In Love and War

by The Fool

Chapter III

Myriad changelings milled about the sleeping chamber. Some were getting up to go to work in the coal mines; others were retiring after a long night of guard duty into one of the thousands of rectangular holes carved into the walls. The holes were deep enough to keep the omnipresent glow out and wide enough to fit a grown changeling. To save space, the hive operated on morning, afternoon, and night shifts, with each bed being shared by one changeling from each shift.

Aurelia had just returned from the night shift. She sat on the edge of her alcove with her head in her hooves, staring out at the opposite end of the chamber. She couldn't shake the feeling of being in a giant mausoleum.

"It may become just that if this war goes on much longer," she said. She wondered if the dead would find any rest when that day came. Necromancy was forbidden, but Cassius didn't strike her as the type who would care.

She rolled onto her back to inspect her perforated hooves. She was an exception among changelings, most of whom cared little for their appearances when not in character. Chrysalis didn't mind. She thought all her children were beautiful inside and that that was what mattered. The notion had always seemed narcissistic. In light of recent events, it was just plain false. "Oh Mother, you must be turning over in your grave."

Most mornings like this ended with Aurelia crying herself to sleep, but lately the tears refused to flow. "You sacrificed yourself so we could be free, so we could have a fresh start, and what did we do? We threw it all away!

"You said you wanted to give us a choice. You said there wouldn't be a point unless we had the option to continue as we always have, but how could we see what a fool's errand stealing love was when we've never known any other way?

"You said I would have to show them, but how can I do that when all they know is that they've lost the only one who ever cared about them? How can the other nations see that we've changed when your appointed leader wants nothing more than to make them share his own emptiness?"

Aurelia sighed. "You must have known this would happen, or why would you have named him Cassius? Not that it matters now. I just wish there was something I could do." She was about to close her eyes when a sphere of ashes swirled into existence above her. It was shrouded in ethereal flames that seemed to be reconstituting it into a scroll of readable parchment. Magic could do some crazy things, and the resemblance to a changeling fire portal was striking, but she'd never seen one used for transmutation. Though the display was over in seconds, it made her head hurt to watch.

She caught the scroll with her magic before it could fall to the ground many stories below. There was no seal. Not that she'd recognize the insignia if there was. Changelings had no need for such nonsense—at least, they didn't used to. Pushing that thought aside, she unrolled the letter.

"Dear Legate Cassius:" she read. "I've recently been made aware... assassination... Princess Celestia... diplomacy... as few casualties as possible. Sincerely, Spike." She rubbed her eyes and read it over twice more.

"Who the hell is Spike?" she asked as if expecting the words to rearrange themselves into an answer. After what had just happened, she wouldn't have batted an eye.

"Does he realize what he's done? This is an act of treason. Even if we managed to strike a deal, there's no way Celestia would honor it." Her mind raced to grapple with the implications. "And why am I getting the Legate's mail? This doesn't make any sense."

She had glided halfway to the entrance when she stopped to smack herself in the face. Hovering there in midair, she saw the letter in a different light, a ghostly greenish light. "If what this pony says is true, the fate of the hive rests in my hooves. If this letter were to get lost in transit, the war would be as good as over—no one else would have to die! With the Legate out of the way, we could still atone for our crimes and peacefully coexist with Equestria. Celestia would understand that we'd been manipulated in our grief."

Her heart threatened to leap from her chest and dance a jig. She'd seen that happen once. Only trained professionals were allowed to practice medical magic after that.

"All I have to do is make sure Cassius never gets this letter, and Mother's sacrifice won't have been in vain." The tip of her horn ignited with a crackling green ember as she pulled ambient magic from the air to fuel one of the few offensive spells she knew—incineration. She'd never had much use for the spell, so she considered herself lucky to still remember it. As she was about to reduce the parchment to a heap of ashes, she stopped. The magic dispersed.

"This isn't what Mother would want. If I kill one of our own—indirectly or otherwise—I'll be no better than the Legate." She rolled up the letter and set off through the winding maze of tunnels that led to Cassius's quarters.

