Talk About It
Shining stomped across an already well beaten path, sweat dripping down his face. He could feel Cadance slowly slipping from his back as he moved and had to stop, grab her, and readjust. Exhaling loudly, he wiped his forehead and started moving again.
Spike glanced up from beside him, knitting his brow with worry. “You need a break?”
He chewed the inside of his cheek. Since splitting off from his sister and her friends, they’d been following the vague path given to them as dutifully as possible. It wasn’t ideal, considering he was bruised and battered from his fight with Chrysalis hours earlier. (And as far as anypony was concerned, it was a fight. She definitely didn’t ragdoll him without breaking a sweat. At least, that’s what the unit would be hearing when he returned.)
Now, those wounds were starting to take their toll. Especially since the adrenaline was wearing off. And carrying Cadance on his back this whole way wasn’t helping.
“Yeah, I could use a break,” he admitted, not slowing his pace. “But we need to get to Ponyville first.”
“Come on, stopping for a second won’t kill us,” Spike argued.
“It will if we stop in front of another cragodile,” he retorted.
Spike was quiet for a moment, long enough for Shining to think he’d won the argument, before saying, “you’re no good to her if you pass out too.”
Shining opened his mouth to refute that logic, but all he could muster was a defeated sigh. Their pace slowed as they came across a pair of sit-worthy rocks. Spike was quick to hop up on one, but Shining went about it at a more sedate pace. He slowly leaned back, letting Cadance slip off of him just a tad. Her body carefully slid off him until she was lying safely in the grass.
“Whoa!”
Shining glanced up and saw Spike sinking into the rock. His eyes widened with brief panic, but Spike stopped slipping deeper, chasing away a fear of suffocation.
“What happened?” He asked.
“I don’t know. This rock just feels weird. Like a bean bag chair.”
“Really?” Shining glanced to the other rock, tempted to see if it had the same problem as the first. Well, he was planning to sit anyway…
Cautiously, he lowered himself onto the rock and found himself sinking the moment he touched it.
“Huh…” Shining shifted and adjusted, the rock matching his form each time. “You’re right.”
“You think Discord did this?”
“Probably.” Shining mumbled, giving it some thought. It certainly wasn’t as chaotic as turning the sky purple, but bean-bag-chair rocks wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for an ancient spirit with near limitless power. The only question was what other sweeping changes had he made to Equestria? Just thinking about it made Shining feel… tired.
And that was when exhaustion truly hit him. Up till now, Shining had been skirting by on adrenaline and willpower. Now he just had willpower.
The aches from being tossed around by Chrysalis returned, along with a slew of new problems. He was breathing heavy from their journey so far; his lungs were on fire. Not to mention his legs were sore from all the walking they’d been doing.
But all of those ailments paled in comparison to his anxiety. He hoped that defeating Chrysalis—or at least, making an agreement to not ‘kill and/or frying pan’ each other—would’ve meant the end of the dangers on this quest. Now the sky was purple thanks to an ancient demon, or something, and Nightmare Moon was free.
He shivered. Just thinking about it all made him feel worse. Shining couldn’t even take solace in the fact that it couldn’t get any worse; he had back in the changeling hive and that had turned out wonderfully.
“Think we’re getting close to Ponyville?” Spike asked, cutting into his thoughts.
“Maybe. We haven’t run into a tree-hut yet, so we haven’t missed our mark.” Shining chewed at the inside of his cheek. “I guess unless we see it we should just keep following the path.”
Spike nodded. “Sounds good to me. The less underbrush we walk through, the better.”
Shining raised his eyebrow. “You got a problem with plants?”
“My face is a lot lower to the ground than yours,” Spike explained. “And some of these leaves are pointy.”
“Yeesh.” Shining shivered at the implications. “Yeah, let’s stick to the path as long as we can.”
“Thanks.”
They both stopped talking for a moment to finish catching their breath. Their ragged gasps were among the few sounds that filled the forest, with cicada calls and distant timber wolf howls being their only competitors.
