“What’s taking him so long?” Shining’s voice echoed slightly down the hallway as I galloped to Flurry’s room.
“Relax, he’ll be here!” Cadance’s voice answered.
“Unbelievable! I can understand yesterday, but what’s he pulling now?”
The knots in my stomach tightened. He’d promised to behave himself, but if his patience was this thin…
“Shining, dear…”
“I swear, if he isn’t here in five minutes, I’ll go down there myself and-”
The door to Flurry’s room was ajar but I knocked regardless.
“Told you!” Cadance said, pulling the door fully open with her magic. I stepped inside and bowed to them.
“I’m so sorry to keep you waiting,” I said, a little out of breath. “I was going to be on time but-”
“First of all, let’s dispose of the bowing, shall we?” Cadance interrupted me. “We don’t expect it from any of our assistants, so why should you be an exception?”
“Assistant? I thought I was a foalsitter?”
“Yes, but we sometimes use the word ‘assistant’ as a general term for those working closely with us, and foalsitting qualifies as such.”
“I see.” I rose up to a normal stance. “Is this better?”
“Yes. Did you sleep well?”
“I didn’t wake up screaming if that’s what you meant, but I don’t remember not having a nightmare, either. I feel pretty rested, so I guess I slept well enough.”
“Then why were you late?” Shining interjected.
“No guards were outside of my room. I decided to wait a bit until they returned, but they didn’t, and I thought I’d get in trouble for going about without them, but then I had to because you were waiting for me-”
Shining slapped himself on the forehead.
“Didn’t I tell you yesterday?”
I tilted my head, unsure what he was talking about.
“I called off your guard escort. If I’m going to trust you from now on, you shouldn’t have your movement restricted and monitored.”
“You did say something about not restricting my movement anymore, but I thought that referred to the spell on my window…”
“...and I’ll be removing the spells from the other windows too,” he added. “Though, I’d like to keep the weapons changeling-proofed, just in case.”
“I wasn’t going to touch them!”
“Maybe so, but who’s to say there won’t be any evil changelings skulking about one day? Besides, you did try to take a halberd in my office once, didn’t you?”
Oh. That.
“Thorax? What’s he talking about?”
I shrunk under the Princess’ gaze and looked away.
“It’s… you shouldn’t worry about it…”
She put a hoof under my jaw and gently turned my head toward herself. “I’m listening.”
“Not in front of Flurry,” I whispered.
“She’s still sleeping, but…” She put up a magical bubble around the filly’s bed. “She won’t hear anything now. What’s this about the halberd?”
I was going to have to tell her now, wasn’t I?
“I meant to use it on myself,” I sighed.
Her eyes went wide.
“Why? And when?” She turned to Shining. “And you knew?!”
“It’s…” he started to protest, then stopped abruptly and sighed. “Actually it is my fault. I knew it then but didn’t want to admit it to myself, let alone anypony else, because I still wanted Thorax to be the one to blame for… honestly, I don’t even know what for anymore. Probably for being alive. Celestia, I really am a stubborn bigot, aren’t I?”
“I can’t blame you,” I said. “After what my kind did, you have every right to hate us, and I was actually there at the time and didn’t do anything to stop it.”
“You couldn’t have done anything, okay? Chrysalis would have killed you!”
“What’s this about the halberd?” Cadance insisted.
“It was one of the times when I interrogated him,” Shining said. “He was hiding something so I pushed him into telling me about his brother… into practically betraying his brother. I crossed the line and didn’t know it, and frankly, I wouldn’t have cared if I had known. But Thorax couldn’t bear the thought that he might have sold out his brother’s life or freedom in exchange for not being yelled at… The worst thing is, Thorax, you were right about thinking it; I wanted to attack the hive with the information I’d pulled from you… I don’t know what made me give it up…”
“Sunburst had a theory,” I mused. “Something about-”
Flurry stirred herself awake and rapped on the bubble.
“We’ll discuss this later,” Cadance said, undoing the bubble. “Good morning, sweetie! Sleep well?”
