To Her Own Rhythm

Bored.

The next morning found Cadance waiting around in a secondary courtyard just in case the Princess summoned her, with nothing else to do. By mid-morning she was hidden behind some bushes, amusing herself with commentaries on the various ponies that came through. Unfortunately for her, the flower blooming schedules meant that particular courtyard rarely saw traffic in the early summer.

"Pretty Princess Priceless, who can always be counted on to let you know the exact price needed to buy her affections," she tittered, remembering something scandalous her mother had once whispered to her father at a gala event.

Several minutes passed and Cadance wondered if she should change hiding spots when one of the gates opened to reveal...

"Faithful Captain Griffinbait. Who could always be re...wait, isn't he supposed to be escorting the Mysterious Malevolent Magical Mare?"

He was going on in years, his mane and tail sprinkled with more gray than her father's, visible as he never wore his helm. An old war injury to one of his wings kept him grounded. Otherwise, he had the white and blue coloring of any other Pegasus Guard.

Her curiosity piqued, Cadance tried to look beyond the old captain. She saw nothing and was wondering if he was alone when a lavender filly, burdened with books, bounded out from between his front fetlocks. He looked down at her and gave her a warm smile, saying something that made her turn around and give the courtyard a more thorough examination. Cadance hoped she would go unnoticed in her hiding spot, as she preferred not to be caught staring.

Apparently her hiding spot was good enough, as the filly turned back to the Captain to exchange a few more words. Then the Captain deposited some previously unnoticed books, gave a the filly a pat on the head, and left through the same gate they had come in.

The filly herself just stood there a moment before taking a breath and dragging her load to a bench. After looking around the courtyard again, she unpacked the books until she found a particular one, which she proceeded to half carry, half levitate and half drag across the marble walkway to some nearby plants. She seemed to be going from plant to plant, dragging the large book after her, as if consulting it.

Cadance stayed hidden, contemplating the filly. She was somewhat disappointed as the young pony did not even have a cutie mark, obviously too young to have access to any kind of scary magical abilities. The previous night she had tried to imagine what kind of mare might have actually frightened her father so much. The best she could come up with was that the Magically Mysterious Mare of Malevolence had to be two Celestia's big, breath fire and eat gems. Which would make it a dragon. Which would be dumb, because Daddy once arrested a dragon for burning pony's crops. He was more annoyed about the loss of the crops than scared of the dragon.

Cadance decided it had to be a coincidence. Most likely she was a filly of one of the guards or servants, and old Griffinbait, maybe even knowing she was waiting around here, had offered to find a safe, out of the way place for her to play in. They sometimes came to the Castle and Cadance was always happy to look after them.

A somewhat malicious grin spread across Cadances snout as she realized the best way to introduce herself.

It was a few minutes before the filly was close enough and turned away long enough for Cadance to sneak out of her hiding spot and upon the filly. Mischief danced in her eyes as she sneaked up right behind the lavender bookworm, who seemed to be particularly interested in the plant right before her, leaned in and...

"Boo!"

"Eyahahahha!" The filly somersaulted over both herself and her book in surprise, letting out an adorable shriek. She looked at Cadance upside-down and with eyes crossed.

And then Cadance's heart fell into her hooves as she read the instant and absolute fear on the filly's face. A scared, quickly dampening, face.

"Princess Celestia!" The young unicorn tripped again trying to right herself before Cadance had a chance to apologize. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to not see you! I was just looking over the plants and I...why are you pink? Not that there's anything wrong with pink! And your mane? Is this a test?

"I didn't pass, did I? I'm sorry, Princess, please let me try again! I'll do better, I promise! Please don't send me back to magic kindergarten. I hate it there and all the other ponies always call me names and I, I, I..."

The filly unicorn was cut short as Cadance hugged her, whispering, "It's alright. Everything's fine. Calm down," again and again. And again.

"Nopony's going to magic kindergarten."

Stupid Cadance, stupid Cadance, stupid Cadance.

"I'm sorry for startling you like that."

Stupid Cadance, stupid Cadance, stupid Cadance.

"It was more fun in my head."

Stupid Cadance, Stupid Cadance, Stu...

Her self-flagulation was interrupted early.

"Umm, excuse me, but is a Stu-id Cadence somehow related to an Inverted Cadence? And why would that be more fun in your head?"

Oh, music theory stuff. Bleh.

"Bluuuuh," Cadance stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes.

"Oh! You're not Princess Celestia, are you?"

Cadance looked herself over.

"Oh no, what gave it away? Was it the pink? It was the pink, wasn't it? There's no way Princess Celestia would go around looking pink!"

"Uhuh. That and your mane."

Cadance looked at the floppiness that was her mane. "Oh, it's not floaty enough, right? I bet I can fix that! I'll do it the way the Princess does it!"

She spread out her legs for better balance, took a deep breath, and before the filly could correct her about it not being so much the floatiness of the hair as much as the color, Cadance shook her head every which way like a mad-mare. When she stopped her eyes kept on going, rolling around independently.

Then her balance went, and she found herself looking upside down at the filly, giggling to herself.

"See, and now my mane is exactly like the Princess's," she said in a reasonable tone to the stunned filly.

"No...no it's not! It's, umm..."

"Wanna try it? It'll make your mane look just like her's!"

Glumly, skeptically, "I...I'll try, but I don't think it'll work. It didn't for you."

With that both ponies took stances and counted to three. Longer and shorter manes flew around everywhere, followed by googly eyes. Then came the swaying, until finally both ponies lost balance and upended on their backs.

Cadance waited.

It took a moment, and Cadance had to both stick out her tongue and cross her eyes, but eventually the lavender filly let out a meep, followed by a snicker, until she was finally giggling. She was soon joined by the older pony. Now they were both giggling as they lay upside down.

"You look silly!" Guffaw. Giggle.

Cadance was grateful the filly was no longer upset. She stopped giggling for a moment.

"Hi there! I'm Cadance. What's your name?"

The filly quieted down for a moment. "Oh! I'm sorry!" She got on all hooves. "That was really rude of me. I'm Twilight Sparkle."

She let out a snicker.

"And you're pretty silly for a princess."