Shining couldn’t deny that the break was well worth it. Even though the air in the Everfree was more hot and heavy, it gave his lungs a much deserved break to recuperate before they got back to the hard work of the trek.
Soft whimpering suddenly joined the sounds of the forest and Shining looked down to see Cadance shifting, eyes squeezing shut as her body curled into a bundle of fright and exhaustion. He sighed.
Spike glanced from her to him. “Hey, you know, with all the commotion I never really got to ask. What happened to you two?”
He blinked while the question was processed, before shifting into a frown. “I’d rather not talk about it.”
“...That bad, huh?” Spike asked. Shining nodded slowly. “Okay.”
With that topic thoroughly exhausted, their wellspring of conversation suddenly ran dry. Shining shifted in his seat a little, before looking up at the purple sky. His stomach tightened at the sight, but he didn’t exactly feel like talking about that, so he kept his mouth shut. It would be better to sit in silence anyway while they recovered. Talking would only—
“Errr…” Next to him, Cadance’s body twitched.
Spike hopped off his rock and was by her side in an instant. He put a claw to her shoulder as she lifted her head up, eyes weakly fluttering open. “You okay, Princess?”
“S-Spike?” Cadance blinked a few times before clarity returned to her eyes. “Where are we?”
“Out of the hive,” Shining told her. “Go ahead and go back to sleep. We’ll get you to safety soon.”
Her expression darkened. “No. No, I’m all right enough to be awake.” She tried lifting her head, but it fell back onto the grass. To compensate, her eyes darted around. “W-Where’s Twilight? And her friends?”
Spike gave an uncomfortable laugh. Just one. “We had to split off from them a little bit ago. A lot’s happened.”
Worry overtook Cadance’s features. “A lot? Like what?”
Shining stood, the indent he left in the rock staying behind as proof he’d sat there. “We can talk all about it once we’re out of the Everfree and at a safe place. If you’re really okay then we should get going.”
Cadance frowned. “Don’t do this to me, Shining. I don’t like being kept in the dark; especially about something like this.”
He snorted, that one comment sending his eyes rolling. “Sorry. Considering how much you love not telling ponies things, I didn’t think this would be a problem.”
Her face fell as he said it, and his jaw clenched. He shouldn’t be doing that; his job was to worry about her safety, not bash her for their old relationship. It was just… he couldn’t help it. The words rolled so easily off his tongue. Insults jumped to the forefront of his mind.
Shining couldn’t help it. He was mad.
Maybe it was all the emotions Cadance had been forcing him to keep down that had been springing free lately, or maybe Shining just wasn’t forgiving enough to look past the screwed up things she did to him. It was probably a mix of both. Either way, despite trying to make himself feel bad about it, he couldn’t seem to be.
Though kicking his superior while she was down wasn’t exactly the best career move now that he thought about it.
“Uh…” Spike glanced from one to the other. “Look, it’s not really my place to say, but it feels like you guys have some stuff you need to talk about.”
“We did talk about it,” Shining grumbled.
“We shouted about it,” Cadance corrected. She tried in vain to stand, her legs quivering from the effort.
“We don’t have time for this.” Shining’s horn sparked to life and he picked up Cadance, setting her on his back before resuming his walk. Spike rushed to catch up and they were back to the same methodical trek from earlier.
And so they walked in silence.
And walked.
And walked.
And walked...
“Seems like we have plenty of time,” Cadance hoarsely whispered.
Shining pressed his lips together, not wanting to respond. Was it too much to ask for her to go back to being unconscious?
He just hoped they got out of the Everfree soon. Unfortunately, the mass of trees, shrubs, and insects seemed never ending.
“Shining, please…” Cadance’s voice sounded a little more desperate now.
She was pleading, but he still didn’t want to talk.
“I already said to drop it for now,” he grumbled.
“We’ve been dropping it since the moment it first came up!” she fired back. “I’m sick of us being at each other's throats! If there really is something bad happening right now, then we should be working together to stop it. But to do that… we have to stop fighting first.”
Spike’s eyes darted back and forth between them; he looked ready to say something, but was holding back for probably a good number of reasons.
