Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. The princess of love. First pony to have ascended into alicorn hood ever. Caretaker and ruler of the crystal empire. Wife of Shining armor, former captain of the royal guard. So many titles, so many great honors.
Cadance sat on the balcony in her palace in the crystal empire, her crystal empire, in the middle of the night, enjoying the view of the quiet houses below, the ponies inside and just the quiet in general. Everything was so peaceful. The glittering moonlight dancing over the crystal that was her empire, showering the air in bright white glow, making even the dust in the air look luminescent. And yet, she felt sad. Pain was pricking at her heart, the pain of the ponies around her, their emotional suffering, their despair.
As the princess of Love, Cadance had always been able to sense the emotions of all creatures near her. Their joy, happiness, gratitude, surprise, anything really. But most of all she could feel love. The love that made her happy, the love that made her want to cry with joy, the emotions one feel when one is with the one they love the most. Those are what is most precious to her, those are the emotions she would wish there were more of.
She let a tear drip down her chin. Love is fickle, love is tricky, love is chaos, love is harmony, love is pain and love is happiness. Even after so many years of understanding her purpose, she still didn’t fully understand love.
Cadance looked down to a nearby crystal house. She remembered back to a week days before. The emotions that had been reeking of the inhabitant inside. The anger, jealousy, sorrow, depression, so many negative emotions and so little she could do about it. The house belonged to a stallion named Arctic Ace. He was a somewhat well known explorer of the crystal mountains and he had had a huge crush on a good friend by the name of Jade Tale. A local history writer who was popular around the stallions and had a rumor for changing friends and sometimes coltfriends like dirty clothes. Cadance had known for some time about Ace’s feelings towards Jade and had encouraged him to tell her about his feelings. From the emotions reeking of him, Cadance could tell it hadn’t gone very well. Now the house was silent.
“So much suffering...” Cadance muttered as another tear trickled down her cheek. Love is despair.
She remembered back to five days ago where she had met Ace in the middle of the street.
Cadance spotted the familiar stallion and greeted him with a smile. “Hello Ace.”
The stallion didn’t answer and kept looking down.
“I just wanted to hear how it went wi--”
“IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!” He screamed. “IF YOU HADN’T ENCOURAGED ME THEN THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED AND I WOULDN’T HAVE LOST A FRIEND!” He cried as tears streamed down his face. “LEAVE ME ALONE!” He then ran away.
Cadance followed pursuit and eventually found him outside the boundaries of the crystal empire, sobbing on the cold snow.
“Cadance dear, is something wrong?”
Cadance’s thoughts were interrupted by the voice of her loving husband, Shining Armor, and his arms wrapping up, protectively, around her. His soft fur and his calm breath gave her an untold sense of comfort. She always felt so safe and at peace when he was around her.
She gave a sad smile and spoke. “No, Shining, there’s nothing wrong.”
Shining Armor gave her a look of sadness. Sometimes Cadance would sit by herself for hours at a time, sometimes she would even cry and she wouldn’t tell him what was bothering her. Shining hugged her tightly. “Okay, sweetie, see you inside.” He let go and began walking back inside and shot her a last troubled glance before disappearing back into the palace.
Cadance shivered as a cold wind washed over the balcony. Already she missed Shining’s touch, his embrace and the comfort it gave her. She wanted to tell him about all of the pain she felt, she wanted to tell him about the unhappiness of the ponies she was supposed to watch over but she couldn’t. It was her burden to carry. Love is caring.
Her memories washed over her once more.
Cadance stepped out into the cold snow, the wind howling and she could almost feeling the cold rattling her bones. “Ace, what happened?”
Arctic Ace buried his snout in his hooves and Cadance could feel the painful emotions reeking off of him. He looked up and back at Cadance. “I-I told her how I felt about her…”
Cadance walked closer. “Yes?”
“And she… She laughed at me!” Ace cried and buried his face in his hooves once more. He didn’t even seem fazed by the biting cold. His pain made him ignore it.
Cadance could only look at him with pity. How could anypony be so cruel as to laugh at somepony who just exposed themselves in such a way?
Ace looked Cadance dead in the eyes. “S-she said: How could anypony love someone like you? You are uninteresting and worthless. You explore boring mountains all day and you are such a pushover! Now that I think about it, I don’t understand how we ever became friends!”
The negative emotions were almost overwhelming for Cadance. And she watched sadly as Arctic Ace finished talking.
“The worst thing about this is that she is right! I am a pushover! How could anypony ever love me!?”
The cold arctic wind ripped Cadance from her memories once more and a tear dripped down her snout. Her aunts believed there were peace and harmony in Equestria. They couldn’t be more wrong. Love is Cruel.
She remembered back to what happened after with Ace. Cadance had told him it wasn’t true, that he wasn’t worthless and that he is loved by his family and his friends and that eventually he would find one that would love him just as much as he had loved Jade. But he wouldn’t listen. Cadance could only watch in sadness as he got consumed by negative emotions over the next couple of days. He completely isolated himself and refused to see anypony and day by day, the reeking emotions got stronger until two days ago where the emotions had stopped flowing.
Sometimes love drives us to things we would never think ourselves possible of. Sometimes love is a push in the right direction, a force that pushes us to become better, to become what we are supposed to be. Sometimes love is a push back, its black tendrils taking away all positive emotion and leaving nothing but a void of sadness. Sometimes love lets loose the monster within us we never knew existed.
Yesterday, one of Arctic Ace’s friends had come for a visit and ended up having to break in to try and find Ace. Instead Ace’s friend found a note from Ace. It said that he had left and that they would never see him again. All of the Crystal empire started searching for Ace and eventually out he had gone north towards the silent mountains.
They were called that because all who had tried to explore them had never returned, but there was reports that when you got to the edge between the frozen north and Silent mountains, all sound seemed to seize when one entered them. Those mountains were rumored to be an isolated frozen waste where there existed no weather, no sound and no life.
Cadance wished she could have done more, been able to help him more, but it was not her place. She was to guide those in need if they wanted it, but Ace never wanted her help.
Today, Arctic Ace’s friends and family had a memorial service for they knew they would never see him again. His friends and family were sad and didn’t know why he had left. Some were angry and others felt the pain of their love towards him. His friends and family would go to their friends and share their pain and so the cycle of endless sadness would continue. No one is safe and no one can predict the despicable actions that love can bring.
The door to the balcony opened once more and out came Shining armor with a blanket and two cups of tea in his magic. He sat down beside Cadance and put the blanket around them both and sat down the cups of tea in front of them.
Shining smiled at his wife. She would never have to tell him anything if she didn’t want to. As long as Cadance was happy, nothing else mattered to him. He would always do anything he could to cheer her up and he knew she would tell him when she was ready. “If you’re not coming in, then i’m joining you.” He nuzzled her affectionately.
Cadance kept looking over the balcony and down onto her empire for only a short moment before looking back at Shining and into his eyes. She saw happiness, joy… Love as it was supposed to be.
Love can cause us pain, so much that it feels like we are being torn apart from the inside. But love is also the only thing in life that is truly worth fighting for. It is what makes it worth living. Something that Cadance had almost forgotten. Being the princess of love means she will see some of the most emotional horrible things in life but also the very best.
Cadance put her head on Shining armor’s shoulder and another tear fell as she smiled. She continued watching the little pieces of light swirl around in the moonlight with the pony she cared most for in this world. Despite everything she would see in her life, all the pain, all the suffering, she didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was her, her husband and their little corner of the world.
