Chapter 29: Sorting Through
“You… made me an orphan… Does that mean―”
“Yes, I killed your parents. I am the reason you grew up an orphan.” Hofnarr seemed to have trouble understanding what he was being told, and I couldn’t really blame him; Hofnarr was finally getting answers about his past only to find out that he was speaking to the one who murdered them and therefore forced him to live miserably at an orphanage.
“You… killed my parents…”
“Yes, now do please breakdown and cry; it will amuse me.” Despite his words, Cyclone Shade looked like he didn’t find this amusing, even though Hofnarr’s mind seemed to be melting from this knowledge. I took in a deep breath to sense Cyclone Shade’s emotions, but it seemed as though he was hiding it from me. How he could possibly do that was beyond me.
Hofnarr stepped away from Cyclone Shade’s cell and sat down on the floor. The others and I weren’t sure what to do or say, so we stood awkwardly in silence. Cyclone Shade took another gulp from his flask then walked back towards and climbed onto his bed.
“Are you okay, Hofnarr?” Fluttershy finally asked as she took a step closer to him. He didn’t react to her question as he seemed to zone out.
“Well that’s hardly a satisfactory result to my answer,” remarked Cyclone Shade.
“Why did you kill them?” Hofnarr asked as his gaze went from the floor to Cyclone Shade.
“Business was slow and the pay was decent. If you’re asking why my client wanted them dead? A family feud that had gone a bit over the top; I was told to rip your father’s head from his neck and your mother’s heart from her chest. It’s a good thing for me that they lived away from everyone else, otherwise I might’ve had to make their deaths relatively quick,” Cyclone Shade said as a dark smile came over his face, only to fade again as took another drink from his flask.
“What about me? Wouldn’t they want me dead as well?” Cyclone Shade didn’t reply but did take another drink. “They did want me dead, didn’t they? So how am I alive?”
“They said ‘leave no trace of their child,’ and that’s what I did. There was no blood, there was no connections, there was nothing that could prove that you were the same child that I was meant to kill. I put a lot of effort into getting you to an orphanage, and I felt that effort was wasted when I learned you ran away from it.”
“Wait, what? You brought me to the orphanage instead of killing me like you were supposed to? And how did you know I ran away from the orphanage?” Cyclone Shade groaned, sat up and took another drink before starting to explain.
“Yes, I brought you to that orphanage. Around twenty years ago, when this took place, I had just pulled your screaming father’s head off while your mother was long dead, when I began walking towards your crib - you somehow slept through the whole event. And yet, a single floorboard creaked when I approached you, and then you awoke. I had heard how foals would cry mercilessly for their parents, but you didn’t make a sound; you just stared at me as if I was the most fascinating thing in the world.”
“I observed your… curious behavior for a moment before I extended the blade of my bracer and brought it to your neck. I cut you a little when I did this, and in the instance of pain brought by my blade, your fear arose. Tears came to your eyes as a steady stream of blood surfaced on your exoskeleton. Your eyes may have - and still be - an empty void of blue, but I could still see something in them; I saw myself. Not as in a reflection of the one about to cut your head off, but as child who feared for his life.”
Now I began to understand. Of the six of us only me and Blast Shield had seen Cyclone Shade’s interrogation, and because of that we knew that Cyclone Shade’s father had abused him.
“Did I miss something important again? I feel like I need to read some kind of book that has everything I’ve missed in it.”
“You have no idea how hard I tried to kill you. It sounds like such a simple thing to do - just push the blade through your neck until I’ve turned your whole crib red - but it was impossible for me to do.”
“You of all ponies, could not bring yourself to kill me? That seems impossible.”
“I was far more surprised than you when I came to that conclusion…” Cyclone Shade said with another drink. “So once I realized that I couldn’t kill you, I knew I couldn’t just leave you there to be found and damage my infamous name, so I made you disappear, at least as far as the changelings of that area could tell. I brought you to the orphanage at the kingdom because it was miles away from that town, and no one from the city would be able to make that connection nor would someone from that town go to the city looking for a missing foal.”
“But how did you know that was me though? Unless you kept an eye on me or something there’s no way you should have been able to know that I was that changeling.”
“On the contrary, the name ‘Hofnarr’ was carved into your crib and woven into your blanket, so when I read your personnel file it was impossible that you were anyone else.”
“My personnel file? What the heck were you doing with that?”
