//------------------------------// // Advice from an Adviser // Story: Common Ground // by LunasCaptain //------------------------------// Twilight hadn't had a chance to talk to Cadance alone today, despite her best efforts. The princess had been constantly occupied since she'd had that maid lead her to Twilight's temporary room, interrupting her in the middle of writing a letter to Princess Celestia. The griffon king, who had been deemed well enough to leave the infirmary by the nurses, had refused to surrender his bed until Cadance had agreed to have an audience with him. They had barely gotten in the door before a pegasus noble from one of the smaller northern cities cornered them and demanded to speak to his princess. Apparently, his people had fallen victim to a plague of parasprites. The cold weather had slowed them down, but not much, and he had been in the capitol for over a week looking for somepony to help him. That had taken two and a half hours of negotiating with some of the stronger unicorns among the royal guards and a local ponka band, before the noble was assured of help. And then, of course, they had had to deal with Lord Grayfeathers. Twilight hadn't been able to get a word in edgewise once it had degenerated into a three-way shouting match--Frost Damage was more than willing to contribute from the next bed over. At least the griffon king had left the infirmary. After several hours of two mares screaming at him. After that, the young guard had sought them out and informed them that something was wrong with the Changeling. Cadance had been reluctant to check it out, but Twilight had gently pressured her into it. Now, they were finally alone, back in Cadance's chamber. Twilight watched as she slipped off her shoes and crawled up onto her bed. She smiled tiredly in her direction. "Do you think I have five minutes before somepony else comes for me?" She sighed and closed her eyes. Twilight swallowed the guilt that she felt. She didn't want to do this, but she knew she had to. She carefully approached the bed. "Cadance?" "Mm-hm?" She sounded exhausted. Defeated. Twilight bit her lip but pressed ahead. "I think...well, I know how you feel, but...I think you should give Carapace another chance." Cadance's eyes flew open, and she sat up, looking at the smaller mare with uncertainty. "What?" "She came here as an ambassador." She nervously shuffled her hooves, glancing down. "This is a chance for peace, and honestly, I think you should take it." Cadance was silent. Twilight continued. "I mean, you seem very suspicious of her, but she hasn't really done anything bad. She even saved me." She looked around the room uneasily. "I know what happened to you, and you have a right to be afraid. But you shouldn't take it out on her--and you shouldn't throw away a chance to neutralize one of Equestria's enemies. An alliance would put almost everypony at ease." "So you think I should put all my fears aside and just talk to the Changeling?" Cadance asked. Her voice was slightly shaky. Twilight reached up and put a hoof on her withers. "I think it'd help." She squeezed her eyes shut. "You heard the captain. It won't wake up for months." "But she might wake up tonight, and you need to be prepared to talk to her." "I don't know." Cadance shook her head slowly and turned away. "Twilight, you fought them during the Canterlot invasion, and you saw Chrysalis. But I don't think that you realize what the Changelings actually are, or what they're capable of." "Then explain." Twilight climbed up beside her sister-in-law, and made steady eye contact with her. "Help me understand." "The ones controlled by the queen are bad enough. I think they pick up on her thoughts and feelings, and they reflect them. They'd hiss at me, bite me, and change into ponies who were important to me while I was in the caves," Cadance said. With every word , she seemed to age another year. "But one that can think for itself--that...scares me. These things are totally heartless, Twilight. What we think of as right and wrong mean nothing to them. At least Chrysalis feels, but her drones don't have any emotions at all. Not even the sentient ones, I think. Nothing motivates them. Nothing matters. My magic doesn't work on them." She stared dully at nothing. "Listen to me--there is nothing equine about them. We're dealing with absolute monsters here." Twilight blinked. "But Carapace sav--" "And I don't know why. But if I had to guess, I wouldn't say it was out of the goodness of her heart." Cadance shook her head in disgust. "If Changelings even have hearts." For just a second, Twilight briefly entertained the idea of a dissection, then chased it away with a shudder. No matter how interesting their organs may be, she couldn't cut into a Changeling. Not now. Cadance closed her eyes again and lowered her head. "I think I'm going to try to take a nap." "That sounds like a good idea." Twilight pulled the throw at the end of the bed up over the princess, then hopped down from the bed and trotted towards the door. "I'll be back