Awkward Homecomings
You Can Go Home
B_25 & Ploish
It'd been a week. Nothing else was said on the matter. Not a good week nor a bad one. Long and hard, easy and short—those words, the describing kind, were never used. To debate was to talk more about what occurred. Regardless of the context of the week... it was better a week passed then one still talked about.
Of course living as a two-headed creature was never easy.
The duo's first response to everything was, of course, to pretend none of it happened. Getting away from the other was no longer a working method to dealing with their problems. Nonetheless—a compromise was found. If the room was dark, and they were underneath the sheets, so long as none breathed... they could pretend to be away from the other.
This tactic rarely worked.
And the world still went on, worked on, needing them, their empire, to keep doing exactly that. With a joint roll of the eyes, a ceremony was called at the spire, everyone asked to loom below. No words could prepare or express the reveal. Rather they allowed their subjects to deal with the sight as they would.
Gasps started from the front of the crowd and worked its way far to the back. Colts and fillies broke first from shock, their forehooves pointed at the couple, waving, chanting names and laughter. Teenagers were next to join on the matter.
Stallions bore expressions of confusion; mares possessed stares of concern.
The empire, however, didn't care beyond appearance. In terms of how the land would continue to run, nothing changed and, since the only difference, now, was their rulers, quite literally, joined at the hip—none really cared beyond idle gossip.
Princess Luna and Sunburst had come to visit the spire to aid the newly formed two-headed being into coping with their new existence. Helping with chores and explaining to Flurry why Mommy and Daddy looked like something out of her nightmare.
And to help run what they could of the empire.
Luna and Sunburst's biggest problem, however, came in dealing with the royal creature. Both of them snuck into the bedroom where it lurked underneath the bedsheets trying not to breathe. Each grabbing a leg, they pulled it away, dragging the being across the floor.
Enduring its groans and insults all the way to the classroom situated in one of the vacant rooms. They explained to the duo, from there, all changes to their being and body. First was the matter of their fusion. This—with a slap of a stick onto the chalkboard—was permanent and cannot be undone.
Even if it could, the duo couldn't survive apart. Shining and Cadance now shared a soul. If they separated, one could only have it and, the one who didn't... would perish. This classroom was done so the two would stop pushing against the other, thinking somehow, it would separate them.
And now on with the story.
Cadance didn't have many reasons for caution in her life. Never had she felt threaten by mail—at least as an object—but the scent of the envelope had caught her. Glancing to the side, she caught Shining's head rolled back, eyes close and snout snoring, heaving air through his lips.
At least sleep allowed her some control over his legs. She could still engage in some activities without Shining truly there. Like morning coffee and sorting through the mail. It was her break of peace in a stressful life. But the aroma of that envelop, the one laying on the table, brought evil in her mind.
Picking it up, she turned it around, the mark of the seal also sealing her into a dammed fate. The mark was no doubt of her parents. The family left behind. Years had gone by without an exchange. Yet here was a letter from them, during a time like this, smelling like home no longer her own.
Cadance opened the envelope and slid out the paper; shaking hooves grabbed hold of it. Presenting it before her face, she began to read, the handwriting of another nearly stinging tears from her eyes. She read and read while her husband snored and snored.
And by the time she was done, it slid out from her hold, gently falling onto the table.
Shining gave a terrible snort that woke himself up. His head wiggled for a moment, finding life once more. His first seconds of consciousness were to fall into the crook of her neck, inhaling her scent, smiling at the feeling of her delight. “Morning perfect.”
Cadance didn't reply... and she always flirted back on compliments.
Shining lifted his head and bore an expression of concern. “Something's wrong. Your side of the body is telling me something is wrong. Can you please tell me our body is wrong this once?”
Cadance stared forward and shook her head. “I got a letter from my parents.”
Shining's half of the body froze. “That so? W-When was the last one they sent? Just before the wedding?”
She swallowed. “Yup.”
He did the same. “So... what did it say?”
“They demanded that I return home immediately.”
Shining bunched his lips together. “I thought last week ended last week?”
Cadance shook her head while gazing at the wall. “There's always another week.”
Shining had done his best not to crack too many jokes. Quips about her parents ran in his family. Stallion humour. It was something he and his dad got off to. Jokes had always been to prove his wit and to make Cadance laugh.
Taking a wisecrack at the situation might have given her a chuckle, but it would have been a forced one. She'd go along with his jokes on how terrible her parents were for the sake of appeasing his humour. But now wasn't the time for it. Not when her adoptive parents were actually asking to see her again.
“Sure you've got everything in order?” Shining asked the stallion in front of him. He'd sooner call Sunburst half a stallion but, considering Shining's literal state of being one right now... the joking insult wouldn't have stuck. “Remember to let Luna handle nearly everything. In the places where she goes softy—go hard.”
Shining beat a hoof into the ground to accentuate his point. Sunburst, however, turned at the wording. With a roll of his eyes, Shining sighed, shaking his head. “Get your head out the gutter! What I mean is to give Flurry a noogie if she starts bossing you around on when bedtime should be. Never settled for beyond ten. It's a nightmare after that.”
They both stood in the living room in its middle. Sunburst coughed and rubbed the back of his head. “And what if Princess Luna already approves a time past that? Am I... supposed to veto her on that?”
“Of course.”
“And how am I supposed to do that?”
“Same as you would do to Flurry—noogie.”
“And how do I give one of those?”
“Surely you've had a lifetime of getting them.”
“Getting them.'
“No little bro?”
“Life lived alone.”
Shining tilted his head and glanced at the ceiling. “Why don't I have more guy friends again?”
Someone cleared their throat next to him. He turned and saw Cadance, rolling her eyes, smiling all the while. “Because you spent your life either with me or in the guard. Now you have to deal with the results that may bring.” She bowed at Sunburst. “No offence to you, of course.”
He choked on nothing. “Thanks... I think? Wait.” He blinked. “Am I only being chosen because you have none else to choose from.”
Shining replied. “That so hard to believe?”
“Sadly not.”
