"Well, thank you Princess, that's sure to make my wife's day!"
The stallion petitioning me turns and trots--skips, really--out of the throne room, positively bubbling with joy. Even without my powers, his happiness at being able to help his wife is almost palpable, while with them being around such an intense and pure love is utterly overwhelming. I feel giddily light-headed, almost irrationally pleased to have been able to help such a committed couple.
Beside me, my assistant checks off another item on her list, just as a messenger trots up and whispers something to her. Before I can say anything, she leans into me and whispers "Princess, Cirrus Clouds is here to talk to you."
"Let her in, then," I softly reply. She nods and turns, whispering my instructions back to the messenger, who salutes and leaves for the door. Moments later, an elderly crystal pony mare walks in, her dark blue coat and white mane alternately standing out from and blending in to the pale blue crystal of the palace. As she nears the throne she drops into a bow, one knee and her head touching the ground.
"Your Majesty, Mi Amor--"
"Please Cirrus, you know by now that it's just Cadance," I interrupt her. "And there's no need to bow."
"--Cadance," she corrects herself, rising. "I am afraid I bring bad news. There is a blizzard approaching--"
Before I can stop myself, I interrupt, voice rising shrilly "Another one? But winter is weeks away!"
"Indeed, You--Cadance," she nods. "It's not unknown to have wild blizzards blow in from the north near the beginning of winter, but three in a month is almost unheard of, especially weeks before winter even starts. Could...do you think the South could spare some of its pegasi weather teams?"
I shrug noncommittally. "Perhaps, and I will certainly ask my aunts if they can spare any, but winter is approaching in Equestria as well, and there are few trained in operations around wild lands."
"Of course, Y--Cadance. Perhaps...I almost daren't say this...but the Heart? Might it...?"
In the back of my head the Heart throbs, reassuring me that it is well. "No," I say a moment later. "No, the Heart is fine."
"Then..." She raises her hooves helplessly. "I don't know what it could be. The North has always been wild and unpredictable...perhaps this year is just unlucky."
"Perhaps," I agree, but even as I say it the word turns to ash in my mouth. Something isn't right here.
Cirrus doesn't notice how much my mood has turned as she bows again and walks out. I don't bother to inform her. Instead, I turn to the crystal pony standing beside me. With a white coat and brown mane, Quick Quill looks remarkably like Auntie's assistant, Raven, if she were a crystal pony instead of a unicorn. I didn't notice until one of my trips home, when the two met, but since then I've wondered whether some unconscious memory of growing up in Auntie's court spurred me to pick her. Regardless, she's been an excellent aide.
"Quick Quill," I tell her, "take a note. 'Write letters to the other princesses about the blizzards. Remember to post them tomorrow morning before the train leaves.'"
"Of course, Princess," she mumbles around her quill as she drags it across the page, making sure I don't forget. As he finishes, she looks up and out one of the windows lining the throne room, facing towards the south. Before my gaze can follow, she announces, "Celestia's sun is setting. Court is over for the day." She turns toward me. "Shall I find your husband for dinner?"
I smile at her. "I can do that myself, Quick. You're my assistant, not my slave."
She blushes and lowers her eyes. "Of course, Princess."
"Why don't you go have dinner yourself? I think that guard you keep looking at when you think he isn't looking, ah, Iron Spear? Yes, I think he's going off-duty now..." I suggest, lidding my eyes and ever so slightly shaking my rump as I trail off.
Her face practically ignites. "P-Princess!" she splutters for a moment before assuming a more studied expression. "...off-duty, you say?"
"I'm sure he'll love you," I reassure her. Still blushing, she nods and trots away.
I rise from the throne, stretching as I move from the seat I've been occupying for most of the day before trotting towards the throne room's doors myself. As I approach, the guards salute, which I quickly return before exiting. Behind me, they push the doors shut. I spare a moment to revel in the end of another day, mindlessly wrapping myself in a feeling of satisfaction and freedom.
All good things must pass, though, and...ah. Shining Armor. Now, if I know my husband at all, at this hour he's going to be out on the practice fields, along with at least half the guards. That cheers me up even more, and as I step off for the fields, I can hardly remember how unhappy I felt after Cirrus told me her news.
In fact, as I trot along the hallways I can hardly keep myself from bursting into song. "Love i~s in bloom," I half-sing, half-whisper to myself. "A be-au-ti-ful bride, a hand~some groom. Two hearts be-coming one..." Before I even realize it, I'm stepping out onto the fields. My husband is standing on a stage in front of me, demonstrating some arcane point of spear combat to a field full of recruits. I grin mischievously and fire up my horn.