Shining wanted to sigh. “You’re not exactly in any position to help right now, Cadance. Like I said, let’s get you somewhere safe where you can recover first.”
Although he couldn’t see her, Shining imagined Cadance was clamping her mouth shut right about now. That was a pretty hard argument for her to fight, seeing as how she couldn’t even stand on her own, let alone go toe to toe with Nightmare Moon, or Discord.
They walked in silence for a little while longer. Cold, indifferent silence.
Just from a sideways glance, Shining could tell Spike was uncomfortable. Whether that was from still being in the Everfree Forest, or from Shining and Cadance’s talk, he couldn’t tell.
“H-Hey, that looks like the tree-hut Derpy mentioned!” he suddenly called out. Shining glanced up.
“What?” Cadance asked. Shining felt her head shift so she could see.
Before them was a large, almost deformed looking tree. It bulged at the base in an unnatural way, implying that somepony had shaped it like that. If that wasn’t enough to convince Shining that Spike was right, the door and windows carved into the trunk were a sure sign that this was what they’d been keeping an eye out for.
“I’ll go on in and ask for directions,” Spike suddenly said, bounding forward. “If there’s, uh… anything you guys need to talk about that you wanted to be alone for, now would be the time to do it.”
Shining clenched his jaw as he watched Spike scamper toward the hut. So he thinks he’s the reason I’m not talking?
It hadn’t been his intent to make Spike think that, but then again, what else was the kid supposed to think with the way things had been going?
Regardless, Spike had excused himself from the awkwardness, disappearing into the hut shortly after the appearance of a smiling zebra.
And that left Shining all alone with Cadance.
Great.
In fairness, with the changeling goop still on her horn, she wouldn’t be casting any love magic on him anytime soon. That didn’t necessarily mean he wanted to be alone with her. He’d been avoiding that ever since their break up. Even on the train ride to Ponyville they had had a bound Nightmare Moon for company.
“Shining… I’m sorry…” Cadance whispered.
The words caught him off guard. His ears flicked, and he almost turned his head back to look at her.
So far, in all their bickering and fighting, Shining didn’t think he had heard an apology yet.
But even so… “That doesn’t mean anything.”
He felt Cadance stiffen. “B-But I—”
“I don’t want to hear it.” Shining’s voice was cold. “You don’t get to just manipulate me like that and act like a simple apology is all you need to fix things.”
“But I am sorry,” Cadance whispered. “You don’t know how much sleep I lost over what happened. How much I’ve cried. How long I spent thinking of ways to fix what happened...”
“And how exactly am I supposed to believe you?” He asked.
“W-What?”
Shining lit up his horn, lifting Cadance off his back and setting her down so he could be face to face with her. “For all I know, you’re just manipulating me again, just with words, not magic. How do you expect me to believe what you’re saying is anything other than a ploy to get me to forgive and forget, huh?”
“That’s not…” Cadance blinked back tears. “No. Shining, I’m being sincere. I know I wronged you. I just… I want to say I’m sorry. I want you to know I’m sorry.”
“Sorry because you did it, or sorry because you got caught?”
Cadance opened her mouth, but said nothing. Her jaw quivered with the realization that she may not know the answer to that question, and that terrified her.
“That’s what I thought.” Shining exhaled deeply; he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding his breath. But now, he’d said what he’d really wanted to say for a long time. And it felt good.
Sure, it wasn’t the kind of talking that Cadance had probably been hoping to get out of him, but it was all she was going to get for now.
Just then the door to the hut opened, the creak it made drawing their attention.
“Hey guys,” Spike said, poking his head out. “She says she wants to see you.”
There were a lot of things that were awful about Celestia’s current situation. Being encased in stone was definitely at the top of the list, but that wasn’t where it ended.
The purple sky was certainly cause for concern. When it had first happened Celestia felt her stomach churn with anxiety, knowing that Discord was announcing his return to Equestria in a big way.
And he hadn’t stopped there. About half an hour ago her castle… well, there wasn’t any good way to describe it. Her castle was now floppy. The towers must’ve been turned to rubber or something, because they had curved in on themselves as the tips now pointed to the ground. Perhaps the weirdest part though was that they now fluttered in the breeze like flags.
