Chapter 28: Developments
“You were sent here to kill Chrysalis?!” Twilight said in confusion as Princess Celestia stared at Cyclone Shade with a look of disbelief.
Someone wanting Chrysalis dead sounds pretty understandable, but why during the invasion? And does this have anything to do with what Aura was trying to tell me about?
“So none of us were in danger? You just made it sound that way to make us concerned?” Princess Celestia’s eyes narrowed as she said that.
“HAHAHAHA! I warned you that you wouldn’t like the answer,” Cyclone Shade said with an insane grin.
“This is why we shouldn’t trust you or even consider your deal.” Princess Celestia sounded very angry at Cyclone Shade.
“Well if you weren’t so damn stupid you wouldn’t have this problem. I didn’t imply that your royal bloodline was in danger. You made that assumption all by yourself.”
“You intentionally made it seem that way so that you could manipulate our opinion.”
“Hahaha, I won’t deny that. What you need when dealing with me is a lawyer; somepony who reads the fine print when you’re not smart enough to do it yourself.”
“Who hired to kill her and why?” Princess Celestia asked, surprising all of us.
“What, do you actually care? She tried to take your kingdom as well as making an embarrassment out of you by overpowering you. You should be rewarding whoever made the request, or is that what you intend to do once you know who it was?” Cyclone Shade questioned.
“I have no intentions of rewarding somepony who ordered an assassination. I want there to be peace between us and the changelings, and based on how little the changelings seem to trust us then they likely would have blame us for their queen’s death.”
“That’s not true!” We all turned to Hofnarr, whose expression turned uncomfortable under our gaze. “Well, I wish it weren’t true; knowing the queen as much as I do, she’ll probably just assume it was you anyway and use it as an excuse to not like you. What can I say other than she doesn’t like making friends?”
“Regardless, I still think it’s worth at least trying to make peace.”
“Hahahaha, as if she would want peace with you either way.” Remarked Cyclone Shade with a grin. “And besides, it’s not like I’m going to give you every detail like that while you have me behind bars. And before you go back to the argument of ‘I need to know that what you say is valid,’ remember that I’ve already given you full details on a few of the less… exciting assassinations I’ve done.”
“You need to give me at least some of the information you have on this matter; I can’t simply sit on this information nor try bringing it to Chrysalis without details. I won’t ask you to tell me the name of who it was yet but I at least need to know their race and motive.” Cyclone Shade didn’t seem to like Celestia’s words, but he knew that ultimately she had the advantage in the situation.
“Fine,” Cyclone Shade said with disdain. “However you should be aware that I do not know the identity of both clients.”
“Both?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, both. Though I only spoke to and saw face-to-face one of them, he made it quite clear that my payment would be funded by two parties, but I never did get that payment because I failed to kill Chrysalis.”
“What can you tell us about the client you did see?” Princess Celestia asked.
“He was about as tall as me, blue eyes, deep voice and was a changeling,” Cyclone Shade said nonchalantly as Hofnarr’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
“A changeling wanted you to kill Chrysalis?! How― why would― WHAT?!” Hofnarr said as he struggled to grasp the concept of the situation. “Maybe― they―… W-What was the color of of this changeling’s shell? Blue? Yellow? Red? WHAT WAS IT?!”
“Hahahaha! I almost don’t want to tell you just because this is entertaining, but I’d rather get you all out of my mane. A changeling’s ‘shell’ is the back part, correct?”
“Yeah, the rest of our body is an exoskeleton.”
“Blue, same shade as yours.” Before that statement I didn’t think Hofnarr could look anymore shocked, but when Cyclone Shade said that I thought he was going to faint.
“M-Maybe it was a renegade? Did he have have any kind of defining features, like a scar o-or maybe warpaint?” Hofnarr stuttered. Cyclone Shade shook his head as he then replied:
“Nothing of the sort.”
“What about some kind of special clothes or armor?”
“Hmm… The first time we spoke face-to-face he wore a dark red military coat; like what a griffin officer might wear.” Hofnarr went from shocked and confused to just being confused.
