//------------------------------//
// Speeches 
// Story: White Sun 
// by The Psychopath 
//------------------------------//

Twilight hadn't felt this comfortable in so long. She was lying down on a very comfortable bed, being tended to by Cadance after she had a nice shower. She missed showers so much. She had only used a basin filled with warm water she used for all her bathing needs back in her home.

"You know, Twilight," Cadance started. "We could get the crystal ponies to accept you, in a way."

"And how would you do that?" Twilight asked softly.

"Convince them that death would be too easy a punishment. We could have them accept that, if you stayed alive, then you would be able to help with the Crystal Empire's growth and the betterment of my people's lives."

Twilight frowned. "And why would they accept something like that?" She snorted. "They're ponies. They're all bloodthirsty."

Cadance sighed loudly but continued to comb her sister-in-law's mane. "Your experiences in Equestria have soured everyponyt there to you, but I can assure you they aren't all like that. Why, the Elements of Harmony tend to be very open about everything. They even stopped Celestia's sister when she returned."

"And how did that go?" Twilight asked flatly. "I'm sure they chased after her to try and beat her up or have her imprisoned in a dungeon somewhere."

The comment came off as odd to the alicorn, but she let it go for the time being so she could continue attempting to convince Twilight and pull her off the path she had taken. "Well, I'm not sure of all the details. I just know that somepony found where Nightmare Moon would return, went there, and met with the ponies that would become said elements. They never told me what happened when I asked them," Cadance lamented. "But, it is what it is. Luna is just 'poof'," she said while spreading her wings wide. "Don't know what happened to her and the Elements refuse to spill the beans."

Twilight shrunk down a bit in an attempt to get more comfortable on the bed. "That's too bad, I guess," she said dismissively. "I'm more concerned with Princess Celestia and bringing her back. Any 'long lost' siblings can wait until after," she added.

There was another awkward pause before Cadance spoke. "You have family here, Twilight. You don't have to blindly  follow that single purpose of yours." She made long pauses between words to try and not upset the unicorn. One wrong word and all the progress the alicorn had made would disappear in a flash. "You can stay with us. Your parents could even come and visit you." She smiled knowingly when she saw Twilight visibly trying to make a decision. "Why, because you've been gone for so long, you wouldn't know, but you're an aunt."

Twilight's eyes shot wide open. "I'm a what?!"

"You're an aunt!" Cadance said. She bounced giddily in place. "We've left her in the care of a nanny while we try and take care of this...mess-" Cadance explained while gesturing to all of Twilight. "but I can let you meet her. She's a year old and very talented," the alicorn continued with a giant smile. "But we can't let you meet her if you're in a dungeon."

The lavender unicorn's thoughts were on fire. She wanted to bring Celestia back and had been working on that purpose for years already. She had gotten used to the loneliness and silence that came with that and her need to hide from others, but she still had moments where she missed her family and wanted to see them again. If she did as Cadance said, she would meet a niece she didn't even know she had.

Both were distracted by a gradually increasing disturbance coming from somewhere on the floor and stopped speaking altogether. They listened carefully as the sound of yelling, scraping, and very loud thuds became louder and louder. It came to a crescendo in front of the door to Twilight's room as the guards watching it started yelling at the source of the disturbance. The two mares heard two brief yelps from the soldiers followed by a deafening bang when the door exploded inwards, revealing Spike's outstretched arm. Caught off-guard, Cadance didn't have time to fight back against the undead dragon before it was standing next to the bed. She slowly started building magic in her horn when Twilight jumped up and accidentally struck her on the side of the head, interrupting the spell.

"Spike!" Twilight cheered. She hugged the undead's thoracic cage and nuzzled her face into its ribs. "This is very uncomfortable," she said with a smile. "They let you out?" she asked it. "But I thought you were supposed to stay down below." The mare became angry. "You didn't kill anypony again, did you? I told you not to do that!"  she bellowed at the top of her lungs.

Cadance watched as Twilight chastised the dragon and it did not react.  

"Cadance!" Shining shouted as he burst through the open doorway. "Are you okay?!" he continued in a panic.

The alicorn hopped over to him and put a hoof on his mouth. "Shush!" she whispered. "Ignoring how it escaped for now, that thing ignored me and went straight for Twilight. Now it isn't moving at all while she's talking to it," the mare explained.

Shining peered over his wife's shoulder and became perplexed. "The reports stated it tore apart the border guard."

"Is it possible the survivors omitted some details?" Cadance asked.

Shining hummed pensively. "It's not uncommon for there to be biases in place or confusion brought about by a sudden and completely unexpected event." He looked at the dragon looming over his little sister and deepened his scowl. "That's not something I really appreciate seeing, and from what I could tell while chasing it: It seems to ignore anything that isn't an active obstacle."

"Twilight had been captured, and then brought near the capital which is when it struck?"Cadance asked.

