//------------------------------//
// 31 - Daughter Of The Sea 
// Story: Storm Of Secrets 
// by Beware The Carpenter 
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	Storm stirred but didn't open his eyes, merely content to rest a while longer under the soft embrace of Cadance's wing. After regaining some level of conciseness however, it seemed her feathers were considerably rougher then they had been last night. Opening his eyes Storm was... disappointed to see Cadance wasn’t there. She must have found the blankets. At first Storm wondered why his blankets were so coarse, but then reasoned they only seemed rough because he was comparing them to Cadance's feathers. Storm's gaze lingered over her empty place beside him, glad to see she had also found the extra hay and built up her side of the bed so she wouldn't have to sleep with half her body on the dirt, then smiled when he saw her coming towards him from across the burrow, smiling merrily with a spring in her step that he'd never seen before, yet instantly realized that it suited her perfectly.

Storm had been critically wounded before, and had spent long, lonely weeks trapped in his burrow, taking care of himself while he waited impatiently to heal. Cadance made the whole experience comfortable, even enjoyable. Over the last several days she had fed him, cleaned him, kept him warm, sang to him and never asked for anything in return; as if loving him and knowing that he needed her was all she needed to be content. Yet despite embracing the demeanor of a humble servant, never once did she seem at a loss for dignity, or anything less than his equal.

There was something else; Storm had been too irritated to notice it before and too tired, but now that he was beginning to recover, he realized that she was beautiful, in body as well as mind. Storm's only regret was that Cadance was doing all the work herself, not that there was that much of it, but Storm couldn't help but think it would be nicer if there was twice as much work, or even four times, but they were doing it together.

“How are you feeling?” asked Cadance cheerfully, levitating a large pot of hot oats beside her, “Hungry?”

“Yes,” smiled Storm, not needing to fake the appreciation in his voice as Cadance poured the oats into two large bowls and sat down next to him.

“I went to the Doughnut Joe's down the street, but the cheap clerk there wouldn't honor my coupons so I figured I'd teach him a lesson and make the oatmeal myself."

Storm stared at her, confused.

"We ended up having a baking contest to see who could make the best giant pretzel."

“Hehe... right” smiled Storm, after a few moments and guessing Cadance had made some inside joke she shared with Shining Armor.

“You don't remember do you?”

“Not... really.”

“Well, how much can you remember?”

“Bits and pieces.”

Cadance paused for a moment, suddenly growing more solemn, “Do you remember... us?”

“...I know we're engaged... and from what I've seen, I'm sure I made a good decision. I remember the dates Twily used to set us up on as kids but... they still feel like somepony else's memories.”

“How much can you remember about me?”

“... You’re a princess, right?”

“Yes.” answered Cadance slowly, “Anything else?” When Storm gave no reply, Cadance's face fell, but only for a moment before a smile curved back to her lips, “Well, now we can fall in love all over again. Would you like me to tell you about who I am?”

“Yes.” replied Storm, instantly and sincerely.

“Well... I was born on Oatlantis. My mother is the Ocean Steward, Searis, and my father is her Prime Minister and fourteenth husband, Winter Gale.”

“... I'm sorry; did you just say that your mother has fourteen husbands?”

“Well... not all at once.” replied Cadance sounding embarrassed, “She's thirteen hundred and eighty-three years old. She only has one husband at a time, but marries mortals, and so she always outlives them and then remarries; usually to her new Prime Minister though there have been... exceptions.”

Storm took several moments to digest what Cadance was telling him. If her mother had had fourteen husbands, what number did that make Shining Armor for Cadance?  “So... how old are you?”

“Thirty-four,” replied Cadance with a faint smile, “And I've never been married.”

“And... are you going to live forever and keep marrying over and over after I die?”

Cadance's smile grew wider, “No. Alicorns are only immortal if they become one of the stewards.”

“Stewards?”

