Self Preservation
The Crystal Empire had been getting progressively colder and colder as the Crystal Heart still had a large crack in it. Cadance had been trying for days to fix it but to no avail, and it was undoubtedly the most frustrating thing she’d ever done that wasn’t childbirth. On top of this, Flurry Heart had been crying nonstop, the Crystal Ponies were wondering when the heart was going to be fixed, and some of them were even beginning to panic that Luxure’s surrender days before was just an act and that she’d come back to invade at any moment.
It really hasn’t been a good week for Cadance.
Despite this, she soldiered on. Continuously looking through books in the palace library on something, anything that could fix this mess. Just when she thinks she finds something though, the spells fail to seal the crack. Right now, she was simply standing at the heart’s alter, practically out of breath and angered beyond measure; eyes twitching, a bit of a forced smile, the whole deal.
“I sweaaaaar if you do not get your act together right now, I’m going to lose it,” Cadance said to the heart, clearly fatigued from all the stress she had been under as she’d gone to reprimanding the artifact itself as if it were alive. Just then, the terrified screams of several Crystal Ponies snapped her out of it. She looked down the main road where the shrieks were coming from, only to see many of them running into their homes.
When she saw just what it was that caused them to do this, she wasn’t all that surprised, despite the fact that it didn’t look all that threatening in itself. Very slowly trotting down the main road was none other than Luxure, the entire top of her head and back completely covered in snow, and looking down in a rather pathetic manner.
Ever since the events of the last couple of days took place, Cadance had a lot of time to think about Luxure in addition to trying to repair the heart. Had she legitimately given up villainy with the threat of even more humiliation hovering over her? She hadn’t heard of any terrible catastrophe coming from Ponyville, and Luxure never really did look to be in the emotional state to pull anything. But as Cadance had learned from her past, trickery was something Luxure excelled at. For all she knew she could just be biding her time. She really did hope that the latter wasn’t the case though, because looking at things at face value, Cadance did feel bad for her.
That is, whether Luxure wanted her to or not.
The mare in question, when approaching Cadance, spent several seconds staring at the ground before meeting Cadance’s eyes. “Hey,” she said very simply.
“Um…hey,” Cadance replied back, having nearly nothing to work with given only that. She guessed it was up to her to make the real first move here. “If I might ask, why are you covered in snow?”
“Maybe because it’s a never-ending blizzard outside this kingdom?” Luxure said in what Cadance assumed was supposed to be sarcasm, but nothing in the tone of her voice suggested it as such. Something was very wrong here.
“I mean, I’m fully aware of that. It’s just that, you can teleport can’t you? Why walk?” Cadance replied.
Luxure sighed a little and shook her head. “I don’t know, probably the same reasons I chose to be carried out of here when I left. Teleporting doesn’t give you time to yourself to think or anything. It’s just ‘BOOP’ and you’re there. Not really as satisfying to me anymore. It’s about the journey, not the destination and all that crap,”
“I see. I suppose that does make sense,” Cadance said, looking Luxure over a little. “You do look like you’re about to freeze though. Come inside the castle and warm up,” she said leading her over to the castle doors.
“Thanks,” Luxure said, walking in as quickly as possible. She could already feel the eyes of the Crystal Empire’s citizens that hadn’t run into their homes in fear weighing down on her. Of all things, that isn’t what she needed right now. “So…still working on fixing the heart, huh?”
Cadance, thoroughly exhausted, sat down in one of the chairs in the glimmering palace dining room, groaning and trying to rest. “I am. I don’t know what it is, but the Crystal Heart just doesn’t want to cooperate with me right now,” she said as one of the palace maids approached the two of them, and handed Cadance a cup of coffee to help keep her awake. Cadance silently gestured to her to also pour one for Luxure by slightly tilting her head towards said mare.
Though the maid was, of course, terrified in the presence of Luxure (hence her shaking knees), she quickly poured her a cup of coffee, handed it to her, and galloped off as quickly as she could. Not enthusiastic about this, Luxure sighed and took a long sip from her coffee. To her delight, there was indeed cream and sugar in it. Black coffee was high up on the list of things she found truly repulsive, so this was lightening her mood a little. Though not much considering everything else on her mind.
