The Sweetest Lie
It shouldn't be this bright.
The world shouldn't be this bright. This happy. This easy going and casual, as though nothing had changed. As though nothing had happened! There should be shouting in the streets, clouds in the sky, darkness on every house! The paper should be late, the toast should be burnt, the world should be-!
Hurting.
It shouldn't feel like every other day in every other home.
It isn't the same.
Even pretending it is is wrong. You could feel it in the tension in your shoulders. The near imperceptible hesitation in your butlers words. In the worry that draped sweet Diamond when you sent her to school. The world, your world, is changed. But there, just outside your front door? In the papers, in the news, on the faces of strangers it... It's the same.
The world didn't change. But yours did.
You are Filthy Rich and it's been three days since your wife disappeared.
The thought alone makes you nauseous. It was supposed to be perfectly normal, supposed to be just a meal with a friend. You can almost pretend you hear the harsh sound of her hooves walking down the halls. You can still smell that bright citrus perfume she wore when she left! The sharp words, how it was only she who had been invited, so you should just "stay where you are useful."
Out of her way.
Sunlight streamed through the cracks in the curtain, the soft carpet of your office illuminated by the light of the morning sun. It wasn't worth shuttering it. It would just drift open again.
it shouldn't be this bright.
You should be mourning. You should be angry. You should have thrown something, yelled something, screamed at her.
You did. You should have done something that mattered.
But here, in this little office, light bled in. A gloomy refused to settle over anything but your mind.
When Spoiled hadn't come home, it was easy to dismiss. It would be a quiet night, most likely she and the Lady had simply eaten or drunk too much. An offer was made to stay the night, and why would Spoiled refuse? The host puts up the guest if they can't safely make it across town, and Spoiled was always one to invite herself in, if she could. It was easy to rationalize.
In the morning, it must have been a hangover. In the afternoon, she was out shopping. But when the sun set... something had to be wrong. It was supposed to be a meal, not a whole day affair. It might have grown into something more, Spoiled always tried to push for that, but...
But.
You didn't push. You didn't look. Didn't ask to speak with the guards to find her.
It would be another quiet night.
Diamond, bless her, could tell though. Should have schooled yourself into a more calm smile, been cleaner and more inquisitive over dinner. Shouldn't have let her know you were so distracted. Put on a business face and let her carry your worries away as only your daughter could. But... you were distracted. You were anxious.
Clever little girl she is, she put two and two together and found out how to make interest. Even though it hurts, you can't help but smile remembering how she looked at you. Confused. Worried. And just a moment later, with understanding.
Celestia must have blessed you with her, because she just tried to smile back.
Neither of you talked about the missing chair in the dining room.
Your eyes drift to the other chair in the room. If you pretend, you can almost see the tea cup and saucer on the side table. The one she could hardly touch. Could still hear her words ringing in your ears, didn't need to pretend to hear that. They hadn't left you. Couldn't. You wouldn't... You shouldn't...
It was the second morning, after you gave Diamond Tiara a firm hug. After you told her you were going to figure this out. That she shouldn't worry and to go to school. It was after Diamond left that She came.
She didn't want to see Diamond as usual, nor did she come to talk with Spoiled. There was not the gleam of business in her eyes, nor the comfort of a social call.
Your Wife disappeared two days ago after going to meet with Velvet Covers for a meal.
And Velvet Covers came to your door, shoulders heavy with responsibility. Before you could speak, she asked you a question.
"Can we speak in private, Filthy?"
Maybe it was a worry. Or maybe it was the way the words seemed to burden her. Or was it her eyes, so full of a emotion without a name, that you couldn't help but nod and lead her away to your study.
You asked. The only question you could.
"Where is Spoiled? What happened?"
Even then, you couldn't bring yourself to yell. Not yet at least.
She... she just looked at the tea. Weighing it in the grasp of her magic. Looking for... you only wish you knew then. You only wish she hadn't found it now. But the tea was set aside, her reservation along with it.
She only looked to you. And answered.
"Do you know what the Lunar Bureau is, Filthy? Not- Not that it is my responsibility. Not that it is where I work. But what it is. What it's purpose is, Filthy."
The furrow on your brow was the only answer she needed.