***

"Come in," Cassius called. The gold-trimmed-ebony door that separated Chrysalis's old chamber from the rest of the hive muffled his voice. He had moved in upon assuming the mantle of Legate, reasoning that the new leader taking the old one's office was a fitting way to assert his authority.

Aurelia thought it was more fitting as a testament to his disrespect for the dead. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Cassius was lounging in a velvet armchair with his forelegs folded behind his head. His hind legs were propped up on a wooden desk, but he took them down as she came in. All the room's furnishings shared the same black and gold aesthetic.

"Ah, Aurelia," he said. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"You have mail," Aurelia said.

"Really?" Cassius leaned forward to rest his forelegs on the desk.

Aurelia stopped in front of the desk. "No, I came to shoot the breeze over a cup of tea."

"I'm flattered, dear, but you know how busy I am antagonizing Equestria. Perhaps you'd like to make an appointment?"

"Do you want your mail or not?"

Cassius sighed. "What happened to that carefree little filly who was so quick to laugh in my face all those weeks ago?" He smiled playfully. "If you ask me, she was much better company."

Aurelia resisted the urge to buck his overgrown fangs out. "I didn't ask you, but if you must know, she grew up, something that still hasn't happened to you." She tossed the scroll onto the desk and turned to leave.

Cassius's smile faded. "I'm sorry, Aurelia."

Aurelia stopped, still facing the door.

"I know you miss her. We all do. Even me, believe it or not." Cassius added under his breath, "They took her away from you, and I'll never forgive them for that."

Aurelia choked back a sob.

"Those ponies are the ones you should be mad at, not me. I may not know the first thing about leading a nation, much less waging war, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to make them pay for what they did!"

Shuddering, Aurelia turned to face Cassius. "Mother wouldn't want this!" Tears streaked her face. "She gave her life so we could be free, so we could be happy. That was her dream for us: to love and be loved instead of being shunned by every nation we come into contact with.

"She knew attacking the capital was a suicide mission. She needed to give the ponies such a reason to kill her that the crimes we've committed under her control would pale in comparison, to make herself the villain. She was at peace with that because she knew there was no other way. Not anymore."

Cassius leaned back. "How could you know that?"

"Because she told me. Before she left, she told me everything: why she wouldn't be coming back, why there was no other way, and what to do when the others found out.

"She wanted me to be our ambassador, to go to the other races and show them that we've changed." Aurelia marched forward, planted her hooves on the desk, and glared down at Cassius. "Thanks to you, we haven't changed a bit."

Cassius stood and walked around the desk to offer her a hug.

Aurelia backed away.

"Aurelia, why didn't—"

"Because you wouldn't understand."

"Did she tell you that too?"

"No, I figured that out myself."

Cassius searched Aurelia's glossy blue eyes for some indication of what he was supposed to feel. Guilt, confusion, and anger were likely possibilities. "How?"

Aurelia walked over to the couch on the left side of the room and climbed on. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and answered, "You're empty."

"What?"

Aurelia opened her eyes and looked at him. "That's what your name means—empty. That's why you're waging this senseless war, so your enemies can know the same emptiness you do. You'd rather send your family to the slaughter than face your own feelings." She chuckled. The sound was dark and humorless. "I didn't realize until tonight, but she knew this would happen."

"Get out," Cassius muttered.

Aurelia got up and began pacing around the room. "I almost didn't deliver that letter, you know. With you gone, I could still undo the damage. We could still have peace, but I could never live with your blood on my hooves." She stopped to look him in the eye. "I've already lost too many brothers and sisters."

"Get out!" Cassius bucked the desk with enough force to splinter its surface, sending it tumbling back into the chair. Both crashed to the floor. He stared her down all the while, chest heaving.

Giving him the betrayed look a little filly would to an abusive father, Aurelia backed out the door.

