//------------------------------// // Chapter 37. A Gold Crown in Water. // Story: Skeletor, Master of The Empire. // by Hotel_Chicken //------------------------------// The Crystal Empire was bathed in moonlight as the crown jewel of the night hung overhead. The day was full of gossip and rumors, each carried by delicate whispers as the crystal ponies watched their new princess with hesitant gazes. Whispers of Skeletor spending his time aiding the ponies with the assistance of the Royal Treasurer had spread from the commoners to the council members. Small conversations about his tour of the Empire sparked debates as ponies quietly argued over the intension of Skeletor’s stroll. Among the floating words that caught Cadence’s ears, there was a rumor that the dome above the Empire had shrunk. Word had spread quickly from two worried mares, a pair of maids who were responsible for emptying the chamberpots outside the barrier, and retrieving the petrified feces from earlier that week for fertilizer in the underground farms. With barrels of frozen poop and a heavier weight of worry on their minds, the maids brought this information to the guards, who in turn brought it to the Royal Spy Master, and then to Cadence. By the time she heard of the barrier’s circumstances, nearly half the castle had heard as well, and a great number of citizens near the barrier would undoubtably learn of it as well. To make matters worse, as hushed conversations stabbed her ears, a long series of journal entries assaulted her eyes and wrecked her mind with worry. Hearing about Skeletor’s life in the Empire was nothing like reading about his personal experience. Each bandage roll in her hooves held the fears that plagued his mind each day. When he had first revealed his worries to her in private, she thought that it was nothing but a blatant trick, a lie that would make her feel sympathetic for the displaced demon. But his journal expanded on these worries. Every order and law passed was met with worry, his actions were harshly judged, and every entry ended with a wish for him to survive another day. The only notes of peace in his journal were when he spoke about his plans to return to Earth and the long notes he took on dark magic. From what Cadence could find, it appeared as if Skeletor only vaguely knew of how his spells worked, never mentioning the fact that he was sacrificing shards of his soul to preform certain feats. He made notes of the side effects of losing certain parts of his soul, such as his twisted emotions and suffering physical pain, but none of his entries went over the loss and slow growth of his soul. After looking through his notes, Cadence was able to come to several conclusions about the once lord of the Empire. Firstly, he was a complete novice to magic, possibly even less experienced than a kindergarten unicorn. Second, beneath the gnarled emotional spectrum that laid over him was a creature, a human, that was suffering greatly in her Empire. And, finally, the worst conclusion she could reach, Skeletor either did come from another world, or he was suffering delusions. On one hoof, the original demonic forces that attempted to invade Terra had also been from another dimension, giving credence to the possibility that Skeletor was also from another world. However, there was also the possibility that he was a demon driven to madness by his misuse of dark magic. Earth, Humanity, perhaps even his family, could have been illusions created by his fraying sanity, which would also explain his meetings with Sombra’s “ghost”. If that were the case, then she would need to help Skeletor and stop him from scratching the already festering wound in his mind with more spells. However, if he was telling the truth, if his world was real and Sombra was still alive, then she would not only have to deal with the lies she told Skeletor, but also face off against an undead tyrant. No pressure. Cadence thought sardonically as her tired limbs carried her down several flights of stairs. With everything that weighed on her mind, her body yearned for sweet comfort. Shining Armor would take care of informing her aunts about their recent situation, allowing Cadence the brief time she needed to relax and distract herself. Heading the calls of her weary body and mind, Cadence set out to go to the one place in the Empire where she could forget her worries. Or at least she would have if the source of her concerns wasn’t there as well. Descending down the final set of stairs to the royal baths, Cadence trotted into the blue light of the glowworms and basked in the warmth that the room radiated. Trotting around the pillar of stone that partially blocked the entrance to the hot spring, Cadence’s gaze lifted from the mosaic crystal tiles that decorated the floor and her eyes fell onto the familiar skull of a strange creature. His arms rested on the lip of the pool, keeping his upper body out of the water as he relaxed in the pristine and bubbling pool. Skeletor’s skull shifted lightly, as if to peek on his new company before his limbs