Flurry flew up, babbling delightedly.
“Yes, yes, I love you too! Ready for breakfast?”
Apparently she was. She landed on my back and prodded me a little.
“Well, what do you know,” Shining laughed. “She does like you! More than her mommy and daddy, apparently!” He tickled her and she kicked and squealed.
Breakfast was being served when we got there, and Berry was her usual self.
“Good morning, everypony!” she chirped. “Oh, and every...change...ling… Is that how you say it?”
“Everyling,” I corrected her. “But ‘everyone’ is fine too. Or simply ‘everypony’ if I’m the only changeling in a group of ponies.”
“Okay then!” She leaned to take a look at Flurry. “And I see your adventure from last afternoon turned out alright?”
I winced. “You know about that?”
“The whole town knows. Personally, I had an excellent view of one of Sentinel’s near-successes. You wouldn’t believe how that girl flies!”
“She told me once that she attended the Wonderbolts Academy til near-graduation.”
“Oooooh. That explains it! You weren’t half bad yourself, though I must admit that I wasn’t expecting that colossal bug in the end!”
“Neither did we,” Shining interjected.
“I hope you’re not in trouble for it?”
“If I am, it’s a far lesser trouble than I expected.”
“Well, that’s a relief to hear! You gotta tell me more about it sometime!” She placed a teapot onto the table. “Don’t mind my big mouth… I get carried away sometimes... I’ll let you eat now. Uh, I haven’t brought anything for you, Thorax. Will that be a problem?”
“No, I’m fine. But thanks anyway!”
“My pleasure! I’d better leave you to your meals. Enjoy!”
Cadance and Shining had grabbed some pancakes and tea and were slowly savoring the taste. Since I wasn’t busy chowing down on anything, I took it upon myself to feed Flurry. She’d gotten a bowl of oatmeal - thankfully, it wasn’t hot - and though she kept trying to splat the contents all over the table, she didn’t think to launch it in my face. She must have learned her lesson the first time! Then again, maybe she just wasn’t in the mood for launching food in others’ faces today and would amply make up for it tomorrow.
After breakfast, Flurry and I retreated to her room and left her parents to attend to their royal duties. It felt weird to suddenly be left alone with her; I still wasn’t sure if I’d be up to the task, but trust and an opportunity to justify that trust had been given to me, and I wasn’t going to squander it!
Luckily, Flurry wasn’t itching to test my limits right now. She opted for a coloring book and crayons instead and it absorbed her full attention for hours! I hadn’t realized foals could be so dedicated to sitting still! Not that I complained; I’d choose that over last afternoon’s antics any day!
Her concentration remained unbroken even when she was due for a diaper change. I gave her some time to finish coloring the page she was working on before interrupting her so I could tackle the matter; she wasn’t satisfied, judging by how furiously she kicked when I snatched her up, but it had to be done, and she calmed down eventually. Afterwards, she got interested in the cube fort again. Climbing it with the aid of her wings went smoothly if a bit comically, but problems arose when she tried to crawl inside without teleporting; none of the holes were big enough for her.
“Hold on,” I told her and transformed into a mouse.
I’d intended to go in myself and see which cubes could be kicked out without compromising the fort’s stability, and maybe to reinforce the rest with more blobs of slime if necessary, but I never got around to it. She grabbed me in her hooves and started playing with me, babbling happily all the while.
“Okay, okay, stop it!” I exclaimed when she moved on to tickling. No effect. I tried to resolve the issue by becoming a plushie, but it only got me squeezed in a tight hug that I could only endure for a few seconds before giving up and returning to my own form.
“Whew… okay… I appreciate your love but… don’t do it again… okay?” I panted. “You could have put me in a hospital!”
Her ears drooped and she let out a whimper.
“Hey, don’t be sad, I still like you! Just try to be more careful next time. Please?” My glance fell on the clock as I looked around the room for ideas on what to do with her next. “Uh-oh. It’s almost lunchtime! We better hurry!”
