Cadance's Troubles - Part 1
My eyes flutter open as I awaken from my light rest.
That surprises me. I actually managed to fall asleep?
Slowly, I roll off of my side and sit up – only to be further surprised as a pair of thick blankets slide onto the ground.
It’s pretty obvious who provided them, but I’m not going to hold it against her. Without these I could easily have developed hypothermia from the cold night air.
It’s still dark, of course. I must have fell asleep after only ten minutes or so, and there’s no way I’d be able to sleep the whole seven or eight hours until the sun came up.
“I need a watch.” I mutter, rolling from my sitting position onto my knees, and then slowly easing back into a squatting position.
I scoop up my cane and rest the tip against the ground, before using it to push myself into a standing position. It hasn’t taken me long to learn the different ways this thing is useful – although I can’t wait for the day that I can get up from the floor all on my own.
I lean against the railing surrounding the roof as I stoop over and retrieve the blankets. Now seems like the best time to go back to my room and get ready for the day – even though I have no clue what’s happening.
I look out at Canterlot again. I sincerely doubt that I could get tired of the view, which I can only describe as spectacular.
“What are you doing up here?”
I jump in surprise and pull my eyes away from the night-sky to see Maneworthy standing next to me. His expression is slightly irritated, mixed with confusion and a large amount of surprise.
“How’d you know that I’m up here?” I ask confusedly.
“Miss Sparkle let me know where to find you.” Maneworthy smiled in a slightly grim manner. “You gave the staff a fright, just leaving your room like that.”
“Oh. Sorry.” I glance out at the city. “I was just… enjoying the view.”
“You can do that just fine from your balcony.” Maneworthy comments in a tone that is both pointed, and good natured.
“I went for a walk to the stairwell, and then decided that I could use some air.” I shrug. That’s what happened, but voicing it the way I have just sounds so... bad.
“Did you have a nightmare?” Maneworthy asks sharply – and more aggressively than is actually necessary.
“Yeah.” I cough awkwardly. Neither me nor Twilight have informed the doctor about my nightmares – which are actually closer to night terrors.
“Damn.” Maneworthy’s ears droop. He has nothing more to add, but I know that he’s thinking along the lines of my upcoming therapy – namely how much of it I’ll need.
“It’s fine, Maneworthy.” I start weakly in an attempt to distract him. “Just a little bad dream.”
“We should get you back downstair-” The doctor pauses as he turns away, and then looks back at me.
“Did you get up here all by yourself? Was miss Sparkle with you?”
“Uh, no. Just me.” I grin sheepishly. “I mean, it took a while… but… yeah.”
Maneworthy raises an eyebrow in surprise. “Well that’s good news, at least. Anyway; We need to get you back downstairs. You’ve got a big day ahead of you.”
“I do?” I raise my own eyebrow as we make our way towards the door.
“Indeed. I’ve organised with Shining Armor for you to go and speak to Princess Cadance. We spoke about it at the meeting yesterday, remember?”
I remember – although I’m fairly certain that it was more me just asking if such an action would be a good idea.
“I thought you might like to have a look around the room that’s been organised for you.” For reasons beyond me, the doctor gives a little sigh. “You can move in there any time. We don’t really need you to be in the clinic anymore.”
I nod. “Sounds like a good idea. Less commuting for everypony.”
Maneworthy returns the nod, before continuing in a cautious tone. “And I also allotted time for… well, something else – if you want to, of course.” He pauses to gauge my reaction to his rather vague statement.
I raise an eyebrow and nod, motioning for the doctor to keep talking.
“Well, you see… the investigation into… Trixie’s doings, is nearly over. They’ve gathered all of their evidence and taken all of their photographs. Right now, they’re just waiting on a statement from you.” Maneworthy begins the explanation as we start the arduous trip down stairs.
“Don’t they already have her diary?”
“They do…” Maneworthy coughs delicately, afraid to break the glass man that I have been mistaken for. “But they need your account of what happened – and you need to make sure that it’s accurate, and doesn’t contradict the diary.”
“I can do that.” I respond in the affirmative as we reach the mid-landing between the level three and the roof.