“About three months ago I was hired to retrieve some information on a few high ranked military changelings from Chrysalis’ army, and while yours wasn’t among those I was meant to take I did stumble upon it while taking files. Seeing your name was all the incentive I needed to examine your file, and with a just quick look at your file I knew it was you. Though it was rather irrelevant until I was hired to capture you along with the others.”
“So let me get this straight,” Blast Shield said. “You were hired to kill Hofnarr and his parents, killed his parents but couldn’t bring yourself to kill Hofnarr and because of that you went miles away to a city full of changelings that would’ve likely been hostile towards you, just to get him to an orphanage? And then, years later you were hired to steal files on high ranked changelings, happened to find Hofnarr’s file in the process, read it but didn’t do anything with that information, and then months after that and after the invasion you were hired yet again to capture changelings that were already captured―for reasons we still don’t know―and it just so happened that one of them was Hofnarr, a changeling you could’ve killed years ago but didn’t?”
“You left out the part where I was hired to kill Chrysalis during the invasion of Canterlot, but otherwise yes that is what I’m saying.” This was a lot to process for all of us; Twilight just stared at Cyclone Shade with her mouth hanging open slightly. Pinkie looked between Cyclone Shade’s pokerface and Hofnarr’s ‘mouth hanging open, eyes as wide as possible and absolutely speechless’ expression while Fluttershy stared at Hofnarr with a concerned look. As for Blast Shield, he just took a few more gulps of the wine.
“But… why?” Asked Hofnarr as the shock slowly wore off.
“I do believe that I already answered that question,” Cyclone Shade replied before taking a sip from his flask.
“No, I mean why didn’t you kill me? What stopped you?” Cyclone Shade hesitated for a couple of seconds before talking.
“You know nothing of who I am or what I do, nor could you ever even comprehend what I was thinking, but you will know this; even with everything I have done and all the horrible things that I am, there are still boundaries that I will never cross and one thing that I swore I would never become. But make no mistake, I am fully capable of doing truly horrific things to you now.” With that, he drank whatever was left in his flask and Blast Shield took another gulp from the wine bottle. “Now be gone; I’ve told you all that I am willing to until my release.”
Twilight was the first one of us to start walking towards the exit, though Blast Shield and Fluttershy were close seconds. After them was Hofnarr and Pinkie with me following last. As I walked away I saw Cyclone Shade angrily throw his flask at the wall of the cell.
“I think you’ve had more than enough wine, Blast Shield,” Twilight said to him as I stepped out of the dungeon and its doors shut behind me.
“That may be, but it also may be that I won’t get a chance to get free good quality wine again,” he retorted before drinking more.
“Are guards really allowed to drink while on duty?”
“Are you alright, Hofnarr? That was one heck of a revelation back there,” I said to Hofnarr as I walked up to him while he stared blankly out of a window into Canterlot.
“I… I don’t know if I’m alright… a part of me is happy to know that my parents didn’t just leave me at that orphanage because they didn’t want me… but knowing that also makes the fact that they’re dead harder. They loved me… but they couldn’t protect me or themselves…” he said sorrowfully.
“If you need or want to talk about it, we’re all here for you,” Fluttershy reassured as she walked up next to Hofnarr.
He looked to her with a small smile and said: “Thanks. You know, back at the changeling kingdom we were always told never to trust other races because they ‘always betray us in the end,’ but you’re living proof that that’s false. Not just you, Fluttershy, all of you; you didn’t need to help me or Fragment and after trying to conquer your land you had all the reasons in the world to not help us. We owe you, probably more than we can repay, but if Princess Celestia will let us and if Queen Chrysalis will listen to us, I think that me and Fragment will try our hardest to clean up this whole mess.”
“Do you really think Chrysalis will at least try to make peace with Equestria? When we fought her to save the Cutie Mark Crusaders she didn’t seem very reasonable,” Twilight said with an unsure expression that matched her tone.
“It won’t be easy by a long shot, but I’m sure with enough persistence we’ll get her to try. Though it’s kinda of hard to predict her after two consecutive defeats; she wasn’t exactly what I’d’ve called ‘stable’ after the first defeat. Who knows what she’s like now?”
“Does she really take losing that badly?” Blast Shield asked.
“Kinda; it’s not just about being a sore loser.”
