“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” Shade repeated as he slammed his head into the stone wall of his cell, each time making a clink sound. “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”
He had let his guard down; he figured that there was no way he would get caught that he forgot about the fact that Changelings were likely still in Canterlot. He was so sure of that fact that he didn’t even try and look into the darkness for two seconds.
“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”
Spine had fulfilled his threat, he did send an anonymous tip that a Changeling was in that building, when the Guards found him, he wasn’t disguised anymore, his leg jutted out at a strange angle, the other one held a knife stabbed through it, and his wing was crumpled like tissue paper.
“Stupid! Stupid! Stu-ow…” He said as he stopped slamming into the wall, his chitin had blocked out most of the damage, leaving nothing but a few scratch marks, the wall had no such luck, there was clearly a working crack in the wall, formed from the nearly half hour session of slamming his head into it.
In Shade’s mind, he deserved it, not only had he managed to fail to get Meadow home safely, but he also got himself caught, her trapped by the swarm, and himself physically disabled. Oh…and he may have gotten Meadow’s mom captured as well. Wonderful…
When he woke up, he was inside of this cell, a single, cold, dark room, deep underground in a dungeon, not only was it unbearably boring down here, but no one had even shown up yet to check up on him. Granted he was currently one of the lowest ranking criminal scumbags at this point in time. So his life was turned around in about three minutes.
After quickly checking to make sure his horn wasn’t damaged, he looked back over to the wall; it was beginning to form a dent in it that didn’t used to be there.
He managed to hobble back over to the bed, which was little more than a slab of stone with a mattress that could only be classified as being slightly more comfortable rock.
Finding the wall there didn’t look to have enough of a dent in it, he began to hit it with the side of his face.
“Just. One. Fucking. Day. Is. That. Too. Much. To. Ask.” He said with each slam noticing a growing stinging pain that he ignored. “One. Fucking. Day. Without. This. Shit.”
Eventually he stopped, mostly because the pain was beginning to seep through his chitin and he was worried he would be bleeding more than he already was. But also because he heard a voice from behind him say. “Why are you doing that?”
He turned to see a Royal Guard, light brown, Earth pony, gold armor, he looked slightly concerned but Shade was in full on ‘leave me alone’ mode so he wasn’t too happy to answer literally.
“I’m hoping if I do this enough maybe I’ll break my neck.” Shade replied, slamming his head into the wall again as if to illustrate his point.
“Don’t go killing yourself yet Changeling.” The guard replied. “The captain still wants to question you himself.”
“Well tell him that I won’t talk to him unless he brings me a form that says “World’s Biggest Idiot” to sign. I’m so Stupid!” he said slamming his head against the wall again, before rubbing the side of his face with his hoof. “Ow…”
“I’ve been sent to inform you that medical aid will be coming to check on you.”
“Well woopdie Fuckin’ Doo. All aboard the party Train.” He mimed pulling on a steam whistle while saying “Woo Woo.”
“I have also been told to inform you that any attempt to harm the medical staff will be treated with forced knockout spells.”
“Listen to me…whatever your name was…” Shade honestly didn’t care. “I have no intention of harming any medical staff, I have every intention of finding a bug, taking my hoof, and ramming so far up his ass that it comes out the other end. And then killing him.”
“You are not going to be leaving this cell for quite a long time.”
“Blah, blah, blah.” Shade responded. “What part of…I don’t care… is confusing to you?”
Apparently the guard gave up trying to talk to Shade after that, because he rolled his eyes and walked back down the hall. Leaving Shade alone in his small cell yet again, left to think about his failure, and even more about the ‘Security’ these ponies placed on the capital in the first place. If a small squad of Changelings managed to get back in with no one noticing, than security must be the worst here.
His concentration was interrupted when a few new clopping sounds entered his ears, looking up he saw a new guard, Unicorn, white, same gold armor…and… something new. Looked like a cross between a bat and a pony, bat like wings, small fangs, cat like eyes, darker armor, with a gem in the shape of a cat’s eye on his chest.
