Chapter Seventy-Six: Stirrings From Dark Waters
~BlackRoseRaven
Cadence grimaced a bit as she leaned out the window, gazing nervously down at the dusty road below before she asked quietly: “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Not at all. But I talked to your Queen about it, and the jarl seems to be in agreement about this being best.” Freya said loftily as she polished one of her swords, before she grunted when Brynhild shouldered her firmly.
“Show some respect for Hecate, she has been good to us all.” she said empathetically, which admittedly surprised Cadence a little. But Freya only winked and shouldered the Valkyrie easily back, their armor scraping against the thin wood wall they were leaning back against.
“I did, I called her a jarl, not a drottning, didn't I?” she replied cheerfully, and Brynhild rolled her eyes with a grin as Cadence only scowled, before the Queen of the Valkyries suddenly added in a quieter voice: “Put out the candle.”
Cadence did as she was told with a press of her hoof, and the room was engulfed in complete darkness, not even the light of the moon above able to pierce the thick clouds that covered the sky. Cadence leaned back towards the window, but a hoof caught her shoulder and gently, silently pulled her back before Freya's mouth pressed to her ear and whispered: “Ready yourself. Focus your magic inside your body, and do not let an ounce of it escape through your horn.”
Cadence nodded, taking a slow breath as she felt the Swan stirring inside of her, before it whispered softly: Ancient enemies. The power of death... but different from what we wield. Different from the Reapers, too. We smell them.
Yes: they were bitter, noxious. Cadence scowled and rubbed at her nose even as she felt her body flex, felt the Swan roiling inside of her as she gathered her strength. Freya was on edge beside her, and she could see Brynhild's white teeth bared in a snarl, glimmering in the faintest of light that emanated from her flowing mane as she whispered: “Is he truly so stupid?”
“No. Not stupid, Brynhild. Callous. Arrogant. Cruel. Ruthless. Incapable of compassion, incapable of love, and terribly, awfully, viciously cowardly.” Freya muttered, before she gave a thin smile as she murmured: “But never stupid. He knows they may all die. But he may harm La Croix. No, he knows this will harm the Loa, even if only a scratch. And for Bondye, that is enough.”
Cadence shivered, before her eyes gleamed as she looked up, and she saw them: spirits, coldly watching them. Heartless, callous, the compassion, the warmth, stomped out of their hearts, and the logic to disobey what was so clearly against the very thing they had been born to protect torn out of their minds.
The spirits vanished after a moment, and Freya snorted before she said moodily: “Don't bother speaking, Swan, I felt them too.” She sat back slightly, then ordered: “Scrivener Blooms, keep your eyes open and protect the civilians. Heldóttir, listen to whatever the Loa says: special as you are, your eyes can't see everything. Not even our Swan can see everything.”
“Your Swan?” Cadence asked before she could stop herself, and then she grimaced and leaned away as she felt a hoof shove against her face. “Sorry, sorry.”
“Good, because I don't have time to pluck hairs.” Freya said shortly, before she tapped the Mission Drive on Cadence's leg. “Tell your friends to get into position. And remind the Loa to keep himself out of trouble, or this will quickly become unpleasant.”
Cadence grumbled under her breath, but she did as she had been ordered, tapping on the Mission Drive and just hoping that Moonflower and La Croix were smart enough to figure out how to answer. “Open communications with 0-0-3 and 0-0-4.”
“A bunch of zeroes. Aye. That's what you and your friends remind me of.” Freya remarked moodily, but Cadence forced herself not to take the bait.
“Thou art wearing on even my patience now, Freya.” muttered Brynhild, and Freya only flashed her Valkyrie sister a grin that the sapphire mare pointedly ignored.
“Here!” blurted Moonflower's voice suddenly from the Mission Drive, and Cadence sighed in relief as she heard La Croix grumble that he was present as well. “Uh... Cadence, Cadence, there are... there are awful things marching into town...”
“Already? They're moving faster than I anticipated.” Freya remarked, before she asked in a more serious voice: “What are you seeing, lad?”
“Dead. The rotten dead, the...” Moonflower audibly steadied himself before he mumbled: “I don't like them. I don't like them at all.”
“Paix, mon ami. All be well. They be rilin' up puppets of the dead, not the dead themselves.” La Croix's voice cut in, before he said finally: “Let me put out a call to Bondye, see-”
“Is your will already bending, Loa?” Freya snorted, before she said shortly: “We do this as we planned. The serpent will not get what he wants. Will it cost us? Aye, but hopefully not more tonight than effort. But if you try and call him-”
“He'll... do worse. He'll send worse. Oui, oui, you be right, mademoiselle. I just... wish there was an easier way.” La Croix mumbled, before he shook his head and added finally: “Morgan and me be gettin' ready. I'll keep myself out of trouble and watch out for these poor people here.”
“Aster and I have the spells prepared!” Moonflower added hurriedly, and Cadence smiled briefly.
“Alright, good. Both of you, stay safe.” Cadence said, before either stallion could babble any more, and then she cut the communications before looking back at Freya.
Freya smiled wryly, then she flicked her horn as it gleamed with magic, saying softly: “Now, we have to watch and wait. We don't act immediately: we gathered all the townsfolk to safety, and your boys and mine-”
“My boy, Freya. My Scrivener.” Luna interrupted loudly and clearly, and Freya rolled her eyes with an almost lazy gesture of a hoof towards her.
“What's yours is mine, Valkyrie, and what's mine is yours. Sometimes.” Freya replied loftily, before she continued over the grumbling of Brynhild: “They'll keep them safe. Trust in them. Our goal is simply to kill enough of those toys to draw out one of Bondye's messengers or assassins, whatever he decides to send first.”
