NOIRE POV

I was called in from my training to Cadence's personal chambers by a maid. It was weird seeing as whenever I was needed, Cadence or Shining came to see me. I assumed the daily drama was going to be done by the books this time. When I asked what it was about she just said "I don't know, Mr Human. She looked very sad so I did not ask." I set off to Cadence's room, wondering what happened to her to make her this upset after all that has happened. On my way there, I started to notice certain things happening with the staff inside the castle. First off was the maids, who were most likely seen in corners, gossiping about saucy details. From what I'd heard over the past week, the most juice they had was on me. The maids had started to gossip about Shining, Cadence and me. Some were saying that Cadence and I were having an affair, others were saying that the three of us were a herd which would seriously be awkward and possibly even more violent between Shining and me. These rumours made them either look at me in disgust, which I was used to and others look at me sultrily, which I was less used to. That was going to be an issue during heat season. I haven't even found a good hiding spot.

Then there were the guards. On that matter, it was unanimous; they all hated my guts. Hate that could possibly shatter diamonds with its pressure. I can assume they felt this way for several reasons:
1. I was buddy-buddy with their princess making them jealous as all hell.
2. My fight with the guard from yesterday got around in the bad kind of way.
3. I was buddy-buddy (barely) with their captain/prince, which again, made them jealous
4. Prejudice. Need I say more.
The list could go on and on but before I could come up with a fifth reason, I was already at Cadence's door. Whenever Cadence and I go into each other's rooms, it is mostly to tell the other some ground-shattering news or vent to each other. We almost never got to talk about how our good days were or anything of the sort. A conversation like that would've seriously been a breath of fresh air. Nevertheless, I still persevered, opening the door with gusto and faced the sad Cadence sitting on her bed looking at a small bottle in her hand.

"I don't want to be rude but after a week of this it has to be asked at some point in time; What did Shining do this time and where is he so I can kick his ass?" I asked, surprising Cadance out of her trance. She looked up to me, seeing my tired expression.

"Is my love life that troubling that you find yourself inconvenienced by it?" she asked dryly.

We both opened our eyes in shock over our bitter exchange of words. "IM SO SORRY" we both yelled in embarrassment. We both fumbled with our words until we checked ourselves and both took a seat at the coffee table in her room. We remained in awkward silence for a bit before I decided to start us off.

"Sorry, let me rephrase. What happened between you two and what can I do to help?" I asked. I was a little concerned about Shining myself. He wasn't like a father or brother to me but I felt a bond grow between us and I didn't want to lose that. I've lost too many people than I can count and I won't let the same happen here with him.

Cadance took another breath before explaining "Well, It has more to do with Shining," she said "In the middle of the night, I found him masturbating while repeating 'I'm sorry' over and over again. I found a spilt bottle of pills next to the door and when I looked back to check on him, he was gone. Look at this," She handed me the bottle and I inspected it carefully. It looked nearly full so it must have been bought recently. The name was 'Neuro-Oxil' which from the 'Neuro' part suggested it had something to do with the brain. If this happened during the night, then something in his dreams could have caused it; maybe a pony.

"Cadance, do you know anyone in his past that he may have sexual desires for? A past lover or something? Anyone you can think of?" I asked. Cadence put a hand on her chin and stroked it slowly. She then took it off and looked at me in fear. Whoever she thought of must have been really scary.

"Queen Chrysalis."

"...Crap". I didn't know much about her but from what Cadance's diary said, we should really be scared. She was very descriptive of what she was. She was capable of seducing stallions and mares alike with her pheromones, tricking them with disguises of their loved ones and then completely controlling their minds. She was also a master manipulator who could fool you very easily. I remember one of Cadence's entries detailing how she managed to deceive the Mane 6 and Princess Celestia. Chances are Shining's still being controlled by her and this whole thing could be a ploy for conquering the Crystal Empire, maybe even all of Equestria if we don't stop her. I started to go through multiple places where he could possibly be. Abandoned factories, vacant homes, anything that screamed 'Evil Villain's Hideout'. I continued to think of places I saw on my patrol with him before a light bulb flickered on in my head, reminding me of the place where one would find the drug "I need to go to Mr Mindful's place,"

"Is he the one who gave Shining the drugs?" she asked. I nodded confidently. I fondly remember yesterday, with him holding a bottle in his hand. He seemed to be walking on air that day, almost like he had been blessed. Now It all starts making sense. Mr Mindful's was also a chemist. It said so on his sign. It was the only possible lead on where he is.