“And what are you?” Shade said to the new Guard, not registering the third pony. “You look more messed up than I do.”
“I am a Lunar Guard. Part of the Princess' Night Guard.”
“Well you look weird and that’s all I’m gonna say.” Shade replied focusing on the third pony. She also had a white coat, red mane, lab coat, bag… Oh…wonderful.
“So am I correct in assuming you’re the Medical staff I was told about?” Shade said, turning himself over so he was looking upside down at the pony.
“Yes…I am here to…”
“I can tell you exactly what is wrong, Stab wound in my right hind leg, complete Femoral fracture in my left, snapped wing membrane, concussion.”
“Even so I must check on you.”
“Prisoner, stand, face the back wall…”
“Are you kidding?”
“Stand and face the…”
“Okay…what am I going to do here?”
“Stand and face the back wall. Do not attempt any sudden moves unless directed to do so.”
“Oh my God…” Shade placed his head in his hoof before complying, with difficulty, as his left leg was not willing to cooperate at all. “Happy?”
Shade could hear the metal door open, and the clopping of hooves met his ears as the two unicorns entered the cell with him.
“You will comply with Dr. Rose. Any…”
“Any resistance will be met with knockout spells. I know. Just get this over with.”
The procedure was relatively quick, Dr. Rose looked at the three most prominent injuries, took a measurement of the wound on his hind right leg. Before the door slid open and closed again, prompting him to turn around. The Unicorns had left leaving only the Lunar Guard.
“So what were you doing during the attack?” Shade asked, smiling at the Lunar Guard, who just glared at him.
“You’re absolutely sure about this?” Silver Shield asked Rose. They had just looked at the prisoner’s injuries. And while he had no liking for the changeling, he couldn’t deny that the injuries were severe, but to move him from the Dungeons.
“Yes.” Rose replied. “You saw that leg wound, it went right through his chitin, there is no telling what kind of interior damage he sustained.”
“Isn’t there some way you could-“
“No.” Rose said bluntly. “If he doesn’t get some higher grade medical attention soon, I’m not sure he will survive. That wound could be heavily infected, and I can’t tell using the field equipment I have. I need medical tools.”
Silver Shield had to admit, that wound was pretty bad, that knife was a pretty nasty weapon, and the serrated edge cut through his chitin without any resistance, so it may have made some nasty damage. But even then, there is no way in Tartarus that the Captain would okay this without seeing the changeling.
“Alright…I’ll try and see if I can get some kind of release form for it.”
“Well then, there is nothing I can do until then.” Rose grabbed her bag in her magic and walked out. “Make sure it is quick, I have no idea how long he will live with that open wound.”
“There’s no way Shining Armor is going to okay this….”
That night, Shade couldn’t get much more than a few minutes to an hour of sleep, every time he attempted to close his eyes and nod off, he would be jolted awake by a nightmare, usually consisting of Meadow being fed off by Changelings or her mother, or a Changeling disguised as her mother… There was even one where he was the one to do it.
“Meadow!” He shouted as he jolted up from his most recent nightmare. Continuing to maintain the headache he had all day. “It’s no use…” He said buzzing his wing to take pressure off his left leg while he got up.
The entire night had gone like this. Rest his eyes, Nightmare, try to sleep, Nightmare, nap, Nightmare. He gave up on the idea of sleep after the most recent dream, he physically had drained Meadow… all of her emotions…her face…she…
“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” He was lightly tapping his head against the wall making sure not to increase the amount of pain he felt in his head but enough to make a chink sound. Why is this happening to me? He asked himself. All I’m trying to do is help one child. And instead I get her captured, I get myself captured, and now I can’t even walk properly.
The night was long, owing more to the fact that he had no visible light source inside his cell, the only lights came from the candles or lamps outside the cell that were currently extinguished, plunging the cells into darkness. Even though it was pitch black, Shade could still barely see with his good eye, outlines were all he could reasonably see, and given that he couldn’t pick up on any emotions around him, he was the only sentient creature down here.
