That night was quiet. Quiet save for the sound of Shining Armor’s gentle breathing as he slept. He was sleeping soundly, at least. Luna must have been watching over him. Any stallion would otherwise be tossing and turning and sweating after the day he had.
Cadance…Crypsis was not sleeping so soundly. She wasn’t at all, in fact. Sleep kept tugging at her eyelids, its pull growing stronger and stronger by the second. She refused its siren call, drowning it in cup after cup of the blackest coffee available that far north. She didn’t bother with any of the niceties like cream or sugar. The strong, cringe-worthy taste helped her stay awake.
She kept her eyes on the doors and windows of their bedroom; or rather, one of their guest rooms. Shining Armor had insisted she not be allowed to see their normal bedroom. She could only guess what happened, and no reasonable guess was anything good. Still, the room was nice, though with two beds instead of one. Shining slept in one, and the other was untouched.
The clock ticked in the dark as she sat in its embrace. Her changeling eyes flitted from door, to window, to door again, to another window, and so on and so on. No movement, save for the faint shimmering and twinkling of the stars in the night sky. She risked looking at the clock. It was morning, though she hadn’t noticed midnight passing by. The night was still young and she still had plenty of coffee. Hopefully she had enough.
There was a knock on the door. It was a certain rhythm, a certain signal, though nobody would guess it was unless they’d been raised on such codes.
Crypsis’ horn glowed, grabbing hold of the door and pulling it open. In stepped a crystal mare dressed in full royal guard armor, her black coat glittering in the light behind her and her blue eyes piercing in the dark.
“Princess Cadance,” she greeted with a bow. “I do hope I’m not disturbing you.”
“You aren’t, Black Ice,” she said, trying to keep the sleepy slurring to a minimum. She magically closed the door again, leaving them both in the dark. “But you can drop the act, Camea. Unless you have someone eavesdropping, nobody is listening.”
Black Ice blinked, and Camea opened her glowing blue changeling eyes with a burst of green fire. “Are you sure Shining is asleep?”
“I know when he’s faking sleep and when he’s really sleeping,” she chuckled. “He’s asleep.”
“And why aren’t you?” she asked back.
Crypsis lowered her gaze and took another long sip of coffee. “Mostly so I’m ready if Mother has you or our siblings kidnap me tonight.” She cast her eyes over to Shining Armor. “But to be honest, it’s partly because I don’t want to face Luna. She’s no doubt read Shining’s letter by now, and is tapping her hoof in the dream world waiting for me. I haven’t known her as long as I have Celestia or Twilight, but… I still don’t want to see her mad at me. I don’t want to see her hate me.”
“You’ll have to, eventually. There has never been a changeling who lived happily ever after once discovered,” Camea said.
“I know,” Crypsis muttered. “I hope that I’ll be the first, though.”
“If they don’t make your life miserable, Mother will,” Camea said with a sigh. “One way or another, every traitor to the family pays.”
Crypsis scoffed and shook her head, her eyes still on the sleeping Shining. “A traitor… yeah, I guess I am. I have been for years, but to them, not to the family.”
“You are now. You betrayed us, Princess,” Camea said softly. “You may be high born, but you were still our sister. You were still my sister…”
Crypsis tore her gaze from Shining to see Camea’s eyes downcast. Seconds ticked by before Crypsis asked, “What did you come here for? To take me away?”
Camea shook her head. “I ordered all prior instructions from Mother to be on hold until we hear back from her. The situation has changed, after all, and you’re no longer our commander, so that puts me in charge. That’ll buy you some time to get out of the city, but you won’t be safe here for long.”
Crypsis bowed her head. “Thank you, but… why? You already stuck your neck out for me when you told me Mother was going to kill Shining.”
“To return the favor,” she said simply. “I had an operative eavesdrop on your conversation with Shining earlier, when you woke up. You lied for us, told him that you had no idea who in the palace is a changeling.” She sighed and sat down. “I came to ask why you did that. You’ve been so kind to all of us under your command for so long, but you’re a traitor now. You’ve turned your back on your family, we’re your biggest threat, and yet you don’t have us thrown in the dungeon and interrogated. Why? What are you planning?”
“Shining might not have believed me,” Crypsis muttered.
“He believed you enough to let you sleep with him again,” she observed, looking over to Shining.
“In the same room,” Crypsis corrected, following her sister’s gaze. “He doesn’t trust me enough to sleep in the same bed. I don’t think I deserve that right, anyway.” She looked away and took another sip. “Besides… his heart is so broken and desperate to believe that I’m the Cadance he knew and loved that he’s completely ignoring his head. I think some part of him knows that.”
