Chapter 3: Master Is My Angel
What happened while we were gone? Cadance asked herself as she walked through the hallways towards the throne room. She noticed the windows were blown away, furniture were either knocked over or destroyed, and there where scorched marks on the floors and walls. The servants were cleaning up the mess as she passed them by, they would immediately bow and then resume their duties after she passed them. Cadance thought about asking one of the servants about what happened, but she decided that could wait as she needed to talk to the princesses about what she’s learned about the stallion know as Razor Sharp.
She approached the doors to the throne room, two unicorn guards standing at both ends saw the princess and bowed. Cadance simply nodded at them and they stood up.
“Are my aunts here?” she asked.
“Only Princess Celestia, your highness,” said one guard.
“Your husband is also in there too,” said the other.
“Thank you,” she said. The guards used their horns and opened the door. The doors closed as soon as she walked in, what she saw left her speechless. The throne room looked like a war zone. The windows were completely destroyed, the pillars were cracked, huge holes in the ceiling, and a huge crater below the biggest hole in the middle of the room.
What the Tartarus happened here?! She started walking to the other side of the room while looking at her surroundings. She looked towards the throne to see Shining Armor and Princess Celestia talking to each other. They didn’t noticed that she was in the room until they heard her hoofsteps.
“There you are, honey,” said her husband as he kissed her cheek, “I was wondering where you went. Princess Celestia was just telling me about what happened while we were gone.”
Cadance looked at her aunt and her eyes widened seeing the state her aunt was in. She saw that Celestia had multiple bruises all over her body and she was wrapped in many bandages. She saw how were right wing was completely covered in bandages and could see some bloodstains. Cadance had never seen her aunt in this state ever. She didn’t even look like this during the invasion, whatever happened that resulted in making Princess Celestia looking the way she is had to be insanely powerful.
After staring at her aunt for what seemed like minutes, she finally snapped out of it, “Are you alright, Auntie Celestia?”
“I’m perfectly fine my niece. Don’t be fooled by my appearance, I look worse than I am.” To prove her point she wrapped Cadance with her left wing and hugged her. “I should be able to remove the bandages in a day or two. You know us alicorns, we heal faster than the average pony.
“What happened here?” she gestured towards the whole room.
“We had an…. incident.”
“Apparently some kind of fire monster attacked Canterlot,” said Shining Armor, “it destroyed many buildings and injured practically the entire royal guard. It was extremely powerful that it took the combine power of Princess Celestia, Luna, my sister, and her friends to finally destroy it.”
Cadance was surprised to hear this. To hear that something that powerful almost destroyed Canterlot, something that was more powerful than her aunts was hard to believe. She was relieved to hear that it was taken care of and it sounded like it was never going to return.
“Yes, it has been a frantic couple of days but everything is going to be fine. Everypony is working hard in repairing the city and it will be only a matter of time before everything is back to normal. I only hope that nothing else happens until then. The majority of the royal guard are still injured and it will take time for them to recover….some longer than others,” she finished with a frown, “But enough about that, how was your honeymoon? I bet you two had a wonderful time.”
“Yes it was a wonderful couple of weeks, but it is good to be back home.”
“I’m sure it is, anyway I believe Shining Armor was telling me about a certain surprise you found in your room.”
“Yes, your highness,” he said, “my wife had found a stallion hiding in her closet. Once she opened the door, he immediately attacked her so quickly she didn’t know what to do. Luckily I was able to apprehend the assassin before he could do anything to her,” he wrapped his hoof around her. “We haven’t been able to get anything out of him since I arrested him. Right now, he’s in the dungeon, while I’m trying to think about my next move. I can say that he was an amateur since he was caught too easily and had a bogus cover story. Besides that, it seems that his loyalty to whoever he’s working for is strong since our tactics doesn’t seem to faze him.”
“That is troubling news,” said Celestia rubbing her chin with her hoof. “He must have snucked in during all the chaos and waited for you both to return. You’re sure there is no way to get him to cooperate with us?”
“That seems to be the case, Princess. With your permission, I recommend using other methods in getting him to talk.”
“Are you recommending torture, Shining Armor?”