When he stopped tapping his head to the wall, he stared around the cell that was now his home; the guards had informed him that his magic was suppressed so that he wouldn’t try anything. If he had grown to rely on his magic, that could have been a problem, but as it stands, he couldn’t care less.
The cell was barren, nothing was there but the bed and the small dents he placed in the wall using his skull. The entire room was solid stone, carved into the mountain; clearly it had been used, but not in many years. The cell gave a sterile look, making the illusion of a bug caught in a cage more prevalent.
In the long hours of darkness he had left, he began thinking about what he would have done in the same situation, a member of the group that attacked his home, captured his leader and could be a gold mine of information, but was also very badly injured. His training had told him to attempt to extract information from the target, but not kill them, and that seemed to be a similar look on Equestrian laws. If they really wanted revenge, they could have killed him when he was down, unable to fight back, broken. Instead they had brought him to a dark underground cell and had brought him a medic. Granted there was likely little she could do with field equipment.
As his mind began to float towards these topics, he began to think about what he had heard from Darkblaze; it was back when he was first learning to be a Changeling, what was it he said…
He tried to focus on the memory, pull it to the surface trying to block out everything else. Just enough so that he could hear what Darkblaze had said. He couldn’t manage to pull it up, something felt like it was stopping him from looking, blocking the memory. Why?
Seeing how that memory wasn’t working, he decided to draw his attention to something else, what he managed to find, was something he himself hoped he wouldn’t need to see.
He was delving into the memories of the first guard he had met, during the invasion, he had fully drained a guard, hoping to merely slow him down, and it had been so easy…to leave him drained. Shade had saved him… using the energy he gained from the guard to cast that one healing spell. Apparently memories don’t work the same.
While he didn’t want to delve into these memories, he found himself sucked into them, and what he saw, was just two images. His own face staring back at him, then a white unicorn foal, crying. He quickly severed this memory. He didn’t notice he was panting.
“Sun…glider…” He said under his breath. It was the name of the guard, the one he had fought against. Shade felt an obligation to ask how he was doing. He wanted to know if he was fine. “Please… let him be fine.”
Shade had eventually nodded off into a dreamless sleep, brought on by a mixture of exhaustion, and pain.
Shade awoke with a start when he felt an emotional trace and heard the clopping of hooves on the stone floor. His headache was still present and his legs were still akin to mush, but at least the dreams stopped.
“You’re up early.” Came a female voice from the cell’s doorway, Shade couldn’t make anything out as his eyes were fogged over from him somehow sleeping with his head hanging off the bed.
“Am I?” Shade replied. Trying to find some way to judge what time it was before the tiredness shrugged off and he remembered where he was. His eyes refused to clear even as he rubbed them. “I can’t exactly tell time down here.” He had managed to tell the new entrant’s colors at least, she was pink… but his eyes were still too fogged to make out any details, so she just looked like a pink fluff ball.
“When the guards told me they found a Changeling within the city. My mind went right to the worst.”
“How so?” Shade asked, blinking rapidly, trying to get his vision cleared.
“I thought she was planning something again,” No idea who “She” is “But then they told me how they found you.” She seemed slightly concerned.
“And so you came here why?” Shade asked, he didn’t mind, anything to get his mind off of the nightmares and throbbing pain was good enough for him, even if his vision was still blurry.
“Well I wanted to see exactly how bad it was.” She said this with a slight tone of care. “And see if there was something I could do.”
Shade’s vision had cleared enough for him to see some basic shapes, the pony in front of him was taller than most mares he had seen even if it wasn’t very noticeable. She seemed to be a unicorn, going from the pointy thing that rose above her head. But Shade could have sworn he saw a bit of movement by her sides.
“I’m sorry but who are you?” Shade asked. He could have sworn he knew her from somewhere…
“I thought you would remember me, after all I was what your Queen looked like for-” At the mention of Chrysalis, Shade rushed towards the bars, completely ignoring the pain that shot through his leg. He slammed his head into the bars, trying to raise the curved horn within reach of the pink blur. But before he had managed to get to the bars, she had jumped back, out of his reach.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Shade hissed. “Where did you take her?” He tried to reach up and get a grip on the blur, but he couldn’t manage to find it. “Tell me!”
