A Chance Encounter
Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, or Princess Cadance for short, was hardly a threatening pony. In a world of little ponies and a series meant for little girls, she was the epitome of a “Pretty Pink Pony Princess” among her kind. She was legitimately pink coated, with a long wavy tail and mane that cycled through a deeper pink, purple and yellow hues. Her name translated to “I Love Cadance” and suitably was the Princess of Love. Before her appearance there had been absolutely no mention of her in the show, same for her soon-to-be husband, despite having been Twilight’s foalsitter for years and the fiancee of said bookworm’s brother. When she did finally appear, she was little more than a damsel in distress, and in later episodes was hardly a contribution to the events happening around her. If she wasn’t the eventual ruler of the Crystal Empire, I honestly don’t think she would be worth mention or use for future episodes with all the lack of development that really went into her. She was like one of the older My Little Pony series characters; bland, one layered, air headed and unassuming.
So finally meeting her in real life, standing over me after having broken into Celestia’s Vault and bumping into her, was jarring.
To be clear, ponies look pretty much like what you see on the show. The colors and details are...deeper, I guess you could say, but they’re still very recognizable and cartoonish to some degree. It’s only in the finer details that things become more personalized and unique. Cadance was already notably taller than the average mare and it showed in her long, graceful legs and slim neck. What the show failed to detail however was the fact that her body actually had a respectable amount of muscle hidden under the model-like build. It wouldn’t really be obvious unless as close as I was right now however, and most of that muscle seemed focused around her wings and upper legs. Her horn is also very thick all along its length, and about as long as Princess Luna’s horn should be. Her mane is not as uniform with its color scheme as in the show; instead of solid bars of each hue, it was more like her hair was rosey pink with highlights scattered through it all. She was actually, for a pony, very beautiful so certainly she fit the bill for being the alicorn of Love. The only problem was she had the power to screw me over with one well-cast spell or shout for the guards.
“Who are you?” She asks, leaning down some to look at me. “What are you?” I remain silent, mind awhirl with frantic thoughts. If Celestia caught wind of me being free I’d be right back to the stone age. But I wasn’t the same Digimon I was before right? Then again it would hardly matter; I might appear different but it wouldn’t take her long to connect the dots. Either way I was a strange, alien creature and that left two possibilities. Either I was BlackWarGreymon, or something of Discord’s making. Neither option left me alive and free to be me.
Princess Cadance reaches out with her front hooves and picks me up, wary but too curious to leave me alone. Now aloft in the air, my cheeks are being mashed by her hooves as she turns me slightly from side to side to inspect my form. “You don’t really look all that scary. But then again nothing he’s been doing has made much sense. Maybe you’re not even his doing.” She smiles softly, probably taking my lack of aggression as a good sign I’m friendly. “What’s your name?”
With my computer brain getting a boost from absorbing my Shield, I could think and process data at a rate that turned seconds to minutes. It wasn’t as fast as one-thousand years ago, but it was helpful in letting me think over how to respond right now. But how do I reply? She’d given me a potential way out; I could play the ‘victim’ card or lead her to thinking I was just a poor displaced creature found on a day with everything out of whack. Talking verbally was immediately out however as I couldn’t trust myself to not say something I shouldn’t, now or later. But I couldn’t see myself playing dumb for long either. I wasn’t some pea-brained pet or creature that could only...say its...name…
Oh, that’s it! Thank you nineties cartoons!
“Koromon!” I chirp, smiling without teeth and waggling my ears in the air happily. “Koro koro!”
“Koromon?” She repeats. “Oh, so that’s your name. How cute!”
My smile widens a hair at how easily she falls for it. It was an easy plan really; a Digimon, pretending to act like a Pokemon. I’d just say my name in different ways over and over as ‘speech’ and could show that I’m just as smart as I wish her to know without worry. I’m sure there could be plenty of other magical creatures out there close or similar to me too, so that would give me another layer of protection. Now all I had to do was get away and find someplace to hide. Maybe I could see about using her friendliness to get into the castle from time to time too.
“Would you like to come inside with me?” Wait what? “It’s not really safe out here…” She trails off, looking to the side to stare at something. When I look over I see that there’s a marble hoof hopping along with flowers sprouting from the stump of its knee, giggling and followed by a flower pot chasing it on two spindly ceramic legs. “Well, more like really wierd. I just wanted to see what was happening, but if I stay too long the guards will get worried and I’d hate to make them waste time searching for me in all of this. No reason to stay - alone - in my room the whole time though.” She looks back at me and gives me that warm, soft smile again. “How about it, Koromon?”
Was this really happening? She was inviting me, a strange creature, right into the castle in the middle of a crisis. Should I accept though? I couldn’t look away without appearing suspicious, but I could make out a patrol flying past from the corner of my eye. Escape was best, yet the area was becoming quickly saturated in armored goons. In this situation, perhaps then the exact opposite plan was the key. Nodding as best I could in her grip, I chirp my name again and she brightens.