Discord had been keeping busy since. Screams echoed from the city below her, a lump forming in her throat the louder they became. She wished she could turn her head to see, or better yet, not be encased so she could help.
Igniting her horn, Celestia felt her breath shorten. That alone should have been a sign to tell her to stop, but instead she steadied herself and tried casting a spell. Her horn fizzled and popped before her magic crackled out of existence. She sighed.
She had to help, but wasn’t able to so much as walk right now. Celestia sighed, knowing it would be a long wait for her magic to recover. All she could do now was hope for a miracle.
“Well well well.” Four hooves clacked as they landed on the ground behind her. The accompanying voice was sinister. Cold. If Celestia’s spine wasn’t trapped in stone, a shiver would’ve run down it.
“Luna,” Celestia addressed her sister calmly, but inside she was panicking. Her eyes flicked to the side, catching a tall, dark figure strutting past her peripherals. In all honesty, it shouldn’t surprise her that Nightmare Moon had gotten free. Once Discord was on the loose it was only a matter of time until something happened to allow Nightmare to break out.
“Dear sister,” Nightmare said, her voice dripping with hatred. “What have you gotten yourself into?”
Celestia pressed her lips into a thin line as Nightmare Moon stopped right in front of her. “How did you get free?”
Nightmare snickered. “How did you get trapped?”
“...Discord,” she begrudgingly admitted. Realization slapped her across the face. “Wait, you mean…?”
“Indeed.” Nightmare smirked. “Our roles are reversed, thanks to the same spirit of chaos. Oh, isn’t the irony delicious?”
Celestia narrowed her eyes. “I don’t think that’s irony. Irony is when—”
Nightmare slapped her across the face harder than any realization. “Shut up! The last thing I want during my moment of triumph is you correcting me!”
Cheek stinging, Celestia forced down a wince. “Luna, I—”
Her head whipped to the other side as her sister’s hoof struck her again. “Nightmare Moon!” she seethed. “How long will it take before you finally acknowledge my name?”
Now both halves of Celestia’s face hurt, but she was determined not to show her pain. “You’ve always been Luna to me. You’ll always be Luna, little sister.”
A snarl curled its way onto Nightmare Moon’s face. “Why didn’t Discord turn your mouth to stone too?”
“Probably because he’s not on your side,” Celestia retorted. “Don’t tell me you trust him after what he did the last time he got loose.”
“Do you think I’m an idiot?” Nightmare’s reptilian eyes flicked upward as she thought about that question before settling on Celestia again. “Don’t answer that. The point is, I know Discord’s a threat, but I will deal with him later. Right now, there are more pressing matters.” Her horn ignited, its chilling blue aura rippling with anger. “Like finishing you off.”
Celestia swallowed. This isn’t good. Surely she doesn’t think she alone can stand up to Discord. It took both of us and the Elements of Harmony to defeat him last time.
Then again, with a thousand year grudge weighing over Nightmare, reasoning like that wasn’t the first thing on her mind. With Nightmare’s unrestrained powers, Celestia would be helpless against her right now. Weak and immobile, there was only one thing she could do.
Talk.
“Luna, please, listen to me.” Nightmare’s horn lowered, the glowing point resting right between Celestia’s eyes. “This isn’t a good idea. You won’t be able to defeat Discord without help and he knows it. Why do you think he wants you to kill me? He could finish me at his leisure, but tricking you into doing it will just give him some sick sense of satisfaction! Do you really want that?”
“Oh, here we go with the lecturing again!” Nightmare lifted her horn away from Celestia’s face, replacing it with a scowl. “You know, I am sick and tired of hearing you ramble on as if that solves every problem! It doesn’t! In case you haven’t noticed, your little talks didn’t exactly work. How did they go again? ‘Luna, you shouldn’t feel bad that ponies sleep during your night. It doesn’t matter how hard you work or how much you try, everypony’s supposed to ignore you’.”
Celestia flinched. “I never said that.”
