//------------------------------//
// Chapter Nine 
// Story: A Foreign Education: Another Road 
// by RainbowDoubleDash 
//------------------------------//

Publicly, Princess Cadance agreed to the first of Amaryllis' ultimatums. The Crystal Empire would cease to exist, becoming instead the Crystal March of Queen Amaryllis' Northern Changeling Hive, severing all formal ties with Equestria in the process, including Cadance's claim to being a member of the Equestrian Royal Family. The title of Crystal Princess would be destroyed, and Cadance would be created as duchess - ostensibly a kindness, to lower Cadance's title so little - of the Crystal March. The March would have some of its former lands restored to it, including its border with Equestria, but it would henceforth be the duty of the duchess of the Crystal March to guard against Equestrian incursion into the lands of the Northern Changeling Hive.

The crystal ponies didn't mind. As far as they were concerned, it was just a de jure recognition of what had de facto been the case for twenty years. It was formalities, an excuse for a parade, but nothing more.

Princess Cadance wasn't much of a ruler and never had been. It had been a mistake to ever make her the sovereign of her own nation. But she wasn't stupid, and she knew that even this state of affairs would last only as long as it amused Amaryllis. One day she wouldn't wake up, poisoned in her sleep, or perhaps all pretenses of subtlety would be dropped and Amaryllis would have her hauled in chains before her to be executed. And she knew that all that would be required for the crystal ponies to accept this was the right wording and the right excuses from Amaryllis. The Alicorn of Love was the alicorn of all love, and though she loved the crystal ponies, she also knew that while they loved her, they loved Amaryllis more, and between their loves, they'd choose the changeling queen. And Cadance loved her family too much to let her love of the crystal ponies put them in danger any longer.

And so, on the night before Amaryllis was to arrive to begin the formal proceedings, Cadance and her family left the Crystal Empire. For any other group of beings, it might have been a harrowing experience, one that required weeks or months of planning ahead of time, using agents that could be trusted and moving from safe house to safe house across the northlands, always on the lookout for the agents and spies of Amaryllis.

But they all of them knew Twilight Sparkle, so instead all it had required was for them to gather together - a normal enough occurrence that raised no red flags - an undetectable message sent by dragonfire, and five minutes of waiting for Twilight to teleport to them, rest a moment, then teleport them all back to Equestria.

They took the Crystal Heart with them.

The following morning, Queen Amaryllis came to the Crystal March to find no Cadance to create as duchess, and no Flurry Heart or Cheval to take the title in her place, and no Crystal Heart to claim as a prize. There was a delay of several hours before a pony named Robust Core was found who may or may not have been only eight steps removed from the old royal family - King Sombra had been thorough in his extermination of the bloodline - and created as the Marquess of the Crystal March, not having done anything to earn a higher title than what his fiefdom required. Despite the theft of the Crystal Heart, Robust Core and Amaryllis promised that the whole of the northlands would be scoured for it, and it would be found, as would anypony who had aided in its theft.

---

Cheval had looked like her old self again, before her trip to Griffonstone, for the journey. It had been decided it would be easier than explaining to Twilight what had happened, at least until they were all out of danger. But none of her family would leave her alone...and though Cheval could taste that it was out of worry that she might relapse and try and hurt herself, she could also taste that it was out of a resolute determination to ensure that she didn't hurt anyone else. Cheval didn't intent to hurt anyone else...but then she had never intended to hurt anyone in the first place.

Twilight's castle in Ponyville had been marginally closer to the Crystal Empire than Canterlot, and given how long-range the teleportation had been even saving a few miles had helped Twilight immensely, so the family had ended up there. Flurry and Cheval shared a room. Without having to be told, Cheval decided not to leave it, grounding herself. Flurry stayed with her. Without knowing they were thinking the same thing, both marveled at how easily Twilight accepted the excuse of fleeing the Crystal Empire as the reason for Cheval seeming so depressed and the family as a whole being so out-of-sorts. It was, at least, a partial truth.