“Thank you Koromon - I promise we’ll have a good time. I’ve got a few games in my closet, and I’m sure there’s a few snacks somewhere…” She chatted excitedly, lifting me in her magic to place on her back. Her good mood was infectious as I felt myself beginning to smile as well. Perhaps I should look at this as a nice break from all the drama and negativity of my, relatively speaking, short time here in Equestria so far. I could play this role happily as the innocent little creature, and get to know the only princess so far I didn’t have history with. I just hope she didn’t drive me batty with too much girly stuff. By which I mean ‘pretty pink princess’ stuff; the show was all about friendship and appealing to young girls already. That stuff was perfectly fine, until you got to a point that involved dressing me up or tea parties, or both. That’s where I’d draw the line.
Showing some wisdom in her planning, Princess Cadance didn’t actually take me along any of the main thoroughfare routes in the castle. She took back halls and more servant orientated staircases, meant to hide their coming and going, rather than risk me being seen. It didn’t dampen her good cheer however; after telling me about the things we could do, she told me little anecdotes she had about the areas we passed through. Some of them even involved her earliest days at the castle, which to my surprise wasn’t from birth. Apparently, from what I could gather at least from her chatter, she’d been taken in by her ‘aunt’ Celestia shortly after getting her Cutie Mark. She used to get hopelessly lost in the corridors of the sprawling inner complex until befriending a few of the servants. I couldn’t help but wonder why she needed to be taken in, but then again, I bet she hadn’t been born with those wings. Or perhaps it was the horn that’s new? Either way it was a surprising thing to learn about her.
Another big surprise came when we finally reached her room. After a long and winding walk we at last arrived in a corridor full of what I assumed was guest quarters for various officials and visiting nobles. The doors all had little brass holders that you could slide a nameplate into and out, giving me the idea behind the halls purpose. But the first guest room was actually more personalized. In place of a nameplate was a big, ornate rendition of Cadance’s Cutie Mark. The doorframe was also laced with thin gold lines that resembled vines running up either side. It was all rather worn looking; the Cutie Mark had some polish to it still, but the door overall would have been more fitting in an old abandoned manor than a well maintained castle. Some paint had chipped around the edges where it rubbed against the lush carpet and door frame, and I could just about read some old faded drawings that a young Cadance must have put on to further personalize it. The maids must have disagreed, or perhaps Cadance had done it herself once older. Either way the door told me that perhaps dear Cadance was much older than she looked. That, or nobody cared enough to upkeep it…
My thought was interrupted as she opened the door and walked inside, closing it with the lock latching shut behind us. “Well here we are Koromon. Hope you don’t mind being cooped up in here with me for a few hours.” She says, setting me down and trotting over to the closet. “I’ll just unbury some games...gosh, when’s the last time I cleaned this thing? Ugh.”
My host’s distraction let me take a good look around. My first thought was...it’s not pink, huh. The second was that it was quite spacious with very few pieces of furniture. There was a big bed with curtains surrounding it, taking the most room, and then came a small vanity, a desk piled with books and scrolls, a little table holding a vase of flowers near the bed and a wardrobe which probably held her few pieces of clothing. The ceiling was quite high, unmarked by any painting and holding a single chandelier up there. Two large windows oversaw the city and castle grounds from behind the desk, each easily big enough for a pony even Cadance’s size to fit through. Finally there was three doors in the room; the entrance, the closet where Cadance was and what I could see through the open door was a bathroom. All in all, it was actually pretty spartan. I could tell that she’d lived here for many years but had not seen to clutter it up with lots of memorabilia. It more felt like a college dorm, especially when I looked over to the desk and saw one spine of a book read ‘Adv. Trigonometry Volume I’, than a bedroom for a Princess.
Hopping closer to the center of the room, I watch her backside wiggle a little as her horn glows and moves things around deeper in the closet. She kept muttering things under her breath, and occasionally a board game would float out and land close to me. I guess she’d taken the opportunity to clean up a mess she’d been letting build up in there. I took one of the offered games and look it over, seeing that it was basically their equivalent of Clue. Well it couldn’t hurt I suppose. Setting it up, she finally stops once I had it all laid out and turns to find me sitting there waiting and looking around still. I couldn’t help but feel that this wasn’t really a ‘princess’ room.
“There we - oh! You already picked?” She asks. “You really are a clever thing aren’t you Koromon?” Sitting down across from me, she actually lowers herself on all fours so we could look each other in the eye better. As she picks up the cards and begins to lay and shuffle them out, she must have noted my looking around because she says, “Not much to look at is it? My room I mean. I prefer it this way actually, since it means I can focus when I’m studying. Besides, just because I’m a Princess doesn’t mean I should deck my bedroom out in silk and some sort of matching color scheme, tapestries, and a whole fireplace. I mean, Aunt Celestia’s bedroom is pretty cool because of that stuff, but I’d hate to make anypony have to renovate an entire room for me like that. Not to mention I’d have to move, and I’ve come to really love this little spot. The view is wonderful on a less chaotic day.”