Cadence nodded slowly, and then she muttered, as the sting of sulphur touched her nose and reminded her just how insane this whole idea was: “This is a stupid plan. We're going to end up burning this whole city to the ground if it doesn't work.”
“So?” Freya asked with a smile, and Cadence shivered at how careless she was. That was it: not callousness, not cruelty, not determination or even a sense of righteousness: she simply figured out the most effective course of action, and then allowed the ends to justify the means.
She felt the Swan twist curiously inside of her: if this protected her friend and allowed them to deal with an enemy at the same time, then what did the collateral damage matter? Especially if that damage would only be to material things, so many of which were easily replaced...
“Not all of it. Never all of it. Some things are important. Some things we'd give our lives for.” Cadence muttered, as she absently reached up and touched one of her curved daggers, before she sighed a little as she looked up at Freya and said finally: “It's only worthwhile if we keep everything under control. I don't need La Croix dying of guilt on me.”
Freya smiled again and shrugged amiably at this, and Brynhild nodded before agreeing: “Aye, fear not. We are Valkyries. Thou should know us well by now.”
“That's what has me worried.” Cadence muttered, and then she turned her attention back towards the window, grimacing a bit as the first whispers and low groans reached her ears. “Walking corpses. And...”
Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she felt herself looking through the Astra. But what she saw wasn't a blinding horde of life, but countless strings, and among them... “There are those super-zombies that we saw before hiding in the ranks of the corpses. How smart are they?”
“Not as smart as they think they are, Swan. Hold steady.” Freya said firmly as she approached the window, and Cadence grimaced before the Valkyrie Queen asked, suddenly cold and professional: “What about the rest of the company?”
“Soldiers are all in position. No alerts. The RED will listen.” Cadence answered, adding mentally: They had better goddamn listen. “On your signal.”
Freya nodded, her three swords rising to ready positions around herself as she said softly: “Good. Now, be patient, Swan.”
Cadence grimaced, but nodded: for three tense minutes, she stood at the window, gazing out into the dark streets below, watching as the horde of corpses slowly wandered their way down the city streets. Countless ugly corpses, many of them in the scraps of the clothes they had been buried in, many of the gurgling and moaning and making awful, wretched noises that begged for death and mercy as they were forced along by the foul necromancy puppeting them. They stank, enough to drown out the scent of sulphur from the road.
And among the shambling dead were the Nzambi: Cadence noted one of the undead zebras had actually purposefully torn up his own body, but he moved gracefully compared to the corpses around him, and his head was high and alert, insidious green eyes looking quickly back and forth. Now that Cadence knew they were there, it was easy to pick out the Nzambi among the crowd: they held themselves too proudly, moved too fluidly, were too... alive.
She shook her head briefly, then grimaced as her Mission Drive gave a fizzle of static. She checked it briefly, then winced and swore in surprise as it suddenly began to emit a high-pitched shrieking, Freya and Brynhild both shouting as Cadence wildly grabbed at the machine before she yanked it off and flung it out the window.
It fell with a scream into the crowd of zombies below, but Cadence could still hear the squealing from it, before she flinched as the Swan grasped her even as Freya roared at her in frustration and Brynhild leapt to the window-
Everything seemed to freeze, as Cadence once again looked into the Astra, looked through the Astra. She felt the Swan's cold hand on her shoulder as the world whipped by, and suddenly they were in a small room, the Swan pointing at each of the horrific, pink-skinned demons that had appeared out of the shadows around La Croix and Morgan: “One. Two. Three. They will be countered easily. But more will come.”
They moved, and suddenly they were in another room, where Moonflower was frozen in mid-shout, and Aster was blazing with light and magic and terror and fear, the Swan pointing out more of these entities. “Five.”
They moved again, and Cadence saw that even their most hidden forces had easily been seen. Karsilamas was already pinned down by the back of the neck... no, was this in the future? Cadence's mind hurt, trying to process what was happening, what was about to happen, what had just happened: it was all mixed up in the Astra, and the more she looked, the more she lost the ability to tell the difference.
But the Swan showed her everything she needed to know, and the mare was grudgingly grateful.
She was back in reality, seizing Freya before the Valkyrie could grab her, reverting to the old language before she could stop herself: “He's attacking with imps. No one is safe.”
“We all surrendered our safety for the greater cause long ago.” Freya growled back, and then she almost flung Cadence out the window as she roared: “Strike through their ranks!”
Cadence dove into the horde of undead, the walking corpses immediately grabbing and biting at her, but they were slow and lethargic, unable to do more than scratch her armor as she became a whirlwind of white violence through their ranks. Body parts and corpses flew through the air as Cadence smashed her way towards the closest Nzambi, which snarled as it seemed to recognize her intent before the zebra zombie palmed a needle out of its cloak-
The Nzambi's eyes bulged as one of Cadence's long daggers rammed up beneath its jaw, the tip tearing out the back of its rotten scalp as it hissed through its gritted teeth at her. For a moment, the Nzambi managed to glare at her, Cadence coldly meeting its eyes before the Nzambi burst into eerie green flames that rapidly collapsed into ash. And as the Nzambi died, the walking corpses around it fell still to the ground with sighs of relief, Cadence shouting: “They're acting as conduits for the necromancy somehow!”
“Puppets puppeting puppets!” Brynhild snorted derisively as she rammed her spear down through another zebra zombie, pinning it to the ground beneath her. It writhed and hissed, but then the Valkyrie slammed a hoof down as it burst into blue flame, and the Nzambi's life was whiffed out like a candle as she shouted: “They are vulnerable to any attack that targets the spirit!”
