"Yes..." Twilight contemplated, "Please, before I give you the details I'm sure you will either need to know or want to know, I must ask"--she looked at her three daughters--"that you all leave the room. This is something that I will tell you someday, just not today."

Frost spoke for the group, "Yes, we understand. Come, sisters." They all left the room.

When they left and the door shut, Twilight spoke up again. "I think it would be beneficial if Princess Mi Amore Cadenza were to hear this too. Just a future note."

"Yes. Silver Quill! Please call for Princess Cadence," Celestia ordered.

And so it was that the three had been left out of the loop. Although, they weren't really concerned about that: they were just excruciatingly bored.

"When is she going to be done? Oh my Mother! This is single longest wait I have endured yet!" Ember exclaimed.

"Please, you say that every time." Frost rolled her eyes. "Besides, get used to it. You're like, basically immortal."

Ember scoffed. "I don't remember anyone asking for your opinion..." she said under her breath.

"What?" Frost asked.

"Nothing," Ember replied nonchalantly.

Meanwhile, Cadence, Twilight's Cadence--not the Cadence Twilight Sparkle knows, but Queen Twilight's Cadence--was pondering what would become of herself. Are they deciding if they want me gone? What did I do to upset them? It's my mane, isn't it?! Maybe it's my eyes.... Could it be... the way I speak? Or... what if... I'm not smart enough for them? Are... are they going to kill me? What if... oh no... What if they are going to make me a normal earth pony and Mother is going to disown me?! she thought fearfully. She began cowering with her hooves over her eyes in fear of her imagination as vivid scenes if herself being hung or herself being disowned then hung flashed in her mind.

"Cadence, are you okay?" Ember asked, confused.

She didn't respond, and instead continued shaking. Frost walked over to her to try and jolt her back to reality. "Cadence!" she yelled.

Cadence shot back up into the air, purged from her lowered position. "Yes, yes!" she turned around, "Oh, hi."

"Yeah, hi Cadence," Frost said.

There was more silence in the hall before Ember finally exclaimed, "Well... I think... we should... do something!"

"Like?" Frost inquired.

Ember stood in place with her mouth open. She closed her mouth and bit her lip.

"Exactly. We don't really know a lot about this place, anyway," Frost stated obviously. "Let's just stay here."

"Excuse me, but," one of the guards called for attention, "you could go eat in the dining hall, if you are hungry," the guard offered.

"I like that idea," Frost declared.

"Yeah, I guess I'm a little hungry," Ember shrugged.

"I will come, if, you will let me..." Cadence shied.

"Uhm, of course we will. You're our sister," Ember reassured. "Guard, where can we find the dining hall?" Ember queried.

"It's down these stairs and to the right at the the end of the hall," the guard. Thank Celestia. These ponies are weird.

"Oh... I don't think this is the dining hall..." Frost said, embarrassed. "I think he meant my other right.... Sorry."

Soon, the trio arrived at the dining hall. Cadence spoke enthusiastically, enjoying the change in scenery, "Wow, this is so pretty!"

"Yeah, but, how do we get the food?" Frost demanded impatiently.

"I don't know. Let's just ask someone," Ember answered. "Guard, how does one receive food in this place?"

I'm not getting paid to answer these stupid questions. Doesn't that little twit Cadence already know? Can't she tell them? the guard thought, annoyed. Of course, that's not what he actually said. "You ask someone in the kitchen."

Frost was already asking one of the apparent chefs for an iceberg lettuce salad. Noone was really sure what she saw in those.

At the main gate, another Cadence was arriving at the castle: this world's Cadence. The horns blared with their usual three note arrival jingle, and the royal announcer announced the arrival of, Princess Mi... Amor-wait, isn't she already here? he thought, confused. I could have sworn I just saw her pass me with two other alico-wait, we only have four princesses. Okay... wow.... I'll just announce it. "Announcing the arrival of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza!" he announced. He too had frequent outings with the redundant scribe.

"Please, I beg of you, for the last time, just call me Cadence. I do not like Princess Mi Amore Cadenza," she pleaded with the announcer. "I know the other princesses like their titles, but I don't. It's, like, three words, anyway. Nopony has a three word name."

Well, that's definitely her, the announcer thought, confused. "Yes... of course. My apologies, again."

"Princess Celestia has requested your presence," Silver Quill, who trotted in from the other direction moments after Cadence, informed. "Please, follow me to her personal chambers. She should be waiting there with the other guest."

