Our love is like water
Flash Sentry felt the eyes of the Royal Guard upon him as he entered the throne room of Canterlot’s royal castle behind Princess Cadance. He found it odd that so many ponies would watch him instead of the Princess of Love. Flash remained focused, keeping the flank of his Princess safe in case of a sudden assault. He knew, deep down, that no such attack was developing; this was Canterlot and the Princess’ sister in law presided over the whole of Equestria from this city, this castle. The Crystal Empire and Equestria were allies by blood, by deed, and by honor. He, a pegasus from Cloudsdale, Equestria, had been sent in good faith as a loyal retainer to the similarly Canterlotian Cadance who had been installed as head of the Crystal Empire. He sometimes wondered if Cadance was a puppet of Canterlot, but politics were not for him to worry about: he simply protected like the loyal retainer he was.
Marching up the carpeted hall, he bowed before Twilight Sparkle, a soft glow in his cheeks as he did so. His heart skipped a beat as he rose to find her eyes on him, studying his features as always when they shared a chamber. She was beautiful, kind, and the epitome of grace. But, beyond a few polite conversations, his infatuation with her highness could not be. She was a royal and he was simply a soldier. What he wouldn’t do to elevate his station… if only he was something beyond that of a soldier. Still, her amethyst eyes found him in any setting and perused his features. He wondered if, maybe, she thought he was cute.
“Cadance! So good to see you! It’s always…” Princess Twilight began, it was always this way when the Princesses met. Policies flew out of the window and they would banter like the family they were. Flash had long since stopped listening, his eyes wandering from guard to guard, bureaucrat to bureaucrat, and found each one staring back intently. Their eyes peered deeply into him and, if not for his training, he would shift uncomfortably. Their eyes said something he couldn’t understand, something alien from friendship. For not a moment did they flicker away, not even to the other guard, Quartz, flanking Cadance’s other side. And, as a crystal pony, Quartz was much more interesting to watch with the constant shimmering, sparkling, and radiant light glowing from within his coat. Still, the eyes remained stationary on Flash Sentry.
Time went by and Twilight retired for the evening, the trek to Canterlot had taken the entire day. They had arrived as night was falling and Flash could see signs of exhaustion from his Princess though she worked diligently to hide them. Cadance was given permission to wander the castle as she saw fit. No royal guards would impede her, nor did they need to follow or direct the crystal Princess. She was a friend, after all: an ally.
Cadance stifled a yawn, her jaws growing stiff and tensing to disguise it. “I think it would be good to retire to the guest rooms, Flash, Quartz,” she said softly.
“Yes, ma’am,” Flash Sentry answered and Quartz grunted to the affirmative. “Would you like us to guard the door, ma’am?” Flash asked solidly.
“We are among friends here, Flash Sentry. I appreciate your diligence to duty, but nothing sinister will happen here.” Princess Cadance was a caring ruler, and Flash regarded her emotional rulership with much appreciation. But, sometimes, she was too nice for her own good and it was up to the soldiery to support her genial nature with strength and skepticism. “Please, both of you, attend to yourselves and get a good night’s rest.”
After escorting Cadance to her room, Quartz and Flash stood outside the door. “Same as usual, Quartz? We split the night?”
“Yes,” Quartz said sharply. The older stallion had been a soldier under King Sombra and had seen things Flash dared not to ask. The gray and purple steed always answered abruptly, monosyllabically, as if speaking took a degree of pain. He was as stout as stone and as dependable as winter following fall but he was short on amiable conversation or expressions. Quartz only had one face: determined annoyance.
“Cadance did give us the night off, you know,” Flash teased the older stallion. “You could probably find something else to do.” Quartz didn’t answer right away, preferring to speak as little as possible. His stone features only shifted to rotate his cold, gray eyes to Sentry in judgment.
“Princess,” he forced out with a dry unpleasantness at Flash’s addressing of her highness.
“Yes, of course. Well, I shall stay here for the next hour with you, at which point I will sleep in the bunkhouse. I’ll return in a few hours to relieve you of duty.” Despite Cadance allowing them to rest for the entire night, the duties of a personal guard would not allow them to leave their Princess undefended while visiting foreign lands.
“Hrmmm,” the older guard grumbled. It was a happy sound for him, not that anypony could actually tell. Flash, having spent the last several years working alongside Quartz, had learned what certain noises most resembled in normal pony conversation.