Once the patter of hooves against stone faded out, Cassius relaxed his stance and turned to survey the damage. He righted the desk, flipped it around so the hoof marks wouldn't be visible from the door, and collapsed into the chair.

His eyes fell on the scroll. Its outline looked fuzzier than it had a minute ago. Something must have gotten in his eye. Seconds became minutes as he willed his tear ducts to wash away the fleck of coal dust or whatever it was. Once his vision returned to its usual sharpness, he unrolled the parchment. A wide, toothy grin stretched across his face as he began reading. "Shining Armor, eh?"

***

Spike awoke on a black velvet couch. The eerie glow coming from somewhere above him tinted the gold-leaf embroidery a sickly green. The air was musty and damp, but it smelled like morels dipped in clover honey. He flicked his forked tongue and rose to a sitting position, stifling a yawn. Twisting the stiffness out of his neck, he saw others in the room. They appeared to be equines, but all he could make out was their solid blue eyes, which pierced the haze like will-o'-the-wisps in Froggy Bottom Bog.

"Sleep well?" a cheery, masculine voice echoed through his head as if from the far side of a canyon. He took a moment to find the source. Among the dark gray blobs that filled the room, only the one sitting behind a desk returned his gaze.

The taller blobs on either side stood stock still, staring straight ahead.

"Bah?" Spike asked.

"Really? That's a shame. Your letter made you sound so eloquent."

"What?" Spike shook his head. The images were starting to come into focus. He was in a cavern, an elaborately furnished cavern lit up by some sort of luminescent fungus. The blobs were chitinous creatures with long, twisted horns and translucent wings—changelings.

He was surrounded. He grabbed the closest thing he could find and swung it around in a defensive gesture. "Who are you? What am I doing here? I've got a... uh... candlestick? That's right. I've got a candlestick, and I'm not afraid to use it!"

The guards didn't so much as blink.

The changeling behind the desk smirked. "Well, aren't you a feisty one?" he asked. "As for what you're doing here, you appear to be making a fool of yourself." With his magic, he yanked the candlestick from Spike's claws and set it down on the end table where it belonged. "You're right about one thing, though: introductions are in order. I'm Legate Cassius. You may call me Brother if you prefer. You're part of the family, after all."

"You're not my brother."

Cassius rolled his eyes, but his lack of an iris ruined the effect. "It's a figure of speech. Would you like some tea?"

Spike climbed back onto the couch, never taking his eyes off Cassius. "No."

"Good, because we don't have any."

"Then why did you offer?"

Cassius feigned offense. "Excuse me for trying to make you feel comfortable! It's not like you wanted any."

"I'm not going to gratify that with a response."

"Then what do you call that?"

Spike crossed his arms and took a closer look at the room. It was roughly cylindrical with a domed ceiling and a heavy wooden door. His gaze settled on the smooth gray walls, which were lined with portraits of various changelings. Chrysalis's was the largest and most detailed, and the only one he recognized. It hung directly above and behind the desk. Having expected something to the effect of the Changeling Queen standing at the front of an army, smirking menacingly as she ground her hoof into the dismembered body of a still-breathing pony, his thoughts ground to a screeching halt at what he actually saw.

The few changelings he'd had the displeasure of meeting had led him to believe that they were all cold-blooded cutthroats, yet here was an image of Chrysalis laying on her side, eyes downcast as she hugged a young changeling with her neck. Replace the two of them with Celestia and Twilight, and the scene became one he'd often witnessed while growing up in Canterlot. He looked away. "What do you mean I'm 'part of the family?'"

"You're Spike, are you not?"

"I am."

"The same Spike who wrote this letter?" Cassius held open the scroll.

"Yes."

Cassius rolled up the scroll and placed it back on the desk. "You realize this is an act of treason, don't you? If Celestia were to find out, you'd never be allowed back into Equestria. You're an outcast now, just like us."

"That's not true. Twilight would vouch for me. She'd understand I was trying to do the right thing."

"By throwing her brother to the manticores? Oh yes, I can see how well that will go over. Feel free to run back to your little pony, then. I'll tell my guards to let you pass."