“They are not vulnerable, they are merely weak!” Freya shouted back, as her swords cleaved through the walking corpses around her before she snagged a Nzambi with telekinesis, tossing him into the air before she slammed her brutal, angular Dómr down across him, crushing him into the ground with the club-like blade and pinning him with it before she spat on the Nzambi's face.
The zebra's eyes widened in disbelief before he snarled, beginning to shake with rage as he spat expletives in his own language up at the mare, but the Valkyrie only grinned as she slowly leaned down, whispering to him almost gently: “Go home, little boy, and tell your master to send more than lice and ticks next time. Tell him that if the dog's fleas keep spreading, then I'll have no choice but to kill the mutt myself.”
With that, Freya yanked Dómr upwards with enough force to jerk the zebra out of the ground, the Nzambi flailing for a moment in the air before Freya savagely slammed the sword out, sending the zebra rocketing through the sky.
She snorted in contempt, then focused her magic before flicking her horn sharply upward, unleashing a blinding ring of light that dispelled the necromancy puppeting the corpses around her. “I will not waste my time with your fodder, Bondye! Come, Orisha! Or are you beginning to remember what happened when you last crossed paths with a Valkyrie?”
A snarl tore through the air, and Freya smiled contemptibly as she turned around, watching as one of the mutilated corpses yanked itself up to its hooves, baleful, toxic light burning out of its sockets and gaping jaws with such malevolence that its eyes and tongue were burned away. And yet still the wretched thing spoke, even as that malignancy began to visibly glow through its entire body, too toxic to be contained by the shell of a corpse: “I do not fear you! I am older, wiser, far stronger than you and your kind-”
“You are not as old as even my youngest daughter, and you are not half so strong as the smallest pup of Hecate's toy-world.” Freya retorted as her eyes narrowed. “You would not be worth the time it would take to scrape you off my foot after I squish you like the worm you are, but you have made yourself a dangerous ally... more dangerous to you than you realize.”
“The witch-king has offered me my own galaxy of worlds, Freya. Dominion over all I choose after he conquers the worlds.” Bondye replied, the grin of the pony-corpse splitting his skull in half. “And he asks only a meager price: the blood of my failure messenger and his friends, and the corpse of the Swan.”
“Loki does not desire to conquer the worlds, fool. He desires to destroy everything. Oh, you'll certainly have a vast kingdom then, Bondye... what could be greater and stretch further than the kingdom of nothing?” asked Freya ironically, but Bondye only laughed harshly.
“You can't deceive me, Valkyrie. All your kind ever cared about was war and battle... so I'll promise you this.” Bondye leaned forwards through the corpse, even as smoke began to spill up from its peeling hide, even as its burnt jawbone tumbled loose and pieces of broken, charred skull fell to the road. “I'll give you eternal war. My kingdom, always crushing down on yours. But I'll always let your pathetic Heaven run away at the last moment, just so we can keep up the game. You'll love it, won't you, goddess?”
Freya smiled thinly as the corpse laughed loudly even as it collapsed into nothing but charred ruin, and then she murmured softly: “Very well, Bondye. Let your arrogance and your hubris be your undoing.”
She stopped, then simply slashed her smaller swords out to either side, tearing apart the two pink-skinned imps that appeared out of nowhere beside her. The goblinoid things bounced against the ground with screams of anguish, but only one of them managed to scamper away, clutching at itself, as the other writhed for a moment before turning to rock.
“They hide in the shadows, like cowards! Now, burn them out!” Freya roared, and her voice carried through the entire town, signaling their forces to move forwards: now the Valkyrie could only hope they weren't all so intent on their own problems they were actually able to react.
A moment later, the doors of the tavern were blown off their hinges, several imp-goblins shrieking as they turned to rock beneath the thunderous blast. Shattered stone bodies pelted the crowd of zombies before tongues of flame followed, Aster striding out of the tavern with red veins pulsing through her skin, her eyes half-maddened as she shouted: “Allez! Allez, monstres! Allez au diable, descendre aux enfer!”
She snapped her horn sharply to the side, and the road burst into flames as the blackpowder they had mixed into the dirt caught, causing a violent, short-lived conflagration down the street that set many of the dry, brittle corpses aflame. Aster's eyes reflected the firelight as she watched the road burn, drawn towards the inferno like a moth to the flame until Moonflower leapt out and grabbed her with a wince, yanking her back before she could drunkenly stumble into the flames herself.
She blinked at the stallion's touch, as if awoken from a daze as the stallion snapped his horn out, the air booming with the force of his magic as gravity suddenly weakened along the road, the flames that danced around bodies and the street eerily twisting and dancing on themselves, becoming a blanket of glowing blue.
Moonflower wheezed with the effort of maintaining the magic as Aster shook herself, then quickly snapped her horn back and forth, creating almost-solid walls of flame on either side of them as she called: “I'll light the rest of them, go!”
Freya grinned, then she leapt into the air with Brynhild and Cadence, leaving the streets as Aster sent flares of flame into the road. Both corpse and road burst into flames that the Nzambi tried immediately to escape, making them easy targets for the trio to dispatch.
It had taken them hours to prepare, seeding the road with enough blackpowder to create the conflagration, ushering all the townsfolk to the largest buildings in the port, where they could be protected, and mobilizing their own soldiers to both defensive and ambush positions. Dogmatists were now wading into the fray, but their duty was less to suppress the enemy and more to suppress the flames: the fact they ended up crushing many of the walking corpses was just a happy side effect. And an unnecessary one, as Gesicht shot to a sniper position above to begin picking off the few remaining Nzambi, and break the necromancy.
A few minutes. That was all it had come down to: hours of preparation, doubtlessly on either side, all destroyed in a few minutes, all just to send a message. They wouldn't be thanked by these people for saving their lives after burning their town: they would be lucky to be able to leave without any further riots or harassment, once those beleaguered ponies emerged to find the town full of dead, roasted bodies and soot.