“Then what is it about?” Twilight asked. Hofnarr seemed hesitant and uncomfortable as he went on.
“It’s also about her image to the other kingdoms; I’m not supposed to tell non-changelings about this but there’s more than just one changeling hive. I don’t know exactly how many there are but there are five ‘major’ kingdoms, Queen Chrysalis’ being one of them and considered the least significant of them. Well, at least that’s been the case since Queen Chrysalis came to power.”
“What do you mean?”
“Weeeell, Queen Chrysalis only became queen when she did because her mother died of illness, and being the only living member of her royal family meant that she was forced to take charge of the kingdom while she was only fourteen years old. Back in those days our kingdom was better connected to the other kingdoms, and one of the queens suggested that Chrysalis let advisors do most of the ruling while studies how to properly keep the kingdom in check.”
“Wait, if Chrysalis came into power because when she was fourteen then how old is she now?” Asked Blast Shield.
”Umm… I don’t know exactly how old, but I think she’s only in her early thirties. So yeah, the other queens weren’t pleased when Chrysalis said that she’d take full charge of the kingdom, and after a few… disputes with the her they decided that not only would Chrysalis rule however she wants but would receive absolutely no aid from their kingdoms. I once heard Colonel Tödlich talking about it and he said that the announcement sent shockwaves throughout the kingdom. Almost everyone thought that the kingdom was going to fall apart within a month, and while that obviously didn’t happen things have been declining; with more changelings leaving or flat out going renegade.”
”But to get back to my point about looking good for the other kingdoms, attacking Canterlot―and Equestria in general―made her look bad, but losing made her look even worse, and then following that catastrophe of an invasion with a failed attempt at revenge and she’s likely the biggest laughing stock of all changeling kingdoms. She doesn’t like looking bad in front of the other queens because even after all these years some of them still try to convince her to let someone else take charge of the kingdom while she tries to learn how to be a good leader.”
“What does that have to do with making peace with Equestria? It’s Princess Celestia who wants her to try this, right?” Fluttershy asked.
“I guess, yeah, it is the Princess’s idea, but I think Chrysalis will think signing a peace treaty with Equestria under these circumstances would make her look weak, which as I’m sure you could’ve guessed, is something she doesn’t want. Sorry, but Chrysalis is probably gonna be stubborn on this idea.”
“Well hopefully you and I will be able to show her what good this could do.” As I finished my sentence my stomach growled loudly. “Does anyone know when lunch is?”
“I could be wrong but I think lunch is today. Though we had that yesterday too so they might’ve changed things up, you know, to keep things interesting,” Hofnarr said while rubbing his chin.
“Why do you answer questions with answers that you know are far from right?”
“Because, Blast Shield, it’s both what I do and part of my job description. You got a problem with that?”
“Hey! If you guys do get Queen Meanie Pants to make peace with Equestria can I throw a biiiiiiig party to celebrate?” Pinkie asked with excitement.
“On the condition that you don’t refer to her as ‘Queen Meanie Pants’ while any changelings are within earshot.” Hofnarr said.
“Oh come on, she’s totally a big Meanie Pants.”
“No no no, you’re right that she is, but it’s not a good idea to call her something like that when you’re trying to make peace. Also, can we please stop saying ‘meanie pants?’ It just sounds weirder and weirder the more it’s said.”
“Aww, okay.” Pinkie finally agreed.
“I’m glad we got that sorted out, but seriously does anyone know how long until lunch?”
“I don’t suppose anyone has a watch,” said Twilight.
“With how bad Fragment is at keeping time someone should probably get him a watch,” Blast Shield suggested as Hofnarr chimed in with: “Maybe as a birthday present or something.”
“Have you remembered when your birthday is, Fragment? You have got to let me throw you your birthday party! It would be so awesome and so much fun!” Pinkie said as she then pulled out a clipboard with what looked like a checklist on it.
“To answer your question I have no idea when my birthday is, however I did remember something that I haven’t mentioned yet.”
“You did?” Twilight asked interested. “What did you remember?”
“A few days ago I remembered that my real name is Dunkel, but even though I know what my name is I think I’ll stick with calling myself Fragment; help keep things simple, you know?”
“Dunkel… I like it!” Pinkie said with a smile as she nodded to herself.
“Come on, let’s see how long until lunch and maybe try to find something to do while we wait,” Twilight said as she began walking down hallway.
