Shadows
“Kuno, you’re scaring the neighbors,” Warden said, his voice weak, his chin resting on a bucket.
Kuno stepped away from the window, scowling. “I’m seeing more and more batponies come and go every single day.”
“You’re noticing them come and go more and more each day,” Warden corrected, his wings giving the weakest of flutters as he gave a soft whine into the bucket. “The same general amount are coming and going you just didn’t pay attention to them.”
Kuno scowled, and prowled over towards him, picking up a damp washcloth and sponging at his forehead with it. He gave a soft groan and leaned into the cool water, before slumping once more.
“Is it getting any better?” Kuno queried carefully, lifting Warden’s head with a soft hoof under his chin.
“Slowly,” Warden lied.
“It’s been days!” Kuno complained, nudging his nose lightly with her own.
“And I’m probably the most aurora-dependant pony in the world,” Warden responded with a weak chuckle.
Kuno harrumphed, and then settled down beside him, carefully turning her nose away from the bucket.
“You can go back down to your changelings if you need to,” Warden suggested, lifting a wing to rest over the larger form of the changeling Queen.
Kuno heaved a sigh interspersed with a grumble, carefully pushing her nose against his shoulder. “No, I’m staying here. It’s too annoying flying back up here.”
Warden gave a weak chuckle at that, lifting his head so he could rest it heavily on her shoulder in response. “It was your idea to put me in the guard tower.”
“Well you’re away from the magic here!” Kuno protested. “Even if it’s a bajillion steps to get here and my tiny wings are too small to carry this huge body up here without me straining every muscle I have. I honestly don’t know how Chrysalis managed it.”
“We need an elevator,” Warden stated with a firm nod. “Fang is always out of breath when he brings me my meals.”
Kuno snorted once. “He’s out of breath doing anything! I think he was one of Chrysalis’ chamber guards back in the old hive. Just stood in front of her door all day and never got any exercise.”
Warden wrinkled his nose, and then tilted to the side to dunk his entire muzzle into the pail of water, holding it there for a moment before coming up with a gasp, his mane damp.
“I’ve been thinking… once the brood are on their hooves…”
Warden arched an eyebrow.
“There’s this sect of monks out in the desert. They have a strong anti-magic belief. No magic anywhere near them.”
“Ugh that sounds horrid,” Warden groused.
“Better than dying, though?”
“Slightly better,” Warden corrected, gazing up at her with a single eye. “Slightly.”
Kuno harrumphed once more, and then sprawled out properly beside him, resting her chin on crossed forehooves. “If you hang around Canterlot it’s just… inevitable.”
“It’s inevitable now!” Warden pointed out. “If I run off into the desert to become a monk for fear of dying I’m no better off than just flying through unicorn fireworks.”
“But you’d still be alive…” Kuno responded quietly.
“Yes, but…” Warden sighed, “Would you be happy living in a desert?”
“I would be happy doing it with you,” Kuno replied bluntly.
“Then, let’s go!” Warden responded, enthused.
Kuno stared at him, and then pursed her lips. “You know I can’t leave the hive yet.”
“Then the entire point is moot. If I live until this all gets sorted, we can move to the desert and be monks. I think I’d like to see you in one of those transparent get-ups.”
“You’d like to see me out of one, more like,” Kuno giggled.
“So what have I missed while I’ve been up here, rolling around and miserable?”
“Nothing,” Kuno responded morosely. “The vast majority of my changelings have been forced to sit around the grounds fornicating with each other because half the ponies in town think we’re all cold-blooded murderers.”
“The interviews?”
“They’re all over,” Kuno grumbled. “And now they’re making lists of changelings they think might have done it and we can’t even say that we know it was a batpony!”
“Spectre? Chitin?”
“Oh well Chitin is trying very hard to hide the fact that she wants to get Spectre alone and teach him what changelings do best.”
“Chirp, obviously.”
Kuno stared at Warden for several seconds.
Warden smirked and placed a hoof on her nose.
“Anyway, Spectre has his ear to the ground and is just… waiting. Everyone is waiting!”
“I can tell,” Warden pointed out, watching as Kuno tapped her hoof on the floor in agitation.
“I want to be out there, strangling ponies and getting them to talk!”
“Who would you even start with?” Warden asked plaintively.
Kuno pondered, and then shrugged, her wings buzzing. “Every single last batpony I could find to start with.”
“So would you start with the Spymaster and just work your way down?”
“If I could!” Kuno grumbled. “Who’s the Spymaster anyway?”