Cadence dropped to the ground at the edge of the battlefield, glancing back at the still-burning flames before she looked up in surprise as Faunus approached her, the drake giving her a brief salute. But even as he scowled at her, he remained professional as he growled: “The scum's caged in. No sign of any of them out here.”
“Can you see everything?” Cadence asked, and Faunus shifted a bit. But as Cadence kept her eyes locked on him, he finally shook his head grudgingly.
“No. My dosage is the lowest of the Replicants.” he admitted, and Cadence frowned a bit, which made Faunus sigh in exasperation before he explained: “All Replicants have different formulas and dilutions of the Clay of Prometheus in their bloodstream. You've seen the effects of the raw Clay before, haven't you?”
“Yes.” Cadence murmured, thinking of her father, before she asked finally: “So your uh... 'formula' doesn't allow you to see?”
“Not like the others can, no. I'm an assault unit. I was designed with what would be beneficial in straightforward combat engagements. Healing, resistance, continuing to operate even under extreme duress.” Faunus scowled a little, and this time, Cadence didn't think that he was scowling at her as he muttered bitterly: “I was designed to be a killing machine. Nothing more.”
“We all have a purpose beyond what we were born into.” said a soft voice, and Cadence smiled a bit as her father emerged from one of the houses, Faunus scowling and shifting almost nervously as Sombra only bowed his head politely, then turned his eyes to his daughter, saying quietly : “I neither see nor sense anything further, mi amore. I think Bondye believes he has sent a message to us, just as we believe we have sent a message to him.”
“I wonder if either side heard what the other was saying.” Freya grumbled as she almost materialized next to Cadence, making her wince. Faunus flinched slightly as well, but Sombra only smiled kindly up at the mare, who wrinkled up her muzzle at the sight of the stallion. “You're still handsome as ever, but you're far less fun than I'd hoped, old jarl. You should try and relax. The danger's passed.”
“Perhaps, Signora Freya. But non si è mai troppo prudenti.” answered Sombra, and Freya threw up one of her forelegs in disgust as she rolled her eye. “Is everyone safe?”
“I don't know. I suppose so, if they followed my instructions and weren't idiots.” Freya said pettishly, earning a dry look from Cadence. “Don't give me that look, Swan. It's your mistress' toys that nearly cost us the day.”
“Maybe it's just me, but somehow I feel like you expected something like that to happen.” Cadence said moodily, and Freya only shrugged in response. “You know what? At this point, I don't care. You do your thing and I'll marshal the Dogmatists and get everything in order.”
“Just be careful, Swan. Loki is still focused on you. And as worthless as these dregs are... Bondye has more treacherous things than goblins and puppets at his disposal.” Freya answered, and Cadence grimaced a bit before she nodded slowly.
She began to turn, then hesitated a moment before gesturing at Faunus as she turned her eyes to her father. “Go ahead and check around, Daddy. I'll get the RED together and have them help in scouring the town. The Dogmatists should already be cleaning things up and I'll check with Brynhild to make sure everyone's safe.”
“Well, no one can say you don't try hard to stay on top of things, woman.” Freya said mildly, before she called as Cadence turned away with a scowl: “I hope your new stud is fond of that!”
Freya smiled to herself as Cadence strode away, before she glanced to the side in surprise as Sombra asked her almost solemnly: “So you fear for her that much?”
For a few moments, the Valkyrie studied the stallion beside her, before she nodded slowly and leaned towards him, questioning in a quiet, serious voice: “Do you truly see her as your child? Do you love your daughter, King Serenite?”
Sombra nodded without hesitation, and Freya smiled before she said softly: “Then when the time comes, padre, I hope you are ready to watch your daughter die. I would spend what time you have left with her wisely.”
Sombra frowned at Freya, but the Queen of the Valkyries only smiled at him and bowed her head politely, before she turned and strode away, leaving the stallion gazing uneasily after her, wondering what dark truths her words might hold.
They returned to Decretum to find Hecate waiting for them, the Jötnar mare dismissing Freya and sending Brynhild for debriefing as naturally as if the Valkyries had always worked for her. Considering the fact that both Valkyries listened – even with much grumbling – Cadence couldn't help but wonder if perhaps they did.
Or maybe it was just respect for Hecate as Empress, or fear of her power, or just familiarity, because Hecate had always felt like a Mother to Cadence, from those lost, old times, even before she had really been aware of the Mothers and the Fathers and the fact that she, as a Swan, was supposed to serve them. Never as child, only as a tool.
Cadence gazed out over the metal city of Exoterra, across the limitless buildings of metal and glass and neon lighting. It was beautiful. But it wasn't nearly as distracting as Cadence needed it to be right now.
La Croix and Brynhild were both being debriefed, extensively. Freya was apparently already making preparations to leave Decretum: Cadence had the feeling that she wanted to wash her hooves of everything. She acted so tough, was always the first into the fight, but lately, there was something different about her. About the way she held herself these days, about how she acted after the battle.
There was no victory.
Cadence smiled faintly at this thought, then she rose her head slightly, smiling a little more as she saw him in the reflection of the glass. He was shifting nervously back and forth on his hooves: childish, she thought. He was so brazen, so cocky, so dumb, in that wonderful, lovable way, but the real him...
“You're supposed to walk up behind me and hug me, you know. Probably with some bad one-liner. Can't you do anything right?” Cadence asked softly.
Thesis blushed a bit, then he blurted lamely: “Yeah, well, your... your butt distracted me because it's... um... I like your butt.”