“Have you tried duct tape?” Luxure asked Cadance, who was taking a sip of her own coffee at the time.
“Hm?” Cadance asked, lowering her cup from her lips.
“I mean, duct tape can fix anything right? Does that exclude ancient magical artifacts or what?” Luxure elaborated.
Amused by the seemingly honest question, Cadance rolled her eyes, with a tired smile on her face. “Oh if only it were that simple. I’ve been going through nearly every kind of magic tome the empire has to offer, and nothing has worked yet,” she replied.
“Sorry about that. I’d fix it myself but, you know, my magic doesn’t affect that accursed thing,” Luxure said, looking away rather pathetically.
“It’s alright, it’s the thought that counts,” Cadance took a moment to observe Luxure’s posture. She appeared to be slumping forward, actively avoiding eye contact with Cadance, and took long sips from her coffee in a way where it appeared she was quite stressed. Seeing this, Cadance set her cup aside and felt the need to address her state.
“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but why did you come back? This place had to be a great source of pain for you,” Cadance asked.
Luxure let out a saddened chuckle. “Not really being subtle about it huh?” she asked, tracing her hoof around the rim of her cup. “I wouldn’t be here if I had somewhere else to go, you have no idea,”
“I’m asking so I can get an idea. Why can’t you stay in Ponyville like we agreed on? Is it not working out?”
Luxure’s laughs got a little more loud and distressed. “It is SO much worse than you think. What was the plan going into this? To make me realize my role as an evil monster hasn’t REALLY ruined me and my capacity to succeed? Assimilate me into the whole ‘friendship is magic’ mindset? Sorry to disappoint you, but I have just the slightest inkling that I don’t have any redeeming qualities,”
Cadance couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The cold and overly logical way she talked about trying to get better and possibly make some friends made her feel very uncomfortable. It wasn’t in the somewhat charming, introverted way Twilight was before she learned friendship. It felt like she believed with all of her being that efforts to change her are fruitless. “What happened in Ponyville?” Cadance asked, dreading the answer.
“My second or third biggest screw up of all time. Fluttershy just wanted to get to know me, poor, naïve thing wanted to help so bad. I gave her an ultimatum; I’d tell her anything, but on my own terms. In a bar, and with her drinking with me. I pushed her too hard and she ended up in the hospital for alcohol poisoning,” Luxure mumbled, rubbing her own shoulder.
Cadance gasped. “Goodness, is she alright?!”
“Is now, I fixed her with my magic, it was the least I could do,” Luxure responded, recalling in her mind witnessing the looks of relief on all of the elements’ faces. “This isn’t the first time I’ve really hurt someone, not by a long shot, but I never saw what my presence causes up close. It got me thinking about everything I’ve done leading up to now. I’m a parasite. This incident with Fluttershy was surely only the beginning. If I stay in Ponyville, I run the risk of destroying everything the elements of harmony have worked to achieve. Knowing how that feels all too well, I can’t let that be my fault, I just can’t,”
“You don’t know if that will happen. The point of sending you to Ponyville with the elements was so they could help you, but they can’t do that if you won’t willingly let anypony in. Even if you are as toxic as you believe, the elements would surely take the risk to help you heal,” Cadance said solemnly and putting one of her hooves on Luxure’s chest.
Luxure looked down, a little bit uncomfortably before meeting Cadance’s face again. “Ponies today really don’t have much of a sense of self-preservation, do they? Rgh, trusting somepony like me even the slightest. This is just asinine,”
Cadance put her hoof down and sighed. “Not to us it isn’t. Now I’m afraid that incident in Ponyville is very serious indeed. But, the first step in making up for mistakes is realizing you’ve made one, which you’ve done spectacularly. I’m sure if you were to make it clear that you didn’t mean for it to happen then you’ll be able to work things out,”
“Heh, you act like that makes it okay,” Luxure said sarcastically, and somewhat sadly rolling her eyes. “I don’t know. I need more than reassurance from someone I barely know. ” Luxure said with a sigh. “Do you mind if I stay here for the time being? I have zero alternatives,”
“I couldn’t even imagine all the things on your mind right now. If you feel you need time to consider your next move, feel free,” Cadance said, giving a more genuine smile than the tired one she’d been trying to keep up.
