A Mentally Unstable and Powerful Changeling...Yeah

by Taken-By-Insanity

Chapter 18: No More Otherworlder?

“At least that headache is going away.” Shade muttered to herself as she walked down a crystalline hall. “Now that my head isn’t exploding, I can actually think, and I must ask. Why is that doctor everywhere I go? Literally, he’s everywhere.” She sighed and continued walking in silence as she made theories in her head. After a minute or so of pondering, she shook her head. “Whatever. I can think about that later.”

Shade pushed through the doors leading into the throne room and was surprised to find some familiar faces waiting. In the room were Snowflake, Gust, and Count, all chatting with Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. At the sound of the door closing behind her, they stopped their conversation and looked over at her.

“Shade! Hey!” Snowflake came over to Shade and gave her a hug. Shade awkwardly returned the gesture. “It’s been forever! How ya been?”

They broke the hug as Shade responded. “Oh, uh. I’m fine. Kinda tired but otherwise good. What are you guys doing here?”

“Well, we are Princess Cadence’s butlers and maids.” Count spoke up. “It’s only expected that we move over here to continue working for her.”

“Yeah.” Gust shrugged. “It took a bit since we had to pack up all our stuff, but we’re here now and ready to serve.”

“Well, that’s great news.” Shade smiled. She looked at the princess. “Uh, does that mean I can stop being a secretary and go back to being a maid?”

Cadence nodded in reply. “Yes, you can go back to your maid duties. Celestia managed to get someone over to take the job. But if they’re ever sick, I might have you substitute. You did really well despite no training.”

“Thanks Cadence.” Shade nodded. “Well, I guess I should show you three around.”

“Yeah! Come one, I wanna know where we’ll be sleeping!” Snowflake shook with excitement.

“Alright alright. Come on, I’ll show you the servants’ quarters.” Shade led the way. Once out of the room, Princess Cadence sighed.

“Still worried?” Shining asked his wife. “Don’t worry, I’m sure Shade is fine.”

“Yeah. I just don’t know why I’m worried.” Cadence shook her head. “I know there was a reason behind it, but I can’t seem to remember it.”

“I’m sure it’ll come back. I mean, we’re now running a kingdom and just finished getting it to a sense of normalcy.” Shining explained. “It’s been a stressful few days, so try not to stress too much on it, please.” The two exchanged a brief hug.

“Your right, Shiny.” Cadence sighed, a small smile gracing her lips. “I’ll try not to think too much about it. She seems better now, at least. And maybe the others can keep an eye on her for me.”

“That’s the spirit.” A knock came from the door and the two took a moment to compose themselves. “You may enter!” Shining Armor called to the door.

---

Shade entered the servants’ quarters with a sigh. “This’ll be where we stay.” She said, motioning to the wall of beds. “There isn’t any separation for gender, for some reason, but there are a few private bathrooms you can change in before going to bed.”

“Hmm…” Snowflake hummed in thought.

“Yes?” Shade questioned.

“It is odd that that is the case.” Count pointed out. “Are you certain there isn’t another set of quarters that are for the other gender?”

“Not that I’ve seen.” Shade shrugged.

“It’ll be fine.” Gust said with a nonchalant wave. “I trust you won’t try anything.”

“Gust!” Count scolded.

“What? There’s a reason the other castle had more private and separate dorms.” Gust replied. “And that reason is not one the applies to any of us.”

“Right…” Shade cautiously said. “Moving on…many of the rooms we will work in are not that far from here. The only exceptions are the kitchen and dining rooms, which are higher up and closer to the royal bedroom.”

The three listened to Shade’s explanation as they left the quarters and continued touring the castle. The barracks, the empty medical wing, the kitchen, dining room. Everywhere except for the royal bedroom was toured.

“And that concludes the tour. The only exception is, of course, the royal bedroom.” Shade motioned toward the door that led into the mentioned room. “Unless told otherwise, I will not be showing you three inside. I also don’t know if we’re still assigned to wake up Cadence and Shining Armor, Snowflake. We can go and ask them next time we get the chance. Any questions?”

Gust lazily raised his hoof. “How the hay does the weather work here? I don’t see many pegasi around here to maintain the weather.”

“The Crystal Heart maintains the weather in the Crystal Empire’s borders.” Shade explained, vaguely waving a hoof toward an open window. “The power of love and friendship or whatever keeps the Frozen North outside and allows us to experience constant springtime. And no, I have no clue how it works and I doubt its effect can be replicated.”

“Likely because it’s an item of one of the Spirits.” Count said to himself.

“The who?” Shade asked.

“The Spirits.” Snowflake replied. “They’re some deities of an old religion.”

“I’ve…never heard of them.”