Cadance and Shining Armor went with Twilight to Canterlot to discuss with Celestia what had happened, what Equestria's response to the Crystal Empire situation was going to be. Amaryllis' outright annexation of it was not going to be recognized as a matter of course - there was no such place as the Crystal March as far as the government was concerned, and Robust Core was a pretender to the throne. The fact that Equestria possessed the Crystal Heart would likewise remain secret for now, as would the whereabouts of Cadance and her family - officially, Equestria suspected Amaryllis had slain them, but perhaps they would miraculously turn up alive somewhere.

But that was it. With the forces of the Second Storm still resurgent on Equestria's southern border, and the eastern ocean being threatened by a monstrous being calling itself Squirk and wrecking ships and drowning whole islands in its search for the legendary Flashstone Amulet, Equestria simply did not have the resources to reclaim the Crystal Empire without stretching itself dangerously thin and leaving its shoreline and southern border vulnerable. Despite the official condemnation, status quo was, one again, to be the official policy.

It didn't surprise any of them. Nor was Cheval surprised when Cadance, Shining Armor, and Twilight returned to Ponyville that night, and without even being in the same room or the same floor she could sense that Twilight's love for her had shifted and twisted, that the love was now tainted with anger and disgust and shock, and probably always would be forevermore. Her mother and father were honest to a fault, of course they had told Twilight what she had done, and probably Celestia too. Not that they should have done any different.

Cheval's ear-fins flicked when the door to her and Flurry's room opened. She had resumed her other form, her real form now, and glanced at the door without turning her head. She saw and she tasted the sudden shock from Twilight at the sight of her, could tell how Twilight was trying to reconcile the little innocent changeling nymph she'd known with the rapist queen that was now lurking in her castle.

"Twilight, can you give us a minute?" Shining asked. It was all Twilight could do to mutely nod, and turn and walk out of sight. Once she was gone, Cadance and Shining entered the room, and closed the door behind them. And then there they were. Three of the best ponies in the world...and a monster who didn't deserve them.

Shining spoke first. "I don't...know how to deal with this," he said. "I don't think...I don't think any parent could. All I keep doing is trying to find excuses for what you did and why you did it, but at the same time I keep realizing that if you weren't my daughter, I wouldn't be trying as hard, or even at all."

Cheval shifted, looking down. "There's no excuse," she mumbled. "There's reasons...but no excuse."

Cadance breathed out sharpy. She stepped forward. "As...as a family, we can't handle this. No real family could, no real family is mentally or emotionally equipped to be objective towards each other. So I...I spoke, with Princess Celestia. She always seems so wise, seems to always know what to do...and she reminded me that I'm not just your mother. I stated the intent to, but I never formally, actually surrendered my claim on the Crystal Empire, or my claim to the Equestrian Royal Family, and Equestria doesn't recognize the Crystal March and neither do I. So I'm not just your mother and you're not just my daughter. I'm your Princess, your liege, and you're my subject. I need to view this, to approach this, like that. And I've never been a good princess but damn it all, I need to...need to try."

Cheval stiffened, but nodded. She felt Flurry grab her hoof, and she grasped it back, as tight as she could. Cadance continued, though she reached out a wing and draped it over Shining Armor, leaned against him for support. "S...so, as your Princess, and with the permission and on the advice of my liege, the Solar Throne of Equestria, I am stripping you of your own title as princess of the Crystal Empire. I am rescinding my recognition of your bastard claim and disinheriting you as a member of the Royal Family of both the Empire and of Equestria. You have no claim and no right to anything. And...and I am disowning you. You are...you are officially not my daughter, not Shining Armor's daughter, not Flurry Heart's sister. You are not family, you have no family." She closed her eyes and took in a shuddering breath, holding it. "And, and I must wish...that you should die naked and alone, despised by everypony whom you have ever loved."