She sat on my back and we went to the dining room.
Cadance and Shining were there already, helping themselves to the soup.
“Oh no, am I late again?” I moaned. “I’m so sorry! I won’t disappoint you again! I’ll do my best!”
“You’re not late, Thorax,” Cadance chuckled. “We’re early. The day’s been mercifully slow.”
“Come on, stop sulking and sit down,” Shining said. “I didn’t see any monster-sized bugs chasing fillies around town today. I take it everything’s under control?”
“Yes Sir, we’ve been coloring.”
“Both of you?”
“...no, just Flurry. I watched.” I pointed at a bowl of green mush. “Is this for her?”
“Yes. It’s mashed peas. They’re her favorite, but watch out; the walls will be painted with it any moment now!”
“It kind of looks like dried changeling slime,” I mused.
They both grimaced. I did an imitation of a tortoise.
“Sorry! I’ll shut up now!”
“Oooookay… Uh, Cadance and I were… discussing… things… and we’ve, uh, come to the conclusion that, although some of my behavior in regard to you can be excused as reasonable caution… most of it can’t. And, uh… it requires some disciplinary measures.”
“I’m not sure I understand. You’re trying to say I’m getting punished after all?”
“No, not you! Me!”
“But you’re a prince! A leader of a country!”
“So? That doesn’t mean I can’t get punished if I do something to deserve it! Granted, rulers of Equestria have rarely needed to be punished for their actions, but it has been known to happen nevertheless, and I shouldn’t be the exception.”
“And since we have yet to decide on the exact form of punishment,” Cadance added, “we thought you might want to weigh in.”
“Me?!”
“Yes. You were the victim and your opinion should be heard.”
I must have looked completely lost because Cadance got dead serious and asked, “Thorax? Are you alright?”
It took me a moment to snap out of it.
“...I’m sorry, this is all so… new to me,” I said. “I’ve never been called a victim before. Wimp, loser, idiot, punching bag, disgrace, waste of chitin… traitor… but never a victim. And the very idea that I might have a say in what happens to someone who did something to me… I never thought…” I hugged myself and shuddered.
Shining trotted over to me and put a hoof on my shoulder. Gently. Not a trace of malice or attempt to force me into submission!
“I’m sorry if I touched a nerve,” he said. “And we understand if you need some time to think about it.”
“It’s alright. And I don’t need time to think about punishing you. I don’t want you to get punished!”
“Why? Because I’m a prince?”
“...well, among other things…”
“So? I wronged you, and we can’t pretend it didn’t happen!”
“But what would punishing you accomplish?”
“Well, I don’t know, justice?”
“Thorax,” Cadance interjected, “why don’t you give yourself a few days to think it over regardless? These kinds of decisions are never made in the heat of the moment anyway. Consult your friends if you think it’ll help, but do take the matter into consideration!”
“...alright, Princess, if you insist, I’ll do it.” I doubted I’d change my mind, though.
“Thank you. Now, can we please get on with lunch? We’ll be late for the visiting hours in the hospital if we keep stalling like this!”
“Seriously?” Sunburst protested when Cadance and Shining told him about the course of events he’d missed. “Thorax, you’re crazy! Why would you refuse to get some justice after all this?”
“Can it undo the past?”
“No, but-”
“Then what’s the point? Let’s just forget it and move on!”
He facehoofed. “That’s not how it’s done! We can’t just say ‘eh, whatever’ and pretend nothing happened!”
“But I can’t expect anypony to suffer because of me! Nopony, especially not a prince!”
“For the hundredth time, Thorax, I won’t retaliate the first chance I get if that’s what you’re afraid of,” Shining groaned.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what’s the problem?!”
“I just can’t, okay?!” I winced at my own outburst and sighed. “Look, I’ve been getting punished all my life for every little thing and it’s horrible. I don’t want anyone to have to go through the same thing!”
