I think this one is going to need stitches." The nurse frowned at one of the cuts on Carapace's right forehoof and turned to rummage through another cabinet. "Griffon king?" She was only half paying attention, her mouth running on autopilot. "Yes. Prince Shining Armor, Captain Claymore, Commander Endgame, and Commander Frost Damage--she's in here, too--found him in the market district. Knocked out cold. Apparently, he was bitten by a monster--" Carapace snapped to attention. "A monster?" "Yes, a monster. Lord Grayfeathers never saw it but Commander Damage got a glimpse of it. It attacked her, too." "What did it look like?" "I wasn't really paying attention when she told me." The nurse frowned, threading a curved needle with her magic. "Let's see...she said it had pony eyes? And that it looked almost like a Changeling, but not quite." Carapace stared at her. Then she turned to the curtain that cut the room in half and yelled, "Twilight!" "Carapace? What?" "Who is--" Carapace glanced back at the nurse, at a loss. "Frost Damage," she supplied helpfully. "--Frost Damage?" "Who wants tae knoo?" the one-eyed mare that Twilight had been talking to called suspiciously. "If that's the Changelin', I don't want tae talk to ye!" "We were attacked by the same creature," Carapace yelled. "You say it bit you?" "'S none of your business, Changelin'," Frost snapped. Then, lower, and presumably to Twilight: "Did'n see fit tae mention that, did ye?" "I'm sorry. I didn't know." "Did the bite knock you out?" Carapace called, determined to get answers. "Stop jerking your hoof around," the nurse muttered, trying to find a starting point for the needle. "I said, 's none of your business! Yer kind got ears 'r' not?" "I'm just trying to--" "Book off, Changelin'. 'S probably one of your kin." "You--ahh..." She gritted her teeth and hissed as the nurse started to stitch up her wound with quick, decisive movements. "Me what?" Frost demanded. "I'll talk to her, Carapace," Twilight called with a nearly-inaudible sigh. "Talk? It's obvious that--" Carapace was cut off by the door to the rest of the infirmary, which was on the opposite side of the curtain, swinging open. Something metallic tapped against the floor, then stopped. There was a momentary silence. Frost broke it with a muttered "Princess." The hate hit Carapace seconds before a blue glow yanked the curtain open, and she jerked her injured hoof out of the nurse's magical grasp and threw it across her stomach. Behind her invisible bands, her organs clenched and heaved, trying to get rid of the poison. She whimpered involuntarily, raising her eyes to meet a furious purple gaze. "C-Cadenza," Carapace gagged, squeezing her eyes shut and turning away. It was all she could manage. "Come with me." The thread that the nurse had been using to close the gash on her hoof snapped, and something shoved her off of the table. She landed on her hooves and almost collapsed as sickening agony coursed up her legs, but remained silent. She wasn't going to give Cadenza the satisfaction of hearing her scream. The pain ebbed after a moment, anyway. Apparently even the princess realized that she had gone too far. "Cadance!" Twilight cried, oblivious to her efforts to remedy what she had done. "I know what I'm doing, Twilight." The princess's metal shoes clicked harshly against the floor. Carapace felt something amorphous grab onto the back of her neck and pull her forward. She left watery blue-green hoofprints behind her, and once the door had swung shut, the nurse gasped softly. The princess led Carapace out of the infirmary, all the way to her personal chambers. She kept a magical grip on the back of her neck the entire time. Carapace kept her eyes and her mind on her hooves, trying to distract herself from the acidic nausea going to work on what passed for her stomach. She had stopped bleeding shortly after leaving the infirmary, but whatever half-plotted spell Cadenza had cast on her was wearing off. Every step resulted in ragged, bitter pain. Once in her parlor, the princess let go of Carapace and dragged a low table into the center of the room, accompanied by a single cushion that she took. Carapace remained standing and said nothing. "I shouldn't have dragged you out while you were being treated," Cadenza said abruptly. "That was wrong of me. I'm sorry," Her tone was harsh, but the feelings coming off of her were worse. Carapace felt like she had swallowed a bundle of iron needles, and now they were poking through the walls of her digestive tract, poisoning her bloodstream. The princess wasn't sorry at all. "It's what I've come to expect from your kind," she said through gritted teeth. The lavender eyes across from her hardened even further, if that were even possible at this point. "Just stop it," she snapped. "How dare you act like you're so much better than me? Your species eats love, the purest, most powerful magic we know of--" "And mosquitoes drink blood. And you eat grass. It's how we are, and we can't help it!" Carapace snarled back, refusing to look away. Maybe this spoiled alicorn hated her enough to literally poison her, but she could hate back. After all, she was a Changeling in the Crystal City--she knew that particular emotion better than anypony. "Mosquitoes don't lie, they don't destroy the lives of the ponies they feed off of." Cadenza's eyes were bright with unconditional hate. "They don't intentionally try to hurt their prey, they don't lock ponies up in caves and put spells on their fiancees and try to kill--" "I wasn't involved in any of that!" Carapace was dimly aware that she was yelling. "I couldn't even morph then, I was left in the hive! I had absolutely nothing to do with the invasion!" "Maybe not, but your Queen--" "I am not Chrysalis!" Fwoosh. Green fire surrounded Carapace and vanished, taking the sharp agony in its hooves and replacing it with a dull ache. Its chest heaved as it stared down Cadenza, who had suddenly started looking frightened, and its wings trembled with their mingled fury. It barely had time to register its shock at having said the Queen's naked name aloud before it found itself speaking again. "We're separate, as the purple mare should have told you. We are two different creatures. She's my Queen, and I serve her, because she raised me and because I am a Changeling. But I'm not her. I'm not responsible for what she does, or what she did." Seeing the princess opening her mouth to speak, Carapace cut her off. "Don't judge me because of my ruler. You beat her, but your superior, Celestia, was defeated by her. Do you want me to assume that you're weak? Inferior to my Queen?" Cadenza said nothing. Carapace tasted her shock--a metallic tang in its mouth. "I'm not Chrysalis," it said, voice much quieter. "I am Carapace. I am an ambassador. I am my own Changeling, and I have done nothing wrong." It fell silent. The princess stared at it like she had no idea what it had just said. To be completely honest, Carapace shared the sentiment. Finally, she spoke. "Maybe you really didn't do anything during the attack on Canterlot. I really don't care, because I didn't want to talk about that. Something incredibly strange is going on in my city, and two ponies and one griffon have already been hurt by it. And one of those ponies is my friend." Her eyes never wavered while she was speaking. "All of this started happening remarkably soon after you arrived. The coincidence isn't lost on me." Carapace stared at her. It took several moments for it to realize what Cadenza had said--what she was accusing it of. It searched for any last trace of anger. Any remaining wish to defend itself, to make her understand that it was trustworthy (sort of). But it couldn't find any. It felt empty, drained, apathetic. It felt like a Changeling. "Well, princess, if that's what you believe, I honestly have nothing else to say," it replied. Her eyes narrowed. "Are you sure?" "Yes." "Then get out. Go back to your rooms." She turned away. "Don't even think about trying anything. I'm watching." Carapace turned and left without another word. All it wanted to do was sleep. A/N: How do you think I did on Cadance's flip-out scene? Was it overdone?