A Mentally Unstable and Powerful Changeling...Yeah

by Taken-By-Insanity

Chapter 5: Princess of Love

It didn’t take long before Shade found the Princess of Love. She was a mess of hair and makeup, likely from some breakdowns. The Princess had been down there for a good bit. Shade guessed it had been close to a week.

”Time to act.”
“Princess Cadance?!” Shade said surprise carried in her voice. “Are you alright? What’s going on?” Shade assumed any other ‘pony’ would have acted similarly after finding themself in a situation like this.

“I need you to calm down for me, okay? Breath in…and out.” Cadance guided Shade through the mantra a few times before Shade ‘calmed down.’

“O-Okay, I’m calm. I’m calm.” Shade took another deep breath before repeating herself. “So, where am I and what’s going on, Princess?”

“Well, I’m not very sure why you’re down here, but I’m assuming another me put you down here?” Shade nodded before Cadance continued. “That was a changeling, a creature that can take the appearance of someone else and feeds off of love.” A gasp was made by Shade as this information was given. “And that Changeling is the ruler of them. She placed me and you into the abandoned mines within the mountain.”

“S-So we just need to find a way out and then this can be stopped. Okay. Um, let's go...this way?”

Cadence nodded at Shade's suggestion. “I don't think I've tried going that way yet. Let's go.” Candace walks past Shade and she followed close behind. All but the sound of the two’s footsteps were heard for a few moments before Cadance decided to speak. “So...may I ask for your name?”

“Of course, Princess. My name is Shady Drawing but feel free to simply call me Shade.”

“Shady Drawing? Do you happen to have a talent in art?”

Shade gave a nod, of course, unseen by Cadenza. “Indeed I do. I happen to use a unique type of magic with my art as well.”

“Oh? That sounds quite nice. I'm surprised I haven't heard of you before.”

“Well, that's because I'm not from around here,” Shade clarified. She looked at their crystalline surroundings as they walked and she continued. “I’m actually from a very small town on the outskirts of Equestria. A fire burnt down my home a year ago and I've kinda been homeless and without work since.” That was a lot of lies there.

Cadance stopped after hearing that for a moment before continuing. “That’s horrible. I'm sure I could pull some strings and get you a job at the castle after this mess is dealt with.”

Now it was Shade’s turn to stop out of shock. ”Just like that? Really?” She thought incredulously. “Just like that? We've only just met though!”

“Well of course.” She made a small smile as she spoke. “A Princess should do her part in helping the residents of Equestria when they are in need. I wouldn't be a very good Princess if I didn't help with your current situation now, would I?”

“I...guess not.” Shade did not expect the amount of generosity Cadance was offering. It was kinda nice. A yawn broke the two’s conversation as their drowsiness made itself known. “Right. I forgot that it was nighttime when I ended up down here.”

“Mm. Let's get some sleep and we’ll get back to looking after.” Shade nodded in agreement before the two sat against a wall and promptly fell asleep.

---

Nothing. Luna has been using what free time she had to look up those three and after almost a week she’s found nothing, forcing her to go deeper into the archives to find what she was looking for.

It took many hours into the night, close to when sunrise needed to be done, but she finally found something to work with. It was a file on a pony with almost the exact appearance the unicorn stallion had.

Name: Furious Rage
Common Alias: Fury
Species: Unicorn
Age: 17
Sex: Male
Description: Red coat of fur with a black mane and tail that faded to red
Cutie Mark: White fire with angry red eyes
Talent: Pyromancy
Physical Disorders: N/A
Mental Disorders: Intermittent Explosive Disorder(IED)
Magic Disorders: N/A
Status: Dead
Cause of Death: Drowning
Next of Kin: Paranoia, Love Heart, Depression, Mania, Disgust, Fear, Gluttony

That’s quite a family this one had. Luna was greatly confused upon seeing that this pony was dead though. She could sense his presence in the realm of dreams and could tell that it wasn’t some dream entity. She wondered…

Luna left the archive and walked to one of the guards before giving him the file. “I’d like to have the file’s of this one’s next of kin as soon as possible. Understood?” The guard simply nodded before heading off to find the other files while Luna continued walking. It was time to move the celestial bodies once more before going through her daily slumber.

---

Within the mind of Shade, the throne room appeared yet again, the walls covered with endless grooves that held various thrones.

The room was empty of occupants this time, leaving only Shade to take up any space within. “Hello?” she called out to the empty room. She stood from her seat between two thrones and wandered to the door leading out of it. She pushed the double doors and found herself outdoors. It was what many would call a not-so-pretty sight but, to her, it was almost paradise.

Clouds covered the entire sky, making the light from the sun much dimmer and less blinding. A chilly breeze came by, making the hanging branches of willow trees sway. The land was riddled with hills, leaving the horizon unable to be seen from the small valley.

Shade walked through the branches of one of the larger willows and looked around. She always wished for a dream like this. Sure, it may not have had much action, but Shade always loved willow trees. They seemed so unique to her whenever she saw them.

It was unfortunate that the peacefulness of the dream was shattered as room as Shade sat down. When she did, she felt the sudden absence of the tree and the ground, leaving her to fall into a dark pit.

She fell for a long time before hitting the ground, a sickening crack accompanying her landing. Funnily enough, she was uninjured. It felt more like her body’s joints popped instead of broke. She sat up and quickly looked around, finding herself still in the blinding dark.

A torch fixated to the wall suddenly lit up next to her, bright blue flames lighting up her surroundings. More torches lit up, revealing where Shade was. She was greeted with a large black throne room with bodies littering the ground. The bodies of changelings. Shade got herself to stand before walking toward the throne, noticing an object on it.