“You were tortured, and yes, that is horrible. But ponies don’t punish by torture! There are many disciplinary actions that are much more effective and much less cruel!”
“Like what?”
“A lot of things,” Sunburst said, “ranging from a formal apology in case of minor transgressions, to financial compensation, to authority restrictions, to community work… Prison too, though that’s often a last resort. Didn’t I already teach you that?”
“Princess Cadance mentioned a few things a while back, but I don’t think anypony ever went into detail.”
“Then I’m teaching you the basics of penal law first thing tomorrow.”
“But I’m supposed to be watching Flurry Heart… you think she’ll behave while cooped up in a hospital room?” She was behaving for now, but we hadn’t been here long, and she’d brought a couple of plushies with her.
“Actually, I’m getting discharged tomorrow.”
“Really?!” That was great news! “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“...I just did.”
“But didn’t you say only yesterday that you expected to be here longer?”
“That’s what it looked like, but now the doc says I’m recovering remarkably well and there’s no need to keep me here much longer, though I’m supposed to avoid exerting myself until further notice.”
I wondered briefly if he’d invented that on the spot so he could go back to teaching me, but would the doctors let him sneak out? Not likely, and something told me they wouldn’t be easily convinced to release him until he was well enough. A changeling medic would obey the command to release a drone from a healing cocoon prematurely without questioning, even to deny a healing cocoon to a drone in need of one, but ponies were too caring to act like that! If Sunburst said he was coming home tomorrow, the doctors must have allowed it!
“I’d love to have you back, Sunburst,” Shining said, “but I’m afraid your room is… er, pretty unusable at the moment. We can prepare one of the guest rooms for you temporarily if that’s okay?”
“If you want, but I still have my own house! I can sleep there! Sweet Celestia, it feels like forever since the last time… But I’ll still come to the castle during the day!”
“And if you need something in the middle of the night?” I asked.
“I’m not that injured. I’ll just avoid experimenting with spells for a while. The world won’t end if I don’t attempt to accelerate flower growth or make chairs walk or whatever else I- Thorax? What’s wrong now?”
“We didn’t bring you any flowers! You told me bringing flowers to sick ponies was a polite gesture, and I guess the same goes for injured ponies, and now you’re almost back home and we forgot to bring flowers!”
“Really?” he said flatly. “It doesn’t matter! It’s not that big a deal! Or if it really bothers you that much, I’ll pretend that you did bring some.”
“Or you can drop by the florist later today,” Cadance suggested.
“Or if the shop is closed by the time you get there, just go to that hill and pick some of the flowers your guards say you’ve been spending a lot of time staring at.”
“I’d rather not damage that one,” I muttered.
“Why? What’s so special about some wildflower?”
“Yes, what’s up with you and that hill?” Sunburst asked. “I saw you there a few times myself through the telescope.”
“It isn’t just ‘some wildflower’! It was a gift!”
“...you’ve lost me.”
“Remember that pony I went to visit in Vanhoover?”
“Grand Pear? What about him?”
“Did Paladin tell you what I told him about how I met Grand Pear? I know I didn’t get around to it when you questioned me because I got thrown in prison first.”
“He only said that the guy was sad and you comforted him. Something about missing his daughter?”
“Yes, and that flower was the daughter’s favorite and he gave it to me as a sign of gratitude. That was as close as I’d come to making a friend before I met Spike, so I held on to the flower like my life depended on it and kept it alive… a couple of days after that, something started emanating an unbelievably strong aura of love and I went to find the source of it, wherever and whatever it was… eventually I planted the flower close to where I first landed here.”
“Wow,” Sunburst mused. “I knew you arrived during the crystalling and we agreed the timing for the love aura matches Flurry’s birth, but why didn’t you say anything about the flower?”
“I didn’t think it would matter to you,” I shrugged.
“Why wouldn’t it matter?” Cadance interjected. “You almost made a friend in Vanhoover, and you kept the legacy of that friendship alive ever since! That’s exactly the kind of story we want to hear more of from you!”
“You do?”