While his eyes were still clouded, he could see that whoever it is was surprised by the attack. “Who?”
“You know who!” Shade hissed. “Now tell me what you did to her!”
From down the corridor he could hear the stomping of hooves running up to the cell, but by the time they had managed to get to the cell, Shade had already lost the original steam of his first attack and fell from the pain his leg was feeling.
“Princess! Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine…”
“Did he hurt you?” Shade had blocked out the conversation and instead focused his vision. The mare he had just attempted to gouge with his horn was indeed a Princess. Wings and horn were both present, along with a small crown. She still looked surprised from the attack, refusing to take her purple eyes off of him.
“Listen to me Changeling.” One of the guards said, breaking his line of sight. “You have just attempted assault on a Princess. You will be lucky to get out even by pony standards.”
Shade managed to lift himself up off the ground, before he hissed at the guard and began to hobble into the far corner of the cell. He turned to look back at the group, allowing himself to calm down; he tried to focus on the Princess. As he looked towards her with his left eye, he could tell there was fear, which not only proved that she wasn’t a Changeling, but may have just doomed Shade.
When they had left Shade alone, he buzzed his wing to keep weight off his leg before slamming his head into the cracked wall a bit more. “What. Is. Wrong. With. Me.” He continued slamming his head into the wall for a few minutes, before he stopped and looked towards the wall.
He began to feel like this wall was going to be his only friend, given that now he had managed to cause the cracks to deepen making small chips of stone fall off.
“There is no way I’m going to get out of here…” Shade said to himself. “What was I thinking?” Oh right…I wasn’t. He was so angered by even the possibility that Princess was Chrysalis; he had openly tried to attack. Tried to get some kind of information, anything that would tell him where Meadow was. Instead…he managed to doom himself.
“Why can’t I do anything right…” He said to himself as he looked out the bars to his cell. He let out a sigh… and gave up on any chance of freedom.
As Cadence was led out of the dungeon, she could hear a slight ‘clink’ noise coming from deeper in the dungeon.
“Why did I let you talk me into this?” Silver Shield asked looking towards Cadence. “I knew something like this would happen.”
“I’m fine Silver.” Cadence told the guard, the clinking diminishing as they exited through the wooden door. “He just startled me that’s all.”
“Well that isn’t all.” Silver said to the princess. “He probably just doomed himself. The Captain is never going to okay his medical release forms when he hears about this.”
Cadence had to agree with him on that. Her husband had been rather…on edge since the attack, and with the knowledge that she was almost attacked by a prisoner, they would be lucky to get any kind friendly response from him.
“Can you let me try again?” Cadence asked.
“No. I’m sorry Princess, but I can’t let you go down there again.” Silver replied as he closed the wooden door to the dungeon. “It was bad enough that you talked me into letting you go down there alone once. But he openly tried to attack you.”
“But he didn’t seem aggressive until I mentioned his Queen. Maybe if I just…”
“I said ‘No’ Cadence.” Silver said. “If you could get the permission of Shining Armor, then I would change my mind. But as it stands, I’m not letting you go near him.”
“There has to be something I can do…” Cadence replied. “He didn’t seem like the others.”
“He’s desperate. He knows that there is no way he is going to get out. And with the newest crime, he’s going to be lucky to get off with an execution.”
Cadence looked shocked. “Celestia wouldn’t just execute him. He’s a living creature.”
“Who just attempted to assault a Princess.” Silver replied.
“Listen Silver…please just keep that a secret.”
“I can’t… Shining Armor wanted to know anything that happened with him.”
“Silver… Please. Just… at the very least let me tell him.”
Silver sighed. “I suppose that’s fair.” He looked up at the princess. “But I was being serious; I’m not letting you back down there without The Captain’s permission.”
“I understand…” Cadence replied. “I’ll leave you to your work.”
Cadence left the unicorn guard alone to go out through the double doors. This part of the castle hadn’t been used in some time; it was mostly just a historical exhibit now. The last time it was used was nearly two hundred years ago, and the inhabitants then were rather fire happy unicorns.