Cadence looked over her shoulder in amusement, and Thesis squished his head between his shoulders before he mumbled: “Be nice. I'm new at this. But uh... I heard it was rough.”
“Not... rough. But not fun either. I think we were played. I think...” Cadence halted, then she turned around and shared a tight embrace with the stallion before she let her face rest against his neck, closing her eyes as she murmured: “I don't know what to think. But I feel like Loki is ten steps ahead and distracting us further at every turn.”
Thesis nodded slowly as he silently rubbed along the mare's back, holding her close as he murmured: “I know. We can't underestimate how smart he is or what he's willing to do to get it. But do you really think that he's going to go after the world you came from?”
“I do.” Cadence grumbled staunchly, and then she bit Thesis' shoulder, making him wince a bit. But she didn't pull away and he didn't let go of her, and the ivory mare wriggled a little closer to him before she mumbled: “I know. It's stupid. It's almost narcissistic. He's a world-destroying tyrant-”
“He's not, though. I mean, he's not a tyrant.” Thesis corrected, and Cadence frowned a bit, glancing up at him with both irritation and curiosity. “Well... he doesn't want to rule or subjugate. Destroy everything, but if you really want to be technical about it-”
“I don't.” Cadence said moodily, but Thesis only squeezed her gently.
“Well, I'm going to be anyway. You can bite me some more if you want.” he said mildly, and Cadence grumbled under her breath before she grudgingly listened as he continued quietly: “He doesn't even want to kill anyone. He wants to reduce everything to what it once was, but... and I'm not defending him here, or saying he's not crazy and it's not going to result in basically universal genocide, but he wants to bring everything together, in a way. He wants us all to be... equal.”
“Equal in death.” Cadence muttered, then she grimaced and shook her head slowly, grumbling: “I hate that the Swan can understand that.”
You understand it without my help. The Swan sounded almost grouchy, and Cadence cocked an eyebrow slightly before the entity in her mind defended: I am not to blame for your every aggressive thought.
“And I'm not to blame for your defensiveness.” grumbled Cadence, and Thesis blinked and tilted his head in surprise, but the mare only awkwardly cleared her throat before she said finally: “Personal... Swan stuff.”
“Uh... huh.” Thesis said slowly, and then he rose a hoof and said awkwardly: “Hi, Swan.”
The Swan seemed less than amused, although Cadence couldn't help but give a slight smile in spite of herself, and well, in spite of the Swan, too. “You're a giant jerk.”
“How am I the jerk here?” Thesis complained in a wounded voice, putting a hoof to his own breast as he gave Cadence his best puppy eyes, and Cadence laughed and shoved him away.
Thesis grinned even as he stumbled and almost tripped, but Cadence's eyes locked on him, her laughter dying off immediately as she saw the way he was favoring one of his hind legs, the way his body was stiff, clearly in pain, the-
“I'm fine. You're just a bitch.” Thesis said softly, and Cadence sighed a little before she smiled faintly in return.
“I'm not good at being gentle. Especially not with fragile things like you.” Cadence replied just as softly, and Thesis chuckled before he simply shrugged amiably.
“That's okay. I never asked for you to be gentle.” Thesis paused meditatively, then he added wryly: “Well, you know. I've asked you to slow down, to not be so rough, to-”
“Yeah. I get it.” Cadence said mildly, reaching up to cover the stallion's mouth with one hoof, and then she hesitated before she asked impulsively: “Do you want to... go somewhere?”
Thesis smiled a bit, and then he asked curiously: “Aren't you on call? I mean, it seems like Mom is pretty intent on sending you guys out on another mission once everyone's gathered back together.” He halted, then asked: “And how were the RED behaved during the mission, on that note? They didn't give you too much trouble?”
“I don't always care what Hecate says.” Cadence grumbled, although that was only a half-truth. “And the RED were... I won't say they were fine, because they were the opposite of well-behaved. But they did their jobs. I don't know if I can ever really... you know, get along with them, but they seem to listen well enough.”
Thesis nodded, before he almost hesitantly reached out and gently stroked along one of Cadence's forelegs, making her smile a little: so bold, but so nervous about touch, about contact. Like he didn't know what to do; maybe like he was afraid he was going to hurt her, but that was silly. She was the Swan, he was the...
He's my stallion. That's what he is. So he shouldn't have to be afraid. “Hey. Don't you have any idea how to treat a mare?”
“I just know there's a lot of whimpering and begging involved.” Thesis said blandly, and Cadence snorted in amusement before she grinned as she grabbed him under the jaw, enjoying the way Thesis' eyes went wide.
“I do have a leash around here that I used on Shining sometimes. I bet it would fit you. Although you have a fatter neck.” she said mildly, and Thesis winced away.
“My limit is that you don't put anything in my butt that you put in your ex-husband's butt.” Thesis said blandly, and Cadence snorted before she shoved him backwards, Thesis stumbling with a grin before he suddenly became more serious and asked quietly: “Can't stop thinking about him, huh?”
Cadence glanced up at Thesis, and then she sighed a little and nodded, knowing what he meant. “Yeah. Yeah. I can't stop thinking about... I keep calling it home, but it's not home, I guess. This is home. You are... home.”
She blushed a little bit at this, and Thesis smiled widely before he preened a little, then said cheerfully: “I am pretty great. And I will gladly be the shell to your snail any time, Cadence. You just feel free to... curl up... inside... me.”
Thesis broke off, looking lame, and Cadence sighed and rolled her eyes before the stallion said quietly: “But I understand. I never left this world for... hundreds of years, if not thousands, after all. You grew up there. It sounds like it was a world that you gave a lot to. That inspired a lot in you. And I know that... I mean, I'm totally not jealous or anything, but I know you... care about him, still.”