“I know! Let’s play hide and seek to pass the time!” Hofnarr suggested with a grin.
“Can we really trust you to not climb on the walls and ceiling?” I asked while giving him a suspicious look.
“I ain’t takin’ one step up there while that loony maid Dex is around. She seems a little… unbalanced in the head.”
“She’s actually pretty nice; I think it was just you giving her a hard time that got under her skin.”
“Me? Give someone a hard time? Well that’s just a ridiculous accusation! Do you have any evidence to back your claim?”
“Does me quoting you and Blast Shield being a witness count?”
“You know what the great part of being named ‘Blast Shield’ is?” Hofnarr asked and looked at Blast Shield, who just like me had an unsure look on his face.
“Umm… no?” Blast Shield said.
“Your initials are B.S.” All I could do was facehoof at Hofnarr’s joke while he smiled widely and Blast Shield shook his head.
“I don’t get it,” Pinkie said and tilted her head.
“You know, B.S. as in bull―” I quickly moved my hoof over Hofnarr’s mouth, effectively shutting him up.
“If you don’t already know then you’re not old enough to know,” I said and gave Hofnarr a glare while both he and pinkie pouted. A moment later I removed my hoof from Hofnarr’s mouth.
“So anyway, what’re we gonna do for… well pretty much the whole day?” Hofnarr asked as he rubbed his face. “We were supposed to be at the Wonderbolts academy for more flight training but that obviously didn’t go as planned, so there’s nothing to do.”
“Hey, maybe Fluttershy could help you fly!” Pinkie suggested. “What do you think, Fluttershy?”
“I don’t know; I’ve never taught anypony how to fly before, and certainly not a changeling. I don’t think I’d be very good at it.”
“C’mon, we’ll all be able lend a hoof where we can and Hofnarr will be here help too, just like at the academy with Spitfire!”
“Yeah! Wait, how did you know I helped Fragment at the academy?”
“I didn’t,” she replied, “so what do ya say, Fluttershy?” She asked and refocused on Fluttershy. After a moment Fluttershy smiled and said
“Alright, I’ll do my best to help you.”
“Thanks,” I said with a smile of my own.
“While we’re at it and if you think it’s a good idea, I think I’ll give you some advice on magic,” Twilight offered. Even though I knew them and we considered each other friends, it still surprised me that they’d take their time to help me learn flight and magic.
“I don’t see a reason not to. I really appreciate all of you helping me like this; you have no idea what it means to me.”
“It’s no trouble; you’re our friend and a good changeling so of course we’d help you,” Twilight said as we came to a wooden door with a plaque that read ‘breakroom’ on it. Twilight walked up to then knocked on the door.
“Wait, if your plan was to just ask someone, why didn’t you ask one of the guards at the dungeon or something?” Blast Shield asked. Before Twilight could reply the door to the breakroom opened with Dex on the other side. The moment she saw Hofnarr she narrowed her eyes on him and said
“You broke something, didn’t you?”
“Wow, really? That’s just uncalled for and rude,” Hofnarr said as he sat down and crossed his forelegs. “Still think it’s because I was ‘giving her a hard time,’ Fragment?”
“Look, I’m tired, overworked and have had a migraine all day, so excuse me if I’m not exactly a happy pony at the moment. So what do you all want?” Dex said while rubbing her right temple.
“We’d just like to know what time it is so we know how long until lunch,” Twilight explained. With a sigh, a Dex stepped back into the breakroom and looked toward her left then back to us,
“It’s a little passed eleven-forty, so you won’t need to wait too long ‘til you get something to eat.”
“Thank you,” Twilight said with a small smile, which Dex responded to with a nod as she shut the door.
“She still seems kinda mean to me,” Hofnarr remarked and stood back up.
“By ‘mean to me,’ do you mean mean to you, or mean in your opinion?” Blast Shield asked as Twilight began to lead us again.
“Uh… I’ll go with both. Hey, does anyone know what they’ll be making to eat?”
“They usually serve all kinds of food and drinks to choose from, so it’s hard to say exactly what they’ll have,” Twilight answered. After a few minutes of walking we came to the dining room - apparently it’s where she was taking us the whole time after talking with Dex. By the time we had gotten there the table was already set with food being brought out and set at six different spots.
“Wait, did they know that all of us were gonna be eating here?” Hofnarr asked as his eyes immediately went to a plate with watermelon slices on it as it was set on the table.