And so they both left the main entrance hall, with Cadence trailing behind. When they turned into another hall that attached to the dining hall, Cadence heard somepony call her name. "Cadence!" The voice sounded like an odd mixture of disappointment, worriedness, and embarrassment. She heard it again, "Cadence!" She then asked Silver Quill if she could go investigate, "Do you mind if I go see who is calling my name? This seems important enough. I'll try not to be too long."

"I-I guess not..." Silver Quill sighed. "Please be back soon though. I cannot keep the Princess Celestia waiting."

"Good, good," Cadence turned around, "Now let me go check this out..."

Princess Cadence started walking the other direction to the dining hall. I wonder what this is about, she thought. She heard the voice again, this time it was speaking a sentence to "her".

"Cadence, please, just.... Nopony hates you, okay? Please, Cadence. stop. You know Mother doesn't like it when you get like this," the voice pleaded.

As she got closer, she heard a sigh, some crunching, and some whimpering. What's going on in here? she thought again. Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw next--besides, maybe, looking in a mirror. She saw herself, but groveling, with an unnamed, white coated, pink maned alicorn trying to ease her-other-self's nerves. She was shocked--and scared--and nervous--but mostly confused. Noone except the guards noticed her when she walked into the room, but they were ultimately too startled to make any comments. It was a, long, dragged out, awkward moment for Princess Cadence--this universe's Cadence--before she finally spoke, "Uh, hello, I'm Princess Cadence... how are you?" Really, how are you, not who? Seriously Cadence? she scolded herself.

When she said that, everyone--really just the three sisters--looked at her, as puzzled as she was. It was only a moment before Frost continued eating her salad. Then Ember spoke, grasping the situation, "Oh! Mother told me about you! You're Cadence's lookalike, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Hello! It's nice to meet you!" She smiled invitingly.

The other Cadence, the one that was crying but a second ago, tried speaking, "I-I-I... hel-l-lo."

"Yeah, nice to meet you too..." the other Cadence replied, "But... uhm... can someone explain what's going on here?!"

"I believe I can! This may sound hard to believe, but us three"--Ember pointed at herself, her Cadence, and Frost--"are all from another universe. It's also worth noting that that universe is the same as this one, but in the future. You and Cadence simply look alike," Ember explained, finally remembering what her mother had told her, when it didn't even truly matter anymore.

"Ohhh! That makes a lot of sense. Okay..." Princess Cadence of the Crystal Empire said.

It was some more time before anyone else spoke. Finally, after finishing her salad, Frost spoke, "So, Cadence-of-this-universe, my name is Frost, this is my sister Ember, and my other sister Cadence. It's nice to meet you."

"Yeah... so..." Cadence-of-this-universe paused for a long while and looked around the room, admiring the craftsmanship of the stonemasons. In recent years though, their guild had declined. This was probably due to the buying out of quarries by the merchant's guild. The merchant's guild had raised the price of stone sufficiently, by two bits, causing buyers to buy less stone, even though all of the guilds financial models had told that the increased cost wouldn't effect purchase; but that's not what was on Cadence's mind. "So.... uh... what's it like...?"

"What's what like?" the other Cadence asked, after finally recollecting herself.

"You know... in the future..." Cadence-of-this-universe responded sheepishly, unsure if her question was offensive or not.

Noone said anything for another long while. The question wasn't painful to answer, but nopony knew where to start.

Frost finally spoke, knowing the most about internal workings, "It's... nice.... We could... tell you about it over lunch, if you'd like."

"Uhm, yeah, okay," Cadence-of-this-universe responded. "Cool... then. Chopping Board, I would like..."

"Okay, wait, so... let me get this straight... your castle... doesn't have any doors?!" Cadence-of-this-universe said, almost alarmed.

"Well, yes. Mother wanted to keep the castle open to anypony, even if that pony is a criminal bent on doing something bad. If that's the case, Mother just does whatever with them because we don't have guards either," explained Frost. Meanwhile, Cadence was being completely mesmerized by her other self.

"Wait.... Twilight just deals with robbers and stuff on her own?!" Cadence really was alarmed at this. "How... I mean, that can't be the same Twilight Sparkle, can it? That just doesn't sound right..."

"She's just really powerful. I don't know what to say," Frost said, shrugging.

"Yeah, like if her and Monotone have a plan, it's usually infallible, unless Oracle says otherwise," Ember added. "At least that's what happened in my case," Ember continued, ashamed.

"So... do you have like a constant open court then? Or what? Why do you not have doors or guards, exactly?" Cadence-of-this-universe asked again.

"I don't know the full story behind it, but I guess Mother used to be really scary to the point where people would tell stories about her and her friends like they were the incarnate of Nightmare Moon, or so she says. She really didn't like it, so she tried to be as inviting as possible. We keep the castle as open as possible. If we want something to be private, we just enclose it completely, remember where it is, and teleport to it," Frost explained.