“Yeah. I do.” Cadence mumbled, looking away and shifting awkwardly, before she added with a small smile: “You're a little more handsome, though.”
Thesis looked absurdly touched, before he grinned as he posed and gestured at himself, saying airily: “Well, how could any other stallion hope to compare to all this?”
“Yeah. All that. That's why I love you.” Cadence said ironically, and then the two looked at each other for a few moments, both blushing slightly as they stared for a few moments at each other, before Cadence murmured: “I love you.”
“I love you too.” Thesis said softly, and then he blinked when Cadence grabbed him.
“Come on. I don't want to think anymore. I just want to love you.” Cadence said softly, and Thesis opened his mouth, but he was silenced by a kiss, and helpless to do anything but press back against her as Cadence pushed forwards into him.
Later, the two lay together in their bed, side-by-side, Thesis' head half-buried in to the crook of her neck, their limbs sloppily tangled together. It wasn't like with Shining: with Shining, she had always ended up resting her head against his chest, in that classic, cliched way. It wasn't that he was a macho stallion or anything: it was just that he had always been the 'normal' stallion, and they had been a 'normal' couple, apart from the fact she had been a princess.
But a Captain of the Royal Guard was supposed to protect his Princess, wasn't he? Maybe that had been part of it. Shining had always wanted to be the strong stallion, the knight who could take care of any pony, the lovable hero...
It wasn't like that with Thesis. They were an awful mess together. She could feel him drooling a little on her neck and his face was shoved almost painfully against the side of her throat. Their legs squeezed and hooves pawed at each other every time they moved. When one shifted, so did the other. It was supremely uncomfortable. But neither wanted to move, and Cadence knew that they could easily fall asleep like this. They had already laid in this awkward tangle for twenty minutes, after all.
She cared about Shining still, sure. They had left on neutral terms, she wanted to believe. But even at their hottest, her love for him had never been like her love for Thesis.
These days, she thought of Shining like a brother. Thesis was her husband, her soulmate, her friend, her... family. She didn't want to live without him. She refused to live without him.
She looked at the stallion, silently shifting a little to bring him closer against her, hating the fact that she knew she was going to lose him. That she could feel him, living, but also dying, in her forelegs. And even the Swan didn't dare to gaze into the Astra to see him, because the Swan didn't want to see how much time they had left.
They rested together in silence, until Thesis murmured quietly against her: “I'm sorry.”
“Don't be. I wouldn't want this any other way.” Cadence replied with a faint smile, shaking her head briefly before she laughed a little. “Okay, that sounds... stupid. I do want this to be different. I want to... I wish we had more time. I wish you were okay. I would give anything to... help you. To save you.”
“You did save me.” Thesis said softly, and Cadence blushed a bit as she tilted her head back to try and hide the burning in her cheeks, but she felt Thesis smile against her all the same. “I'm just... being selfish, that's all. But I've always been a little selfish.”
“Yeah. That's okay.” Cadence murmured, and there was silence for a few moments before she felt him shift, half-rolling onto her so he could lean forwards, and she leaned down so they could share a soft kiss for a moment.
Their mouths parted, and the two smiled at one-another before they both finally sat up in bed, only studying each other. Her, with her tattoo and her strange, rubbery body, and long whip-like tail and her stupid mane that kept growing so long and stupid...
Him, handsome, but with that purifier in his back, regulating the poison that flowed through his veins. His smile, full of polished metal teeth. His eyes, confident and strong and ivory, and yet tamed. Calm. Bombproof, a perfect compliment to her hot-blooded nature.
She reached up and gently pressed a hand through his mane, before she said softly: “I don't want to be your wife. I mean... I do, but I don't... feel like that suits us, you know?”
Thesis smiled at her, then he absently patted his chest, asking mildly: “Are you sure you just don't want to be a princess to my prince? Because I can totally name you as just a duchess if you want. Maybe even a baroness. That sounds like you, baroness. That's a rough, tough title.”
“I'm no lady, milord.” Cadence said ironically, and she hesitated for a moment before asking impulsively: “Can I cut your mane?”
Thesis stared at her, and Cadence shrugged a bit before she lamely brushed a hoof through her own mane, mumbling: “This keeps growing out of control. I was just thinking, you know... if you cut my mane down, I'll cut yours. You can handle a simple brush cut, right?”
“You do look pretty with short hair.” Thesis said softly, and Cadence smiled at him before the stallion grinned and flexed a foreleg, adding: “And I'm pretty, too. Pretty awesome.”
Cadence pressed a hoof against his forehead and gently pushed him over, and Thesis smiled up at the ceiling before he put his forehooves behind his head and nodded. “How about we have a bath and everything too, then? Hell of a nice bathroom. Might as well make use of it.”
Cadence nodded after a moment, and then she crawled overtop him, smiling down at him and letting their noses brush together before she asked: “Is that really the best you can come up with, big guy?”
Thesis shrugged amiably, and then he grinned and reached up to tickle her nose with a wink. “I am pretty big, aren't I?”
“I like you to think so.” Cadence replied mildly, and Thesis blinked and thought about this for a moment before he gave her a flat look. But the ivory mare only shrugged with a slight smile before she said softly: “Come on, you big jerk. Let's go get pretty. Pretty boys have to pretty themselves up, right?”
“I'm... well... shush. Some of us like hygiene.” Thesis said grumpily, and Cadence laughed before she yelped when he rolled suddenly on top of her, pinning her to the bed with a grin. “Also, I can think of a lot of things we can do together.”
Cadence looked at the stallion for a moment, then she suddenly rolled backwards as she shoved a leg up into his stomach, making him wheeze as he was forcefully flipped before he landed with a thump on the bed, and stared upwards to find Cadence straddling him, her hooves pinning him easily by the chest, her eyes half-lidded as she asked: “Like what?”