“Ah. Good.” Maneworthy sighs in relief as we begin the next stage of our descent. “Also… now that they’ve gotten everything they need, the courtyard where Trixie’s wagon is now open for viewing, if you’d like to go.”
I think it over before answering. At a first glance, opening the scene to the public seems a little distasteful. I can see it from a logical standpoint as well.
After the rather explosive end to the Grand Galloping Gala, I would imagine many schools around Equestria would have switched their learning topics to civil rights and equality issues – and students love field-trips, so why not take them to the scene of the greatest civil-rights controversy of the last hundred years? (For Equestria, I mean.)
I bite my lip. Do I need to go? Possibly. If I had to hazard an unprofessional, unfounded, and extremely presumptuous guess, I would say that in the long run it might help me with closure. There’s no way Trixie’s wriggling out of the serious jail time she's facing, or some sort of punishment, so I might as well go and enjoy the scene of my victory before they clean it up.
My considerations have taken a notable amount of time. We’re already down at the mid-landing between level three and two, and Maneworthy is starting to look concerned. He must think that I’m ripping my head up with unbalanced and psychotic thoughts – or something to that effect.
“I think that’s a good idea.” I finally speak, drawing another sigh of relief from the doctor.
I grimace. This is getting tiresome.
“You need to stop being so worried, doc.” I comment suddenly. “I’m not going to rip myself to pieces if you drop Trixie’s name.”
“You nearly had a seizure over your clothes yesterday.” Maneworthy bites back, before chuckling. “Can you blame me?”
“I suppose not.” I have to concede the point. Trixie’s name may not draw ay more than an eye-twitch out of me, but that doesn’t exactly mean I’m in a healthy state-of-mind.
“Okay, so the plan for the day is… breakfast, Cadance, the room, statement, and wagon.” Maneworthy recites the schedule. "A busy day, I must say."
I run through the list in my head as we reach the level two and enter its darkened halls. “I don’t suppose we could fit a shower in after breakfast, could we? I really need one.”
“Of course.” I notice Maneworthy crinkle his nose ever so slightly as I bring up the topic of my personal hygiene, which does nothing to help my self esteem.
“Oh right.” A thought suddenly occurs to me. “What time is it?”
“Five AM.” Maneworthy responds curtly, and I notice a slight hint of bitterness in his voice. Trust me to fuck up everyone else’s sleep patterns.
“Sorry.” I immediately reply, my guilt-levels rising another notch. “And where’s Twilight?”
“She left.” Maneworthy responds, his voice conveying confusion at the fact. “I didn’t ask why, but I assume it’s important.”
“In a way.” I chuckle happily. “I told her that if she took a day-off today, I’d answer some of her questions."
“That mare’s constantly working.” Maneworthy comments thoughtfully. “I was starting to think that we'd need to sedate her just to get her to take a break.”
I nod in agreement as we reach room 213, and I grasp the doorknob. “I felt bad that she was constantly running around after me, so I wanted her to just rest for a little while.”
“Appreciable.” Maneworth glances at the name on the newly inserted name-card on the door, which simply reads 'Keys'. “I think it’s best if we get ready now – considering how long it takes to reach the palace.”
“Agreed.” I wince at the reference. “And please tell me that there aren’t going to be any more stairs.”
***
“…estly, I’ve always found the best restaurants to be located in the ‘middle’ districts. The food is generally good, and the staff members aren’t overly snobbish.”
I nod absently as Maneworthy continues to give me a full blown speech on the different Canterlot eateries. I can’t say that I’m overly engrossed in the topic, but the doctor is good company, and I enjoy him talking to me about something that isn’t my physical well-being.
“Of course, I’m sure you’re more interested in omnivore-friendly restaurants, but I don’t really have any advice there. I know of a few places, but I don’t know what they’re like. Either way, I would advise against taking anypony to an omni-serving establishment anyway. We can barely stomach the smell of meat, let alone this sight of it.”
“Thanks, Doc.” I chuckle blithely. “But I doubt I’ll be accompanying anypony – friend or otherwise – to a restaurant any time in the near future.”
“Right! Of course.” Maneworthy grins. “The food.”