Maybe that was enough giving Sunburst trouble. Trotting over to him, Shining threw a foreleg over his neck. Raising a hoof to that mane, he scratched it up, holding the stallion to his side of the chest. Brotherly love is shown in messing up and around the other. “Then now's the time to stallion up and rise to the challenge. Practice giving these to Flurry. You won't get another time to exercise this part of yourself.”
Sunburst chuckled and broke out from the exchange. “Alright alright! You got it!”
Shining pulled out from the hug to an awash of sadness beneath the skin. Something wasn't right and he couldn't figure out what. Glancing to his wide, her side of her face was lost in a forlorn look. Blinking and smiling, she washed it away—but it was still, ashore, somewhere within.
“Please take good care of our daughter for us,” Shining said with a bow of the head. “And help Princess Luna with anything she needs help with. Don't say anything about this... but that mare feels like she has to prove. Which is ironic because she's already perfect.”
Coughing echoed from his side. “Aside from my wife, of course, whose perfectly perfect.” He threw his foreleg over the pink neck in a gambit. Cadance sighed and rolled her eyes but didn't struggle away. Instead she snuggled into the warmth of his muscles. “So make sure Luna doesn't take too much upon herself. And, uh, don't try too hard to get lucky if you're both solo one night.”
The couple turned around with Cadance forced to use her foreleg to take to the door, a sputtering of coughing behind them. Sunburst's anxious voice floated over their backs. “And j-just what you are implying from that?”
“C'mon buddy! You trying to make Shining Armor your big bro here?” He allowed his muzzle to fall to the side. “You're inside the spire of love. Both of you haven't been laid... let's not finish that sentence for the sake of the both of you.”
Sunburst pouted but didn't object.
“Just whatever you do,” Shining tapered off, “ensure Flurry's door is lock, alright? We don't need more nightmares to quell on that one. Try your luck. The time is now. Both of you will feel better after a good fu—“
“Shiny.”
“—funful night,”
Cadance cocked her head. “Funful?”
“Like you're any better on the spot.”
“Wanna try that?”
“Never mind.”
“That's what I thought.” Cadance glanced at Sunburst from her side of the joint body, both of its heads, turned. “And my boy-toy has a point. Do try to enjoy yourself. Just because Shiny's crude and rude doesn't mean his words aren't true. Couch in the living room already has space and sheets to fit the two of you.”
Sunburst struck a hoof against the ground. “You two planned this?”
Both of them stuck out their tongues on leaving.
Sunburst was left to stand around for a while, sighing, unable to slow his racing heart-rate. Seconds passed until the distant clopping of hooves ceased from the hallway. But new ones boomed. From his side. Louder and closer until softness and warmth brushed against his coat.
He turned his head, slowly and fear, to the lovely mare against him. “Tis you and I tonight. Come. Have you summoned any activities to mind to pass away the time?”
The poor boy fainted.
The wooden plank of the train station bristled in the gathering of ponies, all bunched though none annoyed, each shifting against the other, waiting, for the coming cart. On the curved horizon appeared the train pulling into the station, its chime loud and its fog light, a smell of charcoal permeating the area.
It pulled to a stop to the exhaust of steam and air pressure. Its doors slid open as ponies flushed in. Shining and Cadance were carried by the stream inward, pushed left and right, their bigger body, thankfully, allotting more space within the crowd.
While Cadance gently whispered for permissions to pass in front of ponies, gentle and kind as was her nature, Shining, however, did not care. He pushed ponies aside and beat forward. Used to survival on the streets. One fought to get the first seat.
They'd made it to the sleeper-cart and slid the first door open. They staggered inside as the stream of ponies blurred in the doorway. Pushing their body against it, they slid the panel shut, clicking it locked, a cabin belonging to them.
The room opened to seats at the front, either side, leading to a passage in the middle. Two beds were feet apart with a pull-out table possible between them. Staggering over to the bed on the left, they flopped down on it, the sheets rising underneath their impact, its impression outlining the mass of their body.
“Five days.”
Cadance turned her muzzle to her love. His was pointed toward the ceiling with eyes lost to an invisible sky. “Until what?”
“Until the Empire is blazed on fire and Luna is pregnant.”
“You're certainly more hopeful than me.” Cadance laid her head back, too, staring up at nothingness. “Three days was my estimation.” She snickered. “My assumption was our poor boy would forget the condom and underestimate his pull-out game. Not that there was any game there to begin with.”
“Sometimes... I forget you're as bad as me.”
“Princess of Love, babe, is able to see all.” She shrugged her one shoulder. “Can't blame a mare for according judgment.”
Silence overlapped them.
“What do you think happens first?” Shining asked in a breathless voice. “Empire on fire or Luna knocked up.”
“Luna wouldn't get knocked up to deal with the world being on fire.” Cadance shook her head to the sway of mane. “It would her getting knocked up that would cause her to set the Empire on fire. Probably on a chase to cut something of his off.”
From the side of his face, Shining's eye blinked. “Is it strange there's something appealing about that? A mare like Luna, chasing someone down, intent on cutting something off? Even the bloodied knife is attractive in a strange way.”
“You've always liked crazy girls.”
“I have?”
“You wouldn't have dated me otherwise.” Cadance sighed a hefty breath. “I may appear calm and teasing on the surface. But my life is pretty crazy, isn't it? If you'd dated any other mare, you wouldn't have become a prince, or fought too many foes. You would have lived like a normal guard. Plus... you put up with my parents before the wedding.”
He chuckled. “And I haven't heard from them since.” He chuckled again. “Guess you're right. If I'd married another mare... something about us becoming a jointed body... just doesn't seem likely. You're not crazy. But your life is. And thank Celestia for that.”
Cadance blinked and rolled her head over to him. “You're sure about that?”
“Just being a guard and living a normal life would have sucked.” Shining turned his head as well. He leaned forward to peck her on the snout. “Plus, I love you. Whatever life we entered into together—I was all for it. Nothing can be done after I fell for you. Whatever was to happen, was to happen. It was worth bearing, of course, if I could be with you.”