I can hardly claim to have the magical skills of my sister-in-law, but you don't spend as long as I have around Twilight Sparkle without picking up a few tricks here and there. Once, I taught her a spell for making herself irresistible to any stallion...or, as it turned out after a few tweaks for increased efficiency from Twilight, mare...or foal...or animal...or...yes, that was not our proudest hour, and Auntie certainly did not leave me unpunished for that. However, until Luna came back Twilight never really found much use for an attraction spell, however much I tried to sell her on the values of love and friendship. A 'minor tweak' (by her standards), however, and she could make herself repulsive, more specifically unnoticeable. That got us almost in more trouble, after she went missing for a week when she used it to hole up in the Royal Library. She called it 'Wallflower'. And she taught me!
I slowly walk up to the stage under its protection, careful to avoid doing anything that would draw too much attention as I approach Shining Armor. Just as he lowers his spear, I lean forward and press my lips against his, reaching up to embrace him as he stands there. I might have even put a little tongue into it.
...okay, a lot of tongue.
An improbable amount of time later, we break the kiss. Shining looks at me, blush clearly visible under that white coat of his even as his eyes narrow in anger and he paws the ground. "Cady!" he finally splutters a moment later. "Don't--"
"Make you a hero to your ponies?" I suggest as I sweep my hoof out, revealing a field full of whooping, hollering, and cheering recruits. More than a few of them have started beating their hooves against the ground, creating a racket that, I'm sure, can be heard all over the city.
He blushes even more. "Even so--"
I kiss him again, briefly this time. "Besides, it's dinner. Celestia's going to lower the sun soon," I tell him after pulling back.
"Oh," he says, blush constant. "I didn't--"
"Of course you didn't," I agree, pecking his cheek. "What would you do without me?"
He rolls his eyes, but only a little. "Probably be a slave to some bug-queen," he says, subdued.
I kiss him yet again, a bit harder this time. "Come on, that was your sister. And Chrysalis isn't going to threaten anypony else again, thanks to her."
He nods, still subdued.
"Anyways, it's still dinner. That muscle isn't going to take care of itself, soldier!" I tease, poking him in the chest.
"Ah, but I prefer this meal," he tells me, reaching in to kiss me. I accept, and feel a warmth starting to spread through me, like a hot drink on a cold day, lingering after he pulls away.
"You goof," I smile and hug him. "Never change."
"Of course not," he assures me. "Now, I think the recruits have had enough of a show." He deliberately looks away from me and towards the field, which hasn't calmed down in the slightest. He breathes deeply, and I fold my ears back.
"SOLDIERS, TEN-HUT!" Instantly, the entire field is transformed, the crystal ponies locking into attention in a moment. "Today's been a long day, but for you it isn't over yet! Each of you will report back to your barracks sergeant for night duty, is that clear!?"
"YES COMMANDER!" they respond together, voices blending together into a uniform shout.
"DISMISSED!"
Immediately, the formation dissolves as the recruits begin to make way for the barracks on the other edge of the fields. I smile and spread one wing over my husband's withers. "Their discipline is a credit to their commander," I tell him before pecking him on the cheek again. "Let's go have dinner," I add before he can respond.
Dinner is unremarkable. It's excellent, but given that I am one of the four sovereign princesses of Equestria and ruler of a semi-independent city-state, that's only to be expected. In fact, the cooks are so uniformly excellent that, well, they're hardly worth mentioning. It makes me feel a little bad, because I can feel the care they put into every meal.
Afterwards, we withdraw to the royal suite. Normally Quick Quill would have joined us, to help me go over the last items on my daily checklist, but today she's absent, and I can hardly suppress a grin as Shiny and I walk up to our rooms. I knew she and Iron would be just perfect together!
As we walk in, I peck Shining on the cheek and dart into my study. Even without Quick, I can remember enough of the day to attend to at least the most important of my tasks, starting with writing to my fellow Princesses. It is the work of a moment to perch before my desk, and only briefly longer to withdraw my tools. Sheets of writing paper, a pack of envelopes, a block of sealing wax, a roll of blotting paper, my inkwell, my seal, and my quill, made from one of my own flight feathers, flash out in a haze of magic, setting themselves neatly on the writing surface. I take up the pen, dip it in the ink, and begin to quickly scratch it across the paper.