in a little while." "Where are you going?" "Just for a walk." "Be careful." "Um, no thank you." Twilight waved off a green-eyed kirin mare who was hawking a bouquet of crystalline roses. "Not interested." The mare, not fazed at all by the rejection, returned to her stall and started chatting with the next passerby. He looked like a perfectly ordinary earth pony stallion--except for his antlers. Part reindeer? Twilight wondered, turning away and heading for a small, quaint-looking bookstore. She stopped respectfully as a unicorn with the legs of a wolf passed in front of her. The Crystal City wasn't the best place to puzzle out a problem. Twilight had barely been out of the palace for ten minutes, and she was already almost overwhelmed by the scents, sounds, sensations, and sights. A dragon had asked her for the time of day, and she had seen a griffon playing a guitar for bits. She had mistaken a pair of miniature ponies with dragonfly wings for parasprites when they whizzed over her head, and barely avoided zapping them. The melting-pot city, with its gloriously tangled culture, was just one distraction after another. To be honest, she didn't know where to look next. The quiet shadow of the tiny bookstore was a welcome reprieve from the activity of the street outside. Twilight glanced at a few of the books, hoping for a more detailed history of the city or even the country, but the titles weren't in any language that she recognized. "Oh--oh. You, uh, you came in." She turned around, to see an off-white stallion with a close-cropped green mane. He was standing in a doorway behind the counter, staring at her. "Can I--er, can I h-help you?" "I'm just looking," she told him, turning her attention back to the books. "What language are these?" Staying where he was, he pointed a hoof to a row of tomes with what looked like meaningless chickenscratch on the spines. "Griffon." The hoof moved to a large red book with vaguely numerical symbols on it. "The minotaur language." A slim volume with wavy, flowing golden script printed on the cover. "Seapony glyphs." "You don't sell anything in Equestrian?" He shuffled his hooves nervously. "No. Are you going to buy anything?" "Um..." "If you're leaving, can you deliver this?" A blue book with more glyphs on it landed on the counter. The stallion backed away slightly when Twilight stepped towards it. "Please? I d-don't like to go out." "Um...sure." Warily, she levitated it off of the counter. "Where--" "Topaz Fountain." He ducked back through the door. "Only one occupant. Thank you." Shaking her head, Twilight trotted out of the ship. She vaguely remembered Shining saying something about the Topaz Fountain, but wasn't sure what it was. She only had to ask for directions twice on her way there. Within half an hour, a beautifully sculpted fountain of transparent teal crystal greeted her. Something was swimming languorously in the depths, but she couldn't quite make it out. A big fish?" Just as Twilight was about to hurry past the fountain in search of the cottage or shack that she was sure must be there, the head of a pony popped out of the water. A teal unicorn mare, with bright golden eyes and a sea green-and-white mane plastered to her skull, hooked her forelegs over the crystal wall and grinned widely. "Twilight!" she exclaimed. Twilight couldn't keep the confusion off of her face. The mare looked vaguely familiar, but... "Do I know you?" "You're kind of famous." She threw her legs up in an exaggerated shrug, bobbing up and down in the water. "Here, at least." Before Twilight could even figure out that she hadn't answered her question, a damp teal hoof was aimed at the book she had balanced on her back. "Is that for me?" "Looks like it." She walked over so the other unicorn could pick up the book. "So, you...live in the fountain?" "Mm-hm." As she cracked open the book, Twilight happened to glance through the cloudy crystal. The teal mare's flanks tapered into an elegant, powerful-looking tail, tipped by two gauzy flukes. It swayed gently back and forth, keeping her balanced. Oh. Right. That's what Shining had told her. "It's about all the major races of Equestria and the surrounding countries," she was saying excitedly, flipping through the book. Twilight saw that the pages were made out of some sort of shiny, waterproof material. "Griffons, dragons, reindeer, kirin, land ponies, Changelings, seaponies--we've been around a lot longer than you, you know--" "Wait," Twilight interrupted, something clicking for her. "Did you say Changelings?" "Um, yeah." The seapony turned a few more pages. "There's not much about them in this one, though. Just a physical description." Twilight put her forehooves on the wall of the fountain, eager. "Have seaponies written other books about Changelings?" "If we have, the store that this book came from carries them." She tapped her book, then smirked. "Who knows, maybe he even has a book written by a Changeling herself--hey, where are you going?" Twilight, galloping back to the bookstore, didn't hear the question.