Shining Armor woke with a start, having experienced nightmares while he slept. At first he thought yesterday’s events were just that, a nightmare, but looking at himself quickly dispelled that theory. Then came a knock at the door which startled him a little.
“Shining are you awake? You didn’t come back to bed last night.” said Cadence.
Shining re-disguised himself and answered the door.
“Sorry I must have fallen asleep at my desk.”
“Well that’s alright but it’s time for breakfast.”
“Right, coming.” Shining and Cadence made their way through the palace and arrived at the dining hall. There were crystal chandeliers illuminating the room and a long table in the middle. They took their usual seats and the servants entered the room with trays of food and they began to eat. Shining was about to use his magic to grab the syrup but remembered he couldn’t use his magic very well, not to mention his aura is green now. “Cadence can you pass me the syrup?” Cadence found the question odd.
“Ok, but don’t you usually just levitate it over to yourself?
Shining didn’t think he’d be called out on not using magic so soon.
Crap! I need to think of something fast. “Uhh well you see I’m…testing myself, seeing if I can’t go the next day or so without magic.”
Cadence wasn’t fully convinced, but decided that it wasn’t worth going further into.
“Alright.”
Damn that was close. I need to find someplace I can practice my magic in secret.
It was sometime in the afternoon and Shining managed to sneak away from his duties for a little while. He searched the palace for a private spot being careful not to be seen and figured the best place to start would be the basement. He made his way down and thankfully there was no pony around. The basement was mostly used for storage and didn’t offer a lot of room for Shining to stretch his new wings. At most he could hoover around in circles so he decided to focus on magic for now. Satisfied that he was alone and that no pony would walk in on him he dropped his disguise and got to work. A couple hours later and Shining had remastered levitation and got a better understanding of how changeling magic worked. Then he heard hoofsteps approaching and quickly disguised himself again, although he had to admit it was getting easier for him to change his appearance and faster too. Then he remembered something, if he was going to use his magic later he’d have to disguise his aura color too. Shining concentrated and managed to change it back to its original color.
“Sire are you down here?” A crystal guard entered the room. “Oh there you are. If you don’t mind me asking your highness what are you doing down here? We were starting to think you got abducted again.” Shining gave a soft chuckle.
“No nothing like that, I just needed some time alone for some peace and quiet for a little while.”
“No pony has seen you for over two hours, if you’re going to sneak off somewhere at least tell somepony were you are going. I hope I didn’t over step myself sire.”
“No-no you’re right I should have told somepony. I will try to remember that in the future.”
“Anyways the reason I was looking for you is because dinner is ready and the Princess is waiting for you.”
“Well I don’t want Cadence waiting any longer than she has to. The longer she waits the more she starts to worry. Lead the way.”
Shining and the guard made their way to the dining hall. When they arrived the guard left to resume his post and Shining entered.
“There you are. Where did you disappear to this time?” said Cadence.
Shining went over to sit down.
“Oh just someplace I could spend some time alone. I guess I lost track of time.”
He then took his seat.
“Shining is there something you’re not telling me?”
“What would make you think that?”
“Well it seems that you’re being a little distant since you got back. What happened while you were being held captive?”
He looked away from her.
“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” he said in a soft voice.
“Everypony leave us for a moment.” The castle staff left the room. “Shining you know you can tell me anything. Now what happened?”
“I really don’t want to discuss this right now.”
“Please Shining, whatever happened I’m sure-”
Shining slammed his hoof on the table. “I said I don’t want to talk about it! So drop it!” Cadence was a little taken aback by the outburst. Shining took a deep breath. “I-I’m sorry, you didn’t deserve that.” Then he got up to leave.
“Wait, where are you going now?”
“I’ll take my food in my office tonight and will be there for the remainder of the night.”
Shining then left the room leaving Cadence to wonder if this was more serious then she thought. Shining went straight for his office and after a servant brought him his meal for the night locked the door behind them. He dropped his disguise and then retrieved his journal and made another entry.
Day 2
It’s my second day as a changeling and today may have been worse than yesterday. I snapped at Cadence for just being concerned about me. I pray to Celestia that things will get better but I’m not holding my breath. What’s worse I’m beginning to spin a web of lies. I’m going to have to be careful so I don’t get caught in it. I’m also starting to feel weak from not feeding on the love I know I need to survive but I’m still learning how to control my intake and not do it without me realizing it. Right now I just want a good night’s sleep but I probably won’t even get that.
Shining put the journal back in his safe. He settled back down in his chair trying to get comfortable, he had a feeling that this would be his bed for the next few days.