Dear Auntie,
I regret that I am writing not because of good news, but because of bad. My weather advisor, Cirrus Clouds, has informed me that another blizzard is approaching the Empire, the third this month! Such bad weather, with winter still weeks away, is unprecedented, and both she and I are worried that it could herald worse to come. Already, the late crystal berry crop has been ruined, and we will need to tap into your granaries over the winter; if the rail line is cut, we may have to go onto rations, or worse.
She asked whether you could spare any of the weather teams from the south. I was unsure whether any would be free at this time, with the approach of winter, but I could hardly keep from passing on her request and adding my own plea. Auntie, with almost no pegasi, and none qualified for bad-weather work, we are completely at the mercy of random chance when it comes to the weather. I know we have been talking about establishing a resettlement program to attract southern ponies to the Empire, but I fear we may need to accelerate at least the pegasus unit.
And, Auntie, I didn't tell her, but I can feel something malevolent in these storms. Something unnatural lingers around them, and it almost reminds me of...Are you sure the Heart completely dissipated Sombra?
Your loving niece,
Cadance
I grip the paper in my magic and fold it in three, then tuck it into an envelope. A drop of molten wax followed by the press of my seal closes it tight; I wait a moment before turning it over and writing
Princess Celestia of Equestria
Canterlot Castle, Canterlot
on its front, then slotting it away to one side as I write to Luna. With her memories a millennia fresher than Auntie's, I ask whether she remembers anything of the sort from the era of Sombra, besides pleading for pegasi. I take little longer to finish her letter than to write Auntie's, and another envelope lands on top of Auntie's almost before the wax on the first has finished cooling. For Twilight, who commands no weather teams, I request only that she search the ancient archives I know she's been exploring, both at Canterlot and in Ponyville, to find out if there are any records of something similar happening previously. If we just know why this is happening we might have a chance at cutting it off at its source, rather than merely enduring these winds.
After I finish writing the letters I move on to more mundane paperwork, checking over requests for official assistance, reviewing the list of ponies who wish to have an audience Quick Quill left this morning, and otherwise clearing up the merely administrative work left to me as Princess. Luna's moon is high in the sky by the time I finish, and when I go to check on Shining Armor, I find him in his study, gently snoring on top of his own paperwork. I smile down at him and pick him up in my magic, carrying him to and then tucking him into bed. I lie down beside him and close my eyes. It has been a long day...
I return to the waking world wrapped in warm cloth and hugging something deliciously radiant, leaving me to melt in a puddle of comfortable bliss. For a long moment, I just lie in bed, unwilling to give it up, but soon enough I'm forced to crack my eyes open. In front of me is a wall of white, particolored streaks of blue intruding towards the top of my vision. Mmm, so that's what's warming me up, my hunk of a husband.
I slowly scootch up his back, taking care not to disturb him too much, until I can lick his ear and tell him, "Morning, honey."
"Zzzz...Twilight, get off," he mumbles. "'M not for riding..."
I giggle. "'Twilight get off'? My, my, is there something you want to tell me, Shiny?"
Instantly, he jumps to full alertness, bolting out of my hooves as if I was on fire. As he stands up next to the bed, I can see that his face is so hot with blush it's practically on fire. I prop myself up in bed and watch as he zeroes in on me.
"Oh, Cady," he groans.
I giggle again. "Shiny, I know perfectly well it was just an innocent dream." I wriggle forwards and plant my lips on his for a moment. "Come on, the sun is up and it's time to start the day."
He nods, and I pull myself out of bed. Together, we wander to the bathroom and get into the shower, helping each other bathe. Shiny preens me, silently apologizing for falling asleep before me last night; I tell him not to worry by polishing his coat to a gleaming luster before we shut off the water and dry off. My attendants capture me before we can do more and drag me away to my dressing chambers, allowing me only to blow him a kiss before we're separated for the day.
As I finally manage to escape from the dressing rooms, styled and wearing my regalia, Quick Quill gallops up, disheveled and untidy. I cock my head to one side and begin to ask, "Quick, what's wr--"
"Princess!" she interrupts me as she reaches me, dipping into a brief bow. "The blizzard--the train--your letters--snowed out!" she pants.
"What?" I cock my head to one side before the force of her words hits me. "Snowed out? Proper Poise!" I add, turning back to face my attendants. "Get my winter ensemble. I am going out. Now, Quick," I turn to my assistant, still puffing heavily in front of me, "breathe." She nods and takes a deep breath, then exhales. Then another, and another. "Now," I continue once she is breathing easily, "perhaps slightly less rushed?"
