“It appears congratulations are in order for Shining Armor. You as well Cadence.”
“I..um…” Was what both could stutter out as the princess held the newest princess wrapped protectively in a silk blanket that had been custom sewn months prior.
The five us (Cersus finally returned) silently observed the chalk pink, and white filly currently asleep in Cadence’s hooves, but said nothing to address the issue being ignored. For a young filly, her generous multihued mane failed to hide the empressive horn from poking through, and by my experiences have learned several mythos retaining to a unicorn’s horn, but nothing more then pure speculation bordering on fiction to describe the newborn before us.
“She’s an alicorn.”
“Yes…” Cadence responded. Her hollowed response wasn’t from a lack of empathy, but complete shock.
“She’s a princess, no doubt about it.” I tried lifting the mood by taking everypony’s mind off the newborn, but found the task difficult to achieve.
The delivery had gone smoothly I was told, but nopony but the two nurses knew of the foal’s unique appearance which contributed to the shocked reactions of the room. Shining Armor stood next to Cadence as she sat upright in one of the three beds in the recovery room, with Topaz, Cersus and myself forming a semicircle at the end. Against Topaz and my desires, Cersus had jumped onto the bed’s end just out of reach of Cadence’s resting hooves in an attempt to be nearer the newborn.
“So what now?” she asked, never taking her eyes off the bundled alicorns in front of her.
“Crystalling..it’s a part of their tradition.” Shining managed to speak up even with his emotions even more wild than at breakfast.
“Yes dear. The Crystal Ponies believe you have to be accepted by the heart to receive it’s blessing.” Cadences shifted a little, but quickly stopped when the newborn began stirring in response. “A new heir especially needs it if they’re to be fully accepted as a citizen of the Empire.”
“But we didn’t get a crystal, and still live here.” The disguised nymph asked.
“That is because of our circumstance, Redshock. We live here and are treated fairly, but will never be fully welcomed until performing a Crystalling of our own.” I interjected, earning myself the looks of everypony in the room.
“How do you know what it is? I never heard of it until just now.” Topaz asked with that scholared curiosity only appreciated in the higher levels of learning. I turned to address the pegasus’ question when Shining spoke up for me.
“It’s like a club you can visit and partake in the activities, but will only receive other benefits by joining.”
“Think of our season opera tickets; reduced cost, first choice of seats, and the occasional free show ticket.” I added, earning both a silent ‘oh’ in acknowledgement.
“So you can still live here, but lack the perks of doing so?” Topaz asked, while wondering if the three of them should partake in their own Crystalling soon.
“Correct.” Cadence spoke softly. “Think of the Crystalling as your membership into society, and acceptance by the other individuals. This herd mentality creates a unity vital to maintaining the harmony required to keep the shield up over the city.”
“And it provides additional benefits…” Shining gestured between his wife and himself. “Nothing too serious from our brief study, but we deem the heart provides an increase to a pony’s vitality.”
“Like what?” Cersus asked.
“Well Redshock, have you been sick?” Cadence looked toward the disguised nymph standing near her hooves, watching and waiting as the filly inflated her chest.
“Nope!” She declared, and was quickly shushed by the adults for being too loud.
“And it shows…” the tired alicorn praised, before looking down to her own foal “... and we believe this is why the Crystalling is so important to newborns, it provides them the endurance to better survive the cold.”
“Fascinating, and this effect carries over to adults as well?” Topaz quietly moved around the bed to catch a better look at the newborn foal, her smile nearly as wide as Cadence’s.
As the two mares continued their conversation and fawning over the new foal, Shining, Cersus and myself were left watching them giggle and cooing. Unsure what else to do, I moved closer to Shining Armor who was transfixed by the scene in front of him, and to that extent, I found myself unable to look away from the displays of motherly love.
That calmness was broken when I caught Cersus trying to feed off of that congenial love, and had to put a stop to that before she dropped her disguise or exposed the fangs.
“I almost forgot…” I interrupted the scene, and in inconsequence snapped the nymph out of her attempted feeding. “...I need to start writing the letters if I’m to get them sent by dragon fire this evening.”