“Ko.” I voice my understanding. I don’t believe that I was a rich human back when I was one, but if my feelings now were accurate to the me that was, I doubt I would’ve cared to deck a place out either. A fireplace sounded pretty cool though. Oh and maybe a fireman pole to get downstairs fast. On second thought scratch the firepole; give me a secret bookcase doorway, for something like a hidden game room. Now that’d be cool. “Ko Koromon.”
She giggles. “So how about I start?”
The time passed in peace and fun. I was a little worried that the ‘language barrier’ between us would sometimes hamper us. But Cadance actually seemed to have a good grasp of what I was saying, even if it technically was gibberish. We got through a round of Clue before deciding that it wasn’t as a fun without more folks joining in. So instead Cadance pulled out a deck of cards, and had chosen Cherry Hold’em with Monopoly money pulled out to use as our betting currency. Of course it was just Texas Hold’em with a new name, but apparently she really knew how to play. Her poker face was damn impressive, since I couldn’t tell a thing about how she was doing with every hand we played. Too bad for her luck seemed to be on my side.
Using my ear tentacles was good dexterity practice for them as I held my cards up in their grip and patted the pile of cash to my side. “Koro koro.” I call, sliding a few fake bits forward. I had a good chance at a full house with what we had on the flop. Cadance however was taking my challenge this time, humming for a moment before meeting my wager.
“Alright little guy, let’s see what Lady Luck says this time!” She cries. Flipping the final card, we both stare at one another, daring the other to make a bet or fold. After a tense pause, she taps her hoof to check, and I tap my ear as well. With a small smug grin she lays her hand down, showing that she had five red cards. “Red Flush, read ‘em and weep.”
It was a good hand I’ll admit. I had been working with just Two Pairs myself, and she seemed to sense that as she reached out to sweep my winnings over to her side. I slap it with my cards for dramatic tension, letting them flop to the ground besides the others, showing I now had a Full House thanks to the final drop. Her pout was amusing and I couldn’t stop myself from laughing at her.
“You win again - how do you keep doing that?” She mutters, flicking her coins at me in petty revenge. “Shiny never wins when I play with him and some of the guards, why not you?” I could think of a few reasons. “Ooh, unless...he better not be holding back, that sneaky devil! I swear I’ll-”
Whatever threat she was planning was interrupted by a knock on the door. The two of us freeze and look over at the door knob. It didn’t move but we still waited. “Is everything alright ma’am?” A stallion calls out from the other side.
My companion relaxes marginally. “Everything’s fine sir, just passing the time. How goes it with Discord and the rest of Canterlot?”
“Her Highness reports that everything is well in hand with the draconequus felon. The Element Bearers have already been summoned and should have him sealed within the hour. Captain Shining Armor has also mobilized personally to handle the issues down within the city. He has the situation well under control.” The likely guard replies.
“That’s my Shiny…” Cadance smiles and sighs happily through her nose.
“Is there anything you require ma’am?”
“I’m good, but if you need any help I’d be more than happy to lend a hoof.”
There was a moment's pause. “The Royal Guard has the situation under control ma’am. Please remain in your quarters - somepony will be around once the all-clear has been issued.” There was a few quick hoofsteps and then he was gone. Was it just me or did that sound off? I mean, I get that not risking royalty was the whole deal behind having royal guards. But something about how he said it was...then again, maybe he just feared what Shining Armor would say.
Of course not everything he said was right. Knowing how the show went, I was willing to bet we’d be here for more than just an hour. The girls had only just set off for the hedge maze before I got in touch with my Shield. That had taken at worst twenty minutes. Then Cadance spent about another ten taking me up to her room. About half an hour past that was used up playing games, bringing the total time to an hour since Discord first stole the Elements and sent Twilight on a wild goose chase. I doubt he pulled the mental switches right away with each of them, being a prankster of the most malicious kind. So perhaps an hour would be just about right, for him to win the bet that is. Then Twilight and her greyed out friends would have to go back to Ponyville, fail in using the Elements, have Discord taunt them some more, Princess Celestia would have to send those letters, Twilight would have to round up all her unhappy friends…
I wouldn’t say it’d take days, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was night by the time things were truly wrapped up. At least, once he stopped juggling the sun and moon it would be. Which means we were going to need something a little more stimulating than Texas Hold’em. Wagging an ear tentacle at Cadance, I catch her attention and point toward another box nearby.
“You want to play Chess?” She asks, and I nod. “Hm, okay then, why not? We’ve got about an hour to burn, and I know I’m a good chess player. You won’t get me this time!”
Smiling, I carefully push the cards into a pile and try to stack them while she sets up the board. Let’s see if my computer brain is any good at this as Deep Blue was.