It strikes me as odd that Maneworthy can’t remember the fact that my food has to be vetted. He’s the one that set it all up, after all.
I clear my throat, looking up at the palace. Unlike my trip yesterday, I can’t bring myself to admire its elegant architecture, as I’m too busy counting all of the towers and wondering how many stairs I’ll have to climb.
“So, uh… Where are we headed?”
“Princess Cadance and Shining Armor have their rooms closer to the ground floor, as he needs to be on call for emergencies.” Maneworthy replies matter-of-factly, which draws a huge sigh of relief from me.
“Oh thank god.” I exhale. “I was worried.”
“I’m sure.” Maneworthy gestures towards the entrance with one hoof, barely even raising an eyebrow at my mention of 'god'. “Shall we?”
I nod, following the doctor as he sets out again.”
“By the way.” I suddenly speak up as a thought crosses my mind. “Aren’t we a little… early? Won’t they still be asleep?”
“Cadance hasn’t been sleeping well.” Maneworthy remarks calmly as we reach the foor of the grand staircase and begin to climb.
The response gives me another little tug of guilt. I think it’s something along the lines of survivor’s guilt. I’ve come out of all this with some considerable scarring, and yet Cadance is the one that hasn’t even left her rooms in nine days.
I really need to stop my moping. At the moment, everything is as good as it can possibly get – when you take the last three weeks into account, of course. This is the best possible outcome to my enslavement, so the least I can do is stop making an ass of myself and cheer up. Maybe I should spend some time with Pinkie. That’d get rid of my blues.
“Keys?”
“Huh?” I shake my head, dispelling my thoughts. “Sorry. I was thinking.”
Now that is happening far too often. The amount of times I’ve just phased out and gone on a little wiki-trip in my mind completely unacceptable. It’s rude, and unnecessary. I didn’t even notice that we had reached the top of the stairs.
“I said; What are you going to say?” Maneworthy looks mildly concerned, and I don’t blame him. To say that this is going to be an awkward meeting is an understatement – but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t try. It’s Cadance, after all. Possibly the most likeable pony in all of Equestria – and that's saying something.
She’s also one of the least characterized, so I have no idea what to expect.
“I don’t know.” I respond plainly as continue walking through the halls. “There’s no real way to prepare for this, so the best thing to do is improvise.”
Maneworthy gave a little shrug – which is a very strange action to view, considering that he’s still talking. It looks a little like he just hopped slightly on his front hooves. Human gestures don’t equate well into ponies' anatomy while they’re walking.
“Your funeral.” He says simply, which makes me even more concerned. The Brony community knows next to nothing about Cadance. Personally, I can’t imagine her being anything apart from the embodiment of likeability she was in the season 2 finale, but she could always have some other traits that we never saw.
“Uhh…” I grimace. “Why is it ‘my funeral’?”
“The princess can be a little… emotional, when she’s under stress.” Maneworthy responded awkwardly.
That makes sense, what with her sensitivity to others emotions. It also worries me. At the very least it means I’ll need to tread carefully.
Maneworthy comes to a stop in front of an arched doorway, which reveals a spiral staircase.
“It’s just a few stairs up to the chambers. Are you up for that?”
“Despite what gravity would want, a few stairs aren’t going to kill me.” I reply confidently. “Are you coming?”
“I’ll come inside, but you should probably talk to Cadance alone.” Maneworthy steps onto the first stair. “Just call if you need me.”
“Will do.” I slowly follow the doctor up the stairs. Despite the relative shortness of the distance we need to climb, it still takes a good five minutes for me.
At the top, Maneworthy waits patiently as I take a few minutes to compose myself. It wouldn’t do to visit Cadance with a red face.
I don’t need to add that I absolutely hate these spiral-staircases. The sharp angle of the turn just doesn’t work for me at my current level of mobility. I swear; if my room in the palace requires stairs, then I’m going to have to kill somepony.
Finally, I reach out to the door, and strike it three times with my knuckle. I’m not sure why, but I make a point of keeping the action calm and measured.
Me and Maneworthy stand in silence on the small landing, waiting as the sound of hurried hoofsteps get louder.