“I am your highness. If it’s the only the way in finding out who he is and who’s he working for then that is my suggestion.”
Princess Cadance eyes widened from hearing what her husband was recommending to do. The thought of Razor being tortured in his weakened state made her uneasy. She decided to speak out about what she knows, “His name is Razor Sharp.”
Both Shining Armor’s and Princess Celestia’s eyes were now on Cadance, “And how do you know that?” asked Princess Celestia.
“Because, he told me his name when I asked him.”
“When was that?”
“When I went down to the dungeon.”
“You went down to the dungeon?!” said Shining Armor, “Did you at least have a guard accompany you?”
“No, I went down by myself and confronted him without anyone with me.”
“Why would you do that? He already tried to assassinate you once, why would allow him the opportunity to try again?” Cadance knew how overprotective Shining Armor would get. He always wanted someone by her side, keeping her safe, which made her happy seeing how much he cared about her well-being. Most likely, his over protectiveness has doubled after the events of what everypony referred to as the Black Wedding.
She nuzzled up to him, “I figured he wouldn’t talk to me if there was someone watching us and it turned that I was right.”
“So what did you find out about him?” asked Princess Celestia.
“Well first off, I found out that he isn’t an assassin.”
“And you believed him?” said Shining Armor, “It’s not like everypony say’s they’re criminals once arrested.”
“I do believe him since he trusts me.”
“And why does he trust you?”
“Because he thinks that I’m his master.”
Cadance could see the confusion and surprised looks from their faces. Given if she was in the same position, she would look the same as her aunt and husband.
“I don’t understand, why are you his master?” asked Princess Celestia.
“It’s…complicated. While I am his master, I’m really not.”
“I think you need to start at the beginning, honey,” said Shining Armor.
Cadance let out a sigh. She knew that bringing up the Black Wedding would upset her husband, but she needed to in order for them both to understand. “You remember the…incident a couple of weeks ago?”
The look on his face showed that he remembered, “Of course, I remember. The day where I almost married a power hungry insect that was bent on world domination disguised as the love of my life.
Cadance wished that she could stop but she had to continue, “Well it seems, that while Queen Chrysalis’s subjects were outside the barrier, she wasn’t alone.”
“You mean?” Princess Celestia was getting the pieces together.
She nodded, “Yes, Queen Chrysalis is Razor Sharp’s master.”
If Princess Celestia and Shining Armor weren’t surprised before they would be now, “You’re saying that ugly creature was keeping pony in this castle as a slave?” Shining Armor tune had changed from suspicion to sympathy. He knew what it was like when he was under the Queens control. He was basically a puppet and she was the puppet master. Now hearing that he wasn’t the only one that suffered the same fate, he felt sorry for the stallion.
“He actually refers to himself as a pet than a slave,” His wife corrected him. “I believe that Queen Chrysalis was using him as a food source to drain him of his love for her.”
“She must have put him under a spell, like she did with Shining Armor,” theorized Princess Celestia.
Shining Armor nodded at her theory, “Princess Celestia has to be right, it makes sense.”
“I thought the same thing too,” said Cadance, “so I used my magic to break whatever spell she had on him. The first time, it didn’t work. After trying multiple times, nothing happened. As it turns out, he’s not under any spell.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense, if he wasn’t under a spell than why would he be serving her?” he asked.
“That’s because she didn’t use magic to make him her servant, she did it the old fashion way.”
“What do you mean?” asked her aunt.
“I think she…tortured him until she broke his mind.”
Once again, both Shining Armor couldn’t believed what they heard. Princess Celestia took the news even harder. Being the princess, it’s her sole duty to protect all her subjects. With her motherly personality she views all her subjects as her children. The thought that one of her children was tortured until their mind was broken, that left nothing but a shell sworn to serve the one that had broken it in the first place. She always had that naïve thought that Equestria was the perfect place in the world. Of course, that thought was ripped away after the recent events and now once again another incident showed how wrong she was.
“Are you absolutely sure about this, Cadance?” Celestia hoped that it wasn’t true, but she knew the answer already.