Several hours later our friendly competition was still going strong. After tying in Chess we had moved on to Checkers, Mahjong, Life, Guess Who, Twister, Connect Four and several others. Not all of them had been bright ideas; Guess Who was hilarious since only one of us could ‘speak’ and I failed Twister every second turn. Now we were onto Risk, which true to form, had sucked up most of the time in a very long, drawn out battle for dominance of Equestria. I had taken the spawning spot where the Crystal Empire would one day stand, bottle-necking all of her approaches, while Cadance had claimed Canterlot and quickly spread herself thin over the entire region. It was a case of the shield and spear paradox; my forces were too strong to be defeated in just one round, but she had so many that she could keep spawning more and send them my way from just about anywhere on the map. The few times I tried to send some into the gap left from her defeats, she overwhelmed them. The one time RNG gave her a foothold, my forces easily swept her back and reinforced the single entrance. It surprised me that both of ours style were so different from what I expected. I’d settled into turtling until an opportunity arrived after my first spearhead failed, but Cadance had been all about growing and swarming the board.
Speaking of whom, Cadance had taken to reading a book and was now laying on her side. Neither of us was really paying the board much attention anymore; just rolling the dice and making our moves when we felt like it. I was even nestled between her front hooves and reading over one limb with her. She did most of the moving for me, although I always kept an eye out to call foul if she cheated. The book itself was a romance novel named The Alicorn Bride, and apparently it was very well read by Cadance. The cover was worn and some pages were looking close to falling out, but the joy in her face as she skimmed over the words told me it was a priceless thing. I had a feeling this was another familiar ‘ponied’ story from back on Earth too, given some of what I’d read so far. She had good tastes.
“I never understand why griffons like to grow beak hair.” Cadance commented idly. “I mean I’ve never seen a style that actually works. They all look...glued on most of the time, or worse like they let their nose hair grow out, ugh.” She was talking of course about the master swordfighter fighting the dread pirate the narration was following at the moment. A handsome griffon going by the description, except for the aforementioned beak hair she disliked. “That would explain the Ambassador’s look though…”
I snicker at the image before a knock comes from the door. In a blur of hooves and pink Cadance moves, lifting me up in the air with her magic and running over to the closet. Before I could protest she covers my mouth with a hoof, shushing me, and then sets me inside with most of the board games. As the door begins to swing shut, I see her sweeping the Risk map under her bed and making it appear as if she’d been in her room alone. When the door at last clicks shut, I hear another open and she greets someone.
“Hello?”
“Her Highness Princess Celestia has given the all-clear ma’am. Discord has been apprehended and is being transported back to the garden under escort as we speak. The last traces of his chaotic magic will vanish within the next hour we believe.”
“Oh thank goodness, I’m glad…” She trailed off, the pause growing almost uncomfortably long. “Wait, what time is it? Oh my gosh it’s been hours! I thought everything was going to be done soon after we- I mean when I got back to my room. What happened to Twilight and her friends? They weren’t hurt were they?”
The guard shuffled if the clatter of armor was any indication. “There were...unexpected complications that arose due to Discord’s magic. Her Highness however says not to worry - Twilight Sparkle and the other Element Bearers are all resting on the express train back to Canterlot even as we speak. They are not injured and in fact are scheduled for an award ceremony in honor of their deeds.”
“Oh.” Another pause. “Well, so long as nopony is hurt, I suppose that’s...good. Maybe I’ll go greet them and-”
“No need ma’am. Her Highness is already planning to meet them at the platform. Princess Luna is also overseeing the transport once Discord’s statue arrives at the station. You can continue on with your evening in peace.”
“Oh...I see, thank you sir. That will be all.” The door closed after another moment, the lock clicking back on audible in the quiet air of the bedroom. I stay inside the closet just listening for a bit, thinking over what I’d heard too.
That earlier nagging feeling about how the guard spoke now made more sense after this one. It wasn’t outright obvious, but there was some kind of clear bias in how those two handled addressing Cadance compared to Celestia. While both had been formal, the only times they’d used titles, like ‘Her Highness’, had been in regards to Celestia or once with Luna. Cadance was only called ‘ma’am’. There was also the fact that they’d simply wanted her to stay in the room. Again, to question my own suspicion this made sense for the guards to do. They were there to protect royalty and the nobles housed within the castle. But what about Princess Celestia and Princess Luna? Certainly they were doing something this whole time? Though last I saw of sunbutt was when she stared out the window, left her precious vault unattended while still open and sent some letters through Spike. Poor guy must have a terrible stomach ache now too. But that’s all I know about her work in this crisis. Luna perhaps took some more bold actions, given what I saw of her in the Nightmare Night episode. But I never heard or saw her around as well. I suppose then I didn’t have much evidence for my suspicion, but even in the face of nothing my gut was telling me I had something.
It was telling me that perhaps Princess Cadance wasn’t living the ‘Pretty Pink Pony Princess’ life like it seemed.