“I’ve never heard of a changeling wearing something like that before.”
“With your low I.Q. that isn’t a surprising fact,” Cyclone Shade remarked, which Hofnarr reacted to with a disdainful glare.
“Did this changeling ever say anything that might indicate where he could be found or what they were planning? Like if he mentioned a location where he had to be,” asked Princess Celestia.
“Not once, however he did have a silver pocket watch that he kept a very close eye on so he obviously had some kind of schedule to keep. I’m not sure if that really helps but I don’t truly care either. I think I’ve told you more than enough while you keep me imprisoned, you know what you must do, Princess, so get me out of here and give me my equipment so that I may be on my merry way; I have several captives back home that I’d like to kill on my own rather than allow to starve.” Princess Celestia looked uncertain, but nodded and began to leave, however Hofnarr wasn’t satisfied.
“I’m not done with you yet,” he said as the Princess left.
“We’ve already been over this; as long as you have nothing to provide I don’t have to provide you with anything. A fairly simple concept even for you,” Hofnarr growled in frustration as Twilight stepped forth.
“Well is there anything you want? Maybe some nicer food or a comfier mattress…”
“I’d like Celestia’s head on a pike if you could achieve that,” Cyclone Shade said with a wide grin, which he then dropped as he gave a more serious answer. “Among the equipment that was taken from me while I was paralyzed is a small tin flask. Fill it with some wine―something topshelf, I think I’ve earned it―then bring it to me. Accomplish that task and I’ll tell you how I knew Hofnarr was dropped of like common undesired filth.”
Hofnarr’s ears fell with Cyclone Shade’s words, seeming to be emotionally hurt by them. Twilight seemed confused by Cyclone Shade’s request.
“You want wine? Of all the things I expected you to ask for that wasn’t one of them.”
“I would prefer Celestia’s head or someones internal organ but I have to keep my demands within a reasonable area, otherwise I won’t be obtaining anything. Now go fetch me my drink.”
“Someone’s an alcoholic,” Hofnarr said.
“Hahahaha, if I were an alcoholic I would have asked for the whole bottle, not a small canteen. What difference does it make to you anyway?”
“It doesn’t, I was just noting the fact,” he replied as he headed towards the door while Twilight and the rest of us followed. I could hear Cyclone Shade chuckle to himself as the dungeon doors shut behind us. Once the doors were closed we stood there not knowing where we’d get wine nor who to ask.
“How exactly are we supposed to get him wine anyway? I doubt they’ll just give us wine because we asked,” Twilight pointed out.
“Are you sure? Aren’t you like the Princess’s personal student or something? I’m sure that’d get you at least some privileges,” Hofnarr said as I got an idea.
“It’s a bit of a long shot but I might know someone we could ask; Sinistar. He’s the batpony I told Pinkie Pie about in one of my letters and he’s… a bit of a drinker.”
“Ohhhhh, I don’t think I’ve ever met a batpony before! Are batponies nocturnal like other bats? Do they have really good hearing and use echolocation?” Pinkie asked as she bounced in place with excitement. Twilight answered before I could utter my first word.
“They are usually nocturnal and batponies don’t use echolocation but have really good night vision; the name batpony mostly comes from their wings.”
“How do you know that? Is there a book about them or something?” I asked with a raised brow.
“Not that I’ve been able to find, but I lived here in Canterlot my whole life before I moved to Ponyville and while I lived here I got to talk to a batpony a little bit. Another thing she told me was that batponies usually either live here serving the Princess or in other countries and try to stay away from the general populace.”
“Why? Are they antisocial or is it the populace itself that’s the problem?” Hofnarr inquired.
“I’m not sure; I never really thought to ask and I haven’t spoken to a batpony since then. Where do we find Sinistar, Fragment?”
“I’m not sure; he might be asleep right now for all I know. I did see him earlier today but he wasn’t exactly in a… pleasant mood. With that in mind I think we shouldn’t bother him unless we can’t find any other way of getting wine.”