“Of course! What do you think we’ve been trying to do ever since Spike introduced you to us? Now, when can we see this flower?”
“You kind of did already.”
Sunburst’s ears perked up. “You painted it, didn’t you? The one above your bed?”
I nodded. “That one.”
“I was wondering what’s so special about it,” he chuckled. “So when do we get to meet the real one?”
“Oh... dear...” Sunburst winced at the sight of the state of his room. “You weren’t kidding when you said this was uninhabitable!”
“We’ve been planning to fix the damage by the time you got back,” Shining said, “but you beat us to it.”
“Are you sure it won’t be a problem to live alone in your house until you fully recover?” Cadance asked.
“Yes, I can let you use my room if you want!” I offered.
Sunburst blushed and readjusted his new glasses - the old ones had been damaged beyond repair in the explosion, but thankfully, without injuring his eyes in the process.
“I, uh, you’re very kind, all of you… but I really think I can do this. After all,” he chuckled, “I do tend to sit and read most of the time, and now that Flurry has a new foalsitter, I can catch up with the books I’ve been stockpiling recently!”
“Weren’t they damaged in the explosion?”
“Sentinel took a quick look at what the firefighters salvaged before going home that morning and she told me most of my books are miraculously fine. So, yeah, I’m trusting her on that. But I digress. Thorax, I promised you some lessons. Your room is usable?”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s go there!”
“But I’m supposed to foalsit Flurry…”
“Don’t worry about it!” Cadance said, caressing the filly as she played at her mother’s hooves. “I’ll take her! It’s Saturday and I don’t have any scheduled meetings, so she wouldn’t have needed to be your responsibility today either way.”
“...I get days off?”
“Didn’t you know that?”
“I must have assumed it’s only the case for some workers,” I shrugged. “I guess I was wrong again?”
“Princess?” Sunburst interjected. “Do you mind if I drag him off before he starts beating himself up over nothing again?”
Shining burst out laughing.
“Sorry,” he said, composing himself. “Yes, by all means if you think it’ll help!”
Cadance nodded.
“There.” Sunburst turned to me and grinned. “I hope you don’t expect me to actually drag you?”
“No, why? Oh. Um. Okay, I’m going. My room?”
“Your room.”
When we got there, his gaze fell onto the painting of my flower.
“So, uh, Thorax, I’ve been thinking.”
“Yes?”
“This flower of yours-”
A flash of magic interrupted him and materialized the giggling Flurry on my bed. Cadance teleported in shortly afterwards.
“Sorry for the interruption!” she said. “Somepony’s been getting ideas again and I’m following her.”
“No problem!” I said.
Sunburst prodded me. “She’s been missing you already?”
I smiled sheepishly.
In the meantime, Cadance noticed the painting too.
“Is that the flower you told us about?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s lovely! And you’ve been visiting it every day?”
“Most days. Whenever I could. It’s been hard in the first days, but yes, it’s gotten more frequent lately.”
“The ponies have been giving you trouble.”
“Uh…” What was I supposed to say?
“I’ll take that as a yes.” She pondered this. “Are you still finding it hard to go outside?”
“Princess,” Sunburst interjected, “I’ve been planning to suggest that we replant the flower somewhere closer, if Thorax is okay with it. I meant it because the flower means so much to him, but it would also eliminate the need to face any unfriendly ponies on the way there.”
“I was about to suggest the same thing!” she said. “So, Thorax, what do you say?”
“Huh. You caught me unprepared there. It would be nice to have the flower closer to me… but then again, it doesn’t feel right. I planted it where I first landed in the Crystal Empire and it’s been part of that landscape for as long as I’ve called this place home. It’s the flower’s home, too, in a way. I’m not sure if I want to move it!”
“I see,” Sunburst said.
“Don’t get me wrong… your suggestion kind of makes sense too… I just never considered it, and maybe it will feel right if I give it some thought… Do I have to decide now?”
“No, of course not! Take your time! We don’t want to rush you!”