"If I were to guess, I would say he's a changeling and that drug was the exact opposite of what Shining was told it was. We shouldn't bring other guards to prevent any changeling from catching on. We still don't know how many are in the building." Cadance hesitantly nodded and got up to address her guards. I got up as well to follow her, wondering how Shining is doing and how much time we had before Chrysalis' plan comes into fruition.

I was outside the building Shining took me to yesterday. I thought it best to not bring my weapon or armour to prevent any suspicion from any changelings in the area. I was in my normal clothes I wore when I got here; A leather hoodie with a hole in the right shoulder, a white shirt with red sleeves and a pair of cargos tucked into black boots. I also had a pair of gloves to control my magic absorbing ability and my phone on me so I could record and take pictures of anything suspicious. If I was going to get any leads on Shining's whereabouts, I was going to have to do this unsuspiciously. I walked in and everypony was minding their own business like they worked for legitimate business and not an evil queen. I looked around, inspecting the room for anything useful. Nothing.

I continued my investigation at the desk, where a yellow earth pony was sorting through files. She looked at me, unimpressed by my shorter height. "Excuse me ma'am, has Shining Armour been here recently? I'm asking for his wife." I asked. She just looked at me suspiciously before readjusting her glasses and staring at me intensely.

"May I ask for what purpose?" she asked, looking me over again "You don't look like a guard or a servant to me,"

"I am one of her close friends and I have photographic evidence to support this on my phone," I took out my phone and showed her a picture of me and Cadence hugging in a picture. I am so glad I got that selfie with her; saves me a lot of trouble making people believe I am actually who I say I am. She stared at the photo in wonder. I almost forgot ponies weren't as advanced as humans were so seeing a photo in a brick must be a shock for her.

"I-uh-wow. I didn't know bricks could light up like that. I'm sorry for your inconvenience. He was last seen a few hours ago with Mr Mindful in his study" she said, still shocked from being shown such an interesting device for her "Also, please come by again to show me that 'phone' as you call it".

"Where is that? Shining Armour is ill and forgot his medicine pills" I asked. She politely pointed me towards the end of the hall, where a sign that said 'Mr Mindful' was on a green door. I thanked her a hurried off to the room, determined to find Shining. If with any luck, he will be there and this was only a misunderstanding yet again. If he wasn't, that would make finding him much harder. The empire is a large city and would take days to search it all even with all our guards on patrols. When I reached the door, I quickly opened it and inspected the place. It was empty, no-one was around but what troubled me more, was the room itself. There were scorch marks on the chairs, likely the result of magic blasts. Pictures and candles were knocked over and there was a smell of smoke from the room. It was clear that a fight broke out here and either Shining was taken or Mindful. Either way, this needed to be checked out by the unicorn team. If there was anyone who could find out what happened, it was them. I started taking pictures of the scene and looked around more for anything more to use as evidence.

When I searched the walls of the room, I could hear a draft from the other side of the room. On the wall, there was an outline of a button which was probably hidden by a photo and from my experience watching Scooby-Doo that If there is a secret button, you press it. So press it I did and revealed a whole new part of the room.

The secret room was a lab. There were test tubes and flasks on every desk as well as a whiteboard displaying plans for a new Neuro-Oxil. It looked like it was supposed to bring the user good dreams but in Shining's case, it gave him a nightmare that pushed him to leave the castle without warning. I thought to myself Did Mindful make a mistake with it or did he give it to him on purpose? This could only be solved by searching more. I continued searching, recording all of my surroundings as I did until I heard a shake from a closet at the back of the lab. I crept slowly to it as to not let whatever is in it know I'm here. When the shaking stopped, I stretched out my hand and opened the door. Inside was a green unicorn I could only assume as Mr Mindful tied up and gagged. He was crying immensely and was squirming for freedom. I picked him up and untied him, making sure to avoid his shlong.

"THANK YOU!!! I was trapped there for a week and only fed once by those monsters" he exclaimed, hugging me. I immediately stopped him and grabbed a lab coat off the floor and gave it to him.

"What happened here, Mindful? Where is Shining?" I asked him. Right now, he was my only lead on finding Shining and I needed him to talk.

"I don't know. I was taken by changelings and one of them replaced me a little after our first session. From what I've heard from their talks that after his 'rehab', they were going to take him to a bunker and send the signal to Chrysalis that he's been captured" he answered.