“When I was in the reserve guard, it was Shadowwing.”
“What a terrible name,” Kuno said, grimacing.
“They always have ‘shadow’ in the name. Something to do with taking the job. So when they advance to Spymaster they just tack ‘Shadow’ onto whatever other name they have.”
Kuno pondered on that for several seconds, staring at the ceiling.
“You’re trying to portmanteau my name into something lewd, aren’t you?”
“W-what, no!” Kuno lied.
“I don’t much think the Spymaster will be long for this world anyway,” Warden pointed out.
Kuno tilted her head. “Are you planning a coup?”
“No, just… his whole thing is running the shadowy part of the princess’ political intrigue machine. You know like…” Warden trailed off, wracking his brain to try and come up with an example.
“You mean like… spying on foreign dignitaries and the like?”
“Yeah, that kind of thing! Making sure the unicorns aren’t working on levitation magic so they can steal all the pegasus jobs or anything like that. And making sure foreign countries aren’t planning to invade. Spectre works for them!”
“Okay…” Kuno said dubiously.
“You’d put him out of business!” Warden responded with a weak laugh. “You can literally disguise yourself as anyone. They gotta sneak around all quiet-like. You can waltz in there like it aint no thing.”
“Not any more,” Kuno complained. “They’re all so scared of changelings. Calyx was caught without his identifier and they escorted him back to the manor like he was some kind of criminal!”
“Oh I like him, isn’t he trying to be a florist?” Warden asked.
“Well he was, until he was found in bed with the mare running the flower shop,” Kuno said darkly.
Warden made a non-committal noise, encouraging Kuno to give more details.
“By the mare’s husband.”
“Oh, that’d do it.”
“While disguised as said husband.”
“Oh that’d really do it,” Warden said, laughing.
“Apparently he doesn’t pay his wife much attention so she all but begged him to show her some intimacy and they’re all so… inept at the intricacies of social norms that none of them know that they shouldn’t stick their noses into that kind of thing.”
“Or other parts of their anatomy!” Warden smiled.
Kuno narrowed her eyes at him.
“They’ll get it. Eventually. And ponies are still showing up!”
“Much less than before… that,” Kuno said bitterly.
“But think of how amazing it will be when the horde rebounds from murder. It was about the worst possible thing that could have happened between changelings and ponies and it doesn’t seem like it’s gonna wreck the entire thing.”
“Yeah, about that,” Kuno scowled, staring out the window again. “I’ve had Spectre trying to sniff out any groups of ponies who would be heavily opposed to changeling integration and he’s drawn a great big blank. If there are any actual groups out there, he can’t find hide nor hair of them.”
“Well I’d start with the batponies, obviously. Talk to Shadowwing, or Luna herself. I mean, it was done with a batpony weapon… and batponies kind of have been trying to integrate into pony society for decades and you just come along and swoop in and take their crown.”
“Decades?” Kuno asked blankly.
“Luna and Celestia were a pair. Sisters. Obviously. When Luna was banished to the moon as Nightmare Moon, it made a lot of ponies uncomfortable with batponies. It would be like trying to remain a member of the royal guard after Celestia got banished to… uh… the sun?”
“Hmf,” Kuno stated scratching the flagstones under her with a hoof thoughtfully.
“Yeah, batponies and changelings have something in common in that regard. Perhaps that’s why it was batponies who came over for the investigation instead of the Royal Guard?”
“Perhaps,” Kuno scowled, thunking her nose against the glass and then snorting in annoyance so fervently that two spikes of fog arched up over the panes of glass. “Perhaps the investigation should be handed over to the Royal Guard as batponies are a clear suspect now.”
“Do Celestia and Luna know that?” Warden asked blankly.
Kuno paused, her head tilting. “I… don’t actually know.” Kuno’s wing gave an anxious buzz. “We are kinda playing this one close to the chest.”
“Do you think you should maybe tell them what we’ve found out?” Warden offered.
Kuno nodded carefully. “Yes, yes I think we should. I’ll ask them to come for an audience.”
“Maybe do it at the royal castle,” Warden cautioned. “Inviting both princesses down to what is essentially the scene of the crime might be a bad look.”
Kuno nodded in understanding, before she growled in annoyance. “I hate politics.”
“I thought it would come naturally to a changeling?”
Kuno turned to regard him over her shoulder, her wings buzzing in annoyance as she stamped her hoof firmly. “Subterfuge and trickery are the forte of changelings,”
“And sex,” Warden interjected.