"That.... I can't understand, but it makes sense, I guess. But really, can people just come in at any time for open court or what?" Cadence-of-this-universe asked, once more.

"Well, yes, kind of. We hold open court for 6 hours each day, but anyone is allowed in the castle at anytime. If somepony needs a place to live or needs food, we employ them and house them in the servants quarters. They don't get paid, and if they don't work they don't eat. That's what the 'no doors' policy does on the off time," said Frost.

"I see. So, you said you don't have any guards. Doesn't crime become a problem then?"

"Well, as I said before, Mother is really powerful. If something is amiss, she knows. Don't ask me how she does it. But like I was saying earlier too, she just does whatever with people who want to steal. Usually she has one of her friends like Envy consult them. If they don't change, and she finds that they had been doing criminal stuff again, she usually exiles them."

"Well, okay.... Also, you keep mentioning ponies names like I'm suppose to know them. Who are 'her friends'?

"Her main circle is us--obviously, I mean we are her daughters--Envy, Oracle, Rarity, Steelwing, Deathwing, and Monotone. Monotone is easily her best friend. And, of course she has allies in other countries, but those are what you would call, friends with benefits."

"Wait... Rarity? She's still alive?"

"I guess so?" Frost shrugged.

There was another pause for eating before anyone spoke again. Then Cadence-of-this-universe found something peculiar in Frost's spiel and asked, "You still have Nightmare Moon stories?"

Frost swallowed her bite before speaking. "Y-yeah..."

"Seriously?" They all nodded nervously. Cadence-of-this-universe had an evil plan. It was clear that these ponies hadn't grown out of the childish Nightmare-story fears. "You know... Nightmare Moon is actually in this castle with us, right now," Cadence-of-this-universe smirked, "In fact, she'd probably be with Twilight as we speak," she deducted after hearing about Queen Twilight. "I wonder if she's torturing Twilight yet...."

Cadence opened her eyes wide and started hyperventilating, "No!"

"Uhm, are you okay?" Cadence-of-this-universe asked, quietly giggling.

"It's okay Cadence, Nightmare Moon is no match for Mother. I'm sure Mother will come back. It's okay," Ember cooed to her sister. "Just calm down, Cadence. Deep breaths. We are here for you."

Having her thirteen seconds of pure-evil-fun, Cadence-of-this-universe sighed. "I'm just teasing. I mean, I'm not,"--the other three silently gasped--"but I am. Nightmare moon is long gone from the pony that she once possessed."

"Wh-who was it?" Cadence asked, fearing that the knowledge may end her life somehow, but still curious enough to ask.

"Oh..." Cadence-of-this-universe contemplated whether or not to tell them. Seeing as how at least one of them is deathly fearful of the faux-villain, should I tell them? I not sure they could ever trust Luna after that.... "Yes... uhm... she... is a ghost... that is said to haunt the entire castle! Yes! Confined omnipresence!" She said "omnipresence" in her best spooky ghost impression she could muster, hoping to get the point across that she was just playing.

"Oh, ha ha," Ember sarcastically stated as her and frost rolled their eyes.

It was yet another awkward moment of silence before Cadence-of-this-universe tried to halt the slow death of the conversation, "So, why is it you're so afraid of Nightmare Moon?" Cadence wanted to start hyperventilating again at the mention of the name.

"Uh... well, she's very scary.... I mean... entire empires were enslaved, tortured, then eventually starved to death. They say that she fell the six largest pony empires, and shrouded the land in a seemingly endless night for over 600 years before she mysteriously disappeared," Frost justified their fears.

"Wha...?" Cadence-of-this-universe stuttered.

"What?" Frost asked.

"Nothing.... I have to discuss something with your mother later though...."

"Discuss what?" Ember asked, annoyingly.

"Nothing."

"I don't think she is going to tell us," Frost said, stating the obvious.

"Hey, you know, I'm actually curious about you guys. So, what are your cutie marks for?" Cadence-of-this-universe asked, curious.

Ember spoke before before anyone else got the chance to. "I am the Princess of Flames, Frost is the Princess of Being Cold, and Cadence is the Princess of Necromancy," she said facetiously.

"Really..." Cadence-of-this-universe said with fake interest in clearly fabricated claims.

"That's not true! Stop it Ember! That was only once! I said I wouldn't do it again!" Cadence entreated. Frost was giving her sister the death-and-torture stare, wishing she could 'extinguish' her sister as she had Ember's fires Ember'd managed to somehow set in her room.

