• Published 26th Apr 2015
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The Substitute Demon - Reykan



Right before the Elements struck, the Nightmare unleashed a spell out of desperation. A substitution spell. Otherwise known as the correct use of Kawarimi.

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She Cares for Her Own

It was scary.

There was so much that happened, so much bad, it hurt her. She remembered being happy once, being loved. She saw some of them recently, but everything was so foggy. The fog was better, though; the fog didn't hurt as much. He made her dream, which was bad, but he also stopped the dreams, which was good. He didn't hurt her; she could see the love he had for the others, even the monsters. He loved everypony. Even the big one. Even the one that was inside her head.

The monster inside her head was strange. It didn't writhe in hunger and pain like the others did. Cadance didn't like thinking about those poor ponies She hurt, those poor ponies who screamed about hungry monsters trying to make them come closer. None of the monsters here did that. They smiled and talked and ate and laughed with the other creatures, with ponies. Some part of her thought it was wrong. Then she remembered she was holding a monster, hugging one. This monster was important though. It reminded her of good things. She just couldn't remember what the good thing was right now. It was good long ago, but it hurt now.

She woke up, and he wasn't there. The good monster was though, she was always there, just like...who was always there for her before? Blue and white, smiles, love, warm...hurt. She stopped trying to remember who the monster reminded her of. She didn't want to hurt.

She hugged the monster, which hugged her back and smiled. Part of her wanted to be scared when she saw the fangs, they reminded her of bad things, but she knew this monster wouldn't hurt her. It had been in her head before. She knew everything about this monster. It wanted her to be happy, it always tried to make the hurt go away. Even if it made the hurt worse when it tried to make it better. It was her Love. So that's what she called it.

A creature came in, one she didn't recognize. It said something to her, but she didn't care. She told it to go away, and Love agreed. Her monster hissed at the stranger, and she hissed too, and they made it go away. They did that often, chasing away the scary things. Love wouldn't chase away the big monster though. Love was nice to it, which was strange.

Actually, everything was strange here. The ponies smiled at monsters. The big pony was nice everyone, even to the big monster. The big monster was nice to everyone unless they did something stupid. Then she got angry. Sometimes Not Luna had to stop by and make the big monster stop being angry. He seemed good at that. Either that or big monster just didn't want him mad. The big monster was happier when Not Luna was happy. In fact, everypony seemed happier when Not Luna was happy. It was probably because they knew he'd make the bad things go away. He was good at that. She could trust him. Aunt Luna and Aunt Tia said so.

Cadance smiled at Love. Love told her Not Luna was coming. She didn't say he was coming, but she understood Love. Love spoke to her without words, like she knew big monster could. Not Luna would come, and she'd feel safe.

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Cadance remembered Aunt Tia doing this. She sat by him as he talked to important ponies, to important creatures. Right now he was talking to griffons, talking about 'precision strikes' and 'guerilla warfare' and how to make Her hurt. The griffons didn't really like it, but they agreed, said there were too many bad monsters to kill them all, that the bad army grew too fast. She wanted to ask Not Luna to let her move closer, but she knew Aunt Tia got upset when she did that long ago. She also wanted to know if Not Luna would let her see Aunt Tia again. She wanted to feel safer, but she didn't want Not Luna to be upset. That was scarier than the griffons looking at her. Aunt Tia was upset with her once, and that made her feel bad. She didn't want to feel bad, even if it wasn't Aunt Tia.

Most of the griffons looked confused when they saw her, some even looked surprised. One looked very sad. He looked familiar, but she couldn't remember him. Couldn't find his name. He'd introduced himself; Herrick. It made her think of snow, of mountains, of blue and whi-

She stopped thinking about it. It was the bad kind of familiar, the kind that hurt. Made her remember things she didn't want to. She just watched, not really paying attention. She held Love close to her, and watched them. It wasn't interesting, but it distracted her. Distractions were good.

There was also a weird pony with the griffons. The weird pony looked at her when Cadance first walked in following Not Luna, and her eyes got big. The weird pony's mouth kept opening, like it wanted to say something, but it didn't. The weird pony was like the other griffon though. The bad familiar, the kind that hurt. The kind that was connected to something she didn't want to think about. It may have been happy once, in fact she was sure it was supposed to be, but she didn't like being around this pony.

It took a lot of time and a lot of words, but eventually everypony seemed satisfied. The griffons were smiling, Not Luna was smiling, the big monster was smiling, even the nice unicorns were smiling. She was sure the funny pegasus was smiling too, she smiled a lot. The funny pegasus was strange like that, she wanted everyone to smile. Cadance wondered if it was because the pegasus didn't want to be sad. It made the pink mare wish she could choose to not be sad. That would be nice.

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Big monster took Not Luna aside after the meeting, said she needed to talk to him. Cadance didn't like it because it meant that she couldn't be close to him for a bit, but she still had Love, and he'd asked her to wait. He promised he'd be right back. So she waited, waited by the door to his room while they talked. She heard a lot of words, and she got curious. She pressed against the door, one ear perked.