"Princess, the conductor on today's Empire Express came to me shortly after dawn to inform me that the rail line has seen a dangerous accumulation of snow and that the train cannot leave, nor others arrive," she tells me, this time speaking smoothly and easily.
I frown. "I will have to see for myself."
"Of course, Princess," she nods. "The conductor and stationmaster expected that."
Before I can respond, Proper emerges from the dressing rooms with assistants in tow. The next several minutes are a whirl of fabrics and outfits as Proper tries to outfit me for the wintery weather outside, but soon enough I am dressed and ready to leave. I nod to Quick Quill, who is wearing a similar outfit of her own, and we quickly trot to the castle's entrance, then outside.
Like the last several storms, around the palace the weather is not so bad. A thin haze of snow fills the sky, true, but the winds are relatively weak, and overhead the clouds are patchy enough that sunbeams can penetrate them and reveal shafts of swirling flakes floating in the storm's winds. Thanks to my pegasus heritage I barely feel the chill in the air even where I am not swathed in insulating fabric, and I feel little different than I would in Canterlot.
Looking outwards, down the avenues leading away from the Palace to the outer districts, however, the true strength of the blizzard is clear. The patchiness above us vanishes even a short distance from the palace, locking the Empire in darkness, while the violence of the wind and volume of snowfall quickly increases. Just a mile or two away in all directions, there is a curtain of white stretching from ground to clouds, obscuring everything beyond.
The fact that, once again, the regions closest to the Heart have been spared the full fury of the storm and that, once again, I can feel a thin, almost imperceivable thread of malevolence behind the storm sets my heart fluttering, and I nod to Quick. We trot forwards towards the train station, bowing our heads as the winds grow stronger and stronger.
By the time we reach the outer suburbs, even our snowsuits are doing little against the chill. I can take the cold, but Quick begins violently shivering before we've even left the city proper, and I stretch out one wing, wrapping it around her as an extra blanket.
"Thank you, Princess," she mumbles through her scarf. I look up. Conditions are nearing white-out levels, but I can see the station just ahead. I cast another spell, and a thin thread of darkness stretches out from the station towards where we were just coming from. If the weather gets even worse before we talk to the stationmaster and conductor, at least we won't be left to wander aimlessly around the city until we freeze solid.
Stepping into the station is like stepping into a sauna. Instantly, the ice and snow crusting our clothing begins to melt and fall away, only slightly accelerated by our attempts to shake it off. Only once we've started to warm up do we look around at the waiting room we're in. Unsurprisingly, the only ponies here are the stationmaster, conductor, and a few other members of the railway staff, currently busily engaged in stuffing any loose cracks with rags to minimize heat loss and bringing firewood to the two fireplaces at each end of the room, both of which are absolutely roaring. Quick and I pass them by for the ticket office in the center of the room, where the stationmaster and conductor are sitting and watching the activity.
As I approach, they stand and bow to me, saying "Princess" as their knees touch the ground.
"Safe Hooves, Ticket Check, please. I'm not here to command you, but to see what's blocking the train."
"Yes, Princess," they answer together. "Er, well," Safe Hooves coughs a moment later, "if you'll follow me Princess?" He leads me up the stairs in the center of the ticket office, through the second floor, and into the cupola on top, where we are afforded a 360 degree panorama through its crystal walls.
"See there?" he points to the left, towards Equestria. Just past the end of the platform, the tracks plunge into a snowbank, vanishing from view just before the storm itself consumes all vision.
"Engineer can't see if there are any obstructions on the track," the stationmaster notes as I gaze. "The Express has plows, but if it's this thick here, who knows how bad it'll be in the mountains? Could be an avalanche risk. Too dangerous to let them go."
I nod. There's nothing else to say, really. A moment later, he turns and steps back down the stairs, and I follow. When we reemerge into the waiting room, Quick looks up at me, face drawn and worried. "Princess, it's getting worse out there," she tells me as I step up beside her. "Do we really have to go back on hoof?"
I pause. I could teleport us back to the palace, but with the rail line cut I have to inform Auntie immediately. There's only one way I can do that, and it's sure to be a major magical effort. Teleporting just before it would be...troublesome. Still...looking down at her face, I know I don't really have any choice.