Finally, the lock on the door clicks, and the door itself swings open, revealing the man himself, Shining Armor.
The white unicorn looks a little flustered. – but more than that, he looks tired. His coat is un-groomed, and his eyes have rather heavy shadows. I suppose trying to look after his wife must have taken a toll.
He grins unsteadily. “Morning Maneworthy. You here for... the thing? The talk?”
“Yes.” Maneworthy nods briskly. “And this is… well, I don’t think introductions are necessary.”
“The Piano Man?” Shining plasters a weary grin on his face holds out one hoof, which I grasp firmly and shake.
“I prefer ‘Keys’.” I return the grin, managing to put more energy into mine. “And you must be Shining Armor. Twilight’s brother.”
Shining raises an eyebrow as I release his hoof. I would imagine that he’s wondering why Twilight would talk about him to me – except for the fact that she didn’t. Just more of my damn Brony knowledge.
I nearly kick myself for being so careless. I need to learn when to shut up.
Thankfully, he doesn’t ask any questions, which would have inevitably led to an extremely awkward situation. Instead, the white unicorn simply steps back and motions for us to enter.
As usual, I let Maneworthy take point, following him as we walk into the suite.
I blink in surprise as we enter the apartment. To say that it’s well designed is an understatement.
‘Why is Canterlot architecture so awesome?’
It’s an open-plan double-story affair. There’s a wrap-around balcony overlooking the main room, with a staircase against each wall leading up to it – in other words; extremely airy.
There are a few doors set into the walls, leading off into an assortment of rooms that I only have time to glance at. Through the open ones I spot a bathroom, a kitchen, and what looks like some sort of dining room.
But what’s really breathtaking is the massive floor-to-ceiling window dominating the far wall, which gives a stunning view of the sky and surrounding landscape, while the Canterlot streets are tactfully obscured by a balcony – the door to which I cannot see.
“Wow.” I mutter, unable to stop admiring the royal suite. Only the best for the princess, I suppose.
“It really is something.” Shining responds modestly. “Five times the size of the Guard Captain’s rooms.”
I’m about to reply, when I spot the pink alicorn sitting over by the window.
Almost in unison with my spotting of Cadance, Shining comes to a halt, turning back to me.
“Listen.” He speaks in a hushed voice. “I think Cadance is getting better. She’s doing more, but if you can well… talk to her… I think it’d really help – so long as it actually works. She’s so broken down, and nothing I say can cheer her up.”
I nod hesitantly. “I’ll try.”
Shining returns the nod, his face conveying a touching amount of concern for his wife.
With nothing else to be said, Maneworthy and Shining both slowly exit the room, heading towards the ‘maybe-dining room’.
I swallow nervously, and turn to the pink alicorn, who still hasn’t stopped staring out the window.
Despite the fact that none of my previous hunches have been playing out lately, I still have the strangest feeling that this is going to either play-out terribly, or just be an extremely awkward conversation in general.
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Author's Note:
Okay, so the meeting with Cadance - just like the meeting with Celestia and Luna - needs to be split into two parts, as I'm not in a position to post a chapter tomorrow.
The next chapter will probably be reasonably short. Just a heads up.
Anyway, I'm sure many of you will be happy to see Keys finally deciding to mope around less.
(Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?)
yay new chapter
Dun DUn DUnnnnn...
You're missing the part when he tells everyone about bronies!
1174058
Good update :D
Meanwhile, in your story closet...
*pounding hooves against locked door*
LET ME OUT YOUR FORGETFUL MORON!
I was all like *gasp* "Sweet! New Update!!!" Was reading it with rapt attention then I got to the end where it gets from good to better then it ends and i was all like "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF"
Wow....
I've never FFFFFF'd before. That's how good your story is. That it's so good that when I hit the end of the chapter I actually go FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
I guess it's good that this particular chapter wasn't too long. It was so good I forgot to breath for a second. whooops lol!
Anyways, it's nice to see keys mope less and get more active and actually finally meet with cadence. lookin forward to that! thanks for the upload and keep up the good work!
I saw two split infinitives... good chapter tho!