"Why Shining though?" I asked.

Mindful only shook his head "He's too valuable. His knowledge of both the Crystal Empire's and Canterlot's defences, His large amounts of magic and parasitic love for Chrysalis growing every day. That was way too much of an advantage for Chrysalis to just let go of. At least that is what I assume,"

He had a point. Shining had intel on every nook and cranny of both the Crystal Empire and Canterlot. Him being married to the princess of love would also make for a good ransom for anything she wanted. The possibilities Chrysalis had with him on her side is endless. "We have to get this to Cadence fast before we're too late".

We went to a writing station but before Mindful could put pen to paper, a magic bullet went through his head, killing him instantly. "Oops, did you need him?" a distorted voice called from behind me. It was a changeling, black, punctured with several holes and completely naked. It was female, shown by her wide hips and small bust "I wanted to preserve him for a bit longer but you know we can't let anyone know about this. Awww, and he was so cute too; pouring out his inner trauma to me. Telling me he secretly had feelings for our loving queen, fantasizing about her every night when he went to bed and even avoiding his inferior wife to jerk off to her image,"

Was it true? Did Shining really feel this way for Chrysalis even after he was freed of her control? I didn't want to believe her but after what Cadence has told me about the two of them not having sex in months and the incident before he disappeared. These thoughts consumed my mind before I was brought back by the hysterical laughter of that witch of a changeling. I couldn't show any weakness now. Not after Mindful just died. I will not allow this scum to kill another innocent "You're going to pay for that, changeling. I'll make sure you rot in a cell," I already knew I had an advantage over her with my magic immunity and absorption. I took off my gloves and got ready for the fight to come. This was already over. I was in my element. I charged at her, ready to absorb her magic until she was a shrivelled up mess. However, the changeling female managed to dodge my attack and shot me with her magic attack. Unlike Mindful, my powers allowed me to absorb magic so it had no effect on me. She looked at my unscathed body in shock.

"H-How? How did you completely negate my attack? Nothing should be immune to magic. Not even dragons!" She zapped me again and again, trying to gain some distance but all of the attacks were just absorbed into my body "No...NO! I REFUSE TO DIE WHEN MY QUEEN IS THIS CLOSE TO COMPLETING HER PLANS!!!" she screamed before charging up to her full power and firing a full-power beam at me. I stumbled a bit but only for a second before running at her at full speed. She backed away in fear and was about to fall over before I caught her by her horn.

This sudden action caused pink lines to appear on my skin and run down my arm until it reached her horn. My eyes began to glow yellow for a brief moment before returning to their normal black. The pink lines disappeared and we both fell over, exhausted. I quickly regained my breath due to all the magic I absorbed and stood over her almost lifeless body. I could see her twitching and muttering "No way" over and over. I would've loved to kill her but to get the location we needed from her, we needed her alive. I went to pick her up and detain her but then a small spark of magic went off from her. This caused me to retract my hand. "I refuse to allow myself to fail Chrysalis. If I am going to die then I'm taking you with me!" She petered out before blacking out. I followed the spark to a desk containing bottles marked 'DANGER! FLAMMABLE!'. A sizzling sound rang from the bottles.

"...Shit..."

BOOM

CELESTIA POV

Off in the distance, I could feel the sudden surge of energy from the Crystal Empire. She looked out at the distance from her throne while a mare whined about her problems. So the code has finally awakened once again and for a human so young and inexperienced. What could come of this new development? I can no longer watch the world fall into chaos again. Now is the time to act.

"I'm sorry but something has come up. The court is adjourned as well as night court." an audible moan sounded throughout the long line of waiting ponies. Celestia ignored this, telepathically calling her sister and magicked a scroll and quill and began writing.

Dear Princess Twilight,

CADANCE POV

I was on my balcony, looking out into the distance and praying Noire made a safe return when I felt a surge of energy and heard a very audible 'boom'. The only thing I could imagine that would cause something like this was the investigation of Mindful's study. The one that Noire persuaded me into doing alone. "Noire, you FOOL!" I yelled, bursting out of my office to fly to Noire's location but Noire beat me to it, standing outside my door, panting heavily. His clothes were torn apart and he was bleeding in several places. In his arms was a female changeling, completely unconscious. What was really shocking was the dull grey lines that ran around his arms and he was completely empty of magic. Whatever went down at the mind study must have been intense.

