Twelve Years Ago in Canterlot

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Prologue

Chapter 1

For what was not the first time, Cadance stared at the ceiling of her bedroom in Canterlot with a sense of longing. Not to say the room wasn't magnificent. She lay on her massive and comfortable bed gazing up at an ornate fresco of open fields and frolicking ponies on the ceiling. The beautiful dressers and cabinetry accented the room wonderfully and the campfire styled fireplace with its ornate steel smoke stack and circle of soft sitting space served as a spectacular centerpiece. And yet all of this did nothing to make the place feel like her own. This had been her room for years, centuries even, and yet it still felt so wrong, like there was somewhere else she needed to be. Celestia always told her she'd feel better in time, and things would make sense, but she wasn't so sure. All she knew was that she was a princess in exile, she even couldn't remember where she had been exiled from. That didn't help any.

And here she was, being treated like the royalty she was, and it grated. Sure, she'd managed to make a few friends, but one big thing nagged at her mind. Could she really claim to be the princess with domain over love while she was single? Her ability to sense when true lovers were nearby was wonderful, and she had made countless happy through its use, but... where was hers? Celestia said not to let it bother her, but...

There were three polite knocks on the door, followed by what sounded to be a pony throwing themself bodily against it. Cadance's mood brightened instantly, and she moved a large pile of pillows into position on her side of the door. The three knocks came again, and at just the right moment, Cadance flung the door open and a confused mass of minty fur rocketed into the room, landing horn first in the pillow pile. The guard positioned outside the door let out a laugh followed by a polite fake cough.

Cadance giggled as Lyra stood up, an expensive silk pillow skewered on her horn. "You know you're far too predictable when..."

"Yeah, yeah, can it," Lyra grumbled as she stretched after the crash.

Cadance smiled and nodded toward the cushions around the fire pit, "You know, Lyr, I'm pretty sure I can have you arrested for saying stuff like that."

The guard outside visibly rolled his eyes and quietly shut the door as Lyra responded playfully, "You know, I'm friends with a princess, I'm pretty sure she'd get me off the hook on that."

Cadance chuckled as she settled onto one of the cushions, "So why'd you stop by? Something on your mind?"

Lyra shrugged, flopping bodily onto another pillow, "I wanted to hang out with somepony. Say, we could get Cole and Twink up in here, sneak in some booze, it'd be great."

Cadance laughed aloud, her previous introspective mood gone as quick as it came, "Sometimes I swear the only reason you spend time with me is because you're underage. Anyways, doesn't Twinkle hate you calling her that?"

"That's basically why I do it. She's cute when she gets mad," Lyra smirked, "but seriously, the four of us need to hang out some time soon."

Cadance pondered. Sure, she could go hang out with her three best mares, but she was having so much fun here wallowing in self pity over being single. The answer was clear.

"Help me find that book with the disguise spell in it again."

It was a quiet day in the hive, for once. Her daughters' song was slow but cheerful, like someone whistling while they did chores. The sound of the hive mind was such a good indicator of her subjects' mood; it was like taking the hive's collective blood pressure. She let her daughters' singing wash over her for a moment before pushing their voices to the background.

Chrysalis sat up from her bed, smiling as she noticed the drone still in her bed from the night before. Obligations of being the queen, she always joked. Well, not strictly that, but she'd never admit otherwise, not to her subjects. She wandered to her doorway and gently opened it, stopping to look down at the familiar face before her.

"My queen," Squire chirped, "your attention is requested by the advising council."

The Queen rolled her eyes. Politics, no doubt. Her children pretending they know how to run the place and that they can get on without her. If they were without her for a month, even a week, it'd be chaos. Without a word to her assistant, she turned toward the council chambers.

She opened the door, finding the six advisors already in the room waiting. As it should be, wait in your room like the little grubs you are, I'll give you my attention when I feel like it.

She sat at the head of the table, "So what is the subject of discussion?"