Flash Sentry stood opposite Quartz, the grizzled steed’s eyes were as dark as lapis and remained fixed on Sentry. That was nothing new, Flash knew Quartz was as stoic as a pony could be, verging on becoming a living statue when he was on duty. Sometimes Flash would pass time by staring back at Quartz until one of them blinked. He had never won and wasn’t certain Quartz had known they were playing. It was like the gray steed would just disappear, leaving a suit of armor standing in his place.
The sound of several ponies washed over Flash and he turned his head down the hallway, watching as shadows stretched around the corridor towards him. The tromp of armored guards gave Twilight away before she appeared and she watched the young stallion as she approached. They all did.
“Princess Cadance has retired for the evening, Princess Twilight. Would you ask that I rouse her?” Flash asked, back rigid and neck straight.
“No, thank you. I have business with you, Flash Sentry. Would you care to follow me to my chambers?” Twilight asked, her voice was strange, lilting. The guards surrounding her bore through him with their gaze and even Quartz’s eyes had moved to him. Quartz was questioning him silently. Flash stuttered, his cheeks burning as the chance to be alone with Princess Twilight was something of a dream for him.
“Ye-yes, of course, Princess,” he stammered and kicked himself for sounding discombobulated.
“Good. Follow me, please,” Twilight said and turned away, two of her guards taking position behind Sentry. He wondered if he had made some faux pas, the guards behind suggested that he would not be allowed to veer off or away which led to him questioning the request even more strongly.
The royal quarters sat alone in one of the keeps and Flash spent the whole trip questioning what Twilight wanted of him. He ran the gamut of possibilities in his head but found none which made sense. If not for the crypticism of the request, Flash would have indulged in some of the more amorous possibilities. He decided he would find out soon enough and entered the door with the alicorn.
The heavy doors slammed behind him and isolated the two of them in a bedroom lavished with fine silks and richly dyed tapestries. Flash Sentry swallowed a lump in his throat as Twilight moved away, pulling the crown from her brow and placing it on a nightstand. She turned and smiled seductively, her dark eyes prancing across every inch of his body. “That armor hides you, Flash Sentry. Perhaps you should take it… off?”
He had to be dreaming. Surely this was not the behavior of a Princess, let alone the Princess of all Equestria. His breath caught in his chest and he stood in a stupor, frozen in place. Twilight frowned at his inactivity and her horn lit as a smirk formed across her lips. Her eyes never blinked, just watched as his helmet lifted magically from his head. His mane spilled around his face, no longer held in place by the helmet. He wanted to say something but his words were carved ice and stuck in his throat. The golden steel cuirass unlatched and fell aside, leaving the soldier standing bare before the Princess of friendship.
The Princess’ examination brought chill bumps to his flesh. In his deepest heart, hadn’t he wanted this? To be wanted, lusted after by Twilight Sparkle? No, not like this. It felt wrong to him. She was… was a Princess and… His body felt hot and he couldn’t pry apart the feelings of joy and indignation.
“I could look at you for days, Flash Sentry. For reasons I do not understand, you have always been an enigma to me. So beautiful, so strange, so unique. I think you are special.” Twilight’s head turned as she inspected him and he blushed deeply, terribly uncomfortable.
“What do… do you mean, Princess?” he blundered out.
“I think you may be the one I’ve waited for, Flash Sentry. One who can match me. I have been so, so lonely,” her words were like butter, rich and smooth but Flash Sentry hesitated to move towards her despite natural desire prodding him to move forward. This whole situation was so odd, so unlike what he had expected and it hurt him somewhere deep inside like a burning pebble in his guts. His instincts whispered something was wrong.
“I am lonely, Flash Sentry,” Twilight repeated. “I’ve seen the way you look at me. This me. I can smell your glands swell, hear the thump of your heart, and feel the heat rushing through your cheeks. I’ve watched you for so very long and I’m almost certain…you are the one.” Twilight stepped towards Flash, her eyes seemed different, like a lake at night, black and reflective but dead.
“I… I have to go, Princess. Cadence, err I mean Princess Cadance, she…she needs….” He stumbled back, pressing against the hard wood of the door and fumbling blindly for the knob as Twilight closed the distance between them.
“Don’t you want this body?” Twilight purred, perfume wafted into his muzzle and his loins ignited with lust. He did want her but the feeling that something was wrong cooled the ache he held for Twilight.
“This is… wrong, Princess. I… I cannot do this,” he said. Twilight looked hurt, disappointed.
