Interrupted Cadance

Chapter 2: The Sound of a Pony Sighing

You can tell a lot about a pony by how she deals with the unexpected.

As for me, I'm usually pretty good at handling things I didn't anticipate. In my line of work, you have to be. Being a Princess means setting an example. When something unusual happens, my subjects look to me for guidance. And that means I have to be calm, confident, and ever so slightly aloof. It takes practice, but with time I've made it look like nothing in the world can phase me.

But there's always that moment, that brief instant after I sustain a shock, when I find myself totally speechless. It usually only lasts a second or two, but in those moments, I find myself unable to think of the right thing to say. It's more than just indecision: it's like flailing in the dark. But the moment usually passes before anyone can notice, and the image of the unflappable princess is preserved.

This moment is like that, but not quite.

It's worse than not knowing what to say. I'm not even sure what to feel.

The display in front of me is one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen. Despite the irritatingly loud creaking sound the door makes when I open it, Silver Spoon doesn't react at all as I enter the room. She's lost, somewhere deep within the worst parts of her imagination. She has her hindquarters pointed right in my direction. And she's touching herself.

Questions race through my mind. What in Equestria happened to this foal's mind? Did Rarity's abuse damage her to such an extent that she can't tell what sort of behavior is unacceptable in public? Does she enjoy breaking social taboos? Or is she so preoccupied with sex that she's forgotten where she is?

I open my mouth to scold her. But before I do, she begins to speak.

“How are you going to punish me?” she asks.

Oh, my moon.

She sounds so excited.

I don't say anything. How can I possibly scold her now? She sounds like that's the thing she wants most in the world...

For just a moment, I actually consider turning around and exiting the room. I can come back in a few minutes, when she's done. I'll just pretend I didn't see anything, and we can begin our first session together with a clean sla-

“...Miss Rarity!”

I let out a gasp. She wasn't talking to me.

She's speaking to Rarity. To the monster who nearly ruined her life.

And there is something in her voice which terrifies me to my very core.

“Are you going to whip me?” The child says happily to herself. “Beat me? Choke me until-”

I cover my ears with my forehooves. I can't bear to hear anymore.

I still don't know what I should be feeling right now. A dozen emotions fly through my mind, all jockeying for control. Should I be angry at the child? Should I pity her? Should I fear what she has become? Should I be feeling disgust at the awful sight before me?

Today, the role of the calm, unflappable princess is too much for me to bear. Today, I can offer no confident words, no air of superior wisdom. The mask slips, and for the first time in years, I don't feel like a princess.

I'm just Cadance. I'm just a pony.

And I feel utterly numb.

Unable to think of anything else to do, I lower my forehooves from my ears.

“Hurt me, Miss Rarity!” Silver Spoon cries out. “Make me suffer!”

There it is. That tiny aspect of her voice which utterly breaks my resolve.

I'm known informally as the Princess of Love. I've been good at love charms since I first got my horn, and I'm able to sense the love between two ponies just by being close to one of them. When they think of their special somepony and feel that warm inner glow, I feel it, too.

And I feel the same thing when Silver speaks Rarity's name.

It's faint, perhaps closer to infatuation than true love. But it's there. It's in her voice, in the sound of her moans as she touches herself.

Rarity was an animal who brought misery and suffering to the lives of scores of children. And when Silver Spoon speaks her name, I feel a tiny glimmer of the same emotion I feel for my husband.

I can't do this.

I have to get out of this room. Right now. I can't...Luna, I'm sor-

CRASH.

Oh, that's right. I completely forgot.

I was holding a coffee mug.

Silver Spoon turns around and looks at me. And, much to my surprise, it's actually a relief. That tiny, awful spark of love I had been sensing vanishes instantly. I feel like I'm coming up for air after being underwater for too long. Suddenly everything seems just a little bit better.

“All of the other therapists knocked before entering the room,” the filly says, almost mechanically.

I'm not used to that tone of voice. When you're a princess, you're accustomed to hearing ponies speak with deference and awe. They don't let you enter a room without making some sort of fuss. And they certainly don't give you passive-aggressive comments about your door etiquette.

Before me is a filly who treats royalty with disrespect, but speaks of a common rapist with awe and reverence.

I cover my face with my wing. My voice quivers, ever so slightly, as I tell her to make herself decent.

I've been told that it's up to me to save this filly. And I have no idea how.

*******

“Honey?”

“Wha...oh, you're still awake?”

“Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to...I guess I didn't realize how late it is.”

“It's okay. Trouble sleeping?”

“Yeah...Luna gave me a new task this afternoon. It's a bit...intimidating.”

“Oh no, it's not finally back, is it?”