Upon getting to the throne, the object she saw was revealed to be a book. Shade gently picked it up, afraid that it would disappear as the previous dream did. She opened the book and came upon the first page.

Entry 1
Hello oh, journal of mine! Mother suggested I write in this every once in a while and here we are! Today was kinda boring though. It was just the usual classes talking about our unique traits and stuff. We all know what a changeling can do. Shapeshift and eat emotions. But it turns out, most changeling hives have a special trait that separates them from the rest! What’s our hive’s unique trait, you may ask? Necromancy! IT’S SO COOL!
Anyways, that's all, I gotta get to sleep.
Signing off, Snow. <3

“A hive that does necromancy?” Shade whispered to herself, looking around at the bodies around her. She quickly flipped to the next page, hoping that these necromatic abilities were limited.

Entry 2
Hello again. Mother said that I should always elaborate when I talk about our unique trait so I'm going to talk about it here! By necromancy, I mean our hive can tap into the realm of the dead and use ghosts! We just pluck them out of their eternal rest and use them as a secondary source of emotion! Though, there are possible side effects when we use this method. Some ghosts can take over our bodies and we can become very conflicted because of them messing with our heads, which is why we gotta try to find souls that are similar to us!
Anyway, today went pretty okay. We practiced on our shapeshifting and I won the contest as best shapeshifter! I'm sure everyone else will catch up though, they're great at it too! Oh, and acting! It was so much fun, pretending to be a knight!
Well, that's all, this is Snow, signing off. <3

“Phew.” So this hive couldn't automatically reanimate bodies or something as soon as they were born. Shade gave her surroundings another glance before looking into the book once again, skimming through the rest of the pages, which were mostly consisting of talking about classes. That was until Shade found the last entry.

Entry 67
I’m sorry...

The rest of the page was covered in ink. It must've spilled onto the rest of the page. And once again, Shade was plunged into darkness, falling into an eternal void. This fall would take up the rest of her night.

---

Luna sat at her desk within her bedroom, thick curtains blocking the sunlight from coming in as she looked through various papers. After the sun had risen and the moon had fallen for the day, the guard she had sent came to her chambers with the documents she requested.

Now, with the papers in her possession, she decided to forgo some of her sleep for looking into them. What she found surprised her greatly. ”Both of those stallions are twins. Fury and Depression. They’re actually a part of a set of triplets, whose sister’s name is Disgust.”

She looked through the files on the sister triplet. “She was born with a lot of issues with sickness and was almost constantly in a hospital. Her illness eventually won during her teens, after she wasn’t given the correct amount of medication. She…never even got her cutie mark?” A sad frown took the elegant alicorn’s face as she kept looking through the files.

“Depression hanged himself. He was born with an unnamed disorder that dulled his emotions to a drastic degree. He never got his cutie mark either.” She set the files on the triplets down and picked up another set. Perhaps they would be happier.

“The Mania, Fear, and Gluttony ponies in next of kin are also siblings. Mania and Gluttony were twins and Fear was the only child without a twin.” Princess Luna paused for a moment in thought. “Triplets and then twins? My, that takes a huge amount of luck to end up having.” She returned to the files and continued reading.

“Mania was a pegasus who had a disorder that affected her mind and magic. She was passively too happy to feel most other emotions. She was murdered by a unicorn, who has yet to be caught.” She sighed, rubbing approaching sleep out of her eyes. “This doesn’t get any better, does it?”

“Let’s see. Gluttony was a unicorn. Eating disorder, that also had a very unique effect. He needed meat in his diet?” She paused for a moment. “So he was naturally omnivorous? That is very out there.” She returned to reading after voicing this though to herself. “He died from extreme food poisoning.”

“Here’s Fear. Suffered from anxiety and a split personality. His talent was scaring others and he fell off a school building. Broke almost everything in his body and likely died on impact.”

“Paranoia and Love were the parents of the six. Love seems very similar to Cadance,” Luna noted. “This pegasus had a talent for cheering people up. And was murdered as well.”

“Paranoia was a unicorn talented in security and analyzing. A pegasus had allowed a lethal shock to ring out during a scheduled thunderstorm and it had struck him, burning him to death in a moments notice.”

After reading all this, Luna set down the files with a sigh. “These ponies all died within the span of a month. That cannot be a coincidence,” she mumbled to herself, before a yawn suddenly interrupted her pondering. She forgot that she needed to sleep. Luna placed the files within an empty drawer before getting out of the chair and bringing herself to her bed. Another day to sleep away.

”Oh, right. Cadance’s wedding is within the next week… I should make sure to be awake that day…” she thought this to herself as her consciousness slowly faded into her dreams.

---

Shade woke up with a start. She looked to the left and to the right before remembering where she was. She took a deep breath and counted to herself. “One two three four five. Five four three two one.” Now calmed down from the scare her dreams gave her, she stood up as Cadance groaned, rubbing her eyes as she woke up once again.

Cackling could suddenly be heard in the distance. It sounded eerily like Cadance. But she was right next to Shade. “Come on.” Shade guided the Princess to her hooves before stalking ahead. Hearing the cackling was doing…something to Shade. She couldn’t quite explain it. It was akin to rage but it was so much more…potent than what she would expect herself feeling. Unbeknownst to her, her eyes had gained an iris and pupil again. One was red while the other was black.

Shade stopped at a wall of crystal. “Over here!” The taunting voice of the imposter Cadance called, the sound of a spell firing being heard just after. More cackling and the sound of more spells being fired was heard. Suddenly, a blast of magenta came out of the wall, blasting Shade back into a wall on the other side.

Apparently, there was a chamber on the other side of the wall, holding, you guessed it, Twilight Sparkle.