Cadance smile faded as she stared at him in sad disbelief, “You really don't remember anything do you?” She sighed, “There are several hundred alicorns in the world, and most of us are quite simply a unicorn with wings or a pegasus with a horn. But since the initial defeat of Discord by the first wielders of the Elements of Harmony, six forces of the cosmos have required alicorns to guide them, with the first Elements becoming the first stewards. If an alicorn binds to one of the forces, they become immortal, but can still die of injury or disease; in which case another, blank flanked, alicorn will have to take their place. Some alicorns have remained blank flanked for centuries while they waited for their destined post as a steward.”

“Centuries?” murmured Stormed dishearteningly, “So you're still going to live for ages after I'm gone?”

“No. Those were pure blooded alicorns. A pure blooded alicorn who wasn't a steward had a lifespan of about five centuries. But over the ages, the alicorns have continually intermarried with unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies; especially since about eleven hundred years ago, when a virus nearly obliterated the male alicorn population, (releasing Discord, and leading to his subsequent re-imprisonment by the Princesses Celestia and Luna.) As the alicorn blood wears thinner, so does their longevity and the potential for alicorn foals; that's why Blue Blood is a unicorn while I'm an alicorn, even though we share the same parents.

Celestia and Luna's parents were the leaders of the first Elements of Harmony, and became first king and queen of the new alicorn kingdom. But after their mother died, their father remarried to a half blooded alicorn, and one of their children was my mother, Searis. My father was a normal unicorn, which makes me three eighths alicorn. Based on the lifespans of my mother's previous children I might live for about a century; and while it's possible we could have an alicorn foal, it's unlikely.”

Storm nodded slowly, these were probably things that virtually every pony in Equestria knew, but since he had dropped out of school right after his parents died, his knowledge of the world was limited almost entirely to what he had seen with his own eyes.

“Do alicorns have stronger magic than unicorns?”

“On average yes, but there are some alicorns whithount more then basic telekinesis. The stewards get a boost of about six to nine hundred MQ from their connections to the cosmos, and immortality grants them time to master their potential, but even they aren’t the strongest spell casters in the world.”

“Then who are?”

“White elephants; there's only a few dozen of them in existence, but nearly any one of them could hold their own against Celestia in a spell duel, and all of them could beat her in a test of raw power. The weakest of them I know of is over sixteen hundred MQ, and the strongest are rumored to be well over two thousand; and, of course, if you do happen to be the one in five thousand elephants to be born with magic, you're automatically made a ruling elite of the Ephrentine Oligarchy on your twenty fifth birthday.”

Elephants? Storm had seen one of them once. From what Storm could tell, he had been a farmer, making him similar to an earth pony. Now if white elephants were like unicorns, only rarer and more powerful, “Are there any flying elephants?”

“No; but there are jumping elephants.” Seeing Storm's raised eyebrows, Cadance continued, “Their hind legs are like a giant grasshopper's, enabling them to leap hundreds of feet into the air and make the most thunderous crashes when they come down. Oh, and they can cloud walk, but the clouds will only hold their weight for a few seconds, so they have to be quick in jumping to the next one.” To illustrate, several blobs of oatmeal rose from Cadance's bowl and hovered in a line leading to Storm's bowl. A small oat elephant leaped from Cadance's bowl to the first blob of oats, as the first blob fell with a splash to the ground, the elephant leaped onto the second blob and so on until it dove head first into Storm's dish. “I've seen whole teams of them working to clear the sky on their Winter Wrap Up day, using lower reaching clouds as stepladders to reach clouds thousands of feet high, trumpeting their anthems the entire time.”

“Really?” asked Storm aghast, imagining one of the jumpers falling to their death and shattering entire villages with their wake.

“No.” when Storm gave her a confused expression, Cadance simply added, “I just wanted to see you smile.”