Cadance snuggled in closer for a kiss.
And that they did.
Again and again.
How long had the couple been like that? Even they bore new clue. Laying back on the thin bed to the faint motion of the cart. Every push and pull, those intermittent jerks, the feeling of the train was submerged into their spines.
Low chugging was the sounds of the backdrop.
The couple laid on the bed with the curtains drawn; moonlight spilled through still. Nothing loomed in the horizon but darkness and the silhouettes of distant buildings. Twinkling stars in the sky offered some light and a sight. But nightly charms, ever since the start of their nightmare, has since lost its allure.
Shining laid with the back of his head sinking into the pillow. Inches too deeply. Not enough padding to hold or soothe him into slumber. Everything right was now slightly off. Nothing he could pinpoint. Just an describable feeling that haunted him.
It occurred this was his first respite. No curious citizens or pestering family to deal with. Turning his head proved Cadance slept beside him. He was alone and the breaths he took were peaceful ones. In having a second to himself, his mind raced, truly for itself, not searching for answers for others. Rather he was set on processing what everything meant to him.
His eyes gazed down his body, her body, their body. It bugled against the blanket like the strangely hideous thing it was. Both of them were joined and the result was bulky frame unfitting for the duo. It worked, of course, but former independence had worked better.
He'd never had a moment to explore the changes—only work with them. Operating within his limits and not questioning further. Now with his wife asleep, however, he could search and explore and have a better base of themselves to work off.
His foreleg snuck underneath the brim of the covers, a feeling across the chest, his and hers, hardness to softness, a divot in-between. He traced through that, feeling either side on his hoof. Lower it went, the more their body thinned out.
That separating and connecting line, ceased, over their joint crotch.
His hoof passed over the crotch and followed its soft curve; two hills, velvet with squish, sinking underneath the weight of his wrist. Tuft of mane, unruly to the touch, caressed his coat upon passing through. Within the thick strands possessed a scent dangerous to stallions.
If he was still much of one, anyway, for something heavily used—at least in his teenage years—was now gone. Slight panic beckoned him to reach around, searching every inch, looking for that which was lost.
His frantic moving teased their nethers.
“Having fun?”
Shining's face shot right and looked down, seeing Cadance's head on the side of the pillow, mane lazily over her eye. With a smile, she kept in place, snuggling into her position. “Relax. I could read your thoughts. You're not the only one feeling the need to do a search over.”
He cleared his throat. “You already checked around?”
“When you were asleep.” Cadance exhaled softly. “I was glad to retain my 'lady-bits' as they were.” That was followed by a roll of her eyes. “But I am going to miss what you were swinging around before. Sorry I didn't tell you sooner.”
Shining collapsed back onto his pillow. “It's alright. One of us was going to take a hit. Just glad it was me.” He grinned poorly. “I'm more fond of your lady-bits than I was of my fun stick.” His expression turned disgusted as it turned toward her. “Flurry's not around. Can we avoid using safe words?”
Cadance winked and stuck out her tongue. “No safe words this time, huh?”
He lightly tapped her on the shoulder. “Dirty mare.” He shook his head and fell into place. “Sometimes I think you're the Princess of Lust than love.” His shoulders slumped. “But I suppose those two are close to the same.”
“My cute boy is learning.”
Shining exhaled. “Can't remember the last time we've flirted like this. Doesn't seem like we've had a private moment until now.” He tilted his head as memories passed through. “Those incessant check-ins on Flurry to make sure she was fine. We didn't take a risk or a break with not. Thank goodness she didn't have any residual side effects.”
Cadance nodded her head as she gazed to the ceiling too. Side by side, their eyes were lost to the mind. Everything coming before now coming to them again. “Don't forget the medical examinations after that. Found out we were healthy.” She sighed. “Also found out the process cannot be undone.”
“Don't forget meeting the family after that.” Shining rolled his eyes as its members flashed, a different expression and reaction, to each, to the fundamental change of them. “Twilight being ecstatic was expected. Mom fainting too. Dad just didn't say anything. Still gotta check-in with him on that.”
Cadance giggled. “Perhaps he was sad about loosing his boy? The two of you can't lewdly talk about mares with me around.”
Shining nodded. “One on one bonding time is going to be a lot harder.”
“Harder the prep-work in informing the public about what happened and our condition?”
“Maybe more on the likes of that goodwill tour we did to show the public nothing major had truly changed.” Shining cocked his head as that trip had been harder to perform. “Can't believe he tested his nightmare-bending ability on four kids before striking Flurry.” He snorted. “Luna should have sensed something.”
Cadance chided him. “She watched all who dare to dream my love; four out of four million bore nightmares that day.” She shook her head. “We can't blame her for the impossible. She always placed a priority on Flurry. Were it not for that... we might not have caught on quick enough to do something.”
Shining exhaled with a nod. “You're right. Just figured... if she caught it earlier... n-none of this would have happened.”
“I know—but it did.” Cadance resigned herself. “Focusing on anything else will cause you to hate this more and dislike Luna as well. It's not worth exploring that thought. Not when all it does is summon hate for family and your fate.”
He exhaled steam and depleted it from his system. His tensed muscles relaxed and he went limp onto the bed. It held his weight, allowing him to be light, free, finally, after the adventure of their trips.
“But you have caught onto something.” Cadance smirked as she rolled and snuggled into his neck. She inhaled his scent, the freshness of trees caught by a river. Refreshing and reassuring. She coalesced into it. “Both of us have been through a lot. A lot of work and effort to ensure the world doesn't crash from our change. But none have ensured the same of us.”
Shining snorted. “Way how it is! Always overextending and taking trouble from everyone for not doing well enough.” He shook his head. “Feels like everything will break apart if we do. But... I guess that's a plus for us being stuck together.” He nuzzled the top of her head. “So long as you have my back, and I have yours... then the world can say and do as it likes.”