So I took my time to think about it. I thought and thought and thought, but the harder I tried to sort it out with myself, the more unsure I became. Eventually I was starting to wish they’d never suggested anything! The flower had been given to me, therefore it should be close to me; but I’d given it a home on the hill on the city outskirts, so why should I part it with its home? But the flower had also been Grand Pear’s once, so had I made a mistake carrying it out of Vanhoover? And if the flower could choose, where would it go? Would it even care? It was driving me crazy!
A pure chance offered a possible solution a few days later.
The day was wonderful and I decided to use it to take Flurry for a walk around town, if allowed. I hadn’t been out of the castle since picking up Sunburst from the hospital, and very few ponies had shown any signs of disapproval for a changeling among them on that day. Shining and Cadance had been there too, so I couldn’t entirely rule out the possibility that the ponies were simply behaving themselves for their leaders’ sake, but their love aura had matched their behavior, so I felt confident enough that I could do this without putting Flurry in danger. I didn’t want to do anything without Cadance and Shining’s permission, which Cadance granted readily and Shining not as reluctantly as I’d expected. He still didn’t seem to trust me entirely, but at least he was making an effort! Cadance even offered to lend me the harness she used when taking Flurry for walks! The straps needed some adjusting to fit me in my own form, but she assured me it was fine; they could be adjusted and readjusted as many times as necessary, and Shining and Sunburst used it sometimes too!
I had a few letters to send along the way, which dictated at least one point of the route, and I dealt with it at the start. The bakery was close by so I treated Flurry to a cookie, and she munched on it happily while I basked in the warm, bright aura of love all around me. Nopony was still approaching me on their own, but I wasn’t getting yelled at or chased away, either, and the change was so jarring that I almost felt like I wasn’t in the same city as before! Had Shining’s change of heart done that? I couldn’t wrap my mind around it; could ponies really change their opinions so easily based on what their leaders said or did? And if so, why had one of the leaders made such a difference? Unless Luna had been unusually busy lately, spreading good word about me in ponies’ dreams?
Whatever the case, it was working. The post office workers hadn’t eyed me as if expecting me to hurl myself at them and drain them out, the baker hadn’t asked what I was doing in his shop if I had no intention to eat anything, the colts playing in Diamond Street had accepted the stray ball that I kicked back to them, and now that I was passing by the flower shop, the florist and his customers gave me a polite nod! Flurry and I waved back and continued on our way.
“...and the cuttings I sold you last month, have they grown any?” The florist’s question for his customer reached my ears and registered in my mind for some reason. What was he talking about? I slowed down.
“Oh yes,” the customer said, “and one is starting to bud! The flowers will be pink, you said?”
“I sure did! They’ll be the lovely pink that matches your mane perfectly!”
“Oh, Emerald Leaf, you old flatterer!” she cooed. I took a step closer, almost involuntarily. “Well, I mustn’t stall you. See you next time!”
A stallion waiting for his turn next to a display table bought a bouquet of roses, and when he left, Emerald Leaf looked at me again. I fumbled in place. Should I?
“Can I help you?” he asked. He sounded friendly enough! Might as well ask…
“Um. I was passing by and... I wasn’t snooping or anything, but I overheard you say something about ‘cuttings’ and how they were growing… I hope you don’t mind me asking, what were you referring to?”
He smiled. “You don’t have much horticultural experience, do you?”
“Horti- what now?”
“Growing decorative plants.”
“Oh. No, I’m afraid changelings don’t really have use for such a thing, except maybe if a disguise demands it, I suppose… not that I’ve ever been sent to infiltrate anything…”
“It’s alright, you don’t have to explain yourself to me. Thorax, is it?”
“How did you know?”
“You’ve been here long enough that I’d be surprised if a single pony in the Empire doesn’t know who you are and why you’re here, pal! Besides, Princess Cadance drops by every now and then, and so does Shining Armor. They’ve been talking about you.”