If anything, this just made my next decision easier. Gripping the inside door handle with an ear, I tug on it as I swing forward. The force opens it, and I plop down on the other side on the carpet. Cadance is still standing in front of the door, a deep frown on her face as she thinks over something. When I hop into her line of sight, she blinks and turns, smiling warmly and putting aside her troubles. “Sorry about that Koromon.” She apologizes. “I just wanted to make sure he didn’t see you. No need to risk getting us in trouble if somepony disagreed with you being here. I didn’t hurt you did I?”
“Ko.” I shake my head.
“Oh good. I’m afraid our game of Risk is over too.” Walking back to the center of the room, her horn lights up and pulls everything from under the bed. As it organizes and gets puts away she asks, “By the way - I guess since you’re still a cute little pink blob that you weren’t affected by Discord’s magic?”
“Koromon, ko koro momon.”
“You’re not dangerous are you?”
“Ko!”
“Didn’t think so. Bad little monsters don’t usually play fair during poker.” Cadance giggles, and I snort as well. Trust my character to be judged on how I play cards. Personally, I would have gone off of Risk. “Well, now I guess we need to figure out what to do next.”
Here’s my chance then. Siding up next to her, I lean into one leg and wrap a tentacle around it in a hug. She looks down and pets me with a hoof. It, admittedly, feels nice. “Koromon. Koro...koro koro!” I chirp up at her. She tilts her head a bit and I squeeze my ear. “Koromon!”
“Uh...oh!” Cadance smiles. “You want to stay with me? Don’t you have a home to go back to?”
Several thousand years and likely a few dimensions from here, yes. But that window passed in a blaze of rainbow long ago sweetheart. “Ko.”
“Well I could always use a new friend, and a pet. T-That is if you don’t mind me calling you that!”
“Koro.” Being her pet was just about what I’d hoped for really. I hadn’t intended to stick around when I first followed her up here. Hiding in plain sight, getting an inside view of the castle, and heck, having a good time was all I’d been looking for. I got to enjoy the main three and also learned more about Equestria’s lesser known princess. She lived like a college student; a well lived-in room but with few personal effects, not to mention the desk full of papers and textbooks. She didn’t have private quarters; she moved in years ago after arriving but never moved into more ‘princess-y’ accommodations, which I suspect wasn’t entirely her choice. The guards treated her strangely; words and titles had meaning when in high society, and being around them meant they had to be trained to address people properly. She wasn’t a pink pony princess, aside from coat coloration. She was a strong willed tomboy-like mare who enjoyed hanging with ‘the guys’ but still had a core of romantic interests that fit her title. Princess Cadance was a deeper pony than I thought...and so was the mystery I was sensing around her.
Tactically I should probably pull back and hide myself better. I wouldn’t be the average pet, much less one for a princess. Eyes would be on me around the castle for some time, so I couldn’t do anything suspicious even if I let myself be known as a particularly smart creature. If instead I snuck in, or just came to visit Cadance from to time, then I wouldn’t have to fear Celestia hovering over me. But doing so meant there was much more risk as well. I’d have to avoid guards, servants, nobles and princesses every time. There was no guarantee I’d make any headway if I couldn’t spend more than a few minutes here every time. Breaking back out too would double the chance of being caught, and once they realized I was searching for my armor, they’d lock those things down tight. Plus, it would keep Princess Cadance clear of any crimes I might commit, and I didn’t hold a beef with her to do such a thing. But the pros of living here with her outweighed everything I could think of otherwise.
Then came the mystery I was sensing. Princess Cadance lived a seemingly good, royal lifestyle, but looked to be just a college kid with a rich daddy. By which I mean it was a gilded cage; she lived happily so long as she didn’t try to move out. Princess Celestia might have brought Cadance in if only to protect a fellow alicorn, and then left orders with the guards to insure she didn’t get her hooves messy. But to play devil’s advocate, I wasn’t the best man to judge her right now. She’d stung me by imprisoning the wrong monster all those years ago and I wanted badly to get back at her. Finding a mystery involving another alicorn, a supposed family member, was appealing to my sense of revenge. I could easily see myself leading Cadance on to finding these facts out herself, and present myself as a trustworthy ally to align with. Once I reacquire my armor, an alicorn to fight by my side if needed would tip the scales decidedly, especially if she was one with a deep bond with Twilight Sparkle. Could she really fire the Elements of Harmony at someone who wasn’t corrupted and a dear, dear friend?
I might not be a true villain, but it paid to know the tricks of both sides of the coin.
“Well that’s great then!” Cadance interrupts my thoughts. “Don’t worry girl - I’ll take good care of you!”
“Koromon!” I chirp, equally excited for-
Wait.
Girl?!
After the sun had set and ponies went off to slumber, Princess Celestia walked the halls of her castle with a serene smile on her face. Twilight Sparkle and her friends had once again saved Equestria. Their friendship had been tested and stressed, yet in the end it was more powerful and stronger than it could have ever been otherwise. Discord was once more sealed away, and his magic had long faded over even the worst of the affected places. No lives had been lost in the chaos, and most importantly, her careful planning had gone off without a hitch. Even poor Spike, after her surge of letters, had a happy ending thanks to the small pile of gems she’d given him to soothe his little stomach. Now all that remained was to put back the Elements of Harmony into the Vault, and call it a day by retiring to her quarters.