“You don’t understand, Flash Sentry. I suppose not. It is so hard to see what is right before you,” Twilight pressed him to the door, trapping him with her body. She was far stronger than he thought and could barely move under her pressure. Her eyes were like bodies of water, rippling and dark. He could feel her breath against him: cold, viscous. It reeked of an unknown stench that was sickly sweet like a dead animal.
“Please, Twilight. P… Princess Cadance….”
Twilight frowned and turned away, releasing him from the door. “I suppose you will have to really see, Flash Sentry. Your duty to Cadance is commendable. Just one more thing I love about you.” A sudden scream caught Flash off guard and he turned quickly, struggling to grasp the knob in a panic. Another scream, impossibly loud tore through the castle and he recognized it as Cadance. Something was happening to her, something terrible. He cast one more uncertain glance at Twilight who smiled softly and stood, eyes crawling wildly across his body as if they were independent creatures trying to free themselves of the head in which they sat. “Go, Flash. Your Princess is in trouble. Save her. Save her.”
The door finally opened and Flash Sentry dashed by the guards who only followed him with their eyes, eyes like Twilight’s: dark and peering, turning freely in their sockets. Why didn’t they chase him? Help him? Anything? They just stood, heads tilted slightly to one side.
Dashing through the halls and corridors of the palace, Flash sped back to the guest room. The door was open, Quartz completely missing. Flash Sentry burst into the room and shouted for his Princess to no avail. He searched quickly, finding a small trail of blood that led to a wardrobe. Adrenaline coursed through him and he kicked the heavy furniture open, shattering the doors. In the back was a secret door left open. The blood spread in small dribbles into the darkness beyond. Flash Sentry breathed deeply, steadying his nerves and doubling down on courage. Pulling himself through, he found a tight stone passage.
The passage was dark, only dimly lit by hushed purple light from magical sconces that produced no heat. The air surrounding him was chill enough to bring goosebumps to his flesh and he shivered from the discomfort. The stairs widened slightly and the wall to his right, the inner wall suddenly disappeared, revealing a spiraling staircase fixed to the outer wall that led down into darkness. Similar torches lined the walls across the way another hundred feet across. The stairs were dusty and hoofprints stood out on them. Candace had been taken this way. He could see small, red circles on the stones, swallowing the dust, clogging into congealing crimson gel.
Taking wing, Flash hovered above the black pit, moving in a corkscrew downward with the flickering lights. He flew for seemingly forever, deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth below the royal castle. How anypony could have constructed a pit so deeply was beyond his understanding, and, more distressing, for what purpose?
Finally, Flash felt something loose under his hooves in the blackness and skidded to a halt, burying himself up to the shoulders in the detritus of what lay in the pit. Hollow sounds filled the large open chamber and echoed upward endlessly as he moved. His wings ached from use, a testament to the time it took to fly to the bottom of the pit. He was harangued on all sides by cold, prodding unseen things. They were light and clacked against one another as he lifted his hooves, pushing his strong body forward and wading through whatever debris had gathered.
He huffed, pulling the frigid air into his lungs. It was far colder at the bottom of the pit than it was at the hidden entrance. The purple torches light was too scarce to see but he was certain his breath was forming with each short puff. He struggled against the clawing, gouging debris, pulling himself free as he inched toward the closest sconce. He reached for the magical light, taking it in his mouth, and turned it back towards the center. Bones. The bones of thousands of ponies lay heaped like a dragon’s trove at the base of the spiraling inverse tower. He yelped and fell back a step, suddenly feeling very dirty and sick to his stomach.
What had happened here? How could this many ponies have wound up here? Flash dropped the torch and wretched, regurgitating onto the earthen floor. He spit to clear his mouth of the awful taste when another shrill cry assailed his ears. “Princess?” He retrieved the torch and scrambled to follow from where the shout had come. Still the cry echoed up the hollow corkscrew staircase and rattled his senses. The light from the torch peeled away the darkness and revealed an enormous hole in the wall at one end of the pit.
The hole was different, it hadn’t been dug by those well versed in construction; it was more bestial, as if something had clawed through the earth. Nearly thirty feet high and across, it reminded Flash of the holes worms made as they burrowed through dirt and he trembled at the thought of a thirty foot earthworm.
Shaking the thought from his mind, Flash strode forward into the cavern. Cadence needed him. It was his duty, his privilege to protect her and he intended to escape this awful place and return his Princess home where they might discuss what was happening in the royal castle and with the Princess of Friendship. Maybe find Canterlot some sort of help.