Storm stared at Cadance, her poker face was immaculate, but when Storm began to snicker she couldn't help the sides of her mouth twitching upwards and soon the burrow was ringing with peal after peal of jubilant laughter. Whenever one of them had almost gotten a grip on themselves the other would start them off again; but then, neither of them were trying to stop and Storm only wished it could have gone on longer. It was the first time he had laughed, truly laughed, in a very, very long time.

Eventually their laughter died down and Cadance snuggled against to Storm, hugging him tightly with her wing, “I've already found my cutie mark, so I can't become immortal, but I wouldn't want to, even if I could.”

“Why not?”

“Because I've seen what it's done to my mother, or, I assume that her immortality is at least partially responsible for the state she's in now. I think... I think a very long time ago, there was somepony that she truly loved, and all the husbands she's had since then have been attempts to replace the one she lost. Sometimes, I've tried to imagine myself lingering on, centuries from now, taking an endless stream of husbands and lovers because they remind me of you, bearing children to each of them and then watching them and my children age and die without me. ...They are not pleasant fantasies, but they have helped me be more understanding of what it must be like to be my mother.”

“So, you don't get along with your mother I take it?”

Cadance hesitated, “I think, buried underneath the centuries, there is a good mare in there somewhere. Sometimes you can almost see it, like rocks beneath the water, before a wave covers them with sand; but she's prone to sudden mood swings which are slowly getting worse and by themselves would be bad enough even if they didn't affect the oceans around her. Sometimes her mood swings get so violent that many of the ponies on Oatlantis live in constant fear that one day she's going to drag the entire island underwater and drown everypony living there. For the last three centuries Oatlantis has been in steady decline, and most of the ponies with enough money to leave have done so.”

“Is it really that bad?”

“Well, not many corporations want to invest in building infrastructure on an island that might very well disappear soon. Moreover, my mother doesn’t appreciate developing resources that are going to 'mar the landscape' and so that leaves fairly limited employment options for Oatlantis’ ponies. That and being hit by surprise hurricanes whenever my mother gets angry, doesn’t help them either. Then my mother gets upset because the economy's failing, and that just causes more storms.

The resources of Oatlantis are there to be used by their inhabitants, she used to understand that, but now she doesn’t even like quarrying new blocks of coral for building material. She actually tried outlawing it once, but then ponies started demolishing unused buildings for coral to repair storm damage; but then she freaked out because they were destroying ‘ancient heritage.’ She never stopped to consider that the reason half the city was deserted, was because she had driven away the ponies who used to live there, and without either new or old coral, her ponies had no way of repairing the damage her storms caused. 

I don't hate her, she's not a villain, but that doesn’t mean she's fit to rule and she'd die before giving up her throne. Throughout the centuries her royalty has been the only thing that's been solid for her, and so she clings to it like it's the only thing that matters. All she wants to do is live in the past and relive glory days that only she can remember, but in doing so she ignores the present and, if she keeps it up for much longer, will doom any hope Oatlantis has for a future.”

For the first time since he had seen her, Cadance looked like she was becoming angry, “But the worst thing about her is her insufferable hubris—seeing herself and her family as so much better than the ponies she's meant to be taking care of! If Celestia let her, I'm sure she would try to proclaim that herself and the other alicorns were gods!” This was starting to seem familiar, and Shining Armor's memories begin leaking through about Cadance's younger brother Prince Blueblood with all his pomp and insolence, and of Cadance's older sister, Princess Ruto (from Searis's thirteenth marriage), who insisted on being carried everywhere she went on the shoulders of her servants. It seemed the more Cadance told him, the more Storm remembered by himself about his, no wait, Shining Armor's past. “I grew up in the palace constantly being told I was better than normal ponies, and that being a blank flanked alicorn made me extra special because it meant I could become a steward someday. Something my mother continually impressed upon me should be my primary goal in life, so that I could grow up and 'be like her'.”

“So... why aren’t you some arrogant, stuck up harridan like the rest of your family?”