Entering the aforementioned Vault’s antechamber, she gazed over the various stained glass reliefs and enjoyed the latest to join the growing history of her student. One day she hoped a very special one might be placed there, but as with all good things it would still take some time. However her happy mood died somewhat as she noticed something amiss. The Vault door was still open. Due to the spellwork she herself had placed on it, the reinforced door should have swung shut once she left this room. Not that she had much to worry about; the interior was heavily warded especially around the basement and upper floors. If anypony had tried to sneak in, one of numerous traps would have caught or punished them, and the doors would have sealed to keep them locked up. A small frown crossed her face, and with a glow of yellow magic she began to probe the door for anything amiss.
“Discord.” She states. “I should have known.” It would appear that when he first stole the Elements he had not done so without first tinkering all along her arrays. Several of the more automatic functions were gone, while the traps and alarms were re-arranged or disabled. With a quick retrieval spell she had the ornate box holding the Elements floating beside her. Setting them onto the pedestal, she secured them first before venturing deeper to relay and redo all of her spells. After several minutes of hard work, she had only the basement remaining and with a spark of light turned on the crystal sconces lining the walls. Most of the items down here were those deemed too dangerous to be on immediate display in her own private storage. Hidden behind magical walls and wards more than the physical, it was carefully disguised to be the most innocent appearing room with deadly traps for anypony who dared to touch anything at all. But Discord’s magic had frayed most of it all, and what’s worse was that she immediately noticed something very wrong.
Walking over to the middle support wall, she stands in front of two swords lying on the ground, inert and removed from the coat-of-arms above. She wracked her ancient brain to remember what had once been there, and felt a chill crawl down her spine once she knew. Acting quickly, she tried to trace or find anything leading to the perpetrator with spells, but nothing comes up. A strange energy had washed away any signs of who might have done it, and what’s worse, it was a familiar energy.
“No, it can’t be!” She exclaims.
Galloping full tilt out of the Vault, she teleports the minute she was past the wards and reappears out in the statute garden. Passing Discord’s frozen shell, she rushes down to the very end and halts before an empty pedestal. Sides burning for air, she stares down at the small plaque barely covered by a few vines and bits of rust. This section of the garden had been left almost entirely untouched by pony hooves for generations, out of fear of the negative aura that seemingly clung to it. An aura that was now missing along with the statue it had come from. Lifting a hoof, she brushes the worst of the creep away and stares at the words she’d put down herself long ago.
The Black Knight
Bringer of Nightmares
“He escaped then too…the Black Knight.” Celestia all but spat. “The monster who infected my sister with darkness. I won’t let him do it again!”
So sleepy zzz...worked on it late into the night zzz... 
Will double-check later, enjoy chapter now plzzz...
Edit: Wide awake and a few spelling and gammer edits fixed now! God I'm glad it flows like I'd hoped.
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Waking up to see this and The Lunar Guardsmen update at the same time? I guess no Christmas this year.
Thanks for another chapter so quickly, but we can wait for you to have slept.
Love the chapter and how you put cadence into play keep up the good work but u could have waited until after you slept to post it
Bringer of nightmares?
coming from the mare who her left her own sister to go into depression and got her turned into NMM (im guessing)BEFORE they fought the dragon knight(that was innocent mind you)and blamed it on the now entitled "the black Knight"......I am WAY over thinking this holy shit
7170994 in most, if not all stories, Tia is a blind hypocrite blaming others for her mistakes.
7170665
7170718
I DO WHAT I WANT! YOU CAN'T STOP ME.
7170994
Yah, Celestia's not exactly guilt free on any level. Funny how 1,000 years can easily make you believe nothing was actually your fault when you have a good scapegoat, or rather, scapemon.
7171282 next few chapters please if u can find the time to that is
I would be very insteresting if more digimon came to this world.
interesting
digimons can feed on any kind of emotional energy, it would be fun to see the effects of the elements of harmony in now that is in a neutral state
digimons can be played on its own or with a partner
Awesome chapter.
7171282
when is the next chapter?
7171921
Hopefully soon!
7171984 cool i can't wait hope it comes out soon, by the way when is he gonna get all of his armor? And when he does is he gonna fight celestia and luna for wrongly imprisoning him?
7172022
I love that folks like you show so much interest in my story. It tells me I'm doing something right haha!
Unfortunately telling those kind of things, even in comments, would spoil the story! You could look at other Displaced tales for hints as to how the plot might go. But then again, my intention going into this was to parody and shift the mood from comedic to more drama compared to the others. There won't be crossovers with other authors, for one example.
I'll try my best to keep things rolling out at a good pace though, so that folks can get answers to questions like yours sooner than later!