“Oh. Well, ok then.” Topaz looked up from the still sleeping infant, the questioning look in her eyes seeking an answer. “ I’ll see you later tonight.”
Cadence and Shining whispered their own ‘alrights’ and ‘goodbyes’ while Cersus remained silent during the conversation. I tried to gauge her own mood, but the nymph was growing too fast for her own good, and with impressive skill managed to cast a spell under her guise. I knew this because I not only felt the changeling magic, but once I began losing focus on Cersus did it become clear what she had cast.
In a way, I’m proud of her demonstration of intermediate changeling subterfuge, but that achievement is overshadowed by her blatant feeding attempt. The act angered me beyond the safety limits deemed acceptable in pony society to stop such an attempt again, and that willingness startled me.
On one hoof, I told myself it was to protect a delivered mother and her new foal from the effects of an unrestrained feeding, and yet, the other hoof told me there was no ill harm as the ‘attacker’ is an inexperienced nymph. A nymph destined to one day lead the very hive and changeling kind…
“To know what I know, I wish I hadn’t.” The harshness of my thoughts didn’t escape me as I closed the doors and made my way down the hall, but I couldn’t properly quell them.
Somehow her highness, Luna, had come to the absurd conclusion Cersus was a larval queen.
“Never in our history had there been another queen, let alone the idea that it was possible.” I had told Luna, conflicted and bitter more at the suggestion than her highness.
A bigger consumption of love, and her above average growth rate perplexed me for many weeks as I worked with Topaz to develop a possible explanation for her abnormal development. The working theory we came up with is based in two parts: the availability of love, and the purity of the love, but each test conducted failed to produce any conclusive results.
I still have hopes this is nothing more than constant exposure to love, and her eventual return to the hive might still be possible. A dream of mine I hadn’t fully given up on even with my transfer from guardian to father figure, but slowly I’m finding myself more hesitant to let her go. A combination of fear, and selfishness if Luna’s assumption turns out to be real…
‘It would mean I raised a pretender to the throne.’ The thought horrified me more than revealing myself as a changeling.
The signs are becoming obvious as the weeks passed, but as I once did, isn’t her development nothing more than adoption to above normal resources? A lack of color within the eyes would slow a nymph’s development to some degree, but what if she was the sole benefactor of all the love?
“Order and Harmony above, I hope so for Cersus’ sake.”
“And we’re back!” Topaz yelled as she threw open the doors with Cersus following behind. The two guards having been temporarily pulled away so they may be well rested for the possibility of an important visit in the coming days.
“Welcome back. How was everything?” I asked, still in the midst of reviewing the third draft of this particular letter, but that became difficult as Topaz’s love filled the air like those scented candles Viridian loves lighting.
I placed the quill in the ink jar before turning to address the bubbly pegasus who nearly skipped the whole way toward the desk, the merriment in her eyes compounding to the obvious answer.
“Wonderful…” the way that single word statement fell from her lips ruined the reclined nature of the room, shifting the whole demeanor into something more nefarious.
“Really?” I nervously asked, feeling my neck fin wanting to rise up in hopes of making myself look more intimidating, but floundered the moment she nuzzled my left cheek.
The act wasn’t surprising as it’s fairly common to perform amongst friendly and courting ponies to show affection between the two. No, it was the love sparking from her furry cheek to my brash chitin that hindered my mental functions to properly register where it was coming from. An important moment for Topaz and myself we would later agree upon, but during the actual implementation of the nuzzling, I was paralyzed.
“Yes…” she hummed her response as I tried not to lick the love off the word. “They were so precious together, Idol.”
“They always made a wonderful pair during basic training, and was to a huge relief to most of Canterlot when their engagement was announced.” It was around this time I noticed I was no longer sitting at the desk, but now following the love stricken pegasus to our bed.
By now, I was nearly sure this extremism was in part the responsibility of Cadence’s affinition for love. Perhaps the Crystal Heart amplified her powers, or her happiness for her new foal was too much to contain, and Topaz’s proximity to the new mother had exposed her. I didn’t blame Topaz or the Princess for this extreme display of affection from the (mostly) reserved pegasus given the nature of circumstances, but it didn’t make me comfortable either.