Cadance closed her eyes and thought for a while, like she was trying to retrieve a distant yet cherished memory. “When I was eight years old, I was out with only a small entourage when a storm suddenly hit, and I got separated. I wandered, lost, for a while, and then heard music coming from inside one of the buildings. I followed it inside and found an open music club; I was wearing a dress that covered my wings, so no one recognized me as being an alicorn princess. The music was so much livelier than anything I had heard before, that I just wanted to go in and dance to it, and nopony tried to stop me. After a few hours the session ended, and I was able to get back to the palace without my parents knowing where I had been.

The next day my nurse caught me trying to sneak out of the place, I told her what happened and she came along with me pretending to be my mom. We started going back every week for as long as we could. I made a lot of friends there who taught me about music, singing, dancing, how to play the tambourine and it's where I got the nickname that I still use today.”

“Cadance” whispered Storm, “So what happened?”

“When I was sixteen we got found out. My parents were furious that I had been mixing with the 'common ponies', They fired my nurse and replaced her with Ashaw. The few times I was able to slip out of the palace and meet my friends, they were scared of me now that they knew who I was, and asked me to leave because they were afraid they would get in trouble if they were found with me. Then one day, the whole music club moved to a different time and place so I wouldn't be able to find them. To this day, I don't know if my parents made them change, or if they did it themselves to avoid me.”

“Must have been hard.”

“It was, but I chose to take it far harder then I needed to. I was furious with my parents; I felt like they had ruined my life, and set out to ruin theirs by rebelling in any way I could. Most of the time I did stupid, petty little things that didn't matter and I didn't even want to do, but I did them anyway because they would make my parents angry, but sometimes I would get the chance to do something big. I remember one time, I was planning that if I could shake Ashaw for a day, I would cover my sides and the insides of my wings with obscene tattoos, keep my wings closed until my parents were entertaining foreign dignitaries, then start flapping around the dining hall. I figured if I was lucky I would get banished, and become a singer in Los Pegasus.

“You really wanted to do that?” laughed Storm.

“No. I wanted to hurt my mother in a way she'd never forget. In hind sight though I'm very glad I didn’t do it—it would have been a momentary thrill that would have hurt my family, hurt Oatlantis, and left me with dozens of horrid tattoos that I never wanted to begin with. Thankfully I never got any tattoos in Oatlantis and I've only gotten one since then.”

“You have a tattoo? What of?”

Cadance smiled at him and winked, “You're name.”

“Where?”

Cadance looked around the burrow as if somepony might be listening then leaned over and whispered softly into Storm's ear, making his eyes widen.

“...Wow!”

“Oh don't look so surprised. After all, you have a tattoo of my name in the same place.”

“I do?”

Storm cast a reflective spell on the wall behind him and then craned his neck backwards to see for himself. After several moments of twisting and straining like he was in some kind of contortionist act (which must have made him look ridiculous), he heard Cadance giggle and felt a playful nudge on his shoulder, “Got you!” 

Storm looked at her, confused.

“We don't have matching tattoos... well, you don't anyways... OK fine, I don't either.”

If Storm had enjoyed laughing before, this was better. They laughed until their sides ached which in Storm's case wasn't long, but even then he couldn't stop laughing until the pain had become almost unbearable and tears of laughter were being mingled with tears of agony. When Cadance realized how much it was hurting him, she stopped, “Sorry, I'll try not to do that again.”

“It's OK” wheezed Storm, wiping tears from his eyes “So; you were having some rebellious teenage years?”

“After a long time I finally realized that the things I was doing were hurting me, hurting my parents and weren’t helping anyone. But what took me even longer to learn was that expressing my anger wouldn't make it go away, it just made it worse.”

“It did?”

“Think of two ponies in love, if they express their love for each other every day, their love is going to grow stronger, not weaker. It's the same with all emotions, including anger. Expressing anger doesn't negate it, it feeds it. I was making myself miserable, continually tearing down any relationship I ever had with my mother, and while I was angry at my mother for disregarding the ponies of Oatlantis, I was being even more selfish. I was trying to make my mother angry purely for the sake of making her angry which was causing them all sorts of problems.