“Princess Celestia probably figured we would be and told them to have enough for all of us,” Twilight replied.
“Uh, Hofnarr? Any particular reason you’re practically drooling over the watermelon?” I asked as Hofnarr took a step closer to the table.
“I… love… watermelons! They’re so juicy and yummy and delicious!”
“Aren’t yummy and juicy pretty much the same thing?”
“Quiet, Blast Shield!” Hofnarr said as the last plate was set. “Thank you all… so much,” with that, Hofnarr took his seat and began putting food on his plate. The rest of quickly took our own seats. I think it would’ve been quite a sight to anyone other than us; so soon after two attacks by changelings against Equestria, here were two changelings and four ponies sitting and eating together like nothing had happened, like we were just other ponies having a pleasant meal.
I wondered if this would become normal for changelings and ponies one day; to be happy together.
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Mmmmm, melons.
The dinking can has a secret compartment right?
You can't trust a psychopathic assasin with anything!
Melons to rule them all :3
So he does have limits. I knew it
4027993
Maybe there are a few scraps of his heart left.
4027814
Cyclone Shade is so skilled that he can use the flask itself to pick locks.
4026658
4027864
Melons for the win!
4028121 everyone has heart, darkie. Sometimes it's hard to see that for some
4028160
A later character will show you otherwise.
4028248 that's what they said about Changelings in general. They said the same for Discord. Yet we've seen evidence to prove quite the oposite. In my experience, darkie, there is always a good side to everyone. Even someone who I personally thought was evil, but he changed recently.
4028525
I'm not saying they're pure evil, but I don't recall anything that's cannon that says so.
What "evidence" have you found that suggests changelings are good?
4028601 firstly, we know little about changelings due to "canon". Secondly, I always speak from experience. I've had a good year's worth of experience that shows they aren't evil.
SPOILER ALERT:
there's more than one hiveAlso, think about what they have to feed on. It's their nature to take love, but it can easily be given freely.
Well.. That went better than expected.
4028639
Do tell.
4028700
You know what that means. . . SH!T STORM INBOUND!
LOLZ!!!
Yay.
New chapter and CS has some sort of deep fried crumble of a heart left in him. Such beauty.
And melons..... I was online for too long in my life to see this statement as just what it is.
Can't wait for the next chapter. I remeber something in the linked blog post about Fragments appereance. Want to see how he'll get the change.
Dragon
4031264
Technically, it's already there.
4028844 you'd never believe me
4031445
4031461 just look at my latest comment on "Even Changelings Wear Masks"
4031281
Ahem....
Squeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nuff said.
Dragon
4031461 nothin to say to that? That's a first. jkjk
OMG Dude. Lemma just say that I'm officially impressed by the development happening in this fic. Do you have any idea how good you are at building suspense? Man, I'm putting this on my profile page.
4047506
much squee
such omg
very yay
And no, I actually have no idea how good I am at suspense, however I do know that I'm good at cliffhangers.
4047568 You are most welcome.
4058120
Shit be goin' down.
Done.
4058219
Very much unlike chapter 30.
4058160 So.
4058256 Then stop wasting time.
4059234
So? SO?! SO FUCK YOU!
4059238
Quit naggin' me, women!
4059239 So.
4059243 I did not know you thought I was a girl when in reality I am a boy.
Congratz!!!
You succeded in screwing up.
Did I just...
Rustle Your Jimmies.
4059305
In reality you're also sleep walking. Jus' sayin'.
4063553
Well he is a reporter...
4059315 In reality I'm reading ponies and your writing ponies, just saying.
4064212 i.imgur.com/hwX1iMR.jpg
4064244 And now you have feels?
4064268
I have slender who grew a face.
4064275 And I have a puppy in the moon.
4064406
Same way you do bold and italic. Even though there's no button for it you can do it by typing spoiler in brackets.
same goes for centering.
~A Dark Reminder
4064609
Because fuck you is why and with a knife is how.
This looks good. I'll read this latter.
4070300
I await your feedback.
4070540 Sure, least I can do for fixing up The New Boss. Though be warned. Very lazy reader, but I'll get to it.
4070771
How did you find this story, anyway?
4071931 Through the PETC group.
4072107
Ah.
Nope, for Shift here he would just shake his head and noped out of there.
4064028 who?