“Listen Topaz, I’m not sure if this is acceptable given the current company.”
“But I miss you…” her voice held me tightly with the strength to move mountains “...just rest a little.”
My throat was dry as she commanded, and I obeyed. The destination was obvious, and plain to see for a mare in love and her companion to rest comfortably. Her sway over my mind horrified me, and I might have ran if it wasn’t for the constant out pour of love telling me none of this was against Topaz’s will, that it steamed from a real truth.
When I came to, I was lying on my side facing Topaz who had taken a similar position on the other side facing me, allowing us the intimacy of this unseen connection. What I’ve come to learn about ponies is their need to be expressive, and display affections, whether it be by gestures of kindness, or caresses of empathy. What Topaz and I were doing was a combination of the two, the need to be closer as we stared into the other’s eyes, her forelegs reaching out to grasp mine as better interlock them...
“This..this is fine.” I admitted, enjoying how her thin lips hooked upward.
“Yes it is, my little love bug.”
‘Gross.’ Cersus thought as she watched Topaz, and Idol from her spot by the desk.
There was hesitation when following her caretaker back to their room after how the scolding Idol had given her. It was obvious to the nymph she had lost control when standing on the bed, and the implication of her almost feeding left her feeling depressed.
An infiltrator should know better than to reveal their identity let alone feed in the open, and yet here she was about to make a rookie mistake all because that love smelled good. Like really good. No love before had smelt so sweet, and inviting like the one Princess Food was giving to her own nymph, and a thought crossed before her mind that if she did grab some for herself, then she’ll never taste it.
Ashamed by her own actions, Cersus nearly ran away the moment Idol opened the door, and she would have if it wasn’t for the silent command he had sent her telling her otherwise. Nothing was said outright, but another changeling code by how he walked and spoke to the ponies in the room, told the nymph not to follow, but stay put.
So she did, until Topaz beckoned her to follow.
Her time before that was fuzzy at best, but the nymph followed the beacon of love out the door without any fuss. Cersus was worried what would happen when Topaz sought out Idol like that, but calmed once certain there wasn’t any danger. Left to her own whims, Cersus found the abandoned chair and desk where several sheets of parchment were fanned out, and a single jar of ink with a quill embedded into the murky liquid.
Fascinated by what Idol had been writing, she strolled over and hopped onto the lone chair, only stopping when the giggling of Topaz reminded the nymph of the two caretakers on the bed. Cersus quickly turned, legs angled correctly to allow the greatest amount of distance possible if the nymph needed to jump. She stood still and listened as her caretakers giggled at some unheard joke and made cooing noises on the bed, but nothing more serious.
A brief flash of Nighthawk’s nubbed smile crossed her mind, and the idea filled Cersus with a delight she hadn’t felt since the first time she did it- a letter!
The paper and ink was already here, and several weeks had passed by without writing a response to her batpony friend. With a plan of action, Cersus selected a single piece and placed it over the letter Idol had started, and standing on the tips of her hooves reached over the desk to drag the ink and quill closer to her.
Mimicking the process Topaz and Idol showed her, Cersus allowed the excess ink to spill back into the jar and carefully began writing her letter in pony script, but would add a changeling word or two for fun. Nighthawk had been wanting to learn Changeling script, and in return for teaching her, Nighthawk would help Cersus learn Batpony script. This agreement eventually became a competition between the two fillies to see which one could speak a sentence first in the other’s language, but the downside to learning by letter besides the lack of hearing the word spoken, was the sensitivity of languages themselves.
Changelings at the moment aren’t favorably viewed while batponies are heavy into the whole privacy thing.
Still, as the nymph continued dipping her quill into the jar for another coating of ink, she couldn’t help but feel excited to tell her friend(s) about life in the Empire, and show them the new lair. Cersus ceased her writing when an unholy snorting fit came from the bed, and with worry turned to find Topaz unable to breath as Idol desperately tried to calm the highly amused pegasus.
The nymph wouldn’t admit it publicly, but another reason she really wanted her friends to come visit was so Cersus could finally introduce them to her wonderful caretakers.