Cheval had shuddered at the start of Cadance's sentencing. By the end of it, by the last words that were part of Equestria's official rite of discommendation, her tears were flowing again and her own breath was hitching, but she nodded again. It was, all of it, more than deserved.

"And..." Cadance continued. Cheval had to put a hoof to her mouth at that to stop a wail of contrition - what Cadance had just done was already the most painful thing that she could have done to her, no matter that it was what Cheval wanted and less than she deserved...what more could there be? Cadance gave her a few moments before continuing. "And I am banishing you, to the Badlands Changeling Hive. I've written to King Thorax and he has agreed to suffer your presence for as long as I will not. You will remain there until...until I can think of some way or you can do something for you to make up for what you have done. I think you will be there for a very, very long time."

As exiles went, it was ideal. The Badlands Changeling Hive were all of them reformed changelings. There was nearly limitless love there that was given freely, so she wouldn't be hungry. There were three royal changelings there who all knew how to deal with a queen and so would not allow their subjects to be enthralled by her, even if she were to try. Really, it was where she should have gone in the first place, and maybe she could have avoided all of this if she had. 

But it was still banishment, for real this time. Still sending her far, far away from her family - from what had used to be her family.

"I..." Cheval croaked, the simple word catching in her throat. She swallowed several times before trying again. "I...understand. I don't know what I could do or how I could possibly make up for what I did...but...but I promise I will spend every day trying."

"And I'll help."

Shining Armor started and Cadance's wings flared, and Cheval let go of the hoof she had been holding on to like it suddenly burned. All three turned to look at Flurry Heart. "What?" Shining Armor demanded. "No, Flurry, you're not - you aren't banished."

"Of course I'm not," Flurry retorted. "But sending off Cheval on her own was what started all of this. I'm not letting it happen again, I don’t care if you say she’s not my sister, I’m not going to run the risk of this happening again under Thorax’s snout." Flurry reached out again and grabbed Cheval's hoof, holding it tight as she looked into her little sister's eyes. There was love there...but hardness too. “I’ll keep an eye on her, I’ll help her, and I’ll make sure she stays in line. No matter what.” She looked back to her parents. "And even if you say no, I've known how to teleport since I was a yearling, I'm nearly as good as aunt Twilight, so you can't stop me unless you want to lock me up somewhere."

The two older ponies looked to each other, at a loss for words. Finally, Shining looked back, and nodded. "Fine," he said. "That's fine, Flurry, I'm fine with that. We...we can even visit, or you could visit us." Left unsaid was that King Thorax would be obligated by etiquette and protocol to lock Cheval in a cell out of sight of Cadance if ever and whenever she came for as long as she was there. It was something Cheval wouldn't mind in the slightest, in fact she fully expected to be locked in a cell out of Thorax's sight as soon as she got there anyway.

Cadance nodded along with Shining. "Yes. Fine...just..." She closed her eyes, then stepped forward, reaching out and hugging Flurry. "Be careful, be smart. I trust Thorax with my life, when he lived with us I trusted him with your life, but as for the other changelings there...I think...I think we've all learned to not put any trust in the words reformed changeling."

Flurry hugged her mother, then her father. For just a moment, with their love focused on their real daughter, all the anger and disgust they'd felt for Cheval slipped away and there was nothing but pure love. Cheval couldn't stop herself from eating some of it. She hated herself for it.

Eventually, the hug ended, and the ponies parted. Cadance and Shining Armor looked to Cheval, and after a moment Cadance lifted a leg. Cheval almost thought it was inviting her into a hug as well, something to take with her, and she rose to go to it...but instead, Cadance pointed towards the door of the room. "Go. There's a pegasus chariot waiting. It's...it'll be big enough for Flurry too. They'll take you to the Badlands."

Cheval hesitated a moment more, before nodding her head once and going out the door, and into her exile. Flurry followed her.