“No, as far as Luna can tell, the Crystal Empire hasn't emerged yet. She said it probably wouldn't return until both royal sisters are equal in power again. Now that Celestia's...indisposed...it might not come back until she does.”

“Well, if that means we don't have to worry about this Sombra guy, then I'm fine with that outcome. This land has had enough tyrants to deal with lately."

Cadance could hear a slight twinge of anger in her husband's voice. It was always there in recent months, any time he spoke of Celestia.

Most of the Royal Guard didn't know the truth about her absence. But their captain had been informed.

At the age of eighteen, Shining Armor had taken an oath to, if necessary, lay down his life in Celestia's name.

Cadance remembered the night after her she and her husband had been told the truth about Celestia's disappearance. She remembered the letter of resignation she had found on Shining's desk the next morning, ready to be delivered personally to Princess Luna.

She had held him close to her before he left the next day. She had kissed him, and whispered into his ear.

“If this is what you really want, I won't stop you. But you've dreamed of being guard captain since you were a foal, Shining. And if that's still who you want to be, then don't you dare let her take that away from you. Don't you dare.”

Shining Armor was late to his shift that day. When he finally left, nearly an hour later, he took care to examine himself in the mirror, ensuring that his eyes did not look red, and his cheeks were dry. Military protocol would not allow for a captain who appeared unpresentable.

He gave his wife a brief salute and a goodbye kiss, just like he did before he left for work every morning.

The shredded remains of the resignation letter lay on the floor beside Cadance.

“It's nothing on the scale of the Crystal Empire,” Cadance said, as she sat in bed beside her husband. “It has to do with the Circle. There's another foal who Luna thinks I can help...”

“Is that what has you all worried?” Shining asked. “I thought you had helped some of those foals already.”

“I have, but this one...I don't know how to put it. They gave me her file this afternoon. I've been reading it over, and...she's not like most of the others, Shining. The things she did...the things witnesses say she asked to have done to her...”

The Princess sighed. “I'm not sure I can help her. I'm not sure she wants help.”

Cadance felt a pair of large, strong forelegs gently embracing her from behind.

She closed her eyes, trying to will herself back to the time when his embrace had made her feel safe. Back before...

“I know you can do this, sweetie. You're a Princess of Equestria. This whole kingdom believes in you. If you can't save that foal, no one can.”

And there it was. With those words, Shining Armor's hooves suddenly felt very, very heavy, as if they were holding her in place.

“What if that means no one can...?” she whispered.

“Sorry, what did you say?” Shining asked.

“Nothing,” she said. “Thanks, honey. I'm sure things will turn out okay.”

“Of course they will,” Shining Armor replied as he lay back down. “They've got the Princess of Love on the case, don't they?”

Cadance didn't respond. Instead, she kissed her husband on the cheek, then got out of bed and walked to the kitchen.

Tranquility Camomile was the rarest tea blend in all of Equestria. The flowers were of an exceptionally obscure variety, which grew only on the grounds of the royal palace, and which would grow from a seed, bloom, wither, and die on a single night each month: the night of the full moon. With its passing, it would leave behind a single seed, which could be planted at any time, but would never sprout until the moon was once again full.

The flower had not blossomed during the thousand years of Luna's exile. A few stubborn little seeds had remained in the ground, waiting patiently for the Princess to return.

It was said that no tea allowed one to sleep better than Tranquility Camomile, because Princess Luna personally blessed each flower with a tiny hint of dream magic.The lore said that Celestia herself did not sleep for weeks after she banished her sister, and only found rest after brewing and drinking the last cup of Tranquility Camomile left in Equestria. Cadance was not sure if this last detail was true.

What was true was that no pony had tasted this tea for over one thousand years. And fewer than ten ponies had done so since.

Cadance owned the largest supply of the tea in the entire world. And even that only amounted to about a dozen cups.

“I can always get more,” she said to herself as she brewed herself a cup. Being Princess had its privileges.

Luna had once told her that she found making the tea relaxing, but did not care to drink it. “I am told the taste is quite pleasant, but it merely tastes like water to me,” she had said. “Perhaps if I did not use my own magic...”

Cadance thought of Luna as she sipped from her cup. She hadn't mentioned it to Luna, but the Night Princess had looked exhausted when she had seen her that afternoon. Even after all these months, Luna still wasn't used to being active during the day.

No, that wasn't it, Cadance realized. This wasn't just physical exhaustion. There was a spiritual weariness to Luna's demeanor as of late. It was in her voice, in her eyes, in the way her smile took just a little too long to form on her lips.

So it isn't just me, Cadance thought. She feels it too.