"...like throwing it into a hole in the ground, Cimmer. She's eating it, but she's not processing it, not allowing herself to feel it. She's letting everything slide by, including the love she pulls from the link." big monster said, sounding kind of angry.

"What do you want me to do, Din? We don't have the knowledge of how to deal with this. Hell, I don't even know if this is something that happens enough to be a normal issue." Not Luna explained. "We call it PTSD back home; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Everyone experiences it differently, and honestly I'm just grateful she's not suicidal. But I understand. If you have any ideas that won't hurt her, let me know."

"I have one. She needs constant reassurance, but I need you to leave it to me. Don't help her tonight, alright? Let me try. If it doesn't work I'll let you know and you can go back to helping her your way." she said. Big monster sounded almost sad. It left Cadance feeling strange hearing that kind of tone from her.

Cadance looked down at Love, the little monster hugging her foreleg reassuringly. Who were they talking about? It didn't really matter, she supposed. She needed to go back to the room before Not Luna and the big monster found out she was at the door.

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Cadance woke up in a sweat. The dreams were back, and they were always bad when Not Luna wasn't there. She looked to her left, seeing the alicorn sleeping in his bed, a wing over her. She wanted to curl up under it, but the dreams would just come back. Why didn't he stop the dreams? Why wasn't he helping her?

A soft chirrup from the door caused her ears to perk, and she looked over to see Love in the doorway, waving her over with a hoof. Cadance was confused, but knew Love wouldn't hurt her. She followed the changeling, walking through the dark hallways easily despite the low light. Not many ponies stayed up late, as their night vision was terrible compared to the other species. Even Cadance wasn't that good at seeing in the dark, though her pegasus magic improved her sight considerably. Still, there was no tripping, no bumping into walls. It was like she'd walked this path a thousand times before. She stepped to the side, letting a shiny black shadow pass by, only realizing afterwards she hadn't even seen it in the dark.

Cadance followed, and Love led the way. The little monster kept prancing ahead happily, and then turned into the room that led down into the tunnels. The alicorn stopped at the door, unsure of how to proceed. It only got darker from there, wouldn't she need a light? Love came back and ran behind her, playfully pushing the pink mare before darting forward again, the changeling's eyes visible as slits in the darkness ahead.

Despite her fears she followed. Something felt right about this, something about following Love made her happy. She descended into the tunnels, the occasional buzzing of wings alerting her to sleeping monsters napping in whatever free space they could find. She heard a few fly by, but they ignored her, they were busy. She followed Love to a door, then another. It was warmer here, it made some part of her feel safe. Some part of her mind was calling this home.

Flinging the last door open, Love galloped into the room, jumping up on the bed to the back of the room. Cadance blinked. It was a bed of sorts, just not one she'd think of sleeping on. She could see a slight glow from the strange sac, the nymph bouncing along its surface like she had when Aunt Tia had introduced the smaller alicorn to water beds. The little monster hopped around happily, then nuzzled something, chirping happily, before saying "Here!" softly in Equestrian.

Cadance's blood froze in her veins as the big monster opened its eyes, looking first at Love then at her. It stared at her for a long while, before shifting to her side. That's when the monster started talking. It didn't talk with words though. She started feeling things, started hearing ideas inside her head. The monster was calling her closer. She remembered the ponies that were pulled to the monsters, and she started backing up. She remembered the monsters hurting them, making them stop moving.

The big monster flinched, as did most of the little ones. The big one's smile stopped, and she looked sad. She pulled at one of the images. Cadance couldn't stop thinking of this one monster she watched, the empty eyes, the bloated body, but something else was hitting her from the monster besides comfort. The monster was sad about this picture.

Finally other pictures started flowing in. Cadance flinched at first, but they weren't forced like the others were. These flowed in, they almost felt like her own memories. The same monster from the last picture, looking down on her with a smile. The same monster from before, teaching her how to hunt. The same monster from before, telling her to leave; leave before the bad pony showed up.

Cadance blinked, not certain what was going on. What was it trying to say? Then she felt something, a pulling in her head. She saw them, her parents; a picture of her and her parents that she kept on her nightstand. Then another picture showed up. It was obviously just made, as it didn't look right, but it was the bloated monster and the big monster, both looking younger, both looking smaller. Then she understood.

The bloated monster was big monster's mom. It made sense to Cadance, she'd be sad if her mom ended up like that too. Where was her mom, anyway? She couldn't remember the town but maybe she could get Not Luna to take her there.

'1425 New Line Way, Outskirts of Mareland.'

Cadance blinked. Yes, that was the place. She could see it now, the small farm she grew up on, the town that blossomed into a city fairly quickly, the stall her parents used to sell their... what did her family sell again?

'Peaches'

Yea, peaches. The monster was smiling now, it wasn't as sad. Cadance understood a little more now. They both missed their moms, they both wanted to see them. The big monster helped her remember where her parents were, maybe they could go see them sometime in the future?