suddenly flailed about to quickly grab a cloth and cover his lower half. “Gah, p-Princess Cadence! Um… Hi,” Skeletor greeted awkwardly. “Good evening Skeletor, I’m surprised to see you’re here,” Cadence replied. From what she knew of his schedule, Skeletor would only bathe after dinner every evening, and reportedly only stayed for an hour before retiring to his room. “Yeah… Um, anyway, I’ll be going then,” Skeletor excused as he wrapped the wet cloth around his hips and rose from the water. “You don’t need to. I don’t feel like we’ve had many opportunities to talk, so maybe now could be a good time.” Without another word, Cadence delicately removed her crown and royal appeal, placing them a few feet away from Skeletor’s belongings as she sank into the pool. Relief instantly washed over her body as the water embraced her, sending shivers of delight through her weary muscles as she sunk deeper. In contrast, Skeletor stood as stiff as a board, staring dumbly at the princess as she leisurely descended into bliss. After a few awkward moments of silence, Skeletor slowly lowered himself back down into the bubbling pool, though he clearly didn’t carry an ounce of the comfort that he was enjoying before. “Ah~ Sweet Faust, I can’t believe you’ve been hogging this for so long,” Cadence breathed. “I-I didn’t mean to do anything like that, your majesty, I—” “Calm down, Skeletor. I didn’t mean anything by it,” Cadence reassured as her wings began to drift away from her barrel to feel the warm water rising against her sore muscles. “It was just a little banter. No need to worry about it.” “Um… Alright.” Awkward silence fell over them without restraint, allowing the sound of bubbling water to quickly fill the room as the two sat in silence. The Princess of Love felt tempted to just let the still silence linger in the air, to avoid the conversations that she needed to have with Skeletor. She wanted nothing more than to simply push aside her concerns and deal with them the next day, or perhaps even the next month. However, she couldn’t give in to such temptations. If she wanted to learn more about Skeletor’s memory and earn his trust, then she would need to make the first step. After several more moments of uneasy comfort, Cadence cleared her throat and approached the, arguably, easiest topic she could bring up. “I think you’ll be happy to know that the council and I have found a reward for you.” “Reward?” “The contract we signed stated that I would have to assign you a title worthy of your deeds and repay you for your actions. You’ll be given the title of Duke and assigned a fief, though we won’t be able to give you either of those until we have more supplies and homes for the Empire’s citizens,” Cadence explained. “Oh, well that… That sounds nice?” “So, you’d be happy with a title and a fief?” “I don’t see why I wouldn’t be.” “Great! Also, you should know that we’re planning on giving you a holiday too. It was suggested that we should create a holiday to honor your feats, though the council and I will need time to deliberate on what we’ll need for a Skeletor themed holiday.” “… … I’m sorry, I… Holiday?” Skeletor asked with disbelief. “What does th… What do you mean?” “You created a holiday to honor Princess Amore and all of the ponies who died at Sombra’s hooves, this will essentially be a day to celebrate your accomplishments and the Empire’s liberation.” “Well, I uh… I’m very grateful, but—” “You’re worried, aren’t you,” Cadence interrupted. “Skeletor… I don’t know you as well as I’d like, but I know a bit. I know that you don’t want a holiday, heck, you’re probably thinking about how many ponies will be mad. But the truth is, Skeletor, nopony will be upset about it. The crystal ponies will be in an uproar if you didn’t get anything in return for your work, and if we don’t do something to show them that you’ve been repaid, then I don’t know what’ll happen. “I know you don’t see it, but the ponies here love you, Skeletor. They practically worship the ground you walk on, and it’s hard to find anypony in the castle who has a single bad thing to say about you. It’s… It’s actually kind of frustrating that you can’t see it. So please, just… Could you please accept your reward and celebrate with everypony? It’d help me and the Empire a lot.” Skeletor said nothing after Cadence’s plea, allowing the silence that surrounded them to take on a more contemplative nature, like the stillness that filled a library during midterm exams. As he silently mulled over her words, Cadence took the initiative to subtly cast a spell and once again see the emotions of those around her. She could easily spot Skeletor’s shadow, Camisole, sitting just a few feet behind the skull headed man with a strong fortress of interest building around her. It wasn’t as blinding as the wonder and awe of a foal seeing something new, but it still glowed with a warmth that reminded Cadence of lightning clouds. As for Skeletor, the usually mangled sea of emotions that carved through him were jagged. But when she ignored them, stared past the warped