"Brace yourself," I tell her as I begin to channel magic through my horn. I close my eyes and begin visualizing the throne room, reaching out for it through that sixth sense all unicorns have. It only takes me a moment to grasp it and begin reshaping the raw magic I'm channeling into the patterns needed to warp us there. Just as I'm about to commit us to the teleport, I feel...something in the magic field, and immediately pull back. I wince as some of the magic discharges itself through my horn. I open my eyes to see Quick looking back up at me, head quirked just so.
"Princess, what's wrong?"
Rather than answer her, I close my eyes again and begin carefully probing the field between us and the palace. It takes me minutes of searching to find it, but eventually I find a subtle thread of spell work deeply buried within the environment, carefully crafted to interfere with teleports. This is really Twilight's field, not mine, but a moment of work and I prise it apart. It...I open my eyes and make a face.
"Cadance, what's going on?" Quick asks again, her face lined with concern.
"You should be very glad I aborted that teleport, Quick. We would have exploded before even leaving."
"What? Ugh." Her face twists just like mine as the meaning hits her.
"And that definitely wasn't there yesterday," I add. "Meaning..."
"...the storm brought it."
"Exactly. I had felt something off about them, now I know something's wrong. Ordinary blizzards don't interfere with magic."
I sit down. I need to talk to Auntie immediately, and there's only one way for me to do that. I begin channeling magic through my horn again, shaping it into a new spell. In some ways, this one is incredibly similar to teleportation, but it has a very different purpose. I complete the spell and am treated to a weird and very loud sort of hiss filling my ears. I would recoil, but the spell has made my muscles unresponsive, and I am forced to endure the noise. Gradually, something approaching speech begins to emerge
"--Adance. Can -ou--omething--ong--"
"Auntie, can you hear me?" I 'say' in my mind, carefully focusing on each word. "Something is interfering with the spell--"
"--Una--light--old on--"
I lie there, waiting for my fellow princesses to join the spell. As if I needed more evidence that something is actively out to get me, the mind link spell is breaking up. I know there was nothing that could do that active earlier, meaning that somepony is actually out there trying to prevent me from using any complex spells.
Gradually, the hiss diminishes, and I can make out increasingly frenetic 'speech' passing between Auntie, her sister, and Twilight.
"I'm here," I interject. "I can hear you now."
"Cadance, oh, we were so worried!" Twilight announces.
"There's something interfering with my magic," I inform her before she can get off-track. "And that's why I contacted you Au--Celestia," I correct myself before Luna can, "something very strange is going on here..."
"Please hurry, Cadance," Celestia tells me, sounding slightly strained. "It's taking our combined efforts to keep the link stable."
"We've been hit by a blizzard, the third one this month. I could feel something off about the previous two, but this one has been interfering with my magic. And not just passively, there's something out there that's actively altering the magic around here to keep me from casting anything complicated or powerful."
"Are you sure?" Luna asks, but before I can answer she continues, "Sister, do you not remember what Starswirl told us of the Windigos? How they would precede their coming with mysterious bursts of winter weather? It is so exactly like it..."
"Windigos haven't been seen since before Sombra, and he himself used the weather as an ally," Celestia responds. "It's far more likely to be some remnant of his magic, a last-gasp--"
"I'm sorry Princess, but I have to agree with Luna," Twilight apologetically interrupts. "I've been reading through some of Starswirl's library, and there are a number of documents on Windigo attacks. Most of them I've just catalogued, but I read a few, and all of them describe this sort of unseasonably frequent winter weather preceding Windigo assaults. It can't be ruled out."
"But the magical interference," I say, feeling an irrational need to stick up for Auntie. "I've never heard of Windigos doing that."
"No," all three of them agree simultaneously. Before anypony can say anything else, Luna adds "That is very troubling," while Celestia and Twilight murmur agreement.
"Cadance, whether it's Sombra or the Windigos you must find and stop whatever is causing this," Celestia tells me a moment later. "We will try to send help if possible, but you cannot expect any aid from Equestria until the storm passes."
"I know," I tell her.
"Maintaining the link is becoming...difficult," she says, voice straining. "Unless...?"
"No, Celestia, Luna, Twilight. There's nothing else. I love you," I add just as I cut the link.
"What happened?" Quick asks as I stand up.
"I found out it's either Windigos or some remnant of Sombra," I mutter as I regain my hooves. "I'm not sure which one would be worse. Quick," I continue more loudly, "we're going back to the palace. I need to call an emergency meeting--"
"The weather crisis team, Shining and the heads of the guard divisions, and Lexicon?" she suggests.
I smile at her. "I knew there was a reason you were my assistant," I tease her. "Come on, let's go."