“Oh.” What had they told him? Cadance, probably nothing I needed to worry about. Shining, though…
“Hey, no worries! A military commander is supposed to be suspicious of everything, but I’d trust Cadance if she told me to jump off a bridge!”
Okay, fair enough. And there was no cold murkiness in his love aura that would suggest he was afraid of me, so I didn’t have to worry!
“To answer your question,” he continued, “a ‘cutting’ refers to a part of a plant - a leaf or a twig, for example - that has been cut from the rest of the plant with the purpose of growing it into another plant without having to wait for the main plant to grow seeds and then for the seeds to sprout new plants.”
“That can be done?”
“Yes, and florists and gardeners do it all the time.”
“I thought a plant wilts if you pluck it?”
“It does unless you put it in water. Not every leaf or twig will sprout roots if you put it in water, though - there is a bit of luck involved unless you can get hold of some fertilizer potion - but if it does sprout roots, it can be planted into the ground and keep growing!”
“Wow,” I said to myself. So it hadn’t been a random occurrence!
“I’m getting a feeling you have something specific in mind,” he asked.
“Yes, uh, I do. A while ago, I was given a flower, and it started wilting so I made a small water-filled cocoon around the stalk, and a few days later, I saw roots sprouting from the cocooned part, so I planted the flower and it grew. I thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and kind of forgot about it, but I’ve been thinking of the flower lately and your remark must have reminded me of what happened with it-”
“-and you were wondering if you could try it again.”
“Well, now that you’ve explained how it works… yes.”
He nodded. “I might be able to share a few tips, but I’ll need to know more first. Which kind of flower are we talking about and what’s its condition?”
I did my best to match the exact shape and size of the flower as it had been the last time I saw it. Emerald recoiled in surprise but calmed down quickly, and Flurry took to the air but didn’t leave the shop.
“How about a warning next time?” he gasped, then spent a moment examining my disguise. “Okay, um… can you hear me? I’ve seen what I needed to see. You can turn back.”
I did. He flinched slightly and Flurry landed on my head. Her harness had slipped off of me while I shapeshifted and I put it back on.
“Sorry,” I said. “I should have known I’d scare you! What did you find?”
“You grew a buttercup flower. There are several variants, and yours is the most common and very widespread, and nopony I know has ever needed to grow them from cuttings because they’re so easy to find.” My spirits deflated upon hearing this and I let my ears and wings droop. “But your own flower is fully grown by now,” Emerald hurriedly continued,” so if you want to try this, I don’t expect it’ll suffer much even if you have to take several leaves until you get one of them to sprout roots!”
I cheered up instantly, startling Flurry into moving onto my back. “You really think it can work?”
“You succeeded once when you didn’t know what you were doing. What’s stopping you from succeeding again? Just make sure the cutting has plenty of sunlight and don’t give up if it doesn’t work on the first try!”
“Thanks!” I was suddenly itching to fly off and take a cutting or two to grow into new plants. “One more thing, what if I take too many cuttings at once?”
“Don’t take too many or you’ll kill the plant you already have. As long as you leave a couple of leaves untouched, the plant will recover eventually.”
“Okay. I’ll make sure to remember that! Uh, how many bits do I owe you?”
“Nothing. Gardening tips are free!” He grabbed a daisy and tucked it in Flurry’s mane, causing her to giggle and let out another delicious surge of love. “And so are gifts for the lovely little princess!”
That evening, I returned to my room and placed a leaf I’d taken from my flower onto the window sill, its stalk enclosed in a water-filled cocoon similar to the one that had sustained Grand Pear’s flower during my journey from Vanhoover to the Crystal Empire. I didn’t know if the cocoon had been the deciding factor in helping the flower become a new plant, but if it could work again, I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity!
Shining Armor happened to be passing by and it caught his interest.
“What have you got there?” he asked.
“Sunburst and Cadance suggested a few days ago that I can replant my flower somewhere closer to the castle if I wanted to, but it didn’t feel right to move it, and today, I was taught how to grow new plants from parts of an already-existing one, so now I’m trying to do that. It’s as close as I can get to bringing my flower closer to my home while simultaneously allowing it to stay where I feel it belongs.”