“But he can be a thorough, cautious stallion when he wants to be. He would’ve taken us in for questioning all the same, and if he’s half as desperate as you claim, he would’ve authorized more… advanced methods of interrogation,” Camea reasoned. “At least one of us would’ve cracked.”
The clock ticked and the clock tocked, and Shining breathed in and breathed out. Both went uninterrupted for a while before Crypsis said anything more. “You said it yourself, didn’t you? You’re still my sister. You’re all still my family,” she admitted. “I didn’t want to ‘turn my back’ on anyone, but… I can’t let Mother get her way.” She looked her sister square in the eye. “I can’t let her enslave this continent, hypnotize everyone on it, rule it as its shadow queen. She's grown more cruel and vicious over the past few centuries, and her hate for them will eclipse her love for us sooner or later.”
“She wants to give us a home, Princess,” Camea said softly, pleadingly.
“She wants to make these ponies suffer,” Crypsis shot back. “We can have a home, but it doesn’t have to be like this. It never had to be like this.”
“And what do you suggest?” Camea snapped. “You’ve already ruined your chances at any sort of diplomacy from the inside. Nobody trusts you anymore, Princess. Not changeling, not pony, nobody. The public only trusts you because they don’t know yet, and it will get leaked eventually and throw you into doubt. You’ve lost all the support that really mattered, and now you’ve barred us from living safely for the first time in countless years, all for this one stallion! What could you possibly do to fix this?”
“I… I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t know. I was so sick and tired of the lie I was living I thought I could expose her plans, lay down, and die. I was going to be happy with that. Now I’m not so sure. Shining wants to look for the real Cadance like I asked him to, but I don’t know what to do about our family and I don’t know what to do about Mother.” She wiped away a few fledgling tears. “I don’t know what I’m going to do anymore. I’m not even sure what I was thinking to begin with. I want our family, Shining, Equestria, everyone, to be happy, but I don’t know how to do it.”
Camea shook her head and stood up. “Don’t look to me for help. It was a mistake to tell you what Mother was planning for Shining in the first place. It’s probably a mistake to buy you time to leave in the next few days. I’m not doing you any more favors, Crypsis; my loyalty to you has run out. Once the orders come down to drag you away, you’re not getting any slack from me.” She turned her back on her princess and trotted to the door, every step a restrained stomp.
She flinched, steadying herself as she gulped down the last of her cup of coffee. As she refilled it from the pot, she said with a small sigh, “I guess I shouldn’t expect anything else. Tell your wife I said hello; I hope you’ll still be happy together.”
Camea hesitated, but only for an instant. When she opened the door and left, she was Captain Black Ice once more. When the door closed, Crypsis was left alone in the dark, with only a sleeping Shining and her coffee for company.
Oh my gosh, an update.
I want to know how the other three princesses react, I hope they don't go too hard on her.
I want to see what a certain overlord of Tartarus that nobody knows of yet thinks about all this. He'd probably say, "DEATH TO ALL CHANGELINGS!!!" and send his dragon army to eliminate them.
Hmmm.... can't evade them all forever, little Cadance.
You know, there's something Camera seems to have forgotten, trust can be regained. It's hard, to be sure, bit the fact that Crypsis revealed herself willingly and of her own accord, well that has to count for something.
Hey update. Long time no see.
dope
3333351
Yes, an update. And you'll see, either next chapter or the one after that.
3333504
...wha?
3333574
fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/128/1/0/legion_of_changelings_by_spawn0701-d4z0yqg.jpg
3333692
Very true. Still, they're both in a really bad place emotionally, so they wouldn't be looking at the whole picture. Hope is sometimes a hard thing to consider.
3333871
The story missed you too.
3333966 You'll understand very, very soon; around the time of season four's premiere, hopefully.
3333966 You'll understand very, very soon; around the time of season four's premiere, hopefully.
So Crypsis still lied to Shining? Yeah, I'm not happy about that. At all.
Half is the fact the Shining and the other ponies deserve better, and half of it is my blatant distaste for people who don't seem to know where they stand.
I'm actually going to quote Star Trek TNG for a second, because it's honestly the first thing that came to mind when I read this chapter, and I agree with everything Picard says here:
Background: Admiral Jarok is a Romulan defector who has warned the Federation of an impending Romulan attack, but refuses to give them any more information.
Picard: On what basis, Admiral, am I to decide? Hmm? Your good word? Are you willing to help us overpower the Romulan B-type warbirds we may encounter? Are you prepared to help us detect them through their cloaking shields? Well, you see my problem, Admiral. You ask us for faith in circumstances which are hardly possible to believe, compounded by lies and your refusal to tell us what you know!
JAROK: I cannot betray my people!