“I’m sure that if we ask Princess Celestia and explained why we needed it she’d help us,” Fluttershy said as Twilight nodded in agreement. Twilight then began to lead us I assumed to Princess Celestia.
“Have you learned anything from your flashbacks, Fragment? Anything you haven’t already told Pinkie in your letters, that is,” asked Twilight.
“I’ve remembered getting in an argument with a brother I apparently have and…” Thinking about the other flashback I had in mind made me uncomfortable and I didn’t think Twilight or the others would react well to it, but after Twilight turned to me with a questioning look I pushed myself to answer.
“From what I can tell from the memory, I almost committed suicide.” The girls gasped and turned to me while Blast Shield and Hofnarr also displayed concern.
“Why would you almost kill yourself?” Fluttershy asked and took a step closer to me.
“I was depressed; my mother had recently died and I blamed myself for it. From what I know I had gone out with friends for a night and something happened to her during that time. I was on top of a tower at the castle and was going to jump, but was talked out of it by Gezähnt and Saphir.” There was pause as they processed what I said.
“Who’s Saphir?” Pinkie asked.
“She’s my wife, but at the time of that memory she wasn’t, but it was there that she confessed her feelings towards me.”
“Not the most romantic story I’ve heard about meeting someone, but I guess if it helps save your life it’s as romantic as it need to be,” Hofnarr remarked as Twilight resumed leading us to Princess Celestia.
“Something tells me that romance had nothing to do with it. So who do you think this changeling who hired Cyclone Shade is?”
“I don’t have the slightest idea. Well, no one specific, but I’d guess it’s the head of some kind of renegade changeling group - which is just a fancy way of saying a changeling gang. The thing that doesn’t make sense about that theory is that there’s nothing a gang would have to gain from killing Chrysalis; it’s not like we’ve been cracking down on renegades that much if at all, in fact Chrysalis seem to be perfectly happy with them around. I remember that one time we framed one such gang for the killing of a griffin councilor and a bunch of his guards.”
My eyes widened as I instantly remembered having flashbacks about that event; about the the children who were caught in the crossfire for no reason. I quickly replaced my expression of disturbance before any of them could see it. I didn’t want to hide something from them, but this was on an entirely different level; I had played a key role in the death a four innocent children along with their parents. No, I would never speak of it to them. They didn’t need to know about a horrible thing I had done nor did I need to take the chance of remembering more of that. I’m not that kind of changeling anymore and I don’t need them to know that I ever was.
“They framed other changelings for murder?!” Twilight asked, blatantly surprised by this, Hofnarr however didn’t seem to think much of it.
“Well yeah, it’s not like Chrysalis was going to start a war with the griffins when we were preparing to attack Equestria; that’d’ve been dumb.” No one look pleased with Hofnarr’s statement, and with that being apparent to him he gave a nervous chuckle and said “well, uh, at least we still failed?”
“This kind of thing is probably why someone wanted Chrysalis dead,” Blast Shield said with a shake of his head.
“Yeah, I won’t argue that she had something like this coming; but the fact that a changeling played a role in it is surprising.”
“I still want to know why Cyclone Shade was supposed kill Chrysalis on the day of the invasion; if they knew about it ahead of time why not kill her before she made it to Canterlot?” I asked.
“Princess Celestia said that the changelings would’ve likely blamed us for her death, but what if they didn’t just blame us; what if they tried to avenge her?” Twilight suggested.
“You think that whoever planned this wants to start a war between Equestria and Chrysalis’ kingdom?” Hofnarr asked wide eyed. “But what could be gained from that? I’m sure that’s a war we’d lose, but we’d at least try to take as many of you with us as we could, but at the same time, I think Colonel Tödlich would rather sacrifice our kingdom’s pride than its subjects and try to stop a full on war from happening at all.”
“What exactly would happen to the changeling kingdom if Chrysalis died?” I inquired.
“Normally the throne would fall to the oldest prince or princess, but Chrysalis doesn’t have any children to ascend to the throne. I think in that case the changelings themselves would have to choose someone to lead them, probably from that point on given that Chrysalis is the only living queen of her bloodline.”