When I realized I was accomplishing nothing but pointless destruction, I resolved to change and patch things up with my mother. Over time, I succeeded in changing myself, but my mother didn't believe me when I told her I still loved her, she thought I was trying to get close so I could hurt her again. I've tried constantly since then to show her that even though I disagree with her, I still care about her, but so far she hasn't been willing to accept it. I often wonder if I had been a more obedient daughter, if I might have been able to change my parent’s perspective, and maybe I could have been part of the restoration of Oatlantis. I've turned from my past mistakes, and learned from them, but I still have to live with their consequences, and they still hurt.”

“How did you end up in Canterlot?”

“When I was twenty-one, I was told I would be visiting my Aunt Celestia for three weeks. I knew that Celestia was the last pure blooded alicorn in existence (who wasn't on the moon); that she was almost a hundred years older than my mother; was the only Steward in ages to steward two cosmetic forces; and that she was the spokespony of the alicorn council. Quite frankly, I was scared stiff. I expected her to be even prouder, even more arrogant, and even less concerned about regular ponies, than my mother. I thought that if I made even the slightest mistake, I'd be punished. For my first few days in Canterlot I was acutely careful to make sure that every single word and action I made were in a manner befitting to a princess; then Celestia decided to put shaving cream in my toothpaste.”

“What!?”

“Celestia saw how unhappy I was, trying to act the way I thought she wanted me to, and decided the best way to get me out of it was to... lead by example. It took a few more pranks over the next week for the message to really sink in, but after that I stopped seeing Canterlot as I had expected to see it, and started seeing what was actually there.

I couldn't believe how different Celestia's attitude was to her authority. For the first time I really considered how the sun always keeps to the same schedule regardless of Celesta’s mood, meaning Celestia views her position as something she was there to serve, and not something that was there to serve her. What shocked me the most however, was how despite Celestia's example, so many of the so called 'nobles' of Canterlot, still saw themselves as being above ordinary ponies. I had grown up in a world where those in authority lorded it over those beneath them, so that was nothing new to me, but I had thought the Canterlot nobles would realize how mercifully they had been treated and pass it on to others. If Celestia ever decided to enforce her authority over them the way my mother does her upper class, not one of those sycophantic 'nobles' would have a leg to stand on!

Though I couldn't stand that thin upper crust of society (I still can't), I fell in love with Canterlot and its ponies and knew that I didn't want to leave. I went the entire three weeks without uttering a single word about staying, and then one hour before the airship was meant to take me back to Oatlantis, I fell at Celestia's hooves and begged her not to send me back. She was far more charitable then I had dared hope, and sent a message to my parents saying she had come to appreciate my presence and asking to let me stay as one of her personal students, to which my parents were quick to agree.

I was relived at first; but soon realized my position as 'Celestia's student' was mostly political, and she didn't really intend on spending much time training me. I was fine with that since I'd never been that interested in studying magic anyways, but was afraid that if I didn't start using my free time productively, Celestia might think I was lazy and send me back. I also couldn't stop thinking that if this was the only reprieve I ever got from Oatlantis, I wanted one chance to see what it would be like to support myself, so I went to Celestia and asked for permission to earn my keep. She said she would think about it, and a few days later told me she was putting me in charge of Twilight.”

“I remember that,” laughed Storm, “You thought she was asking you to take over a time of day!”

“The rest, you might say, is history; I learned magic under Celestia, foalsat Twilight whenever necessary, and spent time with you whenever possible.”

“And you just left Oatlantis? I mean... I'm glad you came. Really, really glad, but weren’t you trying to make a difference for the ponies of Oatlantis.”