Spike stayed rooted to the cushion. "How do you know Shining is Twilight's brother?"

Cassius tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling. Sighing, he looked down, opened the desk drawer and levitated out a flask. He drained it to the last drop before putting it back in the desk. His mouth twitched into a quirky grin as he turned to Spike. "I may not have been there for the royal wedding, but I know what happened as well as any changeling, the last act notwithstanding. Those details are fuzzy. By all rights, I should have been privy to Mother's thoughts right until the end."

"You must have repressed the memory."

Cassius shrugged and addressed the guard on his right, "Remind me to see a psychologist once we've annihilated all of pony kind."

"Yes, Sir," the guard replied.

Cassius got up and walked over to sit beside Spike. "Enough about me, though." Cassius's breath reeked of wormwood. "I'm dying to know why you'd put a knife to the backs of your adoptive mother, her brother, your princess, and just about everypony else you've ever known. Is peace that important to you?"

"No, I didn't do it for me." Spike got up and began pacing around the room. "I did it for my 'adoptive mother,' as you call her. We were close, but hold no illusion about us being family. Certainly not now."

Cassius leaned back into the couch. "The plot thickens."

"She was shocked that Celestia wouldn't consider negotiating with you before ordering your assassination, all because of something your former queen did. I could almost hear Twilight's heart breaking, so when Celestia left, I did the only thing I could think of: I sent you that letter and hoped for the best."

Cassius stifled a laugh. "Seriously? I know love makes you crazy, but are you sure you weren't smoking poison joke or something?"

Spike stopped. "Attacking the Equestrian capital during a royal wedding made so much sense, right?"

Cassius looked thoughtful. "I'm sure Mother had her reasons."

"What happened to her, anyway?"

Cassius frowned. "Weren't you there?"

Spike made his way back to the couch and sat a respectable distance away from Cassius. "Humor me."

Cassius stared vacantly at the other side of the room. "She died. Just like all the others. We never did find her body. As I understand, they were thrown off a mountain by the very same unicorn stallion who's now coming for me." He grinned down at Spike and pointed at a blank space on the opposite wall. "Once I'm through, the only thing left to recognize him by will be his bloody pelt hanging from my wall."

Spike did his best to ignore the mental image. "What about Cadence?"

"What about her? I suppose I could gift-wrap Shining's heart and mail it to her, but I doubt she'd have much use for it by then. Besides, any score we have will be more than settled when she has to face the rest of her extraordinary lifespan as a widow. Who knows, she may even commit suicide! Wouldn't that be sweet karmic retribution?"

"I'd tell you you're a monster, but I doubt you'd care."

"You'd be right. I'm a monster through and through." Cassius walked over to face the desk and looked up at Chrysalis's portrait. "Apparently that's what Mother wanted me to be, so who am I to deny her that dying wish?"

"Do you always do what you're told?"

"Heavens no!" Cassius turned to Spike, eyes stretched wide in feigned shock. "If I did that, Aurelia would have had her way long ago. Before you ask, no, we're not related."

"Who's Aurelia?"

"You don't know? Given your position on the war, I'd have thought you sent your letter to her on purpose. Honestly, how much you two remind me of each other makes me sick." Cassius looked thoughtful. "Then again, that might be the absinthe."

"What do you mean? My letter should have gone straight to you. That's how dragon magic works."

"Really? That's fascinating! We may have a use for you after all. Of course, I'll have to see this assassin for myself before—"

A heavy knock sounded through the door.

"I'm in the middle of an important diplomatic discussion," Cassius called. "Come back later." He waved his hoof as if the other party could see the gesture and sat down behind the desk. He took the flask out again but frowned when he realized it was empty.

"We've apprehended the assassin, Sir," a muffled, haggard voice answered.

"Goodness me, what a convenient coincidence! By all means, send him in."

The door opened to reveal the battered form of one of Celestia's Royal Guards. His helmet had been removed, his armor hung to the side like a moth-eaten rag, steel clasps held his horn and legs, his coat had turned a dusty gray, he was bleeding from several places, and one of his eyes had swollen shut.