She needed to find Shining Armor, maybe talk to him about getting those Medical forms for the Changeling. While she herself had just as much experience as the next pony, she could tell that the Changeling they had wasn’t pure evil. It was looking for something, or someone. She needed to talk to the Changeling, find out something.
She walked out of the dungeon wing and began heading towards the barracks, Shining Armor was usually there around this time of day, helping the Guards with training or patrols. She was greeted by some of the guards or nobles waiting for Day court to begin, but she was met with silence upon entering the barrack.
It was moderately sized, a place for the Guards who station around the castle to rest, while the rest of the guard had houses around the city, and the barracks were reserved for those who practically lived in the castle. So it was strange to see them completely barren.
While the Lunar guards were given their own separate barracks, it was not uncommon to find them in either one, as the lunar guards are much more situational, but she usually saw at least a few guards remaining inside of the barracks. So where did they all go?
She didn’t dwell on it too much as she needed to find Shining Armor, which didn’t take too long, as he was inside of the War room, looking over a map of the city alongside the Captain of the Lunar Guard.
“Cadence?” Shining Armor said, surprised by the sudden entrance. “What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to you about something.” Cadence replied. “It has to do with the changeling…”
“Of course…” Shining Armor said looking towards the Lunar Guard Captain, “Could you give me a minute?”
The Lunar Guard captain nodded and walked past Cadence, leaving the two of them in the room. “So what is it?”
“Well…” Cadence replied unsure of how to say this. “He tried to attack me.”
“What?” Shining Armor replied, surprised. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” She replied, looking at how Shining Armor had walked over to her. “I don’t think he knew it was me.”
“How couldn’t he know?” Shining Armor replied. “He must have seen you.”
“Well…yes but he didn’t seem aggressive until I mentioned that Chrysalis used my shape.”
“And then he tried to attack you?” Shining Armor asked, trying to figure out why the Changeling would attack.
“Yes. He seemed angry about something. He kept asking where she was…”
“Where who was?” Shining Armor asked. “Chrysalis?”
“No…I don’t think it was.” Cadence replied. “If he thought I was Chrysalis, it must have been somepony else.”
“But why would he try to attack if he needed information?” Shining Armor asked. More a question to himself than to Cadence. “It doesn’t seem like a good idea to try and kill the one you need information from.”
Cadence shook her head. “I don’t know. But I do want to try and find out.”
“So you want to interrogate him?” Shining Armor asked, a disapproving tone in his voice.
“Well… I want to try and find out something about him. Maybe we could learn about them, find out some way to help him.”
Shining Armor shook his head. “I understand what you’re trying to do; the fact is that he tried to attack you. There is no telling what he will do the next time he sees you.”
“Please…Just let me try.” Cadence replied. “This may be the one chance we have to find out if there are any other Changelings inside Canterlot. If he really is against Chrysalis, then this could be the best way to defend ourselves.”
Shining Armor didn’t like the idea, given what Changelings had done to the both of them, however he had to admit that learning more about them would prove invaluable in case of future attack. “Alright… But I’m coming with you.”
Shade was doing his daily “Head on Wall” exercises when he heard two sets of hooves connecting with the stone floor. He had given up hope of getting out about an hour ago, and he wasn’t in a very good mood.
By the time the two sets of hooves had stopped outside his cell, Shade was still lightly tapping his head against the wall. He only stopped when he recognized the voice of the Princess he tried to stab earlier.
“Are you alright?” She asked with some concern, after all it wasn’t normal to find a prisoner hitting their head against a wall.
“What are you doing here?” He asked with little energy.
“I came to try and talk to you.”
“Why?”
“Because I was worried about you.”
Shade raised his left eye to look at the Princess, she didn’t seem angry; her face looked like she was concerned at least. “Even after I tried to kill you?”
“Would you have?”
The question was so unexpected, but Shade only really had one answer. “Before? I would have.”
“And now?” She asked with a concerned look, Shade only now noticed the Guard next to her; he wore a purple variant of the Royal Guard armor and he looked as if he was waiting for a reason to restrain Shade.