“Now that's my boy.” Another hearty giggle from her. “And I think you deserve a reward. All this effort and fighting for no return! I even lost my third favourite thing about you. But I got to keep something.” She pulled away from him, cutely pouting, eyes a violet glimmer. “Now that isn't fair at all! Surely some of what's between of us yours, no?”
Shining blinked as his breath caught in his chest. “C-Cadance? What are you... what are you asking of me right now?”
“Weeeeell, Mr. Stallion.” Her foreleg rose and booped him on the snout. “This is the first moment you and I have had alone. We're off to visit my family, which we have not spoken too since the wedding. It's doubtful things are going to get better or easier from here on out. Plus, you've already lost so much.”
Shining swallowed.
“There's something wonderful developing between our legs that you've never got to use before—at least, used and gotten to see how it feels in doing so.” Cadance giggled as her head laid back in the pillow. Her mane frizzed over it as moonlight washed over him. The clink of tracks echoed beyond the walls of the cart. “So why not enjoy yourself down there? Get to experience what a mare feels like. You might be the first stallion to try something like this.”
“I... you sure?”
“You've had enough experience, silly.” Cadance edged her snout to where the blanket draped between their legs. “You should be able to go off by feeling alone. I can guide you if it comes to it. But... something about my husband learning to touch himself... and getting the same pleasure from it too... dunno...” She bit her bottom lip and wiggled in place. “Something about that is an extreme turn-on.”
That was all Shining needed to hear before his exploration.
He pulled the blankets away from their body. Gazing across the broadness of the chest and belly, he watched it narrow by the crotch, spotting the protrusion. It was different from memory. Pubic mane fuzzed over the area like a crop; its colon, however, was different.
Sleek blue merged with light pink in the composition of colours; the same was true for the vulva itself. Its velvet surface changed from pink to white, section to section, matching their coats. Something was already peeking out from the top.
Shining swallowed and decided to take it slow. His wife laid to the side, head up and eyes close, removing purpose for his self-consciousness. She was there to devour pleasure and nothing more. He could take this however way he liked.
His hoof touched down on the lips to the soft gasp of them both. The surface reminded him of velvet and sunk ever so suddenly beneath the weight of the limb. He searched down it, tracing the slit, another tingle of bliss sparking from their minds.
Getting a feel for the terrain, his hoof swiped up before doing down again, again and again, feeling out the tempo that was building there. Before, teasing and pleasing Cadance was following her cues. Gasps and moans to swats on the shoulder. Now, however, he was following the rhythm of building pleasure surging beneath his skin.
Stroking, up and down, feeling it out, a manipulating to the edge of the hoof to rub at those inches, pinpricks of buried pleasure, pressing harder in every succession. Wetness slapped the air and heat dribbled over their flanks. Its faint burning seared across their thighs.
Shining's spine arched to the joy tingling through it. Higher and higher the greater the influx of that tingly delight. Soon he had set closer to the bottom of the lips in finding a spot more sensitive than the rest. He settled his intensity there as his eyes rolled back and mane shook around.
And then a hoof settled over his own, with his head snapping to the side, Cadance's own before him, smiling. Her foreleg guided his downward until reaching that dripping nub. Hot and small and oozing with allure.
Gently, his foreleg was dropped on it. Pleasure was immediate; it shook from within the chamber of his spine. He bucked his leg at the contact and desperately needed more of it. Slowly his hoof drew circles. Following around its shape and size and careful for the stimulus it brought. His back was still arched from the current flushing through them.
“Do you mind if I help out?”
“Masturbating now a team effort? Sure! Why not?”
Shining should have known better in feeling that other hoof touch in-between the folds, holding them apart, the edge of the hoof sinking into the baking depths. From there, it felt around, caressing the walls and granting them something to clench on. There was still the desire to be filled and full and to be rammed and fucked but, as their luck turned out, only appeasing the entrance of it all would be their intercourse for the night.
Cadance's hoof flicking at the entrance of their pussy.
Shining's rolling circles over their clit.
And from their joint effort, both of them lurched, pleasure checked, screaming in a muffled way... each other's name. Warm honey splashed out from their cunt, dousing the bubbles of flanks, down the sides and seeping in-between, a dash against their thighs, the rest collecting on the bed.
Shining fell back after that, panting, wiping the sweat from his head. “Woo! Hehehe. N-Not gonna lie... I... I think I needed something like that.”
Cadance chuckled through her breathing. “D-Darling? You're saying that... like that's it.”
His confused expression turned to her.
Which only widened her smile. “Sweetie... we're the same down there. Mares are different from stallions. That's only the first round.”
A dopey smile washed over his lips. “Maybe there's some turnaround to this after-all.”
Southmarsh resulted in a town being merged with a swamp and having that be considered a good idea. Half the size of Ponyville to less traffic than such a place. Around a range of hills curved the train into the station, putting fogs of smoke, slowing to the creaking of metal.
Until pulling into the platform. Steel doors spread open as ponies sauntered out. Many stepped into the sunlight with a hoof pressed into their back, standing tall and arching seconds into freedom, popping the kinks developed from the long trip.
And the joint couple were no different.
Shining had arched and Cadance had not. Ponies walked past at the twisted creature, one stumbling in place, struggling to crack half of its back. Colts scampered to their mothers and, draped over by a protective foreleg, were ushered away from the freak.
The Royal Freak, at least.
“Never thought I'd see this dump again.”
Shining had been expected the swat to the back of the neck, and in so doing, it hurt less as a result. But Cadance this lack of hurt and, once more, struck him with more force—some he hadn't expected. His side of the body shivered while her side only smiled.
“We share a body, dear,” Cadance whispered to him. “Can't do much without my knowing.”
“A husband's worst nightmare.”
Another swat.
Crossing the station was a matter of ten steps; the crossing of the market was twenty. Reaching the housing section took thirty and reaching the last home—cast on a hill next and over bubbling green waters—was forty. Climbing the slope of the pathway, they reached the door, stopping, reflecting, their breathing entering meditative.
Both of them stood before the door, which, despite their new size, towered over them. Cadance exhaled heavily and Shining looked over in concern. Summoning a weak smile, she glanced back at him. Her face looked ever so tired. “Promise... you'll be on your best behaviour?”