"Cadence, we got some things to talk about but first get a guard to take into custody and maybe a towel to clean up the mess I made in here," he said before dropping the changeling and falling over, unconscious. I picked him up, ignoring the bloodstains on my dress and taking off for Curdle to patch him up. I hope what he found there was worth all of this.

NOIRE POV

"Uugh, my head," I said as I woke up. I was in my old hospital bed and covered in bandages. However, there were no casts so that was a good thing. I got out of bed and was thinking to myself How long was I out for? Has Shining already been taken out of the empire? My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a clanging sound from the door. I turned and found Cadance at the entrance. She was wearing the same dress she wore when I left and there were bags under her eyes. Her hair was a mess and there was a bowl of water on the floor, splashing water everywhere.

"Noire is this real? If this is fake then I will beat the ever-loving shit out of you," she said, letting loose a long stream of tears.

"What figment of your imagination would tell you this is not real?" I said blankly. We stared at each other before running at each other and hugging "I was so worried about you..." Cadance almost did a double-take at that.

"ME?! You went into a secret lab facility alone and unarmed and almost got caught up in an explosion! You were unconscious for three weeks!" she exclaimed, whacking me on the head.

"Okay, I get it. You should be the worried one. Speaking of, has Shining left the city or is he still here?" I asked.

She let go of me and shook her head "If she did, Me and Shining's love-link I made would've disappeared. The link doesn't extend into the frozen wastelands outside the barrier". Good, that means we still have time but if three weeks have passed then now would be a good time for the changelings to get everything they needed for smuggling. We had to act now.

"We need more guards at the barrier; we can't allow anyone in or out of the city before this has been resolved," I said.

"Faust, two minutes out of bed and you're already planning a raid. Are you sure you aren't the captain?" said a bemused Doctor Curdle at the door, holding a sedative fluid in a needle "If I were one of those incompetent doctors you find everywhere then I would be telling you to get some rest. However, seeing as it's been three weeks and telling you won't stop you, then I will not stop you from doing what you think is right." She put away the needle and embraced me softly and I hugged back. I could tell what she was saying just from the contact alone. "Get back alive, you suicidal maniac. I'll keep the hospital bed warm for you. You may have survived the explosion somehow but you still suffer from crack ribs, fractured arms and a concussion. I expect there to be more when you get back" she hollered as Cadance and I went down to the barracks.

That made me think of what happened at the lab; when I felt that murderous intent. Would I come back with blood on my hands? Would I actually kill someone this time? How would Cadance think of that? She's the princess of love for Christ's sake! It would be weird to assume she wouldn't be against that kind of thing. However, I have the feeling that I will be forced into that situation. She would resent me forever. "Hey, Cadance?" I said, causing her to turn to me in confusion "If I come back different than I was before, how would you feel?" Cadance faced the hallway ahead and smiled, warming me up a little inside. That smile always knew how to erase any doubt from my mind, no matter how large.

"I would still care about you just fine. Whatever change you go through, physical or emotional, can change how I feel about you. I remember when you first got here. The roles were very jacked up. You had just travelled to an alternate world and somehow I was the one in shock while you were as calm as you are now. You were on top of me and you were the one giving me the relay my own life! It was as if you were already deeply ingrained in my life before you stepped on the planet you're on right now. So I know if you change, I'll be with you for better or worse. You are helping me get back my husband and saving the empire so it is the least I could do,"

"That's a risky game you're playing but thanks, Cadance. Now let's get some guards and plan an attack. We need to get Shining as soon as possible." I wanted to tell her about what the changeling told me back at the lab; about what Shining was feeling but for some reason I couldn't. I wasn't ready to unload such a heavy load on her In the middle of this ball of chaos. I couldn't hurt her like that when her heart was so close to shattering.

Author's Note

I know; I'm crap a writing fight scenes. I'm getting help with that. I also made you wait a while for this one, sorry about that.

However, I put a lot more thought into the first part of this chapter and editing the other chapters so I hope it is now to your liking. If it still isn't, tell me and I will put more time into editing. You guys may have figured this out already but I am kind of relying on you to help me make this story great! I have spent so much time checking and re-checking my work, I could rival Twilight's 're-checking' ness. Post your opinions and criticisms in the comment section and I'll be working diligently on part 2.

Stay dizzy, Wuzzy out.
(Is that a good line?)