It was the same problems as always, and they each had the same opinions on them as always. Predictable. This job was making her cynical, but the worst part of it was the damned advisors. She originally gave them the roles because she wanted someone to bounce ideas off of, but then at some point they started having opinions, the bastards. And now that her children had grown attached to them, it would be hard to remove them unless they lost the public trust.

One of them was in the middle of complaining about some minor labor dispute when the idea hit her, "I think I could use a vacation."

The table went silent until one of them spoke up, "You mean like... leave?"

"I do believe that's what the word usually implies," she snarked back, "I've grown quite tired of the day to day here, I could use a refreshing week away."

The advisors looked around to one another in confusion and slight terror, it was quite delicious. Once the hive was on the verge of collapse, she'd come back as the returning savior and kick the incompetents out of their positions. The perfect plan.

Chrysalis smiled, "I mean, if you all don't think you can run the hive without me..."

They all stammered objections, claiming it was no issue, and one spoke up in particular, "What about the hive mind? If you leave, we'll likely lose our connection."

"Ah, good point, I'd nearly forgotten," she smiled impishly, "hold still and try not to explode."

The Queen lifted the advisor who had asked the question from the ground, enjoying the look of terror on her face as she focused on the worker's mind. For a fraction of a second, the entire hive mind hiccuped as Chrysalis transferred her control of it onto the unsuspecting advisor, and when she was done the pathetic worker looked like more was going on in her head than she could process. Chrysalis set her in the corner of the room, catatonic.

"Now," she sang cheerfully, "I'll begin packing."

From a window in her study, Celestia could see a very lightly disguised Cadance and her green friend, Lyra, she believed, making their way out of the castle and toward the city proper. She smiled and took another sip of her tea. Sure, the idea of an exiled princess galloping around town with a noble's daughter who had practically renounced her title seemed like perfect scandal material, but honestly she thought Cadance needed to get out more.

Celestia looked over to what most ponies assumed was an odd statue on her desk. Normal clocks still mattered to her daily life, but this one was far more important. As the century hand edged closer to the thousand year mark, celestia had been getting more nervous. Just over a decade left until the thousand years of peace were through and the active struggle to protect equestria started again.

She sighed inwardly and looked back out the window at Cadance and Lyra vanishing into a crowd. She'd promised herself to let this part of her plan flow naturally, not to interfere, but there wasn't much time left.

Celestia sighed, "Well, Cadance. Good luck today and happy hunting."

Squire grinned conspiratorially, "I feel you're up to something, My Queen. Vacation?"

"And if I AM scheming something?" Chrysalis shot back with similar expression, "What would that have to do with you?"

"Just wondering when I need to prepare the popcorn," Squire cheerfully replied.

Ah yes, that's why she kept this one. Chrysalis chuckled inwardly and patted Squire on the shoulder before opening her door and looking about the room. She said she'd need to pack, and yet...

"What would I even bring?" The Queen wondered aloud.

Squire pondered, "Well to answer that, I'd need to know where you're going."

That hadn't occurred to her either. She turned to the map of her hive's territory, a chart of changeling colonies speckled all across a half dozen foreign kingdoms and territories that each thought they were still in control of their affairs. As she looked, for the first time she noticed something strange. Her range of control had spread more or less evenly, but up to the north-west, all progress was halted at what the dragons called "Hayseed Swamp." She'd always considered the name strange, but the residents of the far side seem to have picked it for whatever reason. The residents... an uncharted land. Perfect.

"We go north-west," Chrysalis announced with force and purpose.

"The swamps? Hardly a fitting vaca..." Squire stalled out, "We?"

"Naturally," The Queen announced, her voice softening into a joking tone, "I'll need someone around to do my dirty work."

"Such is my duty," Squire snarked back, but then she settled into a moment of wonderment, "I don't think I've ever been on vacation. What do you do?"

"My intent is to personally scout an unknown foreign land for possible takeover. Also... have a picnic. With tea."

Squire nodded curtly, "I'll pack a blanket."