“What if one of those renegade changelings tried to seize power?” Blast Shield asked. “If that changeling Cyclone Shade was talking about was the leader of a bandit group then he could claim to be a suitable leader for having maintained his own gang for a time.”
“A good point, but if that was the plan then it wasn’t thought out a whole lot; almost all of our high ranking military could make the same kind of claim.”
“That might not stop them from trying altogether, and let’s not forget that we don’t know what the plan was and therefore we don’t know what the actual next move would have been; what does this extra client have to gain from overthrowing Chrysalis?” Twilight said as we came to a set of doors guarded by two unicorns that had a symbol of the sun and the moon on them.
The guards bowed their heads and opened the doors with their magic, revealing Princess Celestia sitting on her throne talking to a unicorn stallion who was wearing a black suite.
“I need those cases verified at once; everything Cyclone Shade tells us need to be checked thoroughly.”
“Of course, your highness,” he replied as he turned around and began heading towards the doors we had come through. As the stallion left Princess Celestia turned her attention to us as we bowed.
“I assume you spoke to Cyclone Shade while I was gone,” she said as we stood back up and Twilight nodded as she began to talk.
“We did, and he requested something in exchange for information.”
“Information about what?” The Princess asked.
“About how he knew that I was an orphan.” Hofnarr cut in. Princess Celestia look very surprised by this revelation.
“You’re an orphan?”
“You have no idea how hard I’m trying to not give a smartmouth reply, but yes, I am an orphan and have been since before I can remember. Somehow Cyclone Shade knew this and says that he’ll tell me how he knew if we’ll fill a flask he had with some wine. So yeah, we’re kinda here on a booze run for the loony psycho bonkers killer, could you help us out?” Hofnarr explained. Princess Celestia didn’t seem too sure about this, but she smiled nonetheless.
“Very well, the wine cellar is a few doors down the hallway from the ballroom; I’m sure Twilight can show you where the ballroom is. The wine cellar itself has a plaque that says wine cellar on it. As for Cyclone Shade’s flask, Blast Shield knows where we keep confiscated items, and that’s where it is.”
“Thank you, your highness,” Hofnarr said as he gave a bow and Twilight once again took the lead.
“How far is the ballroom from here?” I asked Twilight as she opened the doors with her own magic.
“Not too far; it should only take us about five minutes to get there.”
“How about I go get Cyclone Shade’s flask and we meet back up at his cell?” Blast Shield suggested.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Twilight said. Blast Shield nodded and began heading off towards a different hallway.
“Do you think if we drug the alcohol we’ll be able to get him to tell us everything without having to let him go?” Hofnarr said casually as he started walking up the wall again.
“I don’t think we have those kind of drugs here, and didn’t Dex tell you not walk up there?”
“She most certainly did, but not once during the conversation did she say please.”
“He’s got a good point, Twilight,” said Pinkie as we came to a stop and looked back at her.
“I really don’t think you should be up there, Hofnarr, there’s a lot of castle to clean even without needing to worry about the walls or ceiling,” Twilight said with a minorly concerned expression.
“Oh, what’s the big―”
“GET THE FUCK OFF OF THE WALL!” Dex’s shout was loud enough to make us all jump, which was bad for Hofnarr because when he jumped he fell off of the wall. We turned back to the direction we were headed and saw a very angry looking Dex coming our way.
“If she tries to kill me, you’ll stop her right?”
“I don’t know Hofnarr, you might not learn any other way,” I replied as Hofnarr put on a nervous grin and took a step back as Dex reached us.
“Why don’t you listen?!” Dex said with her left eye twitching from frustration.
“I, uh, they, uh.”
“What are you, deaf?!”
“I will be if you keep shouting at me,” he replied and rubbed his right ear.
“Don’t get smart with me!”
“You shouldn’t yell so much; it’ll damage your sarcophagus.”
“Esophagus,” I corrected.
“What’s the difference?” Hofnarr asked, tilting his head. I almost didn’t believe he didn’t know.
“One is your throat and the other is your coffin,” I answered.
“No I’m not.” I facehoofed hard creating a loud ‘smack’ sound in the process.