“And if it doesn’t work?”
“Then I’ll try again. It may take time, Shining, but I will get there!”
“In that case, I wish you good luck. To you and your flowers!”
We spent a moment looking at the leaf.
“Have you considered what Cadance and I asked you?”
“Yes, and my original answer still stands.” I stroked the leaf gently. “I think the flower convinced me. I can draw a parallel between Grand Pear’s story and what you’ve been doing, you know. I didn’t realize it until now. He abandoned his daughter because she married somepony he didn’t like, and he held a grudge against both of them for many years. Now his daughter is rumored to be dead, and if it’s true, he’ll never get the chance to reconcile, and will never get her forgiveness even if she had already forgiven him in the letters she wrote to him. She carried his grudge to her grave and there’s nothing he can ever do about it now! And along with all the other things punishment does, it’s also an act of demonstrating a grudge. By asking me to approve of punishing you, you’re basically asking me to hold a grudge against you, and I don’t want to hold grudges! You can claim acceptance of your punishment all you want but I’ll still feel the need to get forgiveness from you, and knowing myself, I’d never feel that I’ve gotten it completely! And I probably wouldn’t get it simply because ponies seem to see the matter differently and you might not think you need to forgive me, and now that I’ve told you this, even if you do offer forgiveness, I might not think it sincere because I would have expected a sincere forgiveness to come without needing to be asked for!” I sighed. “See how I complicate things sometimes? Better to leave the matter as it is and move on. In hindsight, I can see why you did all that, and though it was all but pleasant… I can’t blame you. I don’t want to blame you. And most of all, I don’t want to dwell on it. Can’t we just let it be and accept that we’ve found a common ground at last on which we can build our friendship?”
He glared at me. “I can’t believe you really want to do that… I treated you horribly!”
“Would you believe me that, for all the trouble you’ve caused me, it was still far less painful and far easier to take than anything I’d been through in the hive? That all the pain and fear you caused me put together doesn’t come close to just one single torture session at Chrysalis’ mercy?”
“But you usually acted like I was about to kill you…”
“Because I was conditioned to expect the worst,” I explained. “No matter how bad the punishment was, Chrysalis never unleashed the worst of it at the beginning. She always took her time and paced herself and made sure it lasted as long as possible because she relished every moment. Yes, you hated me for what you thought I was trying to do, and yes, your spells hurt, but you never drew morbid pleasure from causing me pain and hearing me scream and beg for mercy! That alone made more difference than you think, not to mention that you were pretty much the only one giving me a hard time after the first few days, and there wasn’t a single drone in the hive who wasn’t, not even my brother!”
“So… you don’t want to punish me because you think I’ll hate you again?”
“More like, I don’t want to punish you because I don’t know if I’ll ever get rid of expecting people to hate me easily and seeing a grudge against me in their eyes even when there isn’t one. And because I know how bad it feels to be punished and wouldn’t wish it to anyone!”
“Even those who wronged you?”
“Even those who wronged me. If they feel bad about it, that’s enough for me because then they’ll be less likely to do it again, and if they don’t care or are glad about it, how likely is it that punishment would change their minds?”
“You never know,” he said. “But I can understand your point of view too. After all, Chrysalis kept punishing you til her horn fell off and you still refused to accept her ways, didn’t you?”
“Yes, and became more convinced against accepting her ways with every new torture session… Wait, her horn fell off?”
He chuckled. “It’s an expression. It means that she persisted at a difficult task and refused to give up regardless of the outcome and possible consequences.”
“Oh. Yes, I suppose that describes it well. And if she succeeded at anything, it’s at making me want to not become like her!”
“And I nearly became like her because I refused to see it,” he sighed. “I never thought a changeling would teach me something, but there it is. I kind of envy you, actually. You’ve got more honor than I could ever claim!”