PICARD: You've already betrayed your people, Admiral! You've made your choices, sir! You're a traitor! Now, if the bitter taste of that is unpalatable to you, I am truly sorry. But I will not risk my crew because you think you can dance on the edge of the Neutral Zone. You've crossed over, Admiral. You make yourself comfortable with that.
3334012
I guess so.
3334194
You're allowed to feel that way. One of the nice things about being a writer is seeing what different people with different life experiences see in and feel about the story.
Personally though, I find that assessment a bit harsh. Being torn between two worlds, two allegiances, two families, what you know is right and what you were raised with, is a very difficult experience to go through, not to mention a life-changing one. Not everyone can fully leave their life behind and sacrifice their old world's happiness for the safety of their new one all in one day, or all in one action. Sometimes they try desperately to satisfy both - and sometimes, sooner or later, they find that everyone being happy is impossible.
Yes, indecisiveness is a shortcoming, but as with any shortcoming, some people find it more forgivable than others. That's my take, anyway; not looking to start an argument.
3334194
Agreed.
It's okay to be neutral. I love being neutral and Switzerland has practically turned it into an art form, but once you go and ruin some major plans for one side or the other, you're already on the train and have left the station. You can't turn back, so you may as well blow the whistle while you're at it.
3334194
Except that there is a huge difference between refusing to take part in Chrysalis's plans anymore by committing/attempting to commit suicide by hypothermia and pointing out other Changelings for Shining to take his anger and grief out on... She hates being a Changeling (her biology forcing her to do such things to ponies she loves), but I would think this chapter establishes she does not hate Changelings themselves--she understands why they must do what they do as predators to their prey and that it cannot be changed--and she would never wish to harm them, even indirectly (via Shining, in this case).
One old wives tale relates to watching the face of one you love while they're asleep, to see their true face. Cadence/Crypsis may well consider that option, since she has the opportunity now. Perhaps what she sees will surprise her...
Ah, there we go... I KNEW things where looking too good.
Hrm... I wonder just how many infiltrators are out there... and how many of them would prefer to just live their adopted lives and leave Chrysalis to stew in her pit of envy and hate all on her own?
Could the Changeling Civil War be far off?
3378486 there are several, I assure you that.
3334284 there is a very, very deep morale to this fic stating that yes appearances can be deceiving, but those that seem to willingly be against you are not always wanting to be against you, Crypsis found love in its natural way and she wouldn't allow chrysalis to take it away, I have seen what finding love in its natural way can do, trust me, I almost hurt someone because they tried to separate me and my love, there have been struggles between us but that is to be expected.
Wow. This is... heart-shatteringly excellent.
I just heard a reading of chapter one of this story and would really like to see it completed. Do you have any plans to finish it in the future?
3606804
A... a reading? Nobody ever told me about that. I mean, I'm flattered as hell, but I was completely unaware! Can I have a link?
And yes, of course I plan on finishing it. I'd like to give all my stories a proper conclusion. Life has not been kind lately, however. This story will be continued, just... not as quickly as I or anyone else would like.
3607397
It's by a guy named Reconciliono and unfortunately, it's just chapter one with no indication that he'll be continuing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM8l23GcIcc.
I'll mention I'm glad it only ended up being chapter 1 (I didn't realize it wasn't a one-shot at the time), because I got to the end was very disappointed. I definitely want to see how this plot resolves. :)
I think I have an idea of what's going to happen but I hope it backlashes on the wannabe ruler Chrysalis and she ends up imprisoned instead.
I'm just waiting until one of the Princesses hits upon the idea of offering every changeling who's sick of being on the run, sick of having no home, sick of the endless war, a place in Equestria. It's cunning because Chrysalis is clearly offering her people something they badly want--a home--to command loyalty to herself, so the best way to sabotage Chrysalis is to offer her people what they want without having to follow Chrysalis' path to get it. Of course it'll be awkward, but Celestia apparently commands lots of trust because within months or even sooner of Luna's return, Equestria seems to have lost all genuine (as opposed to the fun-to-be-scared exaggerated fear that was shown in "Luna Eclipsed") fear of the monster of their stories, because Celestia says it's all good. Since Crypsis seems able to be around Shining for long periods without killing him from taking her daily ration of love, there are surely ways to compensate for it.
Gee, I'm fond of this idea...
This is a pretty good story. can't wait to read more.
I can't believe I'm keeping an eye on another Tragedy. I don't usually react well to tragedies.
I don't know if you'll be able to answer, but what style of tragedy is this? Should I expect nothing but doom and agony for every character I might care about?
So much tragedy already, I can't feel it'd be worth reading unless it ended well or at least optimistically. Good job on the story though I really feel for all the characters.