"The Lunar Bureau is an institution to safeguard Equestria, now and into the future. From threat of monsters and beasts and unknowns that the rest of Equestria isn't built to handle. It is an institution built upon The Calamity, and how unprepared we were. It is meant to hunt down the last of those who escaped. It is meant to prevent another disaster like that, ever again. It is my burden. My responsibility."
She looks... pained.
Velvet Covers, who entreats with royalty, who caught the ear of Celestia when her patience was gone. Bridesmaid of Princess Cadence, Alicorn of Love. Head of the Lunar Bureau, a group of investiagators and... and monster hunters by the sounds of it. And she looks like it hurts when she looks to you.
... no. Not when she looks to you.
For what she has to tell you.
"Filthy... you're my friend. And because of that, I feel you are owed more than... more than what I need to say. More than the clinical, harsh, nothing answers I am supposed to say. You deserve... more than that."
"Do you know what a Changeling is?" A rhetorical question, as she explained. "It is... a monster. Not the kind you see out in the Everfree with claws and fangs and wings and tail. But it is a monster all the same for what it does. It... it is a Monster of chitin and wing that steals ponies away in the night, only to wear their face, live their life, and take their place. It laughs because we laugh. It drinks because we drink. It eats because we eat. And it looks just like the pony who's life it has stolen. Invisible."
"A Changeling, is a lie in the shape of a pony."
Her eyes.... Gods above she looked so-
"I... As the Bureau has learned more about these... creatures, responsible for The Calamity, we learned there were signs. Small signs. Little movements. Ticks you might call them. Not perfect, but a way to begin to suspect somepony who... isn't. Something who replaced a pony. Something just acting through their mask of skin and lies. Signs I... saw. More than once. More than just a few times Filthy."
"I invited... her... because I had to make sure. I had to know that it wasn't like that. That she wasn't one of them. That you didn't have..."
"Spoiled was a Changeling, Filthy. And she had been for a long time."
You don't want to remember those words. What you yelled at her there. How after she spoke, the spell of normality broke and you screamed. Demanded, shouted, threw things in the room just looking to... say it wasn't true. That Velvet was lying. That it couldn't be. It Couldn't. It had to be wrong. Had to...
You don't want to remember how you broke down and sobbed. How you called her a liar and a fraud. How... understanding she looked there.
How she waited outside the room. After you had torn half the books from the shelves, tearing through them to find something. Something, clear, direct, obvious, proving! Proving it was wrong. Proving it wasn't true! Proving that-
Your wife hadn't been gone for much much longer than two days.
She bandaged your hoof when you finally left. Ignoring your glare. Ignoring your sobbing. Moving past that emotional turmoil of despair and anger that threatened to swallow you. She didn't stay long after that, but you...
You...
You couldn't tell Diamond.
The night was quiet, but it was the wrong kind of quiet now. Too tense, too sharp, too brittle. Diamond could tell, bless her, but she didn't press. Didn't ask. She knew, you knew but couldn't. How... How could you?
How could you tell her that her Mother was gone? That she had been for a while?
Now.
As the world kept moving.
As your study lay in ruins. As the light threatened to creep in on that devistation. Threatened to illuminate it...
You feel something else.
Guilt.
Hatred that she was taken. Wronged that you hadn't been told. Disgusted that you hadn't noticed. And Guilt... whenever you opened your eyes.
The light nearly blinded you when you did, and it hurt to even pretend to think about moving on without her, but what if
What if
Your heart ached to simply think of it. Shaking your head didn't get rid of it, and closing your eyes didn't make the question go away. It only made it burn in deeper. Quieter. Sharper.
What if
What if... it wasn't your wife that made you two drift apart?
What if it wasn't your wife that near sneered as you passed?
What if it wasn't your wife that filled the house with this useless crap? That demanded only the finest and most expensive simply because it was expensive? That all but threatened your daughter with every demand that was made? That turned a home into a house into a prison? That made the world about placating her rather than living?
What if it wasn't your wife, that caused these problems?
What if it wasn't your wife at all??
Light drifted in through the crack in the curtains. Almost having to bend around the fabris as it showed what lay in that little study.
Offering but the slightest, tainted thing. Reflecting in the world, the same thing you felt.
The same thing you hated, but couldn't drive from your mind. That circled, and spiraled, and hurt.
The world isn't supposed to be bright. You're not supposed to... to have this... this...
This ugly hope.