anger, grief, and lust that were tied together with thin threads of sanity, she saw a well of sorrow and worry that felt colder than the bite of winter. Still, a faint hint of hope glimmered inside the deep pit of doubt, growing steadily brighter as the seconds wore on. Finally, the displaced demon left his idle musings and gave Cadence an answer. “I think I would like that. But, I do have to ask, is it really that necessary?” “It is. First and foremost, you’ve helped the Empire more than anypony else has. You avenged those who were killed and enslaved by Sombra, allowed the crystal ponies to honor their fallen families, and you’ve done everything you could to help them… Though, there is one thing that I’m concerned about, something you made that I feel uncomfortable about.” “… Is it regarding the law I passed about gay ponies?” Skeletor hesitantly asked. “What? Oh, no, no it’s not about that,” Cadence explained, causing the sudden tension in Skeletor’s posture to melt away. “It’s about the ‘medicine’ you’ve been giving them.” “You mean the placebos?” “Yes. I want to know why you decided to use them,” Cadence bluntly asked. “Then I assume you know what Placebos really are then?” “I don’t know what you put in yours, but I’m familiar with the concept. I’ve heard of it being used in other countries for… dubious reasons, and I’m worried about the effect they could have on the Crystal Empire. “ ‘Dubious’?” Skeletor parroted, rolling the word in his jaws before a delicate smile formed on his malleable skull. “Hmm-Ney-heh-heh-heh-ha, I don’t think I’ve heard that word in years. Well, I don’t know what you mean by that. Where I’m from, placebos are used to trick people into feeling better. The most effective case of Placebos on my planet was a man who had cancer, or maybe it was something else. I know that it was incurable, at least for modern medicine, so the doctors lied to him and prescribed him sugar tablets. “What happened next shocked the medical community. He was getting better, fighting off the disease with his own immune system. Some people even thought that he’d make a full recovery. Unfortunately, someone let it slip that he wasn’t actually taking medicine, and his immune system took a nose dive. They tried to trick him again, but, ‘Fool me once,’ and all that… He died not long after. I’m sure it could be used as you described, but I never thought of using it to hurt the ponies here. I just wanted to help in any way that I could.” “But you lied to them,” Cadence lightly argued, feeling a bitter taste of her own hypocrisy stinging her tongue. “I did it because they have nothing. I didn’t expect it to take off like it did, I thought, 'I’ll give it to one or two ponies, help a little bit.’ I didn’t realize how much they’d come to depend on it, but I’m still happy it’s helping. Yes, I lied to them, but was I supposed to tell them the truth? "The truth is we don’t have enough medicine, and what we do have isn’t exactly ‘medicine’ in the modern sense. What little we have is running low, and the expedition to the Ruva Kingdom should last another week and a half from what I’ve been told. Assuming they can find anything there, what little they can bring back will only buy us a short amount of time… Time many ponies don’t have. “… Do you know exactly how many ponies have died since I came here, princess? Because I don’t. I know it’s too many, and that’s all I know. I tried to keep them all alive, introduce a plan to reduce suicide, enforce a system where the doctors properly wash their hooves and instruments, I’ve done everything I could but they still died… I ended up telling Crumb Catcher to stop reporting the death toll every day because I couldn’t listen to how many ponies killed themselves or died. I tried learning magic to heal others, but the more I read the more worried I became. I could have easily killed someone by trying to help them. So, I lied, I lied to them because I couldn’t find anything else to do, princess. And if I had too, I’d do it again.” Cadence and Skeletor allowed the still air to become the loudest noise once more. Over the course of his explanation, Skeletor’s emotions had shifted from one torn form to another, revealing a pattern of highs and lows as he went through his experiences and reasons. A part of her still heavily disapproved of the idea of using placebos, but another part of her also saw the validity in Skeletor’s thoughts. Her mind argued both for and against the use of placebos, creating scenarios that mirrored the story he had just told. If everyponny in the Empire had believed to be getting better, only to be told that the medicine was fake, would that cause their symptoms to worsen? Would weeks of healing fall flat after seconds of horror? Then, another thought came to her mind, one that wasn’t louder than the others, but still made her focus on it as her stomach began to twist. Why would he do that? Skeletor, for all she could see, truly appeared to care for the ponies of the Empire. It wasn’t the familial care of relatives, or the love Celestia felt