“I can’t say with a 100% if it’s true or not, but from how he reacted during our conversation it might seem liked that’s the case.”
“So what did he do when you told him that you’re the real Cadance and his so called master was blasted to the other side of Equestria?” asked Shining Armor.
“Well….you see, the thing is…I didn’t tell him.”
“Why didn’t you tell him the truth?!”
“I couldn’t, the way he reacted from our conversation, showed that he has a very fragile mind. If I had told him the truth, who knows what would have happened, he could have had a mental breakdown. I couldn’t do that to someone who has already suffered enough. So for now, I’m pretending to be his master until I can figure out some way to help him.”
“So, to sum everything up,” said Princess Celestia, “we have a pony locked in the dungeon that was tortured by the queen of the changelings into becoming her pet so she could feed on him and right now he thinks you’re his master in disguise.”
Cadance nodded, “That’s right auntie, what do you think we should do?”
Celestia brought rubbed a hoof under chin as she thought on how to solve this problem. “This is quite a dilemma, if you keep up this charade the longer it goes the chance that he’ll discover the truth, but if we tell him the truth who knows how he’ll take the news. You’re in a difficult situation my niece, a situation that seems that only you can solve. What do you want to do?”
“I want to help him auntie. So for now, I’m going to keep pretending that I’m Queen Chrysalis. While I’m pretending, I’m going to see if I can get the help he needs to repair the damage that she caused, and once he’s fully recovered I’ll reveal the truth. Hopefully with the help he’s gotten the news won’t bother him and he’ll be able to live his life as a normal stallion and not as someone’s pet.”
“Very well, you have my blessing. I can see that you’re very determined in this, I can see that Razor Sharp is in good hooves,” she smiled. Princess Celestia couldn’t be more proud of her niece than in this moment. She could tell that she was going to do great things when the time comes.
“Thank you, auntie Celestia. The first thing that needs to be done is to release him from the dungeon and then I want him set up in one of the guest rooms. I’ll be with him so he can be comfortable in his surroundings. While I’m looking after him, I want the servants to bring some food to his room. From the looks of it, he hasn’t eaten in a long time and he needs the nourishment.”
Celestia nodded her head, “Consider it done. I’ll have one the guards release him and escort him to his room. I’ll notify the chefs to whip something up and have one of the servants deliver it to his room.”
“Alright, I’ll meet him once he’s in his room,” Cadance started walking out of the throne room but the she stopped, “Oh, I want to make sure that no one knows about this. For now, we’ll keep his identify a secret between us,” she looked at Princess Celestia, “I think auntie Luna should be brought up to speed about the situation when she wakes up. As far as anypony knows, Razor is my new servant.”
“I will let Luna know when she’s up,” said Princess Celestia.
Cadance nodded and walked out the room. Shining Armor then followed, the recent events since returning home was too much for him to process. While he was proud of his wife in helping someone who needed it, part of him didn’t like the situation. He was still suspicious about Chrysalis’s so-called pet. He was going to keep a close eye on Razor Sharp for his sake and Cadance’s.
“Wow, this room is big,” Razor was standing in his new room after one of the guards escorted him and left him. He was astonished at how luxurious the room is. There was a dresser that had a mirror on top, a door that led to a bathroom that had a shower and bathtub, a queen-size bed with the softest blankets that anypony could ask for, and it even had a balcony that overlook the city. By the time he was released, the moon had just risen. He walked outside to admire the view. He looked outside with his good eye and saw the shining lights of the city. He did notice from the distance that some of the buildings were badly damaged, curiosity had him wonder what had happened, but he pushed that thought away to admire the city.
“The city is beautiful….but not as beautiful as Master.”
“Ahem,” he heard somepony behind him, he turned a gave a warm smile to his visitor.
“Master!”
“I thought I heard someone talking about me,” said his master in disguise standing outside the door. He quickly ran up to her and gave her a big hug. After about a minute, he let her go.
“I missed Master,” he said.
“And I missed you too,” she said. She walked into his room as she closed the door and got on the bed. She patted the stop next to her, Razor quickly got on the bed too. He leaned against his master, nuzzling her side. He wished that his master would take off her disguise as he loved feeling her smooth surface, but he knew that she needed to stay in disguise so she can hide her identity. She used her wing to push him away that he looked up at her.