“I was. I still am. Back in Oatlantis I'm little more than a pampered prisoner locked in a tower. Here, I have Canterlot's resources. For a long time I tried mediation between my mother and equestrian based cooperation, trying to bring some investment back into the country. But after years of having my hopes smashed I now see that my mother won't sign any deal that would threaten her absolute power, and no business is going to invest without some sort of guarantee that they wouldn't be evicted at a moment's notice. Now I'm starting to think that the only way to really help the Oatlantis ponies is to make it as easy as possible for them to get work permits or emigrate here."

Storm nodded slowly as he rested his head on Cadance's shoulder. Most of his life he had assumed that no one in authority cared anything for ponies like him, but seeing Cadance and hearing the fire and passion with which she spoke he knew he'd been wrong. There were some who cared, but maybe they were just outnumbered and needed help. Others, like Celestia, weren't willing to make choices, that would mean hurting ponies they cared about, unless forced, but there were some who really cared. Cadance cared. Why else would she spend so much time visiting sick and injured ponies in hospitals across Canterlot. Wait, did she? Yes! Of course she did! 

Ever since that day Twilight had walked off a bridge while reading a book and broken her leg. Cadance had come to visit her, but Twilight was sleeping and so Cadance started talking to the other foals in the ward. When Cadance saw how much they  had all brightened that 'a princess had come to visit them' and after the doctors told her how much she was helping in their recovery she made coming to the hospital part of her regular routine. She'd visit anyone whose life she thought she could make a difference in, mares and stallions, fillies and colts of all ages; talking to ponies whose families hadn't visited them, telling jokes to foals, listening, convincing grouchy old mares to take their medicine. Storm laughed quietly at himself, he must really be unwell if he had forgotten that about Cadance. He'd better eat up then so he could get better.

Storm turned to his oatmeal, but paused as one last question came to mind, "Cadance," he said quietly, "What does your cutie mark represent?”

Cadance opened her mouth to answer but stopped before saying anything, “That's something I'd like you to remember for yourself, but when you do, ask me for it.”

Storm's curiosity was aroused, “Could you give me a hint?”

“Alright” agreed Cadance and with that she immediately began leaning towards him, coming closer and closer until it finally dawned on Storm that she intended to kiss him. He wanted to kiss her, it would be so easy to, Shining Armor could hardly blame him if-he didn't kiss her. Storm turned his head away at the last moment and felt Cadance's lips press lightly against his cheek.  “I understand,” she whispered, “You still don't remember me and so you can't feel about me the way I do about you. But you're already starting to heal, and so I know that you will get better. Trust me.”

No more words were said and Cadance soon began on her porridge, with Storm quick to follow, but as he did so he let himself begin to wonder, begin to dread... begin to hope. What if Shining Armor died before they could re-swap bodies? It would leave Canterlot without a protector and Cadance without a husband. Storm didn't wish harm on Shining Armor, but if something did happen, could he just step into Shining Armor's life and pretend that no body swap had ever taken place? 

He'd be giving up his own life, but then again he certainly wouldn't be losing anything worth having. The only ponies he might possibly call friends were Shining Armor and Zecora, and Zecora liked Shining Armor about as much as she liked him. He could probably do the job of Captain of the Royal Guard—at least the security aspect of it; he knew how to command troops and think strategically but the Captain of the Royal Guard was also a diplomat to foreign governments. He knew he couldn't speak well and probably never – Cadance! Cadance could speak well! Maybe she could teach him to speak better, or perhaps speak for him on diplomatic missions! ...But what about Cadance? Could he just keep pretending he was Shining Armor, marry her and live a lie for the rest of their lives? No, it was a stupid idea. Shining Armor would return, and to hope otherwise was not only wrong, but would only set him up for more disappointment when he was forced to re-swap.

Storm knew better then to try to delude himself; nothing could ever come of this. One day Shining Armor would return, they would re-swap their bodies, and Storm would lose Cadance forever. All Storm could hope for was that these days would last for as long as possible, delaying the inevitable indefinably as he savored each moment with Cadance. After that he would be left alone again and...

OK; that was weird.