Flash Sentry walked softly and held the torch out before him. In a pinch, the hard wood and metal fastenings would work as a club if he really needed it but he hoped to resolve this peacefully. He followed the tunnel, waving the torch to search for clues, side passages, or anything else that may be lurking in the dark. Here in the tunnel, it was as if light didn’t exist outside of the small bubble of the magical torch. The pitch blackness pressed upon him from all sides and the meager light seemed all the dimmer. Occasionally he could spot a drop of blood or a hoofmark and knew he was still headed the right way. It was the only way but at least some evidence was appreciated.
The abyss before him was suddenly damp, the earthen floor growing sludgy as if it had been coated with black, glistening tar or glue. His hooves tore free with each step, the goo was sticky and sounded like velcro as he pushed forward. Suddenly his torch flickered and died, leaving him in complete darkness.
His heart thrummed in his chest and he began to panic. He fought the urge to run and closed his eyes, struggling to control his breathing. An odor hit him like a punch; the sickly sweet smell of rot clogged his muzzle and he nearly vomited. It was the same smell that had come from… his eyes popped open to see a grinning Twilight Sparkle only inches from face. The cold of the tunnels had masked the gelid temperature of her breath but nothing could hide the unpleasant scent.
Twilight’s visage was a wormhaunt, black lines of brackish liquid spilled from the void of her eyes and she chuckled softly as Flash Sentry recoiled in horror. Her horn shed barely enough light to see her head and neck. “You’re finally here. Have you come to see? To finally open your eyes, Flash Sentry?”
Chiding himself, Flash bit down into his courage and replied, “I’ve come for Princess Cadance, Twilight Sparkle! Where is she? What have you done with her?”
“Done with her? Nothing. Why would I harm one of my dearest friends?” Something leaked from her mouth, something black, sticky, and shimmering under the lavender light of the Princess’ magical horn.
Something stirred in the dark behind Flash Sentry. Hooves stepped lightly but quickly, too quickly to be a pony, towards him. He braced himself for attack but a pink light flickered to life, revealing Cadance. She grinned and tarry sludge dribbled from between her teeth, dripping in long strands that plopped into the sticky floor below. “You’ve never noticed, Flash Sentry? You never saw me for what I am in these years of service?”
Confusion spread like a disease through Flash’s body and he felt as if he were insane. This couldn’t be Cadance; it had to be a trick of some kind! “No! You are not Cadance. You are… are some monster in her place! Where is my Princess?” Both Cadance and Twilight chuckled knowingly, drawing great ire from Flash. He growled angrily and readied a charge at the imposter Cadance. His hooves braced as he prepared to attack.
“Hold!” The command was gruff and solid. It was Quartz. The sturdy old steed tromped heavily between Cadance and Flash. His gray coat was spattered in dark dots and his eyes were puddles of oil. There were no more words from the older stallion as he glowered at the younger soldier. His crystal body resonated with a glow from within, dimly lighting those parts that were not armored. He simply shook his head, daring Flash to come forth.
“What is this? You too?” Once more Flash Sentry fell back a step and bumped into Twilight.
“It’s all of us, Flash Sentry. All except you. Don’t you understand? Can’t you see?” Twilight’s sepulcher grin haunted Flash Sentry and he released a weak, confused squeak of fear. “Or should I say, me. They found me here, Flash. Long before you were born they found me. They sought to use me but I was far too old and wise for their tricks.”
“You killed them? All those bones back there, you killed them all?” Flash Sentry shuddered, the evil surrounding him was oppressive and his bravery faltered, collapsing to his knees.
“I used them, became them. Nearly all of Equestria has been fed to me now. I am everypony you know and I have watched you for a very, very long time,” it said through Twilight’s lips.
“This is impossible! It can’t be true!” Flash sentry’s mind was trammeled upon, hammered flat.
“I,” Twilight began and the other two chimed in.
“Am,” Cadence grinned through slithering ooze.
“Everypony,” Quartz said.
“You,” A voice he didn’t recognize added.
“Have,” another.
“Ever,” another.
“Known,” the sentence ended and Twilight’s horn flared, illuminating a room of dozens of ponies, each one grinning and dripping with charcoal colored sludge. Flash Sentry recognized a few of them: Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Big Macintosh. The cavern terminated here and an altar stood on a raised dais behind Twilight. The ceiling bulged and stretched like rubber in the form of hooves, legs, and faces of ponies. Running the center of the ceiling was what looked like the ribbed carapace of a changeling but it was far too large and brass-ochre in color. The thing stretched the course of the ceiling and tapered down the back wall to a strange, conical spout that puckered and twitched.