Shining nodded with a smile. “We'll get over this—together.” He cast a foreleg around her neck for a moment. It was the best version of a hug left to them. Seconds of contact was their limit before retreating. “It's not like we can do it any other way. Surely you're always sensed I wouldn't mess you around.”
“Hearing it in words always means more... and makes me feel better.”
Both of them turned to the door. Cadance went to raise her foreleg to knock... but it faltered at the half-point. Sinking to the grass, it was unable to rise. Shining didn't need words to do the right thing. His own, rose, knocking on the door.
Perhaps harder than needed.
The door swung open in force, and yet, did not slam into the house. On the other side walked out two ponies into the green hue of the outside world. Mare and stallion. Crystal and Coach. Both old and, because of this, upset with life.
“Would you look at that? The traitor of a son-in-law shows up!” Coach turned and spat on the grass. He snorted and, doing so too forcefully, was forced to spit again. He'd been a game warden earlier in life. “But Cadance! Great to see ya my girl. Shame ya had to come with him.”
Cadance faintly smiled and nodded.
“I still cannot believe you are connected to this excuse of a stallion! It rips my heart to shreds and causes my eyes to water seeing you joined to him.” Crystal turned her head and posed a handkerchief beneath her eyes. She'd been a local celebrity back in the day. Gospel singer many had to listen to. “An awful experiment this is. Simply disgusting on my eyes.”
“Mom.”
“Your half looks rather lovely as always.”
“Mom?”
“But seeing it merged into him is cause for vomit!”
“Mooom!”
“Don't be talkin' back to your mother now, missy! Her and I are still correct on the matter!” Coach snorted and spat, snorted and spat, like it was becoming a habit. That, or he sucked at clearing his nose. Shining was too disgusted to be otherwise offended. “All of this is that boy's fault! Mistaking you for one of dem bugs. Ugh! Fella outa know true love!”
Shining bit his lips in fear of his teeth coming to tear out someone's throat.
But in so doing, proved his love to his love, who was touched by the gesture.
“And now it's because of him you two are now fused!” Crystal tacked on and cast a foreleg over her forehead. Cadance's dramatics must have been learned from her. Shining would have been smacked for that previous thought, of course, were none else around. “Nothing but a terrible influence! But come in now. Try to leave your worse half outside if able.”
The older couple walked inside and left, for a few seconds, the younger one outside. Shining released his lips and glared over at Cadance. “This is why you were so willing and accepting yesterday. You knew I'd have to go through this crud today.”
Cadance giggled nervously and retreated behind her mane. “W-Well.. keep going through it and... y-y-you can have all weekend access?”
“Ya comin' inside or what!?”
“Yes dad!'
“Yes prick.”
The two entered the home and knew unaccepted there. Lead into the living room saw their shoulders pressed down and their rump smacking into a seat. The parents sat on the other side of the table, coffee asked for and tea presented instead. Three cups. Shining took Cadance's and drunk it in spite of them.
First words home, of course, were shouted and yelled.
Shining had tried to calm them down and speak the truth of each matter—but those were words the older ponies cared not to hear. Instead his attempts to make peace became threats and insults, always subtle, sparking a war before the conversation. Score was kept and Cadance did her best to bring peace to both sides.
Mission failed.
Afternoon became evening as the debates of the last few years came to light. Why hadn't Cadance wrote back to them? Why did have a granddaughter never met? Why hadn't she gotten ridden of her useless lover? There was no winning in talking with someone never wanting to listen.
Worse when they held parental power.
By the time the end of their debate was reached, ever so suddenly, the older duo had claimed time for bed. Deciding this fusion of theirs would be the final straw, they demanded the two stay home, with them, until something could be done about it. They left the room, whispering hateful words, leaving Shining with a clenched hoof and nothing to use it on.
Cadance laid her hoof on it, however, and guided it downward. He glanced over at her tired and comforting face and only found himself mad at it. “Let it go, Shining. They don't notice the effort and don't care to. Nothing changes no matter what you do. Don't get so invested.”
He shook his head and nearly spat at that. “How can you say that?! You can't let ponies treat you that way! Especially not ones whose opinions affect you!”
She shook her head sadly. “Shiny... I've been fighting that fight for more years than you know. Don't you think I tried fighting back long ago? It doesn't change anything. There's nothing that can be changed. The only resolution here... was getting away from them.”
“And what about now? When we can't?”
Cadance sighed and dropped her muzzle. “We'll see what they want. Try what it is they want us to try. If it doesn't work—we have an empire to run.” She shook her head. “Maybe there's no point to being here. But they're my family. At least, they were once. Maybe something will change now? Or... I don't know.”
Shining sighed and threw a foreleg around her neck. “Don't think too hard about it. Whatever happens... happens. But I'm going to fight for you. Every insult or dig. At least, deep inside, you'll know it's okay not to be treated that way—something things higher of you and will fight for it.”
“Always my hero?”
“Just without the sword.”
Cadance had gestured for the two of them to take leave of the living room; despite the reasoning for her return, being home, surrounded by memories... the poor mare was swept away in a fond past. Being back here with her lover rendered the feeling all the more special.
The wood of the steps creaked beneath their hooves as they ascended the steps.
The tight hallway was home to four doors. Taking to the first on the right, the room opened before them, violet walls and fluffy floors, a girly room if there ever was one. Cadance blushed at her old filly days. Shining seemed taken aback by how girly his wife was.
“It was kind of them to not change anything while I was gone,” Cadance commented on the state of the room, her steps leading them over to the bed. “But they could have matured it a little bit while I was gone. Guess you can see what kind of filly I was like.”
“Always knew you were a girly girl.” Shining snorted. “Now you're just sophisticated about being a girly girl.”
“Har-har.”
It wasn't before long until the duo collapsed on the bed. No words needed to be shared as two understood their joint feelings. They were exhausted, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Their eyes swept closed and exhaled heavily. It was hard to sleep, as the bed was small, meant for a teenage filly.