Hmm well i can see why the elements worked on if before being the negative version of wargreymon but since he isint a blackagumon or any of the other negative versions they wouldn't work if they tried it now and he could always digivolve into a regular wargreymon instead of a blackwargreymon i guess. Very good so far keep it up!
7172277 ah dang oh well i tried thank you though
Yay new update
keep up the good work.
Celestia making a hasty, and wrong, assumption about a displaced. Where have I seen that before? Still, don't fix what isn't broken. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
7174262
Aye. Displaced fics have many similar themes and tropes, but they're hardly bad ones. Just takes knowing which ones to use, and which ones to joke about.
7174342 True enough.
I loved Digimon as a kid. Personally, I think my partner would probably be Dracumon. Just because.
Another thing: Will the Knight get a DigiDestined? It would be interesting if Cadence turns out to be his DigiDestined, and this leads into the two of them having to fight Celestia and Luna. Or with Black WarGreymon shattering the Digivice once he got what he needed from her. Meh. That's just me.
Wait… What if the CMC become DigiDestined? OH BOY! That would be AWESOME!
This fic has some serious potential, and I look forward to reading future chapters.
So Cadence isn't getting the same treatment as her Aunts? Koromon will be known as a creature that speaks its own name to Cadence until he digivolves into Agumon? And Celestia will now try to kill BlackWarGreymon for something SHE did (Allowing Luna to surrender to the Darkness for 1000 years) at the first sight of Koromon when he can barely defend himself, and in front of Cadence, her own Niece, who chose to take him/her in as a pet? GEE...This surely won't get both Sunbutt and Moonbutt into a conflict against one of their own, especially since Shining Plothole (Sorry, it's Shining Armor) may/may not blindly agree with his superiors if he's involved.
FYI: I'm hoping for the latter, for I believe it may actually have his character become tolerable for once.
I know this is just a speculation but spoilers: This story is making me think about possible outcomes like the one I've just Mentioned. I just hope Celestia and Luna prepare for a MASSIVE fight against both their Niece and her new Friend/BlackWarGreymon, because it may be likely one of their last. Keep it up Dude! I can't wait for the next chapter to come up soon.
I have to say after reading this, (Three times) I have to say this is a very good and captivating displaced story and I look forward to the next chapter or chapters, but I have one question. When BWG found out he couldn't understand any of the ponies there and them no able to understand him as well, how is it that he can understand them now that he's been freed from his stone prison? I've read it over and over and there isn't a hint of how he's able to understand them now. Yes Cadence semi understands him (or in Cadence's mind her
) because all he's doing is saying his name in the a la pokemon way but he understands her perfectly, so is you can please explain in the next chapter.
7248914
I had a feeling some folks might not see it.
tl:dr? Discord didn't like being ignored.
7248972
Ahh and the funny thing is I just stopped at that point and said to myself "oh that's how, because of discord."
More chapters please !!!
… So… I just remembered this fic was a thing, and now I'm slightly curious… What's our friend's digivolution line going to be? Will it just be the 'dark' version of the Agumon line, or will something different happen?
Like, here's what it would be normally to achieve BWG-mon.
Botamon (as shown already).
wikimon.net/images/e/ed/Botamon.jpg
Koromon.
wikimon.net/images/6/6e/Koromon.jpg
Agumon (Black)
wikimon.net/images/9/91/Agumon_black.jpg
Greymon (Black)
wikimon.net/images/9/91/Greymon_black2.jpg
Metal Greymon (Virus)
wikimon.net/images/1/1f/Metalgreymon_virus.jpg
And then good old BlackWarGreymon.
wikimon.net/images/a/a2/Blackwargreymon.jpg
But the thing is, there's so many ways to swap out things in between, because Digimon are crazy like that. Like, could the Ultimate stage be replaced with SkullGreymon?
And, by the way, is it possible for other Digimon Displaced to show up? Preferably a Black Gabumon. So that way he can become Black MetalGarurumon, and we can get this magnificent bastard:
wikimon.net/images/0/04/Omegamon_zwart.jpg
Omnimon Zwart. The evil counterpart to the Omnimon we all know and love.
It would also be ironic, because it means that the 'bad guys' are more harmonious than the 'good guys', since DNA Digivolution requires ludicrous levels of mental control and a very close bond with the fusion partner.
And for more levels of poetic justice, have the Black Gabumon become associated with the moon, and Black Agumon can become associated with the sun. Evil counterparts to other Digimon, AND to the princesses. *Mic drop*
And here we see the Hard-headed Celestia in its natural habitat, panicking over something that stemmed from a misunderstanding.
Goddamnit Celly...
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SPOILERS!
The one thing I should point out is Koromon is the normal Agumon line's In-Training form, the Black line 'officially' is...
http://digimon.wikia.com/wiki/Pagumon
Outside of that, kudos to the good research and ideas. I've actually put in quite a lot of the same thinking for this fic, so far in fact that I have a SEQUEL already planned. For whenever I reach it that is lol. But now the question remains: Are you close?