“Thanks. I’m just going to head to my old room,” Luxure said as she stood up out of her chair. “You know, you do kind of remind me a lot of my mother. Her better qualities anyway. Even kind of look like her.”
“Oh? Well thank y-“
“Just please, if you ever take a student under your wing, don’t screw it up. I mean it,” she finished as she teleported away, presumably further into the castle.
Cadance simply sat there, trying to process what was just told to her. “I…won’t” she said, not sure what else to say about it. Taking her last sip of her drink, she immediately stood up and teleported a book in front of her face with her magic. Unlike the other several hundred books she had looked through in her task in fixing the Crystal Heart, this one was not an ancient tome of magic or anything of the sort. No, this was heavily damaged journal that’d been stuffed in a small display behind one of the library’s bookshelves. The spine was slightly bent, as if it’d been thrown against a wall in frustration at some point, and there were several dark stains all over the cover and pages of the book.
In some of her off time, Cadance had read through it, but hesitated to read it further due to the fact that she had been focused majorly on fixing the Crystal Heart, and the fact that the contents of said journal were actually quite disturbing, given context. After this conversation with Luxure though, she had to continue.
Opening up to the page where she left off, she read aloud quietly to herself. “After seeing Rosemary’s display of mind-altering magic against the Minotaurs, though my kingdom is safe and I couldn’t be more grateful to her, I can’t help but feel a terrible sense of dread clawing into my subconscious whenever I dwell on her methods. I fear what will become of my daughter and my ponies if I enable her to use such spells consistently when her time to rule comes,” Cadance read, swallowing a little from the intensity of the read.
“Such power may be used for good at first, but as I’ve come to learn, if not kept in check, it can corrupt its user. They become all too quick to use this power for their own purposes. It makes them arrogant, like they are in control of all that they see; a sort of god complex. Even just one taste of that kind of power can set a pony on the road to ruin. Though I don’t know the full nature of Rosemary, she is an Earth Pony with the ability to use powerful magic after all, a god complex is the last thing somepony like her needs. I pray to the heavens that my worst fears are never realized, and I will do everything I can to correct her behavior before it’s too late,” Cadance read outloud, cringing slightly. She had figured out long into this that this journal had belonged to Amore and was written during the time before Luxure’s rule of the Empire.
Once again not being able to bring herself to read this further, Cadance shut the book and placed it on the table before her, staring at it. “I hate to say it Amore, but it’s clear you didn’t do enough,” she said quietly.
Having found the door to her old room, Luxure found that the door had been magically locked from the outside when she pulled at the knob. From all the dust that had settled on the door, it was clear it had been that way for quite a long time. Not in nearly a thousand years had it been budged. On some level, Luxure was impressed. The spell was so strong not even Sombra could get through it.“Mmph. Typical Amore, trying to lock away her mistakes. Should’ve known you’d go to such lengths.” she growled. “Oh well, I don’t need to unlock it to get in,”
With that, Luxure’s body sank to the floor, turning into a dark pink liquid, her eyes being the only distinguishable features remaining after she was fully liquefied. Now that she was a puddle, she crawled across the floor and through the small crack under the door before re-forming into her usual shape. Plopping back into her old, elegant bed, she was immediately reminded that this was much comfier than Fluttershy’s couch or someone’s trash can. She would have rejoiced this comforting feeling more if the circumstances behind her being in this bed again weren’t less than ideal.
“Something is wrong with this,” she said to herself, looking up at the crystalline ceiling. “Surely they all have to know they’re too nice for their own good by now. What the hell do they see in me to even take the risk?” Luxure thought. After everything she’d done during her rule, how spiteful she’d been since her return, and even after doing something that resulted in Fluttershy nearly getting killed, how could Cadance look her in the face and tell her everything could still be okay?