Much less for grown adults.
That applied to their bigger and joined body.
Breakfast had been terrible to zero surprises as the 'family' sat around the cubed table. Food was passed down easily enough, that was, until reaching Cadance. Nothing was passed from Shining nor taken from him. He accepted the extra food and took what he can, knowing that, the moment his hoof touched a plate or a bowl—those grumpy parents would refuse to have any.
“Such a selfish stallion! Just because he's a guard he thinks he deserves to eat more for it!” Crystal complained as pain sound left her throat. “Unwilling to take cuts for the sake of those around him. How you have fallen for such a beast of a stallion.”
Coach groaned next to her. “It's not even his food too. It's a meal offered to him. Yet he takes without retrain. No manners and no respect.”
Shining grinned. “Nothing but correct remarks.”
They glared at him and Shining smiled for it. What was the point in fighting back? These ponies were fixated on their impression of him. They didn't hope to get to know him more. Not willing to risk a chance to demolish their perceptions. Too much had been staked on their view of him being evil. For him to be less would mean all the drama and years of silence were all for nothing.
They were forced to hate him. Why had they done so in the first place? Who was he to know? Was it something said or done not seen as a slight? The inability to talk or hash things out with him, due to being scared or communication not being on the same level between them? Would they have hate whoever took their daughter away?
These are questions, long since pondered, that would never have an answer, so long, as the other side was unwilling to answer. So long as they kept in their ways, Shining would keep in his, not caring for them. He was here for Cadance and that was it. He'd live as he lived, defend her as he wished... and have as much fun on the matter was possible.
That was until Cadance slammed the table with her foreleg.
“Missy!”
“Cadance!”
“Stop it!” Cadance nearly growled out the words as she leaned back—forcing Shining to do the same—as her eyes closed. She heaved a sigh composed of her tension. “Can we have one meal where all of us act like a family? Where, after years of not seeing each other, we can simply enjoy the company of all being together again.”
“We'd love that, dear, if you hadn't—“
“I got it!” Cadance had never cut her mother off before in her life but, in becoming an adult and sleeping unwell, ceased to care about childhood fears. “If I hadn't brought him. Your dislike of Shining is well-known! You're never going to trust my decision or forgive Shining for all you think he caused! Enough of the remainder. Stop it with the jabs!”
“Who do you think you're talking to?” Coach stepped in. “Just because you're a princess doesn't mean—“
“I'm talking to the grandparents of a grand-daughter they never met! Oh yeah.” Cadance nodded smugly. “I caught that dig yesterday. Never getting to write her letters. How come you never fought for that? No visit or letters or anything of the sort. Treating me like you did and expecting me to come back to you to make a connection between of you.”
Coach choked into silence.
And the doorbell rung.
“It's the expert! Goodness, they've arrived early! Let's go let them in.” Crystal was quick to raise and cross around the table, reaching the door, pulling it open in the background. Multiple creaks of hoofsteps echoed from the floor—louder by the second. “They're in the kitchen now. Oh Cadance! Your father and I think we've found someone who can fix your little problem.”
Shining and Cadance turned on a stool, each of their forelegs draped over its back, a gaze shot of the pony. Some nobody in a robe with a hood covering their face. In that thick veil of darkness glinted rounded-glasses. It was the only mark of something existing within that recces.
Without a bow or some word, the figure turned around, leaving the kitchen, reaching the living room. There it'd unpacked its saddles and started to set up... whatever it was setting up. Deciding not to pay the strange creature any mind, the duo turned to the parents.
“I guess deciding to live by a swamp already speaks for a pony's intelligence.” Shining shook his head and sighed to himself. The parents shouldered together as the next battle of their verbal warfare began. “I knew it was dumb to indulge you two. Just who do you think you are? What gave you the impression that, somehow, you'd find a magical scholar that royalty itself wouldn't find first?”
Coach huffed. “Because systems are limited to their ways, son. Great schools home to fantastic ponies don't mean the reach of their experts means much compared to the rest of the world. Always so content to thinkin' your empire is the greatest.”
“Certainly got the trek-record for it.” Shining shrugged. “And we searched beyond our current means as well! Funny how bits and guards, ones magically informed, can map out countless options as opposed to a glance through the flyer.”
“And how did dem guards help your cause by the end?”
“Just because the result wasn't desired isn't proof of your means being better than my own.”
Coach glanced to the living room. “Let's just see about that now.”
None were able to turn, however, as immense weight slammed their backs into the ground. Shining and Cadance gasped as their muzzles smacked into the floor. It was cool and smooth beneath their jaws and no wiggling freed them.
Their eyes lifted, slowly, to the figure in the living room. Laughter spewed out of the hood as the figure seemed to enlarge. The height of its cackling saw to a long ebony leg pushing out from the sleeves of the robe. It ripped it off at once, tossing it aside, revealing the towering form of Chrysalis.
“Oh my.” She cackled her final laugh before twisting her neck and then her back, delighting, purring in the feeling of the kinks then popped. Settling in place, her gaze swept around, a creature from the past catching up on the matters of the present. “So you two have been joined as one? Ponies certainly are a creature to keep getting stranger.”
She laughed again.
Chrysalis stalked the wooden floors in a slow gloat, a bliss in demonstrating her power, her weight on their backs, doubled, the closer her proximity. The tip of her horn billowed in sound-waves stinging the ears present. Many pushed their forehooves against the floor, fighting to rise, failing, succeeding only in falling.
“I-I s-swear...” Shining choked through clenched teeth, the villain's hoof now stomping before his eyes. He struggled to peer up at her face. “You're like... the crazy-ex... that I never... even... got to sleep with.”
“I certainly do have a bone to pick with you.” Chrysalis giggled “And I have perchance to keep returning from defeat. Curious, aren't you, as to why I cease to be stone?”
“N-Not quite.” Shining slammed a foreleg against the ground, fighting to push the immense weight back, the token of his overflowing willpower. “Bad guys usually turn up. What I never got... on getting away... is why come back? You always lose. Nothing changes no matter the attempt.”