“That was a clever one,” Pinkie cut-in with a giggle.
“Why do I keep talking to you?”
“Because I’m adorable,” he said with a grin as Dex cleared her throat, reclaiming our attention.
“I swear, if you walk on these walls or the ceiling and you are not prepared with cleaning supplies, I’m going to slam your thick head into a damn wall,” she said in a slightly calmer tone as she started walking away. “And then I’d have to clean that up too!”
“Is it just me or is she kinda crazy? Oh well; I’m not gonna be walking on the walls anytime soon… soon today that is,” Hofnarr remarked as we resumed walking.
“You know, this is why Princess Celestia was hesitant to let you be free to roam the castle rather than having you in a cell; you’re irresponsible and inconsiderate,” I told as Hofnarr looked at me with a puzzled look.
“Did… did she actually say that?”
“When we got back from the Wonderbolts’ Academy I asked Princess Celestia about how long it would be until you got a room of your own and she told me that she wasn’t comfortable with the idea after the incidents at the academy.”
“Well it’s not my fault that you didn’t stop before you hit the window and no one told me that the Hive Mind didn’t work on you. And besides, it’s not like I blamed someone else when Spitfire came to yell at us.”
“That’s what I argued, and she said that she’d wait and see how things went after my next flight lesson,” I replied as we came to the wine cellar. Twilight opened the doors and stepped in, the rest of us following closely behind.
Within the wine cellar were what appeared to be hundreds of bottles of wine of all different brands and sizes on specially designed wooden shelves. Some of them looked like they had a lot of dust on them while others were reflective and shiny clean.
“If it weren’t for Cyclone Shade trying to foalnap me this morning we’d be at the Academy right now and I’d be proving how responsible how I am. Stupid assassin, ruining stuff.”
Twilight took a relatively clean looking bottle off one of the shelves with her magic and then turned around.
“Come on, let’s get back to Cyclone Shade and find out what he knows.” This time Pinkie was the one who opened the doors
“You’d think they’d have some kind of guards or something to stop somepony from just walking in and taking some wine,” Fluttershy remarked as we left the room and began heading back to the dungeon.
“Are we sure that we can believe what Cyclone Shade says about how he knew you were an orphan? Something tells me he either won’t tell us the whole truth or he won’t tell us any truth,” I said.
“Based on the fact Princess Celestia let us take some random wine for this tells me that she’ll try to verify what he says,” Hofnarr said confidently.
“Are you sure she’ll be able to verify something that is centered around a changeling family?”
“Umm… I’ll get back to you on that,” he said as the dungeon and Blast Shield came into view. Blast Shield was sitting on the floor with reflective tin flask next to him. As we got closer I could see the letters “C S” written on the side of the flask in red paint; or at least I hoped it was paint.
“Is everypony ready?” Twilight asked as she stopped next to Blast Shield as he stood up.
“As ready as I can get,” Hofnarr said as Pinkie nodded to signal being ready.
“Let’s get this over with,” I said as Twilight magically picked up Cyclone Shade’s flask while Blast Shield opened the dungeon doors. One by one we walked into the dungeon, and once we were all inside Blast Shield shut the doors.
“Back so soon? I’m not sure if I like that or not,” Cyclone Shade said as we walked to his cell.
“We got your wine, now you hold up your end of the bargain,” I said seriously.
“Fill the flask and give it to me, then I’ll talk.” Twilight unscrewed Cyclone Shade’s flask and uncorked the wine, then she carefully poured it into the flask until the wine was nearly at the brim. She passed the flask through the cell bars and placed it standing up at Cyclone Shade’s hooves. He took the top of the flask in his mouth and drank a large gulp then place the flask back down.
“Not the best I’ve had but it’ll do,” he said with a small pleased smile.
“Now how did you know I was an orphan?” Cyclone Shade’s smile faded a little as he closed the flask and Blast Shield took a big gulp of the wine from its bottle.
“It’s not so much a long story as it is a complicated one; and even then it’s not that complex, you’re just slower than the rest of us. How did I know you were an orphan? Giving no detail makes that an easy question, because the answer is that I made you one.”