“You might as well have,” Nightmare snapped. “I was barely more than a footnote when historians wrote down your heroic tale of defeating Discord. I got to sit by and watch as you grabbed up as much power as you wanted. And whenever I made suggestions, you were oh so quick to shoot them down, weren’t you?”
“You wanted to extend the night by hours, Luna,” Celestia reminded her. “We’d just defeated Discord, it wasn’t the time to be experimenting with the day and night cycle. Our subjects needed consistency and order. They needed us to bring back what they lost under Discord’s rule.”
“And you wanted to make sure that they had plenty of hours in the day to praise your name,” Nightmare hissed back. “Don’t think I didn’t notice when The First Church of Our Lord and Savior Princess Celestia was founded!”
“Please don’t remind me of that cult,” Celestia muttered, disdain seeping into her voice as those memories returned. “It took decades to convince them I wasn’t a god.”
“Decades of worship and unconditional adoration? How awful,” Nightmare spat. “Don’t even try to trick me into thinking you didn’t want it. When I finally returned from a millennium of exile, I walked in on a celebration honouring you and found that barely anypony even remembered my name! Is it too much to ask that I get one holiday among all of yours?”
Celestia blinked upon recalling a mental note she’d made a while ago. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to tell you something…”
“Enough.” Her horn sparked back to life. “I’m through talking. I came here for one thing and one thing alone.”
Before Celestia could react, a blast of magic struck her. The stone shell around her shattered under the pressure, sending her flying back, but free.
She landed on her back, head partially buried in one of the many hedges that dotted the statue gardens. Her chest stung from the blow, but she’d been shielded from a worse fate. Sitting up, she saw Nightmare Moon stalking towards her.
“Fight me!” Nightmare called out, grinning wickedly.
“No!” Celestia shook her head, beginning to stand. “Luna, we shouldn’t—”
Another magical burst whizzed towards her. Celestia dove to the side, rolling free as the blast burned through the hedge and decimated the statues beyond. Through the sounds of crumbling rocks and crackling, burnt leaves, Celestia heard snickering.
“What’s the matter, sister? Not so confident without your pupil watching?”
A beam whipped toward her head. She ducked and her mane caught the side of the blow. As Celestia rolled out of Nightmare’s line of fire, she got a glimpse of her singed hair and winced. Too close.
“What are you waiting for?” Nightmare demanded, horn raised. “You think I’m going to believe that you can’t attack back?”
Celestia took a deep breath, attempting to summon what little magic she still had right now. Her horn glowed to life, but flickered worse than faulty wiring. Any attack she could muster right now would have the explosive power of pillows.
Attacking was off the table for her. She tried her second best, and unfurled her wings. They came out slow and stiff; their time pinned under a sheet of stone left them cramped and achy. Getting off the ground would be a miracle.
So neither fight nor flight was an option right now.
“Luna, please!” Celestia tried again. “You don’t want to do this!”
“Shut up!” A flurry of blasts flew towards Celestia.
She twisted in an attempt to dodge, but there were too many. Two struck her, one in the shoulder, the other in her foreleg. She stumbled back, biting her tongue to keep from screaming in pain.
“You don’t know what I want! You never bothered to find out! To ask!” Nightmare shouted.
Celestia inhaled shakily from the pain, looking around the gardens as she took that in. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a lot of time before a new bolt of magic struck her square in the chest.
Pain exploded across her body as she was ripped from the ground and flung backwards. Celestia’s body tore through a hedge before slamming against another statue.
Groaning, Celestia struggled in vain to regain her breath. Nightmare Moon flew towards her, landing only a couple of steps away with a smug grin on her face.
With some effort, Celestia sat back up. “I… I know what you want.”
Nightmare paused, raising an eyebrow and stopping her approach. She didn’t say anything; she waited.
Celestia swallowed. “You want a better sister.”