“Perhaps you have some wisdom on the matter.” Her hoof lifted to the back of his head and, on settling there, slammed it back into the ground. From there, she stood on it, keeping tall from over him. “But life in a cabin is worst than being encased in stone. So long as something can be done, it must be so.”
“Slightly better than being a coward, huh?”
“At least this a quality we both share.”
Shining groaned from the floor as he worked for a plan in his head. Time was needed to formulate an idea. What was the best way to buy time? Get a villain to talk about themselves. The oldest trick in the book for it always worked. “So how'd you break away this time? Need to know to better your next entrapment.”
Throw in a fake insult in the end so they buy into the bluff.
“Perhaps we do have some time to exhaust that curiosity burning within you.” Chrysalis stalked away and loomed in the air, her back presented, swaying a foreleg in the air. “The Chrysalis I was born from is very much a statue still. Yes. I am a clone of the foe you fought before.”
She chuckled as her head lowered, a slide-long black back at the duo. “Just like you, I am strange too, for I am a copy of your original foe. Her feelings and thoughts and memories and ideals all cooly burn within me still. It's why I keep fighting in her place nearly as he had done once before.”
Cadance caught something in that remark that removed the poison from her blood. This wasn't the foe they'd fought for years but a copy born from it. Despite its words and looks left the same—something felt different. She wasn't Chrysalis. Just a changeling very much like her.
For whatever reason, within that idea, a seed of hope was planted.
“Before the original was collected by Discord, she had found a home inside a cave, one possessing a pool like nowhere else.” Chrysalis sighed as she leaned her head back. Her eyes searched through memories not of her own—trying to connect them to her psyche. “It mirrored and cloned those who entered and left.”
Shining chuckled. “So what? Knowing her own kind would always throw her out, the only other creature she could depend on... would be duplicates of herself?
“I believe that was her mentality at the time.” The clone spoke so distantly of that which she was supposed to be; nothing but a lost soul, fully grown, left with memories. From deconstructing those was how she was supposed to conduct herself. “But as it always goes with that poor soul... the clones distrusted and betrayed each other.”
Shining laughed through the pain. “I get it! Know yourself deeply enough that you'd screw over other ponies when it came down to it... and realize your clones will do the same if it came to it! Problem with being a terrible being, yeah?”
Chrysalis nodded with a sigh. “I suppose that was the ultimate crime of not learning her lesson. She was the kind of queen that would betray even herself. None truly had her back due to that. Not even herself.”
Cadance was swept by the words and feared this fact. Was this effect intentional or not? Would it be genuine or another ploy? She raised her guards but, within that shield, a hole was punctured.
“Once the fighting of words and hooves and magic and tricks had ceased... those remained, knowing the final result... scattered from each other.” Chrysalis turned around at those words and gazed at the fallen captain. “Perhaps you were right about some of us. I am Chryssie-004 and there was more of me. Maybe the cabin life of an outlaw suited a few.”
Shining groaned from the floor. “Not helpful. That's just more work dumped on my shoulders. Not only do I have to hunt the rest down—I have to worry about powerful queens lurking on street corners.”
Chrysalis giggled. “Don't you worry about that. The other ones aren't... hostile. Those ones wiped each other out.” She turned away with a laugh. “Except for me! Or else an attempt on your life would have been taken sooner, no?”
Shining returned to fighting to rise again, this time, aided by his wife assisting on the side. They worked together, reaching further up, as the weight on their back, invisible but great, grew on the pressing of their spine.
What Chrysalis had neglected to say to the couple, a cue left to figure out, was not all of the clones were alike—or even similar to the original. Rather the aspects of the former queen, certain qualities, became the basis of their personalities.
So what aspect had this clone taken after?
That which laid repressed, various things, withheld, for the sake of a greater goal. Or so were the words the original told to herself, over and over, in the incessant conquest to consume the land inside her ideologically.
“Until now.” Chrysalis stomped before the couple and towered before them, not smiling, amused with the sight of the two before her hooves. Something was weighing on her mind. Confusion. The unknown of how to act or what to do. “Invading the community as a magical expert was rather easy.” She waved her hoof. “Those disconnected form the world will see my magic as something rather special. Your parents were rather easy to fool. Take heart. It was only because of how much they loved you that facts of the world blinded them so.”
Cadance blinked. Where had her parents gone? They weren't on the floor on either side. Because she and Shining had tried so hard to rise, the changeling exerted greater power to push them down, perhaps letting the older ponies escape.
At least they would be safe.
“They truly believe your merging could be undone that, despite all the turmoil and years apart, they wrote to you so easily to come.” Chrysalis shook her head. “Relax. They won't be harm. I'm not a cruel foe. Only a weakened one not with much power.”
Her muzzle then lowered between their own. “Which brings me to you two! It's true that I can undo the trick of the nightmare. You two will die, of course, but surely we're used to that song and dance by now? That energy, released, will restore the power of a proper queen unto me.”
Cadance's eyes shrunk at seeing shadows appear behind Chrysalis' shoulders. Her parents stood tall and leaned forward, each holding a frying pan, aiming their strike to meet and clap the sides of the changeling's face. Pressing it together like a bug and tossing it outside. Always the way of her folks.
Emerald magic swept them across the living room and threw them into the provided cough, a harsh smack into the cushion, air easily knocked from their lungs.
“Mom! Dad!”
“Old folks! You alright?!”
“Oh! Enough with it now! Everyone stopped inferring with the curtains!” Chrysalis billowed laughter from her chest on standing on two legs, an opening to her arms, wide and vast, a stance of power. “The show is about to start! It's what we all came here for! The desires of your parents brought to life—by that stallion being put to death!”
Shining screamed a searing flame crossed down the divide of their body, his half, in intense heat, burned off from their joined soul. Chrysalis continued her laughter while doubling her power. “Isn't this what you wanted for your daughter? To see her alone, apart from her love, that stallion finally deceased? All those words and years of hate.”