Thesis grinned awkwardly, blushing a little bit before he said meekly: “We could cuddle and braid each other's tails?”
“Horses of Heaven, you're just the worst.” Cadence laughed and shook her head, then she softened as she gazed down at him tenderly, silently stroking under his muzzle before she leaned down and kissed him softly, their mouths working together slowly, his front hooves tenderly grasping into her hips as her own gently framed his face.
They parted, smiled at each other, and then Cadence silently took his hoof and half-pulled Thesis to the bathroom, feeling passionate, in a word. But thankfully, that faded a little into something softer and more tender as he sat her down and carefully combed out her long mane, before he carefully went to work trimming and cutting her hair.
As he worked, he talked, and Cadence closed her eyes with a smile as she listened to his stories: he had so many of them, he had seen so many things, and even during his 'madness,' he had absorbed so much culture, learned so much about the worlds he had visited, the people he had met. She supposed that was in part due to the nature of the logic nodes that had controlled him for so long, but she thought that was also because of the way Thesis was. She thought that, perhaps, in some way... Thesis had always been... Thesis. Even when he had been at his most insane...
“Do you think you died...” Cadence halted, and Thesis stopped in mid-comb of her mane before she asked hesitantly, even as she gazed straight ahead at the wall: “Do you think you had enough control, even when you were fighting Brynhild...”
“I was focused more on Scrivener than Brynhild. I thought he was my brother.” Thesis smiled a bit, then he said softly: “He is my brother, but... not like I thought back then.”
He stopped, then sighed a little before he went back to fixing her mane, murmuring: “I don't know, honestly. I was insane back then. That's hard for a lot of ponies to grasp. I was insane. The logic nodes had rotted in my head and the corruption had concentrated to the point where my emotions could get excited from the smallest thing. I didn't do things that made sense. I know I didn't. And I was...”
Thesis smiled a bit, shaking his head slowly before he murmured: “I like to believe that we're always the same person at our core, you know? I want to believe that even then, there were slivers of who Mom raised me to be inside me. My nature and my nurture and my programming and my poisons, they were all fighting against me and against each other.”
He halted, looking down and murmuring: “I hurt a lot of people. I didn't do things that made sense, and I can't explain how they made sense to me then, because I know they don't, now. I can try, of course. I was working off military programming: when someone acts with hostility towards you, you have to subdue or eliminate the threat. But I didn't want to kill anyone. I really thought I knew precisely what I was doing, but I wasn't... computing properly, due to the nodes being so damaged. Excessive force kept slipping through, because I was pulling my punches at the last moment... but never compensating for the anger, the enhancements to my body, the...”
He sighed a little, then smiled briefly as he flicked one of Cadence's ears before he gently turned her towards a mirror, and the ivory mare smiled softly: not just at the sight of her short, neatly-cut mane, but the sight of Thesis behind her, his hooves on her shoulders, his eyes locked with hers in the reflection as he asked: “How does it look?”
“You make a pretty good hairdresser.” Cadence remarked, and Thesis chuckled quietly.
“I always learned fast. We Replicants are designed to mimic and learn behaviors, to adapt, remember.” he said seriously, before adding mildly: “It has nothing to do with the fact Mom once put me on barber duty for a month when she caught me teasing the REMBs.”
“It looks like you're a rear-echelon motherbucker yourself, Thesis, from what I've seen.” Cadence said mildly, and Thesis scowled at her horribly before he rose the scissors and pointedly clipped off one of the corners of her brush cut, earning a flat look from the mare. “Oh, very mature.”
“You're mature!” Thesis retorted childishly, and then he dropped the scissors and flicked his head to make his messy mane waft around his face. “Now you do me.”
“The stallion is supposed to be the one doing the mare.” Cadence said, before she could stop herself, and when Thesis gave her a look, she shrugged and excused awkwardly: “Too much time spent around Freya.”
“Right.” Thesis said dryly, but then he smiled as Cadence guided him into turning around. “Alright. All mares know how to fix a stallion's mane, right?”
“Nice try, Thesis, but with your mother and how you just did my mane, I know it was the other way around.” Cadence said mildly, and Thesis smiled again before she asked: “So I guess... you've always been around technology, huh?”
“Sort of.” Thesis shrugged a bit, saying softly: “Machinery like this... it all only really came into play during the last few years of the griffin war. Dad... hid a lot. And the original Dogmatists I saw, they were very different from the ones you see now. Just like the Replicants are all... different.”
He paused meditatively, then asked: “Did I ever apologize for beating you up when you were a kid?”
“You didn't beat me up, and you have. Too many times. So knock it off.” Cadence said mildly, as she clipped a large chunk of mane away from Thesis' face. She continued to hack away at his mane with the scissors as the stallion winced a bit, but the mare only hummed a little to herself before she asked: “What's your favorite color?”
“Mikado. Yours?” Thesis asked, and Cadence pointedly poked him in the back of the head with the scissors, making him wince. “Okay, okay! Yellow. Now what's yours?”
Cadence smiled slightly, then she leaned down and licked up the side of his neck, Thesis stiffening up as his eyes bulged and his ears shot straight up before the mare whispered into one of them: “Right now, it's deep, dark, black-blue... followed by red.”
She lightly stroked the scissors against his neck, and Thesis gave a creaky smile before the mare straightened and went back to chopping at his mane, adding mildly: “You're such a boy. Why do stupid boys always get so excited like that?”
“I don't know it could have something to do with you licking me!” Thesis exclaimed as one of his eyes twitched, glaring at her with a furious blush in his cheeks, before he yelped when Cadence forcefully turned his head back forwards.