Fluttershy
Luxure shook her head in shame. Here she was self-loathing while Fluttershy went through much worse than she did. Not even that, but she also left her back in Ponyville without owning up to her situation. If Fluttershy were never with her, if she never asked her to drink with her in exchange for disclosure, she never would have been in this situation to start with. Meanwhile, all she wanted was for all of this to just go away and not have to deal with any of it. Was she always this selfish?
She wanted so desperately to believe that she had some good in her. That she wasn’t as evil and self-serving as she thought and that maybe there was merit to what all these ponies were telling her. But there was the pattern that all the other major threats to Equestria had followed. Inevitable defeat. The very same she had suffered. If she suffered that, then she truly was evil, she just had to be.
Catching herself again, Luxure rolled over in bed. There she went thinking only of herself again, as if the ponies she affected with her baggage’s feelings didn’t matter. Hell, she had told that exact thing to Luna. Oh by the gods, Luna. She flat out told her to her face that her turn to the dark side was a pointless effort and a losing battle. She’d practically spat in Twilight’s face when she tried getting through to her in her frustration at having to explain herself. Then there was Rainbow Dash-
Luxure put her hooves to her face and groaned loudly. “Everything is the worst,” she said, making a glass of whiskey appear in her hooves and preparing to take a sip. When she looked into the glass though, she stopped. She didn’t lift it to her mouth, she just sat there and stared at her reflection in the brown liquid for what felt like several minutes. On some level she just wanted to go to town on it, but just couldn’t. Not after what happened.
Finally, she just shook her head again and made it vanish into thin air. “Not tonight.”
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Now that was a depressing chapter. Poor Luxure....I'm starting to think she might be a little too broken to fix. I still enjoyed the chapter though.
Brilliant chapter and awesome story.
8871690
Thank you, glad you like it
8871436
Duct tape fixes everything.
8871726
True. Very true.
8871726
What about FLEX TAPR?
Sounds like Cadance needs to get her hooves on some Flex Tape
Huehuehuehuehue
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BILLY MAYS HERE AND I APPROVE OF THIS MESSAGE!
I quite like characters who does evil things for good, I mean there's no need to "fix" who she is but rather she needs someone, probably a stallion or mare who openly accepts her for who she is- in return; she can open up more. Two-way street of recovering as you will.
8872205
F- the flex tape, THE MIGHTY TAPE IS THE WAY TO GO. BILLY MAYS SAYS SO
8871726
I think that's an exaggeration. Duct tape doesn't fix everything. It can in some cases, but more commonly holds everything together until it can be fixed properly.
Luxure just needs a nice helping of propofol and brainwashing!
Just flush those nasty memories away and be programmed into a good little War Mage for Empress Solar Flare's conquest of the cosmos! (And so... a thousand alt-universe spinoffs were sparked...)
And yet again, Princess Amore screwed up everything.
I loved this chapter, and I love this story.
Hm, for some reason I had a much different idea of what a nihilistic villain would be like. Luxure is less villain more nihilist. Assuming I'm even using that word right.
Enjoying the story. Looking forward to more.
Had she tried duct tape?
Edit: Yes, she did.
Edit2: Did she? Or did she just think this would never work and never even gave it a try?
Considering Luxure's backstory that was very subtle in my opinion.
Was it mentioned which room actually is was her room?
For all we know it could be Cadance's bedroom (since she had ruled the empire at some point).
Good decision.
And you did a good job!
I wonder what happens next time. Either she is walking back to Flutters or Flutters is following her.
https://gyazo.com/893eda5d3e6d85671745d2159795abb6
Error 404: Like count not found
8921377
yeah my bad on that don’t know why i put unicorn
good Cadance you are staring to under stand that she isn’t the kind of person who thought friendship was a distraction like twilight or someone who has never been shown the value of kindness and friendship in their life like Discord she is a cynical selfish hedonistic bitch who thinks you’re using her to boost your rep
Or on the reverse She did too much.
Well, this is certainly intriguing.
9305056
It's in progress, don't worry about that lol
Perhaps Amore did to much.
Yep. This is where I hop off. I'm not all that interested in Luxure NOT being callous and uncaring about the destruction she causes around her.
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happy ending is good and all but I WANT MOAR CRIPPLING DEPRESSION AND ASSHOLE LUXURE!