'Yes'

Cadance smiled a little too. The big monster wasn't so scary now, strangely enough. Love thought she was nice, Not Luna thought she was nice, even Aunts Luna and Tia told her she was nice. Maybe they were right.

'Here'

Cadance's smile fell a little. The big mons- the big changeling wanted her to move onto the bed. She didn't really want to. The memories said...she tried to use them, but the monster kept telling her they were wrong. That the ponies were hurt because the monsters were hurt. The big monster wasn't hurt, though. The big changeling was happy, and she wanted her friend, her sister to be happy. The queen wanted all of those in the link to be happy. Even her.

'Please?'

The alicorn took an uneasy step forward, then another. Despite her fear, she was soon at the bed. Love was beaming at her, as were a few other foals she saw before. Before she could try to pull herself up, the queen's horn lit up, and the alicorn was picked up in a warm glow. Her recovering wings beat in sudden panic from being lifted, the small feathers not strong enough to generate anything more than a slight breeze. The queen set her down in the cleared spot, right beside the queen's strangely soft shell, and Love and the foals quickly moved in. They cuddled up to her, purred their happiness, spoke to her mind about safety and warmth.

Cadance couldn't feel her fear anymore. She heard nothing but echoes of safety and warmth in her head. Echoes of happy monsters that looked forward to watching the sun rise the next morning. Monsters that couldn't wait to help their Mother and Father, who longed to bask in the warmth given off by the other creatures of the Temple. It was like no matter where she looked, she only found another hug, another reassurance. The voices were still there, but they didn't hurt. They never wanted to hurt her, she knew that, but now they didn't. They only offered reassurance.

Slowly, she found herself being lulled to sleep, the purring of the foals and the big changeling pulsing through her body. It was nice, like a massage. She felt her eyes getting heavy.

'Sleep'

The voice was soft, echoing through the link. The foals yawned and listened to the voice, quickly falling into the world of dreams. Cadance started to, but remembered the bad dreams. She started to get up when something caught her. She looked up and saw a diaphanous wing over her back, gently pushing her down like her mother had so long ago. She also noticed the mental pressure. It wasn't painful, not anymore. It was like someone was trying to hold her mind, her soul. It never went away, even in her sleep. It would watch her no matter where she was.

The pink mare allowed the wing to guide her back to the bed, a yawn escaping her muzzle. She was tired, and she was safe here. The monsters were her monsters, the monsters wouldn't hurt her, they wouldn't hurt one of their own. They would keep her safe, even in her dreams.

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Cimmerian wandered into the changeling queen's dream once more. It was a strange place, now that she had her own hive. The dreams of other changelings were connected to it, they came and went as they pleased. Some were fully developed creatures, others came and went so fast they barely had time to take the form of a wisp before they'd left.

The queen was resting on her throne once more, a smile on her face. On a small cushion by the throne laid a pink alicorn mare, shifting in her sleep now and again. It brought a smile to his face. Maybe she could be helped after all?

"I'm happy to see your plan worked." He said softly, drawing the large changelings attention from the sleeping mare.

She looked up and smiled. "It took some effort, and a bit more patience then I'm used to, but I think I got something out of it as well." Without another word, an image appeared, this one of a bloated queen in a dungeon cell, eyes unseeing and with chains binding it to the floor.

"My mother is still alive, or was by the pink one's last memories of the place." the queen said, her voice cracking a bit. "I'm not sure how I feel about it though. On the one hoof, she's still alive, and that means that after the Mad Queen's fall, I can see her. On the other hoof, this isn't the mare I grew up knowing. I can only hope she's still in there somewhere. I hope she's suppressed, because if she's broken, I don't know what I'll do. Mother always said such weakness is to be wiped out, but then there's what I've learned here. Such connections give us strength, are to be nurtured and cared for.

"Cimmerian, if my mother is gone, what should I do? Should I fulfill her laws, or follow my own?"

The alicorn stepped closer, pulling the queen off her thrown with his aura and wrapping her in a hug.

"Din you're getting ahead of yourself. You're panicking over things that you don't have any control over, things that you may never see come to pass. There are hundreds of situations that could und up with the queens either freed before we get there, or destroyed. This doesn't help you. It doesn't help us.

"I'm glad to see you helping her though. It will be nice to know I don't have to watch over her constantly."

The queen gave him a sheepish smile. "It may have been fueled by my own selfishness as well." She said, breaking contact. She turned her back to him, and pulled him closer, wrapping his forelegs around her and rubbing her head against his neck and chin.

"It's hard to get personal time with you when she's clinging to you. Maybe this way, she can sleep with the hatchlings, and I can see if I can make it through a night without drinking in too much love."

The alicorn chuckled, reaching down to nip at her neck. "We'll just have to see, won't we? And as promised, if you can make it through one night, I'll let you see how much you can hold next time. With so many drones now linked though, I'm certain you could fill a large pool with the love you gather."

"That's already been dug" She said, smiling mischievously. "I plan on using it as a personal bathing area. Perhaps you can join me sometime?"

Author's Note:

Enjoy XD

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