7257620 Well, all things considered, one of my personal theories is that every Digimon has its own personal 'digivolution code' and each of their paths has a chance to diverge from others. Like, for example, with our protagonist, he uses Koromon for In-Training/Baby II form instead of Pagumon. Of course, Digimon has a habit of only half-explaining things. It only gives us half the info we need, and then fills in the rest with 'this Digimon is the strongest ever, even though there's a billion others at the same level of power'.
By the way, will he get a real 'name'? Like how Zeromaru from V-Tamer has one, despite his current form? He has an actual name instead of being a dog named 'dog'. I was thinking maybe Siegfried, since BlackWarGreymon has the Dramon Killers, and the original Siegfried's sword Gram is known for killing dragons.
7257840
Hmm, it's not spoiler to say he'll have a 'normal' name eventually. But that's later, once he's - whoops, that would be spoilers!
7258192 I hope you don't mind, but here is a list of other potential names. I don't care if you actually use them or not, but I just want an excuse to put them down.
Chernabog- Named after the Slavic God of Night, and the Disney demon of the same name from the popular animation Night on Bald Mountain, mainly because their silhouettes are similar enough. And Chernabog is basically the epitome of evil in the Disney-verse, while BWG-mon summons evil energy for Terra Destroyer.
Hades Daybreak- The first name comes from the infamous Greek god of the underworld, and the last is a word meaning 'dawn' or 'first light'. Together, they could mean 'hell comes at dawn', in reference to his revenge quest against Celestia. But it's also in reference to 'Hyades Daybreak' from the manga Puella Magi Kazumi Magica, and said creature there is an immensely powerful and evil 'witch', and witches are creatures born of vengeance, grudges, curses, and hatred, all of which more or less compose the power source of BlackWarGreymon.
Smaug- Named after the famous dragon antagonist from J.R.R. Tolkien's famous novel The Hobbit. Smaug was known for how his greed and evil nature clouded his judgement (our BWG-mon let the evil energy throw off his judgement and got sealed away for it), and his invincible scales (the shield used by BWG-mon is more or less indestructible to common man).
Turing- In reference to the man who invented the modern computer, Alan Turing was a man who, in WWII, invented a machine able to crack the German 'enigma code'. He is more or less the God and creator of Digimon as a whole.
Neo- In reference to the protagonist of the sci-fi film The Matrix which was about a man becoming a god in cyberspace, much how our protagonist will become a Mega-level Digimon again, meaning he gains nearly god-like powers.
Gaius- The primordial being 'Gaia' was Mother Earth, and Gaius is a masculine version of said name. Terra Destroyer calls upon the evil energies of the Earth, while our protagonist's pure counterpart uses the Earth's uncorrupted energy.
Uther- The name of King Arthur's father in Britannic legend. Uther wielded The Sword in the Stone, a ludicrously powerful weapon which his son upgraded into Excalibur later in his own life. Their last name is often known as Pendragon, meaning 'Chief Dragon', and some fictional depictions give them draconic powers and aspects when they actually reference this part of the character.
These names are yours to use. If you want to use them, fine. If not, also fine. If you already have something in mind, then this was pointless. Don't give any indications of wether you are going to use them right now, though. Just tell me what you think of them personally.
7258762 Wowza, so many suggestions!
While I doubt I'll pick anything based off immediate pop culture (Neo, Smaug, etc) I do admit some of these are quite ingenious! Thanks for the suggestions.
Now to sit, and play the waiting game for the notification that will tell me when more of this amazing story is available to read.
7266078
Hopefully soon!
Your story is the 2nd of 3 Displaced Stories that I've read that're getting up to the category of AWESOME!
Though I do wonder how Cadence will react when *You Know Who* confesses to her about everything that HAS happened so far and everything that WILL happen in all future chapters that're yet to come. Good Luck!
this is suprisignly good. so what digievolution path are you palnning on taking, the one from cyber sleuth, where it went blackagumon > greymon (blue) > metalgreymon (virus) >blackwargreymon >potentially omnimon zwart? or alternitively blackwargreymon X
7267719 When Is the Next Chapter?
Update?
7267719
*stares expectantly*
Update soon.
7267719
*expectant stare intensifies*
7429211
[Sweating Intensifies]
Gah work keeps distracting, you know it it is ;n;
7430611
*intensifies further*
I have one thing to say: Celestia, you are an absolute twat! Good story though.
7432420 Damn Right Son!
7430611
*waiting intensifies further*
There is no day that goes by on that I´m not looking at this Story, waiting hopefully for a next Chapter. This Story ist perfect. I loved every second of every Chapter.
I know things like that take a huge amount of time. So I will stay patiant and wait for the next one :)
As long as you do not need three years for the chapter, you just can not top the list of the longest awaited Chapter...please do not try to top that :´)
7513909
I'm very touched by this! And yes....I promise not to take that long. I'm already being-
7487811
Yes, that.