Chapter 2

It was a simple disguise, but it worked for her purposes. Cadance was always amazed that nopony recognized her when she was smaller and wingless, but she wasn't one to complain. The less you change, the less tiring the spell.

It was a bustling cafe in the Canterlot downtown, and the four unicorns had just ordered drinks. Twinkleshine sat politely, waiting on her drink, lost in lala land like usual. Lyra was checking out stallions' flanks as they wandered by, oblivious to the conversation. That left Colgate and Cadance to catch up.

"So what's the latest news in castle life, Cadance?" Colgate casually asked.

Twinkleshine snapped back to the conversation, "You sure that's okay to talk about in public?"

Cadance shrugged, "Nopony is paying attention, we're surrounded by self absorbed nobles."

After a quick glance around to notice the sheer number of cravats in their immediate vicinity, Twinkle decided they were alright and turned back to stare at the door she expected her drink to be brought out through.

"But to answer your question," Cadance continued, "it's as slow as ever. So little to do."

"At least you're constantly surrounded by muscular stallions with chiseled jawlines," Lyra offered.

Cadance sighed and covered her face with a hoof, "Lyra, you know I don't look at my guards like that. Besides, do you ever think about anything other than colts?"

Lyra turned with a playful smile and spoke in a mock-formal tone, "If the older generations aren't going to be partaking in the time honored tradition of staring at some fine flank, then I just suppose that duty falls to the youth now doesn't it? I'm just making sure we don't fall behind as a culture, so cut me some slack, granny."

Cadance chuckled, "I'm old enough to be your granny's granny. Probably even a few more layers back."

But Lyra was already distracted again, silently mouthing 'daaaaaammmn.'

Colgate rolled her eyes, "We really need to stop bringing her out in public."

Cadance smiled, forgetting her worries from earlier. Friends were great, especially these three. For whatever reason, they always treated her like she was one of them, a normal teenage noble, not a centuries old deity and ruler. Maybe she shouldn't let her hopes drop. If these three could accept her, surely she could find-

"My tea," Twinkle announced.

The other three ponies turned to face her, but her eyes were locked on the inbound waitress, sporting a tray with four elegant looking glasses perched atop it. The waitress smiled politely, setting their drinks in front of them. Before the tray even touched the table, a tea cup full of something that smelled flowery had drifted its way to Twinkle's lips. Other than that, what was left on the platter was one glass of milk, some hot chocolate, and the sugariest, most tooth destroying milkshake possible.

Colgate glared at the milkshake, then at Lyra, who had already lifted it and was sipping tauntingly. "They'll rot out of your head one day."

"Probably," Lyra replied between sips, "but milkshakes don't require teeth."

Colgate seemed too disgusted by the concept to properly respond. Yup, these were her best friends all right. Cadance smiled into her hot chocolate, enjoying the normalcy.

Twinkleshine set down her tea cup, somehow already empty, "Cadance, we should go dancing later."

"Very forward, Twinkle," Colgate teased, "but luckily I think Cadance is the type to respond to that well."

The joke seemed to fly right over Twinkle's head, but it made Cadance chuckle. "Why should we go dancing, Twinkle?"

"So you can find your true love, of course."

For what was not the first time, Cadance was happy that her face was naturally pink and blushes just vanished into it. She tried to maintain her cool, "I... you usually don't find them by actively looking, it just sort of happens."

"How about that one, he's cute," Lyra offered, pointing out a stallion who was clearly her own type. He was a muscular white pegasus stallion with a chiseled jaw line, but in this case a familiar one, and he was walking straight toward them. Oh, it was Hank. Damn, he saw her. Looked serious, too.

"Looks like it might be time for me to go," Cadance mumbled.

The pegasus walked up, an aura of official guard business hanging over him, "M'lady, you are needed elsewhere."

"Hi, what's your name," Lyra asked on reflex.

Hank blinked at her, but Cadance was the one to reply, "Lyr, he's almost twice your age and he's married."