“Keep your head straight or I'll end up chopping one of your ears off.” she said dryly, and then she combed quickly through his mane several times before adding quietly: “It's stupid. But it's the little things like this that make me...”
She quieted, then smiled a little and said softly: “Shining always loved his mane. It was one of the things he was really vain about. One of the few things. I mean, it was a big joke and we laughed about it but any time I asked if I could just trim this, he'd immediately say no. And we'd laugh some more but... there was always that undertone to it, of something more. We just... both covered it up with laughter and... maybe that's not always good.”
Cadence looked away for a moment, then she shook herself before she quickly, efficiently finished trimming Thesis' mane, smiling a bit as she pushed him gently in front of the mirror before she asked almost hesitantly: “Well?”
Thesis gazed at himself, and he smiled at what he saw: trimmed short, but left a little wild at the top, letting it naturally spike out a bit. But what he liked even more was seeing Cadence leaning over him, her body pressed against his, one foreleg hanging around his neck, the other front hoof squeezing into his shoulder... “Yeah. I like it. I like it a lot.”
He glanced back at her with a smile, and Cadence leaned in and kissed him quietly, the stallion returning the affection silently before their mouths parted. The two gazed at one-another for a few moments, and then Thesis gestured awkwardly towards the tub and asked: “So uh... you want to...”
Cadence began to open her mouth, and then she grimaced when she heard a faint beeping fill the air. Thesis glanced up as well at the sound, before the mare sighed and muttered: “Must be Hecate, I'll go-”
Thesis slipped free and hopped away before she could finish, the stallion vanishing through the door, and Cadence cocked an eyebrow. After a few seconds, she heard the beeping stop, and Thesis' voice say: “Hey, Mom! Cadence and I are... yeah, I know. I know. Mom, I know. Okay, Mom. Yes, Mommy. Yes, Mommy, I know you can beat me up. Mom. Mom. Mommy. Mom. Okay. Five minutes? Yes, that means more than five minutes. Yes, it's important to me... it's...”
Thesis' voice dropped, becoming quieter, more serious, as he said softly: “Yes, it's important to me.”
There was silence for a few moments, and then Thesis smiled as he agreed: “Of course. Fair compromise.”
A hesitation. Even from here, Cadence could tell that was a long hesitation, not a pause.
“Yes. I'll... I'll do my best.”
Thesis returned, and Cadence looked at him curiously, but the stallion simply gestured towards the tub before he said softly: “I have to brief you, but uh... I'll do it while we wash up.”
Cadence frowned at him, then she asked: “Where's Hecate sending me? And are you... I mean, I wasn't listening in or anything-”
“You were totally listening in.” Thesis said mildly, clambering into the tub before he turned the taps, and then he plopped himself down as water began to fill the basin, Cadence rolling her eyes as she sat back on the edge of the tub.
“Well?” she asked impatiently, and Thesis only looked at her mildly, gesturing pointedly at the water, which hadn't even had the time to cover the bottom of the tub.
“You really need to learn to wait. Come on. Get in the tub.” Thesis said, and Cadence only gave the stallion a dry look before she uneasily shifted a bit, but the stallion smiled as he reached back and hammered lightly on his exoskeleton. “Completely waterproof. Even my old versions were, and they had these big ugly pistons on them. It was all hydraulics and corruption-powered, though, not electricity. Sort of like... the Tyrant Wyrms.”
He quieted for a moment, and Cadence sighed a bit before she mumbled: “Well, if you're going to look so goddamn sad, fine. Baby.”
She slipped into the tub, splashing down into the already-hot water, and Thesis smiled at her. For a few moments, they simply sat, facing each other, and then Cadence awkwardly wiggled around the tub to sit beside him as water continued to fill the basin, mumbling through the rising steam: “It's hot.”
“I know. That's the point.” Thesis said mildly, and Cadence sighed a little and nodded grumpily before the stallion said softly: “Just relax.”
Cadence nodded hesitantly, and the two dropped their heads together, listening to the sound of the water, and the sounds of each other. Breathing, heartbeat, all these things half-hidden by the rush of the water...
Finally, Thesis turned off the taps, and he smiled as picked up a bar of soap, saying softly: “You're going to Midgard A-10, which is-”
“Where La Croix was found. That's an interesting choice.” Cadence said slowly, frowning slightly in surprise as she rose her head slightly. “Why there? Why not...”
She realized how selfish it sounded, before she blushed a bit as Thesis soothingly grasped her shoulders and leaned in to gaze into her eyes, saying softly: “You'll get there. Mom's sending you here first, because we know that Bondye is involved. La Croix has little to do with that world, but if Loki actually has been retracing where you 'lived' before...”
“Then there will be traces on that world. If there's traces of Loki's tampering in a world where La Croix was only temporarily, after he was banished from Darkwater... it's proof enough for us to check our own worlds, isn't it?” Cadence said, and she began to splash around, grabbing the edge of the tub before she squeaked when Thesis grasped her by the wings and gently tugged her back.
“Hey. Bathtime. Clean up, you gotta look your best.” Thesis said mildly, and Cadence glared at him before he winked. “Besides, you're not getting anywhere without me. I'll be going with you.”
“To... Reception?” Cadence asked dumbly, and when Thesis smiled, she shifted before blurting: “Are you sure you're okay to?”
Thesis responded by shoving the bar of soap into her muzzle, the mare staring at him with disbelief before he said mildly: “I'm healthy enough to put up with you, aren't I?”
Cadence grabbed Thesis by the head and shoved him under the water, then she spat out the bar of soap with a grumble, even as the Swan shifted almost uneasily inside of her, fearing that perhaps their eagerness to get what they wanted was going to endanger the one thing they desired to keep safe even more than home.