Count shrugged. “It’s not a very fondly looked upon religion ever since the Era of Discord happened. He was revered as the Spirit of Chaos and one of a pair of twins. Since he was revealed to be real and malicious, the religion pretty much crumbled. Nowadays, most ponies worship the princesses as goddesses.”

“Huh…that makes some sense.” Shade tapped her chin in thought. ”I wonder who the other Spirits are? She shook her head. “Getting back on topic, any other questions?”

A chorus of negatives were her response and she nodded. “Alright. I guess you guys are free to go wherever for the day and get more familiar with the castle, since it took almost all day for me to give this tour.”

“Alright.” Gust flared his wings and took to the air. “I’m gonna see if I can find a cloud. Those beds don’t look comfortable enough for me. Later.” He flew out a nearby window and disappeared.

“I’m going to explore the Empire a little, see the sights and such.”

“Oh, oh! I’ll come too!” Snowflake happily chimed into Count’s idea. “The Empire looks like lots of fun to explore.”

“Alrighty, ciao.” Shade gave a small wave as they went their separate ways. Shade sighed as she rounded a corner. “Things are really complicated right now. What have I gotten myself into?”

She continued to think to herself out loud. “If I had simply fled and not buried myself in these lies, I wouldn’t be caught up in so much stuff. Now I’m stuck here because of how much suspicion would be made if I left.” She put a hoof in her mane and started to comb it with. “And if I did leave, where would I go? I’m obviously an enemy to the changeling hive that we know, so I can’t go there.”

“There really is nowhere else to go and stay at, is there?” Shade said with a frown. She then stopped as a stray thought caught her attention. “Unless…unless I found that place I first woke up in.” She shook her head. “No, that’s stupid. Everything’s dead in there and I’d end up needing to go out and ‘hunt’ or else I’d starve.”

“Am I seriously thinking of leaving? I mean, it’s not the most exciting life here or anything, but it isn’t…that…bad.” Shade stopped herself from taking another step as she looked at what was in front of her. A swirling black portal greeted her. She could not see through it and had no clue what could be on the other side. “Where did this come from? I was looking in front of me the whole time I was walking.”

She gingerly raised a hoof to touch it. Suddenly, she felt someone push her and she fell into it.

Shade screamed as she found herself falling. She shut her eyes, not daring to know how high up she is. She was in the darkest of abysses, falling with no sign of hitting any form of ground anytime soon.

Seconds turned into minutes. Minutes turned into hours and yet, she kept falling. It was only after what felt like days passed did Shade finally stop. She felt no impact, but she could feel the air no longer rushing by her.

She gingerly opened her eyes and saw a single light. She floated toward the light. As she got closer, she realized that it was a screen, showing herself walking through the castle’s halls. Something was wrong though. Her eyes had color to them!

”What?” Shade attempted to speak out loud, but only heard her voice in her head. ”Why can’t I speak? What is this screen? Where am I?!”

Rattling metal suddenly met her ears and she turned around. Chains swiftly started wrapping around her from all sides. She tried to scream, but no sound came as the chains muzzled her snout. She tried to pull the chains off, but more chains kept her arms to her sides.

She struggled and squirmed, like a worm on a hook, before her entire body was covered in the chains.

“No more otherworlder.” A deep voice resounded throughout the void. “It will be kept asleep for as long as we can. It is too powerful for us to falter, so do not fail.”

---

“Good morning, sister.” Princess Luna gave a nod to Princess Celestia as the sun princess drank a nice cup of coffee.

“Good morning, Luna.” Celestia warmly responded as she set her cup back to the table. “How was last night?”

“Terrible.” Luna admitted as she took her seat next to her sister. “I awoke from my Dream Walking with a horrible migraine and no memory of what I did.” She took a moment to take a sip of tea set in front of her. “And I found a pile of files in my desk that I don’t remember putting there.”

“Oh my.” Celestia gave a concerned frown. “Did you take any medicine for the headache?”

“I did.” Luna replied. “I believe I somehow used too much magic while Dream Walking, so I took some medicine that would assist with the headache that comes with mana exhaustion. It has become much more bearable now and should hopefully be gone by the time we lower the sun.”

“Good.” Celestia smiled. “Would you like some more tea?” She offered, lifting a teapot in her golden aura.

“I would love some.” Luna responded, lifting her cup for Celestia. She took a nice long sip from the cup that was filled and sighed. “I miss the tea from a thousand years ago.” She lamented. “It held so many more memories.”

“I know. I’m sorry that the plant we used back then died off like that.” Celestia shared a similar frown. “Tea has never been the same since that blight.” Deciding to switch topics, Celestia brought up something Luna had just mentioned earlier. “So, what were those files on your desk?”

“They were the records of a ‘Verstand Family’.” Luna told her.

“Oh? The Verstands?” Celestia raised a brow. “That’s odd.”