Also, did you intentionally make both this and the last chapter have 3139 words? Scared me, thinking you might have accidentally copypasta'd a chapter. But it's all good now.
It just gets better, keep up the good work.
sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-and-hug-a-hairy-pony.png
It's that simple
1174139 yes, just so much win in that comment
1174134
How about no.
For one, he would probably get some pretty mixed results if he told them that, given his current mental state.
For two, he already affirmed (to himself, at least) that he doesn't want to tell anypony about the show. So yeah.
yay
Left me hanging bro.
He should stop thinking he's "in the show" already. He's not. He's in an alternate dimension.
Also, everyone liking Cadance? Wut.
what i remember is a near-universal hate of her across the fandom because UNEXPLAINED ALICORN OUT OF 
UCKING NOWHERE probably so Hasbro can sell more princess toys or whatever. Also some dislike for shining armor for appearing out of nowhere.
To quote a few people from one sort of brony forum thing
People saying they're going to "headcannon" her out of existence amuse me as hell. It's just such a silly and hilarious term.
1174490
She does, however, have large plans in Season 3.
1174362
Well if he keeps letting is slip then eventually he'll be backed into a corner and forced to tell them.
Besides, I'm pretty sure that it's going to come up next chapter. After all, playing the song that Cadance believes that only her and Twilight know of is probable on their "must know at all cost" list.
Can we has MOAR?
Oh man the next chapter is gonna be good! I hate waiting for a new chapter to such a good story but good things come to those who wait.
Your handling of Cadance's reaction to Trixies amoral and homicidal mind, and Key's despair
and rage is going to be something to read. I think that it most likely has done almost as much damage
to her mind as has been done to Key's body. She will also be one of the first to realize that he is hiding
something. As a powerful empath she is going to feel that he is covering something up.
Well, the next chapter should definitely prove interesting.
1174940 That was the question Cadance, Twi and Rarity were going to ask before Trixie jumped them, IIRC.
1175584 There's also the emotional turmoil in Keys' mind before they all realized what was happening, and possibly some residual amount of his homicidal thoughts toward ponies while he was trapped.
I have the feeling she caught all that, and isn't having an easy time dealing with it. That's only one reason why being empathic sucks.
1176655
Exactly, they never did get their answer now did they?
It may be that only by talking to each other both Cadance and Keys can get over this and start healing. If I'm right, she caught a lot of his anger, rage, humiliation and murderous desires, just before realization hit ("Oh, God.") and Trixie's murderous assault.
It's not going to be easy, or pleasant, but it's going to have to happen.
Time for THE talk.
1174058
Telling everyone he's a Brony, and all about the Brony sub-culture.
Telling everyone his real name.
He forgot to dress nicely for Cadence.
That's about all I can think of.
I have to say that meeting Cadence would make me uneasy... at least, if it really turns out that she is a pink alicorn as we saw in the show. Because you know, she was only made that way at the behest of the toy department. It would seem really creepy to me if I found myself in a world that verifiably corresponds to the demands of Hasbro's toy marketing.
That would have very unpleasant philosophical implications, to me.
This sounds awesome. Also, you may be forgetting Neil Armstrong died, first man on the moon.
This will end badly. For all of them. Godspeed and goodluck.
Yay less moping
*reads new chapter* I want MOAR!
Still brilliant though.
While this story is good, I have one very important question.
A super important question.
A question so important that it makes everything else seem insignificant.
...
Will our human protagonist ever rub any pony tummies?
*sniffs the air*
What's zis?! How is it I do not smell a shit storm?!
Zer should be one coming, but yet... I can't smell one!
I wonder if ze writer will prove my zense of smell wrong....
"if my room in the palace requires stairs, then I'm gonna have to kill somepony."
Foreshadowing
Prehaps something along the lines of finishing a half done job, that occured near the end of Keys and Trixies aquantinship. [We require more creepy faces]
OOOOORR It's just a small joke that shouldn't have a second glance... we can take the boring route too...
Personally, I think the safest way to open would be to thank her. Maybe he should have asked somepony exactly what about the whole thing was bothering her though.
1184736
No! We. Need. BLOOD