Turning back to look at Cadence-of-this-universe, Frost said, "Ahem, I am the Princess of Ice Magic, while my sister Cadence is the Princess of Life. Ember meant to say that she is the Princess of Rug Burning." I wish that I didn't know Ember. How does Mother not know she acts like this? What does she see in her? Agh!

"Oh please, that was only twice. By the way, when is the last time you even used 'ice magic'? Hm? I don't see your room being made of ice. Do you even deserve a cutie mark?" Ember stated, trying as hard as possible to get on her sister's nerves after Frost had insulted her. After all, she was only joking about the "Princess of Being Cold" thing.

"That's not nice, Ember..." Cadence faintly said. Ember did not hear her.

"My room is made of ice, idiot. If you actually paid attention to anything, you'd see that. And what did your cutie mark get you? Burning..."

"Does this always happen?" Cadence-of-this-universe whispered to Cadence, who was pouting.

"Yeah... a lot... but... I know they love each other. I just wish they didn't fight like this."

"I can see it. I guess you could call it 'tough love'."

"...I know, I said some bad things too. I'm sorry. I really didn't mean them. I started this anyway. Again, I'm sorry, Frost. I mean it," Ember apologized.

What the? How did the argument get here?! Cadence-this-universe thought, dumbfounded.

"I'm sorry, too Ember."

"Does this always happen?!" Cadence-of-this-universe articulated her worry for the overly-fast healing relationship.

"Yes... it does. It's so sweet, isn't it?" Cadence said, dramatically wiping a stray tear from her eye.

'My Celestia these ponies are weird. And I always thought Twilight was strange.... Oh, right. Twilight's daughters.... "Why did you... apologize?"

"Is it wrong to apologize or something?" Frost catechized.

"No... It's just, I've never seen anypony make up so fast..." Cadence-of-this-universe quieted.

"Mother says that it's never good to be angry or jealous of somepony, especially your friends. And Frost is one of my best friends, because she's my sister," Ember explained.

"Oh... right. Huh..." Cadence-of-this-universe sighed. Was that a friendship lesson Twilight sent Celestia?!

Cadence--of the Crystal Empire--was deeply pondering how she had gotten to be here, listening to these three. They have a nice dynamic, and the Twilight in the future sounds nice. I'll give them that. Yeah. But, my Celestia, they are weird! I mean this other Cadence? She's a train wreck. Worse than Fluttershy. It makes me wonder what the other Celestia and Luna are like. Ember? She's sweet, but she's pretty... annoying? No.... Obnoxious? That's better. And Frost? Well... I'm not sure. Somethings off. I don't know though, I think I like them. Once you get past their quirks and Cadence's... something, they are all really sweet.

"...Yeah, we all know Dusk Shine is into Red Rose. I mean, do you see the way he looks at her?" Frost told the other two.

"That's sad, because Rose looks at Berry Spice like that," Ember gossiped.

"Wait... but isn't Berry Spice a changeling?" Cadence asked, shocked.

"Yeah! That's the crazy part! And I think he likes her back too!" Ember exclaimed.

"Oooh, we should ask him when we get back. Ooh, and if says yes, we should set up a date for the two," Frost offered, giggling.

They sure can gossip for the spawn of Twilight, Cadence-of-this-universe thought. They all giggled some more, giving her time to intrude. "Hey, do you guys want to meet Princess Celestia and Princess Luna?"

"We already did," told Frost.

"Oh."

As if by magic--which it was--the very same Princesses being talked about, along with Queen Twilight, appeared in the dining hall with what was probably a teleportation spell. There was no light or any magical residue when they appeared, making Celestia ask, "How did you do that? That's incredible."

"It's a trick I picked up quite a while ago. I just didn't use much magic, making there be less of a 'spark'. I could teach you sometime," Twilight offered and explained.

"Please do," Celestia requested.

"Oh, Cadence, I see you met my daughters..." Queen Twilight looked down at the floor. "It's been a long time..." I'm so sorry, Cadence, she thought to herself.

"It's been about two day's for me," Cadence-of-this-universe shrugged.

"Don't rub it in," Twilight looked up at her and grinned.

"So..." Luna said, "We are all here. I assume you four have all eaten."

"Yeah," Frost spoke for the group.

"Then... yeah, this is awkward," Twilight said, glancing away. "You could... watch us eat?"

"Sure?" Cadence-of-this-universe said, unsure.

"When is Princess Cadence going to be back?! This is not good! Celestia is going to be pissed! I can't believe I've let her be away for this long! I am so losing my job!"

Author's Note

The great thing about naming ponies is you can just choose an adjective and a noun and put them together. Curly Fries. Blue Desk. Kinky Rock.