Flash Sentry’s mind began to collapse upon itself and when he spoke only gibberish fell from his mouth like sap. He wanted to run but the abyssal goo gripped his hooves and fear squeezed his heart.
“I can sense you still don’t believe me, Flash,” Twilight said. She chuckled and her horn raged violently with magic. The purple light enveloped her, gripping her body and suddenly tearing it apart before him. Her intestines poured like overcooked linguini to the floor and the meat of her body popped like an overstretched balloon, showering the group in crimson and black chunks of glistening ground meat.
Flash Sentry screamed, the last vestiges of sanity tearing free and begging him to flee and yet he could not obey their pleas. His eyes bulged in horror as the group gathered the chunks of Twilight’s remains, piling them in a heap upon the altar.
“I’m fine, Flash Sentry. It is so much fun to watch you. Like I said, I’ve done so for years. You are special, I am certain of it,” the group spoke in unison. A shape slid above Flash in the swollen belly of the ceiling, rolling behind the ribs and down the spout to where the puckering opening spread wide and a hoof slid out.
The fleshy orifice stretched wide as Twilight pulled her head free, coated in black grime. She grinned as her wings freed themselves and opened. They flapped, producing enough force to tug the rest of her jelly covered body loose. She shook hard, flinging the oily, mucus-like substance from her newly grown body and looked down upon Flash Sentry. “I am everypony you know, Flash Sentry. I have watched you for a very long time and tonight I am certain. You are different from the others. You will be with me, my prince. You will retain your thoughts. And I, finally, will no longer be alone.”
Cadence, Quartz, and several others took Flash Sentry. He babbled nonsensically, his mind warped and deranged. They lifted him to the altar where the previous Twilight’s body had been stacked like a throne. He was placed there and the group stepped away as the ceiling churned, the cavern shook and stones fell from their places in the earth. One of the other ponies was silently crushed to paste by a collapsing wall as the great being above moved for the first time in centuries.
Flash Sentry could not move, could not think, could only watch as a monstrous quintet of unblinking, shining black eyes gazed down upon him from the streaked, leathery form in the ceiling. There was intelligence in them, a frightening intelligence that had waited and searched for centuries. From behind, a maw opened, long, ochre fangs stretched wide and a rippling massacre of tongues snatched Flash Sentry. He was jerked violently and deeply within the beast’s craw. It only hurt for a moment as his legs folded before his eyes and the crushing, stonelike teeth pulverized his body into paste.
Princess Twilight smiled upon her throne, looking upon her court of ponies. Most of them were her but a few were true equines. Her ancient body still required the occasional sustenance. In times long passed, the ponies of Equestria had sought to use her power. The foolish creatures had found god deep within the caverns below their royal palace and attempted to enslave it. Eternal beings were good at playing the long game and, over time, she had taken enough of them and duplicated their bodies, implanting her hive mind in them. Slowly she took control of the government, the army, and even most of the regular citizenry. With Celestia and Luna retired to the public to some false retreat, she had finally become their living deity, their Princess.
Twilight nodded eloquently as a delegation of gryphons entered her audience chamber. They were not her but, in a few hundred years, the seeds she had sewn in their country would flourish.
“Ah, Princess Twilight of Equestria,” the lead gryphon began. “We have come to apologize for being unable to attend your wedding. We have brought many gifts, tokens of peace between our great nations. We would also like to meet your new husband and pay our respects.”
“Of course, chancellor. It gives me great honor to present my husband, Prince Flash Sentry.” Twilight smiled as the door to the throne room opened.
Flash Sentry had never felt so alive, so at peace. He knew everything Twilight knew. All at once he could hear voices from all across Equestria. He could see through the eyes of tens of thousands of ponies. All of them were Twilight, or whatever the thing living in the bowels of the earth called itself. For him, he had always had a crush on the Princess of Friendship and now he had her. In a new body that was beyond time, beyond the limited capabilities of his previous pony body, he felt he had found his place at last. All eyes were on him, hundreds of eyes that, he now knew, belonged to Twilight. He no longer felt strange under them. It wasn’t everypony who could turn a hundred heads and know they all loved him.
Flash Sentry bowed to the delegation and took the new, empty throne beside his wife. He took her hoof and kissed it softly. “I love you, my darling. Now you will never be alone again.”