“Hold still,” she said.
Before he knew, he felt something cold pressed against the right side of his face. He saw it was an ice pack being levitated by his master. He obeyed her command as he sat still while his master was treating his eye.
As everpony knows, the quickest way to get rid of a black eye is to put ice on it. The time it takes for the bruising to go away depends on how serious the injury is. The average time it takes to heal is between five to fourteen days during treatment. However, since Razor’s injury wasn’t treated it was still black and swollen. He sat in silence as his master was treating the injury she gave him the last time he saw her when she locked in him in her closet. He could already feel the swelling on his face slowly going away.
Master truly cares for me. I’m so lucky to have Master by my side.
The room remained silent until there was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” said his master. The door opened and he saw a pony in a maid uniform pushing a cart.
“As you requested, your highness,” said the servant as she bowed.
“Thank you, that will be all,” she said.
The servant got up and walked out of the room as she closed the door behind her.
“Here you go my pet,” she said as she levitated the cover off the cart and the ice pack off his face. What Razor saw underneath made his mouth water. He saw a big pile of food, there was so much food that it could feed a small family. There were sandwiches, apples, hayburgers, bananas, grapes, oranges and a few cupcakes. He was so lost in admiring the food that he didn’t noticed that he was drooling. He was brought back to his senses when his master spoke, “You look famished. Eat up, this is all for you.”
Razor didn’t waste any time as he started eating everything in his site. He didn’t show any restraint or any table manners as he filled his small belly. For Cadance she watched Razor eat like a manticore. She didn’t know if he ate that way because he didn’t have any table manners afteror because the fact that he was starving. Either way, she sat in silence as Razor kept eating everything until there wasn’t anything left.
He lied on the bed with a look of satisfaction on his face, “Thank you, Master. That was the most delicious food I’ve ever had.”
“Only the best for my pet,” she said as she placed the ice pack back on his face. Silence once again consumed the room as Cadance continued treating his face while Razor was too full to move.
“Is Master hungry?” he said as he sat back up, “Master must be famished since the last time Master fed,” he staring brining his face closer to her face.
“T-That won’t be necessary,” she said, “I’ve already had my fill today…but thank you for the offer.”
“Okay,” he said. He continued staring at her face as he admired her beauty. Before long, he started yawning.
“Oh, poor thing. You must be tired after everything that’s happened today,” she got off the bed and was getting ready to leave the room, “I’ll let you get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.”
As soon as she took a step, she felt something grabbing her from behind. She turned her head to see Razor holding on to her with a sad look on his face. “Can’t I stay with Master?”
“I already told you, that not possible. It would be suspicious if you’re in the same room with my husband.”
“W-What if I stay under Masters bed? I promise not to make a sound or I could stay in the closet like before,” his body started shivering.
“The answer is no,” she said sternly, “I know that you want to be by my side but I have to maintain my appearance with my husband. You understand, don’t you?”
“I understand, Master.” Even though he understood perfectly, Razor still didn’t like it. He wanted to be with his master all the time like always.
His master could see that he was still upset, “Now, how about you give me a big hug before you go to sleep?”
Razor didn’t need to be asked twice as he wrapped his hooves around his master and gave her the biggest hug he could.
Cadance was used to getting hugs when she was still a foalsitter. She remembered that little Twilight Sparkle would always give the biggest hugs out of all of them. Her thoughts went out to her new sister in law, as she wondered what she’s doing now. She decided that she would schedule to spend more time with sister in law and talk about what’s been going with her life.
They stayed locked in their embrace until Cadance finally let go, “Now get some sleep, I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Yes, Master.”
Cadance walked out the door, she looked at Razor with a smile before she closed the door.
Razor jumped in bed as it didn’t take long before his eyelids started getting heavy. The bed felt so comfortable that he was out in less than a minute. His last thoughts before losing consciousness were of his loving master. How she defended and treated him with such kindness. It was her kindness, that he loved so much about her.
Master is so loving and perfect. Master is my angel.