“You knew them?”

“Of course.” Celestia nodded. “Paranoia, the father of the family, owned a popular security company and often came to Day Court. He followed his name more than I would’ve liked, but he was a very nice stallion.”

“Oh? What else can you tell me about him?” Luna asked.

“Hm.” Celestia put a hoof to her chin in thought. “Well, he had a talent in the lost art of golemancy, which was his main product in his company. He had six kids, oddly enough. He had the bits to take good care of them and often donated to health related services, since his first daughter was born with a…less than preferred immune system.” Celestia made a sad frown. “I saw good things to come from that filly if she ever got better.”

“What about his wife and other children?” Luna pressed, a strange curiosity coming over her.

“His wife, Love Verstand, was a school teacher and part time nurse.” Celestia recalled. “She used some of her husband’s money to donate to orphanages and low funded schools across the nation as well.”

“It sounds like she was a fine mare with a good heart.” Luna observed.

“Indeed. Her talent was in taking care of others, and she followed that talent to her last breath.” Celestia gained a more displeased frown. “It was a sad day when she and her younger daughter were murdered. That filly had good things coming to her.”

“And the kids?”

“There were the triplets, the twins, and the youngest. The triplets held Fury, Depression, and Disgust. Disgust is the daughter with the immune system problem. She was killed by a nurse accidentally overdosing her.” Celestia went on, taking a break to drink more of her coffee. She took a breath and continued. “Fury was a very hateful unicorn who had a talent for Pyromancy. He never learned how to swim and drowned in one of the rivers in my school. I made sure the rivers were very shallow after that, so the accident wouldn’t repeat itself.”

“And Depression? Did he follow his name too much, like his father?” Luna questioned.

Celestia nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. He suffered from constant depression since birth. He also never had the ability to fly, for his wings couldn’t hold his magic. He…committed suicide after the rest of his family passed away.”

“Oh…” The sisters shared a moment of sad silence. “…What about the other three?”

“The twins were Mania and Gluttony. A trend with this family, I’ve noticed, is that they follow their name a little too well.” Celestia noted. “Gluttony had an eating disorder and even had a mutation that gave him a more omnivorous mouth and needed a diet to match. He had a talent for cooking and died after eating…moldy bread.”

“Moldy…bread?” Luna looked at Celestia, incredulous and utterly confused.

“Yes. I was surprised as well when I heard.” Celestia gave a small chuckle of mirth. She shook the mirth away before continuing. “Mania, the other twin, had a strange mental disorder. She couldn’t feel anything but joy. She found everything funny and happy and there was no way of changing that. The only time she didn’t smile…was when she died.” She sighed. “A unicorn shot her through the head, making a clean hole through her, before strangling Love moments later on a walk.”

“My, that’s…violent.” Luna looked out a window overlooking Canterlot. “Please tell me that the unicorn is rotting in the dungeons right now.”

“I’m afraid they aren’t.” Celestia shook her head. “We never could figure out who did it. We used a truth spell and everything else we could, but the unicorn seemed to have altered the witnesses’ memories to hide their appearance. We could only tell they were a unicorn stallion.”

“I sometimes forget how our ponies are capable of violence, even after all these years of peace that you’ve brought to them.” Luna said.

“I, too, sometimes forget.” Celestia sadly said as she looked out the window with Luna. “And lastly, there was Fear.” Luna perked up at the name. “He followed his name in both senses. He was an Earthpony with a talent for scaring others, even though he was even scared of his own shadow.” She shook her head. “He had a dissociative identity disorder, or something similar. He would become cruel and obsessed over scaring others, all because it was the only thing that made him smile. He…fell off a school roof, died on impact and broke all of his bones.”

Celestia sighed. “Sorry. Talking about the death of families can bring down the mood so much.” She shook her head.

“It is alright, sister.” Luna said with a small, sad smile. “I brought up the topic in the first place. Let us speak of other things. Were your dreams well last night?”

“Indeed. Thank you for not prying into them, sister.” Celestia nodded. “It was a dream about old times, before we got our cutie marks.”

“Oh, yes. Those were the days.” Luna chuckled. “No responsibilities and only time for fun.”

Author's Note:

Y’all…I don’t think I can continue this bit. I’m gonna do a huge time skip and I apologize in advance. I want to get to the next juicy bit and can’t do, like, 20 chapters of bland stuff. We need some drama. And the next big bit of drama, to me, in the Crystal Empire…is Flurry Heart. Yeah. Sorry.
If y’all think to complain, remember: You don’t need to read this. I’m writing this for myself more than anyone else. If you’re going to give criticism, okay, but please be careful how you word it, otherwise I might take it the wrong way.
Anywho, have a good day/night.

Comments

[midnight arrow]

great chapter