“No.” Shade replied, resting his head on the wall. “I attacked you because I thought you were Chrysalis, I’m sorry for that. I was just angry.”
“I forgive you.” The Princess replied. “So what is your name?”
Shade shifted his gaze to look at the princess. “I have two. Which would you prefer?”
“What do you mean by ‘two’ names?” The Guard asked.
“Well I suppose that I have two names, a changeling name, and a pony name. So which would you prefer?”
Clearly the idea of a changeling having two different names baffled the Princess as she was scanning the ground trying to think of a response.
Shade sighed. “My changeling name is Shade. My pony name and identity is Sunstreak.” He had grown to like his identity, even though most of it was faked, he enjoyed having his own persona that wouldn’t get him immediately run out of town.
“You created your own identity?” The Princess asked.
“Yes… I created Sunstreak to help me fit in. Maybe save a filly’s life. Now all that is gone.” He slammed his head into the wall. Making both of the guests jump slightly. “I never caught your name…I was kind of busy last time we met with the whole…you know.”
“My name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. But you can just call me Cadence.”
“Nice name.” Shade replied. “Am I correct in assuming you are the Princess of love?”
“You’ve heard of me then?”
Shade shrugged. “Lucky guess. And you forgot what you were talking to.” He turned his eye to look directly at Cadence’s, “I can see the love coming off of you, which I first considered strange given this cell blocks my ability to see emotions. And judging from how it has only gotten brighter since last time…” He shifted his gaze to the guard. “Should I assume you two are a couple?”
Only silence met this question, and Shade could understand why. From what he had picked up on in the sparse conversations about the invasion, the Princess in question had married a member of the Royal Guard. However he never got enough details on just who she married.
He looked up to see the face of the guard, and when he did, he instantly crawled to the back wall of his cell. Standing next to the Princess, was Shining Armor, and given how badly Queen Acari had hurt him, the last thing he wanted was the REAL Shining Armor to attack him. And what was worse…he had openly attempted to stab his wife.
The pain in his leg was back, but he ignored it on account of making sure that Shining Armor wasn’t going to try and repay him for the earlier incident. After all Shade had no idea how he would react to this kind of thing.
“Sh-sh-sh-sh-Shining Armor…” He stuttered fearfully. He could hear his Carapace shaking. He tried to say something else, but the words only came out as small moans.
They attempted to talk to him, but he wasn’t picking it up, his mind was busy flittering through the various possible outcomes of this conversation, none of them good. Then he thought back to Meadow… “You have to help me!” He said as he rushed towards the bars, stopping just short of them so it wouldn’t look like he was doing another charge. “Please!”
Cadence, who had jumped back a little when she saw him rush towards the bars, was looking at the panicked changeling curiously. “Help?”
“Yes!” Shade shouted. His mind was racing, his heart was pounding, and he was pretty sure his leg wound had opened up again. “There’s a filly named Meadow Song! Her mother is Candlelight! Please! Tell me if they are around! I need to speak with Candlelight! It’s urgent!” Shade had been ignoring his protesting legs for as long as he could manage, his body slammed onto the hard stone as both his legs gave out. “Please…”
Shining Armor looked at the black Changeling lying on the ground, a mixture of shock and suspicion. “Who is Candlelight?”
“She’s Meadow Song’s Mother. Please. I need to talk to her!” Shade needed for them to listen, he knew they had no reason to trust him. He had been there during the attack; he saw how the guards reacted to him when he was carrying Meadow out of that building, even when Candlelight had called out to Meadow.
“Please…” His right eye began to tear up, this was his one chance to try and make things up to the two of them, he had no idea where Spine took Meadow, and the only way he could try and figure it out was to get out of this cell.
Cadence looked at the Changeling, concern on her face, but not enough to hide her surprise. “Who is Meadow?”
Shade couldn’t manage to get out much more than just managing to say, “She’s a friend…” He closed his eyes, unable to see through the fog that had formed in front of him. “She’s my friend…”