There was a collective gasp when Cyclone Shade said that, but I noticed something that I wouldn’t expect from Cyclone Shade in a situation like this.
I noticed that he wasn’t smiling.
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WHA?! This is going to be serious shit!
Hey its not sunday yet? You lied to me? I gonna cry now!
3957120
What're you on?
3957129 Um....... Ponies? No no no wait........... Yep ponies!
3957139
It IS Sunday.
I thought that there was some sort of chemical or substance in the flask, maybe lining the inside, that when mixed with alcohol it would turn the liquid into a poison or drug of sorts to help him escape. That's what I would do. If the flask was empty, no one would check the inside of it to see if something was up.
3957141 It's 11:15 here dude.
Saturday night.
3957149
Cyclone Shade: Sadly that's not one of the flasks I brought with me on this job...
3957153
It's Sunday where I live. That's all that counts.
3957156 Yessir!
I was so drunk when I first read this, I don't even remember it.
I hate wine.
3957626
3958707
Shut up steve
3958738
Quiet, Meg.
3958739 25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqtpkxLwa61qb5m2lo1_400.gif
3958926
Stay out of this!
If he's not smiling, then he doesn't feel right a about it. Darkie, that's an interesting line
3959259
I wonder who else will pick up on that.
3959284 a few, I'm sure. Even people like Cyclone have regrets
3959381
He doesn't regret it, it's much more interesting than that.
3959389 yeah yeah. at least we know he doesnt like it
3959938
Don't you "yeah yeah" me!
3959942 i can do whatever i want as the reviewer
3960099
Can you now?
3960129 eeyup.
if i'm not off my long break by the time this is finished, i'll definately still do the review anyways. that's a promise *insert serious face*
3960144
What long break?
3960152 reviews. I'm sure you've seen my page?
Huh. A kill Cyclone didn't enjoy? Well that's certainly surprising.
3960338
Not recently.
3960472
It's not quite that simple.
3960484 still the same. i'll put something as an update soon
3960472 you'll see
3960484
It never is with him.
1: Whaaaat? cyclone made him an orphan and didn't like the memory?
2: I ask, why did he ask for that specific flask? I suspect that flask does something and they just gave him a weapon or escape tool.
3961508
Well what flask would he ask for? Princess Celestia's? "Bring me Princess Celestia's royal flask; I want to taste the residue of her lips on it."
My God I made that creepy.
3961525 no, but maybe he could just say "bring me some wine" or "bring me a glass with some wine" or even "wine, or I kill you"
"Give me this specific flask that I, the professional assassin and escape artist, owns, so that I might drink from it specifically" Sounds VERY suspicious to me.
3961536
Like they would've let the S.O.B. have a whole bottle of wine or waste a cup on him.
3961551 And it's more realistic that they would give him some of his own equipment that could be rigged, trapped, or be a disguised device? No, no i don't think that is a realistic show of equestrian security unless they know nothing about keeping an assassin and professional escape artist from, i dunno, escaping.
3961551 Don't get me wrong, love your writing and this story, and I think maybe they might be ignorant of such a security measure, but I honestly thought you were going to have him use the flask to escape somehow next chapter.
3961589
I never said you were wrong about the flask.
3961655 Ah. Excuse me please-
*Runs into the sunset screaming "I knew it!" over and over again.*
3961854
*Cyclone Shade covers your mouth and stabs you in the back*
Shush, shush shush... It's okay, I won't be able to hurt you more than this...
3961864 (OOC) Feel free to delete my comment or comments to keep the secret.
(IC) *Dies silently in an alley way.*
3961916 or do I have to do that? not familiar.
3961921
You're wrong on the subject.
Why does it need to be deleted?
3961929 I am? Darn.
3961953
(Are you getting the idea that I'm just fucking with you yet?)
Are you?
3961956 Of course. Just going along. Or maybe i'm fucking with you and you haven't gotten it.
3962010
Mindfuckception
3962012
Well, i'm late to the comment party.