Cadance finished her cup, and took a moment to enjoy the sensation as the last little sip made its way down her throat. She had experienced such vivid, wonderful dreams the first time she had tried this brew. But as of late, she found that she did not dream at all.

The tea had gone from an indulgence to a necessity. Drinking it was the only way she could get a good night's sleep anymore.

A soft whistle accompanied Cadance's basic telekinesis spell as her teacup, saucer and kettle were put back in their place. She returned to her bedroom.

The princess looked down at her sleeping husband, his mane messy and disheveled, his mouth slightly open as he slept. He was making the funny little noise he always made in his sleep, which was halfway between a snore and a whisper. It almost sounded like he was trying to speak. Cadance found it adorable.

“You're so beautiful,” Cadance whispered to him as she looked at his sleeping form. They had been married for over a year now, and she still felt the same love for him that she did on the day they had made their vows.

So why didn't she feel anything else when she looked at him?

To her relief, Cadance was not able to contemplate this question for long. Her thoughts began to drift away and dissipate, like little wisps of smoke, as she lay her head down on her pillow. The tea never failed.

*******

“Get out.”

I tried. I really did.

Maybe this whole thing was doomed from the start. I mean, Cadance did walk in on me at the worst possible time. As first impressions go, I could have done better.

But I tried so hard to smooth things over. I answered all her questions. I spoke to her with total honesty, told her things about my time with Rarity that I haven't told anyone else. And it seemed like she was opening up to me, too.

It can't have been easy for her to tell me what she did. To entrust a foal she had just met with such a huge secret...

I thought she was different from the others. I thought she respected me as a pony, not just as something broken that needed fixing.

My mistake.

“Silver Spoon. You have no right to speak to me like this,” she says. Her voice was casual and friendly a moment ago. But now she's speaking with authority, in the stern voice of someone who is used to giving orders and receiving total obedience. For the first time since she entered the room, she sounds like a Princess.

But I still remember a time when I served an authority who I revered as higher than any Princess. And when I think of Miss Rarity's voice, Cadance's has no power over me.

“I'm trying to help you, Silver,” she says. “I thought we were having a nice conversation. But if you think I'll just stand by and-”

“I SAID GET OUT!” I reply. “If you ever even try to do that to me...”

“It would be for your own good, Silver,” she says. “And after what you've told me...I think it might be the only way to help you. Don't you want to get better?”

“Not like that,” I say. “Never like that. Find another way.”

“There might not be another way...” Cadance says.

I reply with the only three words I can think of to describe the pony I see in front of me:

“You're a failure.”

Cadance doesn't respond. But I notice her shifting her weight ever so slightly, as if she had trouble standing for just a moment.

That's it. I've struck a nerve. Without really meaning to, I've found the chink in Cadance's armor.

I know she's not my enemy. I know she's just trying to help. But to say what she just said...to even suggest it...

In my anger, old instincts begin to reassert themselves in my mind. I haven't been a bully for a long time. But it's not something you forget how to do. It's all about finding a weak spot. And exploiting it.

“YOU'VE FAILED!” I shout at her. “You hear me, Miss High and Mighty Princess? You were the last pony in Equestria who could possibly help me. And you let me down.”

Cadance's whole stance has changed. “That...that's not...” she says. Her authoritative voice is gone.

I've won.

“Yes it is,” I say calmly. “And you know it.

“Now get out.”

The Princess closes her eyes.

Nothing moves except her lips. She's mumbling something to herself, but I can't make out what it is. It only lasts a few seconds, and it's followed by the sound of a long, deep sigh.

Then she's silent for a second. Completely still. Until she opens her eyes.

“Maybe you're right,” she says. Now her voice is totally calm. “But it doesn't change my recommendation.”

Dammit. I thought I had her...

“You'll never get better as long as you still have feelings for Rarity. You know that, don't you?”

“But...but...” I stammer. She raises a hoof, and for some reason, I quiet down instantly.

“If it helps, you should know that the spell won't be painful. It should hardly take a moment for me to perform, actually. It's just part of my special talent. When I sense a feeling of love between two ponies, I can enhance it. In theory, it shouldn't be hard to do the opposite.”

I shake my head, and start to slowly back away from Cadance. But there's nothing behind me but a wall. I have nowhere to go.

“Don't you see? This must be why Luna asked me to help you. Because I'm the only one who can do this,” Cadance says. “I can remove your feelings for Rarity, Silver Spoon. It will be like they were never there at all.”

SOUNDS TO LISTEN FOR NEXT TIME:

Restraints being tied

A filly screaming

A cacophony of voices

and the quiet, almost inaudible clack

of a door closing

at midnight