The parents watched from over the couch, crying, unable to summon words. The horror of their desire was brought before them. Seeing it happen, the pain of their child, how she cried as he faded... pettiness also died from inside their frames.
“W-What are y'all... looking so scared about?” Shining chuckled in his dying breath, feeling, suddenly, so free. His muzzle twitched against the floor. He gazed at Cadance's muzzle with dim eyes. “D-Don't cry. Everything will be fine. You're... a brave girl and... you... will be alright... without me...”
Chrysalis narrowed her eyes from high above. “What are you doing?!”
Shining glared up at the foe. “Breaking up with the mare I love most.”
“Shiny! Wait! Please don't leave me!”
Shining ignored the words of his love and split their souls apart. His half of rolled out from their joined body, white forelegs returned to him, a body laid on its side. He didn't move. Not a twitch. Just a corpse on the floor.
Chrysalis flamed at the body. “No no! How dare you! How dare you! You were supposed to be a selfish stallion! The idea to split was supposed to come until it was too late! My power! Power!”
Cadance heard the heartbeat in her ears, tingles of blood tickling her hooves, a coldness licked across her separated half. Managing to stand, she limped in place, gazing at her husband, the smile on his lips... his last act of life.
The resulting influx of emotions bloated her veins and awash her mind in a dense fog unable to be overcome. Complexity obscured her soul and she lacked the ability to process through it all. She was a mare reduced to simplicity. Hurt at losing her love. It wouldn't end this way at all.
Cadance's head threw back as she screamed in the voice of a pained angel. Winds ripped in a circular nature around her. It expanded, reaching outward, billowing with power. Tearing whispered above as available muzzles gazed up to see the ceiling torn from the house. Clouds swirled in the sky, a halo in the middle, a circling stream of rainbow condensing.
The princess lost her eyes to a burning whiteness, a summoning of power from somewhere afar, the Crystal heart, regardless of distance, now spinning quickly to provide its holder with power. That stream of rainbow crashed inward, splashing into Cadance's frame, casting her in a glow.
Shining's body was lifted from the ground and hovered, inched slowly toward her, a blinding light consuming both. In a blink, that magic winked, the duo joined again, dropped gently by the winds on the floor. Shining's head fell forward, eyes closed, his being, hopefully, unconscious.
Chrysalis stood with a head tilted and a mouth opened. The idea of an apology slipped through her lips but, in seeing the blazing goddess before her, saw her fate cast in stone. Literal stone. Ponies were weird like that.
“You tried to take my stallion from me.” Cadance stepped toward her, that hoof crashing into the floor, an impression of wood sloped to her limb. Casting winds washed off her frame. “And here I thought you might not have fallen through with your plan. I suppose you already know what happens here?”
Chrysalis chuckled. “Summon a hidden power source to reverse the power roles once more?” She shrugged. “Don't worry. I don't have anything like that. In truth... I'd know you'd pull through.” Her lips pushed to the side. “A fake of a fake doesn't have much to live for; all of this was half-baked at best. At least some good came from it, right?”
The evil changeling gazed over her shoulder and Cadance' peered over it as well. Her parents were crying on the couch, huddled together, not aware of the change. Shining had died and that was all they were aware of. Seeing how much it pained her... then pained them.
“At least your folks won't be giving you trouble about your choice of love.” Chrysalis turned back to the goddess. “Conflict allowed you two to prove your love to each other. They should be more accepting of you now. Maybe have a better family than I was ever allowed.”
She giggled and gazed at the sky above. The clouds had sent down all their power and faded away from it. Now blue skies loomed above, calming and consuming, allowing the changeling's last breath to be a refreshing one. “I'm destined to be evil. But at least doing so brought about some good. That's all I could ever ask for.'
And with that last breath, the villain stepped forward to her death, closing her eyes. “Do away with me now. Put an end to this strange, twisted, short story of mine.”
Cadance lowered her muzzle and gazed at her hooves. Words from the foe touched her deeply once more. Was this all a building trick or was the profuse feeling all legitimate? A shake of the head. No. Her Shining nearly died. Doing a little bad was worth preventing such a fate from occurring again.
She cast her horn and zapped the changeling.
“Nooo!” Changeling fell on the ground, wiggling around, laughter spilling from her lips. “Stop it! Stop it! Ahahaha! You're supposed to be killing me! W-Why are you... mmhm... oh... hahahaha...”
Everyone left stood dumbfounded.
The Equestrian Disaster Relief Agency (EDRA) sent its ponies to the swap, a series of crews repairing the homes, the roof being re-done on Cadance's old home. The family stood outside the front of the house as they watched the ponies working above.
“Shining... sweetie?” Crystal offered from behind the cover of a handkerchief. “I... we... both of us are sorry for dragging you into that mess. The sake you would risk your life to save our daughter, well, it proved that...”
“Proved we were wrong about a few things, my son.” Coach lowered his head.
Shining, however, beamed in place. “Hey! All that stuff is in the past! Just glad to have you on talking terms with Cadance again.” He chuckled as his gaze laid on the ground. “That, and we have a new set of ponies to drop Flurry off with.” He gazed back at them. “You will finally meet your granddaughter, right?”
“Oh, honey, of course we will!”
“Of course! Who else is going to teach her how to play catch?”
“Hey! I'm doing that.”
“You are? With that weak throw?”
“I've got a strong foreleg!”
“But a weak swing—it's what I was telling you before.”
“What... really?”
“Surely you notice your elbow doesn't flow like it should on a throw?”
“Just a tad, ya.”
“Here, listen to this quick...”
Cadance dropped out of the conversation with a smile born from its existence. Glancing over at the cage, the clone of the queen slept, soundly, in the belief she was dead. The ethereal magic had been used on her, but unlike Sombra, she lived through it. That meant, of course, love was still in her heart.
She'd been acting on the impression of what the former queen would have done. But even then, she deviated from that process. It was because of her a family was brought together. Believing she had to be bad, she kept like that, but in a way that would bring good.
Something was different about this one.
Cadance had a feeling that cage wouldn't be needed for long.