Cassius frowned. "What did you do, drag him through the coal mines?"

"Sorry Sir, he put up quite a fight," one of the accompanying guards replied.

"At least he's still alive. I suppose that's what counts." Cassius fluttered over the desk. "Hello, my little pony! You must be Shining Armor. My brother and I were just talking about you. I hope my welcoming committee didn't tire you out too much, because the fun has only just begun."

Shining would have spat, but his mouth was too dry. He looked around the room and spotted Spike. "They captured you too, eh? Don't worry, I'll come find you once I'm done cleaning this bug's face off my hooves."

"Don't be silly, Shiny Dearest. It's very unbecoming of Celestia's finest." With his hoof, Cassius turned Shining's head to face him. "The only reason you haven't killed me already is because of your nephew over there."

Spike grimaced.

Shining snarled. "What are you talking about?"

"That's right!" Cassius declared. "Of all the humiliating ways to meet your end, you got sold out by a baby dragon."

Shining stared at Spike, brow furrowing. "Why?"

Spike tried to come up with a reasonable explanation, but words failed him as he realized there was no escaping the consequences of his ill-conceived plan. Nothing he said would make him understand. "I just wanted to set things right."

Cassius continued, "All right, you have your explanation, now get out of my sight. You're standing on an expensive carpet, and I won't tolerate you bleeding all over it. Save that for when you're in the dungeon. I'll come join you once I'm done here."

As the guards took Shining away, Cassius turned to Spike. "Would you look at that? Your information was correct after all."

"I feel sick," Spike mumbled.

"Oh, don't be like that. You've held up your end of the bargain, so now I'm going to hold up mine."

"Really?"

Cassius rolled his eyes. "Think of me what you will, but I'm a changeling of my word. You're off to see Aurelia; she's in charge of foreign relations. I'm sure she'll be thrilled to have a foreigner to relate to." Cassius kneeled to whisper in Spike's ear. "If we're lucky, she might even stop bothering me about peace, harmony, and all that other pony crap."

"I thought you said diplomacy was out of the question."

Cassius shrugged. "I don't know. Why don't you ask Aurelia about it?" He stood, looked to his guards, and clapped his hooves. "Guards, escort our draconian guest to the embassy."

The guards exchanged uncertain glances before one spoke up, "Sir, we don't have an embassy."

"Well, make one. Then take him there. Inform Aurelia while you're at it. At the very least, I'm sure she'll enjoy the company."

Comments

[PrometheusDark]

Careful, Spike. Sometimes the right thing isn't the best option... Its nice to see a little good come from his brash decision, though.

Loving it so far. Please, friend, continue.

[Inferno demon Dash]

Damn, that changling is a bastardand I'm seriously hoping that Spike does not fall in love with that female changling, I'm not one for when a main falls for an OC whatsoever...plus, I like the two changlings just as they are.....this is going to get crazy, wonder where the Mane Six are....wonder whats going to happen to Celstria or Luna for that matter....damn, this is going to get twisted...Spike as evil? Count me in!

[The Fool]

1433051

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. There's still five more chapters to go.

[Inferno demon Dash]

1433214 Y.....you make a very valid point.....damn logic!!!!! Just joking bro, carry on with yuor amazing story.

[RubberBrony]

dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Twilight_crazy.png I'm thinking of ways to torture and kill Cassius without getting affected by any outside forces.dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Twilight_crazy_invert.png

[The Fool]

1477524

All in good time.

[RubberBrony]

1480301 Muahahahaha, Ahahahaha! dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/discord.png

[Drew051]

There seems to be one large flaw with the plot...

...there is no reason for Cassius to exist
Why would Chrysalis appoint him leader when she apparently knew he would do something stupid, even going so far as to name him "empty", and make Aurelia his mere advisor? Oh wait she didn't because according to Spike's magic Aurelia has been the leader the whole time!