“And sex,” Kuno conceded. “Politics is… it’s all conniving, backstabbing, and saying what you mean and don’t mean while convincing someone else a lie is the truth while smiling in their faces. Yuck. Chrysalis was good at politics. I’m much more… direct.”
“I think the princesses appreciate that,” Warden mused, resting his chin on a pillow and staring at her. “Your particular brand of ruthless truthfulness must be a breath of fresh air when they’re constantly dealing with political ‘intrigues’ all day.”
Kuno made a face, and a noise somewhere a gag and a retch. “Celestia Above I’ll be glad when this is all over. Remember when our biggest concern was getting you some plants to grow?”
“Vaguely,” Warden laughed. “My wing fixed, my hoof fixed, we got married, we had a child. But for every hoofstep forwards there’s always something that drags us kicking and screaming back two more.”
“Does this kind of stuff happen to everyone else?” Kuno asked plaintively.
“Well they’re certainly not being brought back from the dead,” Warden responded blankly. “But general issues and problems? Probably pretty universal. Just… you’re a changeling. And a changeling queen. Our ups and down are so much more spectacular.”
Kuno grumped, and returned to staring out the window, watching a batpony patrolling the edge of the grounds with an intent stare.
“Silver lining though,” Warden started.
Kuno paused, perking an ear in his direction.
“Nightmare Night is coming up soon and I already have a costume!”
Kuno turned to stare at him over her shoulder, and narrowed her eyes slowly, reaching for a spoon. “If this is a dad joke, Warden…”
“I’m a zombie!” Warden laughed, holding up the pillow to block the spoon Kuno threw at him.
Stats
Page generated in 0.017 seconds
Total duration
999 users online
348,311 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
It lives !!!!
10727397
I read back over the entire story last night and this morning and was like 'I really should continue/finish this sometime...'
(In the background) o my goodness he's back!
Holy celestia am I dreaming?
IT'S BACK!
Wooooooooooo it’s back this is the series that got me into fimfiction
Huzzah, it's back! Oh, I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed this series :D
10727407
that's all it takes. Sometimes all you need is a break and time before coming back to past projects to see if you got that spark for finishing/completing it or not.
Oh. Hm. Wow. It's alive.
Now, to reading.
10727441
Mhmm! I've been VERY busy writing other things (The pokemon series I started recently hit 240,000 words) and between that and a BAJILLION commissions (one of which was finished recently and hit 36000 ish words) I've been flat out writing so many things that just... weren't ponies!
But I miss this fandom a lot <3 you guys are all so awesome.
I'm gonna try finish writing this!
Now I have to reread all the stories, it's been awhile.
Probably the last thing I expected to see, but it's great to see this story starting back up.
OH SHIT ITS BACK I LOVE YOU SO MUCH THANK YOU BASED GOD.
This story helped me through a lowpoint of my mental health and i just want to let you know that as long as you're keeping it going you will have a silent adorer
10727516
Thank you!
I'm glad my pony words helped in some small way~ I hope you're doing better!
Hahahaha, YES!!! It’s back!
wow the righter and the story is alive
Hooray!!! I was just thinking about this story again today and hoping you'd come back to it some day, now you've made my day!
Good to know this is still alive.
is this a xmas miracle?
Is it too early to feel nostalgic?
It's alive! Yesssssssss!
Now if someone could just resurrect IMRifley and get the audiobooks for the last 2 stories finished I could re-live 2014 again!
Awesome to see you add to this story, I enjoyed this chapter. I've missed those 2
I've missed these two.
OH WOW! This was one of the first fics I ever discovered on Fimfiction (I just looked, it was the second story I ever added to my Favorites list!) SO glad to see an update. The relationship between these two characters is just so fun to read. Thank you for updating!
It seems 2021 is the year of dead fics coming back to life..like a zombie
10727627
Rises from a shallow grave
Boo mothafucka
Oh no, he knows!
Yeah, it's not technically anti-changeling, it's jealousy of a possibly faster integration than they had. Like "why was it so easy for them when they actually did crime?!"
Ah yes, simpler times. Life kinda runs away from you when you're important like that...
What the hell are you complaining about Kuno? He broke the agreement you struck with Celestia, you KNEW your changelings see sex as not a big deal. Ignorance is really no excuse. So, yes, he is a criminal. And yes, Warden is right, they do need to learn about understanding where they put their genitals.
And the married mare just wanted some extra-marital sex without feeling guilty. Bitch could have simply ASKED or TALKED to her husband.