Trapped In Canterlot

by TartarusFire

C10 - Leading To Ruin

Darkness lit the room. It was clearly shadowed with umbrae hiding in the darkest of spots. Stars made streaks of light on random parts of the room. The window was closed, but the chill of night seeped in from the outside.

None of this was new to Caedes. The first tens of times, waking from nightmares, she had been scared. Over periods of time, the room became a sort of peaceful wonder to her. Now however, it was one in the morning. She had fallen asleep a little past seven.

Eyes crusted over, she blinked and yawned. She was glad having woken up peacefully instead of another horror from sleeping.

Caedes moved to stand but fell over. Even with the sleep, she was exhausted. Rolling to her side, she gazed out the window to the stars.

"Whoever made them... must have put a lot of work in them." She wrapped herself into a burrito on the edge of the blanket, making sure not to spill her supplies. "They’re pretty."

Sleep came once more.

***

She cursed under her breath. "It’s always that one glass beaker that spills." She flipped it off the ground, "But nooo~ it couldn’t just stayed where I placed it."

The bubbling concoctions simmered down as her magic left them. "It’s too late for this mess. Besides," she waved her hoof around, "I’ll just let it congeal like always and just mix it up in the morning. I’ll deal with the actual mess later."

Powering down the four year old makeshift lab, the burners were extinguished, the miniature smokehouse was unlit, the array of lights were switched off, and the mask of darkness was replaced. Moans came up with Empathy as the stairs contemplating on giving up under her hooves.

Locks clicked on the basement door. She stood in the main hallway with a corridor that led to Caedes’s room. Walking the end of the main hallway, the master bedroom stood in all of its rotting glory. Items were tossed or thrown off of shelves, picture frames were smashed, towels and articles or clothes littered parts of the floor, and the bed itself was one sided.

Having no energy to deal with it from her tantrum the day before, she collapsed onto the bed. Passing out, she nudged the box with the scrapbook back under the bed.

***

They rose at dawn.

Caedes hid the book while Empathy went down to the basement.

The bowl of medicine was retrieved and up the stairs as Caedes tidied up.

She waited and her Mother brought the food.

Every day for four years, neither knew the clockwork they were trapped in. Some things changed, but ultimately Caedes’s True Name was suppressed and they worked in a broken harmony.

***

She hadn’t even looked into the room. In fact, she had even righted the bed which now stood in its original place.

Something was very, horribly wrong.

Caedes was panicking on the inside. Everything was going okay which was saying too much. It wasn’t as if a peaceful morning hadn’t passed before, but there had been no exchange of glares, there had been corrections of her own mistakes, and she almost seemed normal.

Panicking after breakfast, she had opened her book back to page thirty-six, with the scribing instructions.

"Calm down. Just keep it together, me." She didn’t think her words helped her panic. "Just do this. Do magic... you’ve never been able to do it before..."

Nervous, she sloppily scribbled down the rune by bearing down onto the cover of the dictionary. "No, that won’t do!" She rubbed her eyes.

Whispers came, "I should be grateful, but..." A pang of silence hung in the room. She squeaked.

***

"And you’re sure that’s everyone from yesterday that wasn’t here, Captain StrongBrows?" asked Twilight.

"Yes, for the third time, Twilight." He stopped walking, holding his position. "There are a few others who have yet to check in from their absence." His clipboard hovered in yellow. "We have four others gone today with two unknown absences."

"Two? That’s much better than the ten yesterday. Can I have their addresses, I want to visit them." She unintentionally pouted a bit.

"Against Regulations Ma’am. We cannot give out confidential information without paperwork or an order from the Princess." He shrugged. "Not my business either. I suppose you could as Princess Celestia, but it’ll be hard to convince her to give out personal information. She’s quite protective of her guards." Strongbrows snorted. "Heh, ironic."

Twilight felt slighted somehow. "With all due respect sir, I can convince the princess nearly anything short of making ice cream illegal. She wouldn’t do that, it’s her go-to food after meetings."

"No, Twilight."

She wined, "But Princess..."

"No twilight." Celestia placed her teacup down to stare directly at twilight. "No matter how hard you try and convince me, you shall not succeed. You see—" She rose, starting her lecture at max "—I cannot do such a thing. Not because I am incapable, nor do I not care about you, but think about the third party, the affected ponies. This guard was obviously disturbed by something that he did not tell you. He had the right to do so."

Celestia gestured toward the other guards. "They have the right to privacy. You have the right to privacy. If I were to give you the addresses of the guards, it would be an invasion of their privacy. I am not about to throw civil liberties away for your sake of curiosity."

"But it seemed really important Princess. What if—"

"And what if it was just gas? What if a family member had just died, and they didn’t want to talk about it? You see, even if there was a problem that needed intervention, we have to have a reason, a reason that has plausible denial."

She stood, and flared her wings. "Do you understand Twilight Sparkle? This is a matter of freedom, and we cannot obstruct it."

Twilight bowed, having been cowed by the speech. "Yes Princess."

***

The paper was untouched. It had taken many tries, but Caedes had managed to impress her aura of magic onto the rune. It had received it and glowed, but something was wrong.

Something was always wrong. The rune shimmered and started to twist on the paper, crumpling it up from the excess strain on it.

It had turned blacked and a resounding pop had exploded from its disintegration.

The door slammed open. "Caedes! What are you doing!"

Empathy scanned the room, revealing only the mysterious book and ashes of the paper being out of place.

A book which she should have found and taken, yet Caedes stilled possessed it. "Give me that book!"