Nightmare narrowed her eyes, but remained silent. Celestia stumbled to her feet, ready to continue. “You want a sister who would’ve been there for you when you needed her. Who would’ve noticed what you were going through. Who would’ve talked to you so you didn’t have to bottle up your emotions until they all came rushing out. I… I’m so sorry, Luna.” Tears lined Celestia’s eyes. “I was awful to you. I should’ve been better, and I have nopony to blame but myself. Not you, or Twilight, or anypony. All of this is my fault. I’m sorry.”
Nightmare stayed silent for a while, but eventually her eyes narrowed. She curled her lip in anger. “Too little, too late.”
Her horn ignited again, giving Celestia no time to prepare for the next attack. She shut her eyes and hoped for a miracle.
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You utter tease, giving us an update only to leave us on an absolute cliffhanger...
Well, Shining Armor really have point here. He don't have our knowlegde about Cadance, so he have every right to absolutly not trust somebody who spectaculary manipulated him, even if in good faith. Someone who purposely and for long time manipulated you once, can always do it once again.
Proof that NMM is the biggest idiot of all time! She actually believes she can take Discord on by her lonesome! That's like Scientology-level delusional!
Eh
"Celestra"
"Celestia"?
"from a millennia of"
"millennium"?
"left them cramp and achy"
"cramped"?
Zecora wants to see Shining and Cadance, eh? I wonder what she wants to talk about?
Also, Celestia's totally screwed now.
You also have nigh impenetrable dragon scales that act as natural armor.
Oh for- not now.
7622496 I'm guessing by that downvote someone reading this is part of the crazy cult
7623337 I expect at least some Lunatics read any story featuring NMM. Their Dark Goddess is to them as infallible as Hillary Clinton is to her voter base.
Both groups, you see, are equally nuts.
7622683
he also has eyes, eyes that are rather large and make easy targets.
Really? We're going with the "Celestia and Luna/NMM blames Celestia for Luna's angsty ass trying to destroy the world?" None of that was Celestia's fault. Luna was just being a brat. That's literally normal sibling stuff and I was an only child. "People liked you more than me." Well maybe if you tried to be more likable instead of acting however you want and expecting everyone to kiss the ground you walk on, shit might be different. :V But here's Celestia blaming herself for it.
7622339
It's not even OUR knowledge of her that makes a difference. Look at her response to his question. She shut her trap instead of being able to answer confidently and honestly. That means one thing - at least some part of her, an important part, is more upset that she got caught than she is upset at herself for doing... utterly inhuman things to him.
7623862
Celestia losed her beloved sister for thousend years. Such grief of lose can born self-blame, even if it's irrational. I know it on my own example. And remember that Celestia was in close-death situation, powerless and without help in presence of person truly motivated to kill her, which is her own sibiling she tried to save. In such situation you will say everything, just to stop this and save yourself, I assure you.
Another enjoyable chapter. Well done.
There's a lesson there for Shining Armor to learn: princesses are emotional wrecks, and it's good to try to stay out of their way. Heck, his sister is being groomed for a position as Princess and even Twilight earlier pretty much automatically assumed he was at fault in his spat with Cadance.
That made me laugh. Know-it-all Celestia is best Celestia.
Damn cliffhangers
Nice chappie!
Did someone ask for a miracle?
mlpforums.com/uploads/post_images/img-710185-1-derpyhoovesbydarkomegam.png
I give you the only miracle that comes with free muffins.
so we're going with the 'luna is just mgaically crazy and changed through strong emotions'? personally I PREFER the possession theory cause 1) it was the original intention and 2) one doesn't change appearance so suddenly through emoness, and certainly doesn't have as such a change of heart as Luna did canonically.
Incoming miracle in 3...2...
Update soon! I foresee Derpy As the princess of Friendship! XD
7636362
Muffins. Princess of Muffins.
I swear to God, this better be a thing.
7648542
pre10.deviantart.net/9ae7/th/pre/i/2013/365/1/b/mlp__derpy_the_muffin_princess_by_floppychiptunes-d6zzpcc.png
Finally got back in the mood toread the updates to this and I. Not disappointed.
While I do agree with Celestia fully blaming herself for NMM its nice to see her take some of the blame as some does fall on her.
Well, look who's Alanis Mareissette suddenly.