"Yes. Somewhere near the Equestrian border, meaning that they took a three or four day walk to get here depending on the conditions." The white unicorn looked back at his sister and the giant undead. "If it was with her the whole time, how did she not manage to escape? Its physical and combat prowess clearly indicate that it was a more than capable fighter during its life, and my little sister's magic enhances those capabilities even further."

Cadance nodded. "Meaning that something happened between her being alone and the dragon coming to her rescue to have created such an unfortunate scenario." She kissed Shining. "I think I have the solution for keeping her here without risking her escaping or executing her in front of the angry populace." She bounced in place impatiently. "I'm going to go alert all our messengers."

With that the mare rushed out of the room and past the woozy guards Spike had thrown out of the way. Now it was Shining who was all alone with Twilight. He wasn't made for these more emotional, personal moments. The last time he felt so nervous was when he wanted to ask Cadance out on a date, and that wasn't a feeling he wanted to experience again. It was...extremely unpleasant.

"Twilight, your dragon isn't going to try and get revenge for what I did to it, is it?" Shining asked.

The stallion moved to the bed's right side, directly opposite the undead's vision to gauge its actions and reactions. He didn't want it to suddenly start destroying everything, but he needed to know as much as he could about this odd creature if he needed to fight it again. He was pleasantly surprised to see that it couldn't care less about him if it wanted to.

"Why would he want revenge?" Twilight gasped silently. "What did you do to Spike?" she shouted. "Did you hurt my assistant?"

"Hurt him?!" Shining shouted in disbelief. He stomped a hoof onto the bed, making Twilight bounce ever so gently. "Do you even know what it did?" Spike leaned forward, carefully moving its arms the closer Shining got to Twilight after he hit the bed with her on it. "Hey, it's moving towards me!" he alerted his sister.

Twilight stood up and attempted to push the undead away. "It's okay, Spike," she coo'd. "It's okay. He's family. Family yells at each other sometimes, but he wouldn't hurt me."

Much to the stallion's surprise, his words 'calmed' the undead, as it were. To his absolute horror, his wife was telling the truth and so did his observations. His sister had made the undead passive in most scenarios, preferring to avoid conflict than engage in it, meaning that his soldiers accidentally incited its wrath and paid the price. He felt dizzy and sat down while the world spun around him. His sister looked so different and yet still acted the same way. How could she, a necromancer, not have become warped like all the others in the craft?

"Looks like we have a lot to talk about, Twilight," he heaved.

Several hours passed and Cadance was standing on the balcony overlooking everypony that had bothered to gather. To her surprise, a few thousand crystal ponies had done just that.

"Crystal Ponies of the Crystal Empire, I call you to speak of the necromancer that had been captured at the border a day ago.  She is currently in our custody within the crystal tower." The alicorn paused to let some in the crowd voice their displeasure. "We are currently investigating her involvement in an incident that led to grievous wounds and the death of two guards. Signs point to the incident being accidental," she continued. "However, that is not relief to those who lost their loved ones. This mare will be detained, debriefed, and potentially rehabilitated." She let the crowd go wild with anger and waited before answering gain. "I fully understand your reactions, but I have a complete and justified belief that this necromancer is only just barely in the throes. The guards mentioned she attempted to flee the scene and did not actively seek to harm anypony despite her possessing the means to use magic.

"However, her magic is sealed, she roams the halls under the watchful eye of the guard, and any 'wrong moves' will be met with swift punishment." She rose up and placed her hooves on the balcony railing. "I will not, in good conscience, let anything put you in harm's way. If this attempt at rehabilitation fails...then there will be one less...monster in the world," Cadance managed to force out. "Consider this an experiment. After all, isn't death too easy of an escape from her crimes?" The angry crowd started to quiet down. "And leaving her to rot in a dungeon might keep her away from everypony else, but she will just be left there to wait out her death. That still isn't paying for what happened to those families. We have many ideas on what to do to make her contribute to you all for her transgressions, but until then, she will remain in the tower where, as I mentioned already, she will be under very close watch and given very limited movement." The alicorn bowed to the crowd. "Thank you for coming on such short notice. I know these are difficult times for us all, but we'll make it out together.  You survived Sombra and you can survive a pithy neophyte necromancer."

She stepped back and slowly closed the doors with her magic before slumping against the door and sliding down. "Pfiou. That was stressful. I thought they would go into a riot."

"Well, you did make some fair points, your highness," one guard commented. She stepped away from the balcony doors, leaving Cadance a lot of space. "But I can't help but feel this is still some form of nepotism."

The alicorn grunted and nodded.  

She was right. It was a form of nepotism. Twilight, however, showed characteristics completely unbecoming of a necromancer. If she could impart her knowledge, that would push everypony further in a way to better combat any necromancers in the future. Additionally, Twilight's rehabilitation could be used for any captured necromancers in the future rather than simply executing them. Cadance didn't feel much when it came to doing such a thing due to their behavior and what they adored, but Twilight was clearly different. Regardless, there were things that needed to be done to ensure Twilight couldn't escape and the guards didn't end up dying or becoming crippled from antagonizing Twilight or the dragon. Being unable to keep it secured made everything far harder than it was already.