towards her subjects, it was simply a care given to strangers, a desire to help others just because you could. Thoughts of another demon soon filled her mind, the only one whom her aunt Celestia had praised in her life, Scorpan. Cadence had nearly forgotten the tales of the friendly giant who sought to help others, a creature with a monstrous exterior that held a loving heart. His was a tale not too dissimilar from Skeletor. They were both demonic creatures, with odd features that would haunt the dreams of young colts and fillies, but they weren’t the monsters everypony thought they were… The monster Cadence thought, and perhaps hoped, Skeletor would be. With a tired sigh, Princess Cadence finally confronted the fact that she had been wrong. Her heart felt heavier as she as she allowed the silence between them to grow. What would she say if she broke the silence? More lies? Promises of returning to a world she didn’t know of? False hope that he could be united with a creature from his own realm? She wouldn’t dare shatter the silence with the truth. If he even so much as appeared to be upset with her, the crystal ponies would take arms against her for hurting their savior. She wouldn’t tell him the truth about Crystal, at least not yet. However, there was one truth that she could tell him, something to reignite their conversation and kill the heavy silence between them. “… I banned the use of Placebos,” Cadence announced. “I didn’t understand your intentions at the time. I ended up jumping to conclusions because of what I thought I knew and I’m still uncomfortable with allowing ponies to take placebos, I, I think I acted too rashly. “I thought of the worst and I tried to stop a disaster before it could happen. It feels like… I came here expecting to fight off a tyrant, save everypony, and become princess, but none of that has happened. Instead, Sombra was already defeated, and the new king handed the crown to me without any argument. It’s like… Like…” “Like you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop?” Skeletor suggested, causing Cadence to raise an eye brow at his odd remark. Feeling incentivized by her quizzical look, Skeletor lifted a hand from the water and vaguely waved it through the air. “It’s like… You know something bad is going to happen, despite a lot of things seeming nice. I know you think I don’t see it, but I’d be stupid not to notice how some of the ponies feel about me. Christ, I’d have to be blind to not see it, but it’s uncomfortable, isn’t it? It’s like you’re waiting for the universe to pull you out of your comfort, to drag you through hell and back in a heartbeat… Has Crystal ever told you about human royalty?” Cadence nodded hesitantly, not wanting to mention how her only knowledge of them came from Skeletor’s journal and the story of a cake loving queen who ate farmer’s crops that had been circulating around the Empire. “I’m not a historian, or anything, but I know enough about kingdoms to know that the people are the ones in charge. It doesn’t matter if I think or if I know that a certain number of ponies like me, I know that it can change. I could say something stupid and then, ‘off with his head’,” Skeletor surmised, quickly dragging a finger across the place where his neck should have been. “Some of them like me, but how long until a rumor or something else makes them grab their pitchforks and torches? How long until one of them gets it in their head that the Empire would be better off without me? I mean, yeah, it would be, but I really like living.” “What do you mean by that?” “That I like living?” “That the Empire would be better off without you,” Cadence clarified. “Well, you’ve been doing a good job so far.” Cadence resisted the urge to give him a deadpan look. He didn’t mean it in a condescending way, but it still felt a little insulting, even if he was being genuine. “I banned your medicine,” the princess mirthlessly retorted. “And you’re also bringing doctors from Canterlot, soon. Not to mention, you’re a princess, you’ve been trained for this job since birth.” “Ascension, actually,” she corrected, though Skeletor didn’t appear to hear her. “You know about politics, how the other kingdoms probably work, and you have connections with the kingdom of Canterlot. And, you let me stay here. You could have kicked me out or ‘sent me on a vacation’,” he made a show out of lifting his index and middle finger up and down at that, a gesture that was completely lost on Cadence. “Letting me stay here, it… It means a lot to me, princess. Thank you. I can almost guarantee that any king or princess back on Earth wouldn't have been so accommodating, and it’s… it’s nice that I don’t have to worry about that here, princess.” “It’s the least I could do for everything you’ve done and… Please, call me Cadence. It’s what my friends call me,” the princess said as she extended a hoof to the biped. “And I’d really like to be your friend.” Skeletor stared at her hoof for only a moment before his wrinkled fingers grasped it firmly. “I would love to be your friend, Cadence.”