Lyra shrugged, grumbled something that sounded remarkably like "cock-block," and returned to her milkshake. Despite that display, Cadance was torn. She always hated to leave the girls like this, but it sounded important this time.

She sighed and turned to her guard, "To the castle?"

"It's not so urgent you need to skip your goodbyes," he replied with his usual polite air.

When Cadance turned back, Twinkleshine looked half sad and half understanding, "So no dancing?"

"Some other time, promise," Cadance smiled forcedly.

Colgate nodded, "Duty calls, or something."

Lyra was busy with her eyes locked on... a mare? Well that was far from Lyra's usual tastes, but Cadance supposed it probably wasn't a first. Regardless, Cadance struggled to grab Lyra's attention, "I'm leaving, you know."

"Sounds good," Lyra absently replied. A second later it registered and she turned around, "Aww, we hardly got any time together."

"It's not like I'm leaving the planet, I'm just going home early," Cadance joked, "I'll make sure to see you all again soon."

With a few hugs and vigorous wave goodbye, Cadance followed the guard back to the castle. Leaving her friends early. Again. They insisted they understood, but that didn't stop her feeling bad about it.

Hank picked up on the tension, "You know you aren't being brought back because the princess didn't want you out, right?"

Cadance looked up at him inquisitively. He continued, "She didn't seem to mind you sneaking out, she just wanted me to find you. She said there was something it was time you saw."

Intrigued, Cadance picked up the pace back to the castle.

Queen Chrysalis was surprised at how different the hive mind felt when she wasn't the nexus of it. The contents were the same, she could hear her children just as clearly, but it just felt oddly different. Almost as if she was only hearing the echo of their voices as bounced off of her surrogate. Not being the center of the universe was a truly peculiar experience.

"My children," Chrysalis began. The entire hive mind went silent, awaiting its Queen's words. It was always satisfying to demand the respect of so many with just two words.

She continued, "I'm sure the rumors have already been circulating, so I will set the record straight. The temporary hiccup in the hive mind earlier today was not a sign of anything wrong, it was just a side effect of changing its origin."

She could feel the mind calm slightly. Apparently that little hiccup had stressed them more than she'd noticed. Then the murmurs started back up.

"Yes, I transferred the origin. It is all part of a larger plan I will be setting into motion. As the hive grows, we will need to plan for our future. In order to support our loving family, we will need ever more client states from which to draw our feeding stock. Shall we go find a kingdom and ask politely?"

The mind was awash with the sounds of sinister chuckling. Her subjects always responded well to cruel sarcasm. As she continued, they immediately went silent.

"Our strength lies in our cunning and brutality. My mother knew this, and she toppled kingdom after kingdom, driven by a sense of purpose and a love for the hive. We look back on her legacy with pride. It's a matter of indifference what those we depose think of us. I have set into motion the groundwork for a new conquest. We will be spreading the hive's influence to the northwest, into uncharted territory. Naturally, this project is full of unknowns and must be executed perfectly. As such, I will be doing the initial scouting myself, that I may truly understand the situation on the ground. I will be spending the next week personally investigating the kingdom we are to invade."

The response was about half cheers of excitement over a new kingdom to conquer and half murmurs of those troubled by the idea of their Queen's departure. She'd have to word the next line carefully.

"Since you all seem to trust their judgement and skill, I will leave the daily business of the hive under the purview of the advising council while I'm away. I can only assume they will live up to all of our expectations."

The cheer of confidence seemed weak. Perfect. Maybe she'd have even less difficulty ousting them when she returned than she expected.

"And now I take my leave. For the Glory of the Hive!"

Hundreds of voices repeated the shout in unison. Then the hushed whispering started. They were nervous. As they should be.

Chrysalis turned to Squire, "Shall we away?"

Squire smiled back, a lightly packed bag slung over her back, "Naturally."

For the first time in decades, Queen Chrysalis turned to leave the hive.

Shining Armor stood at one of Canterlot Castle's countless lesser doorways, guarding... what was it again? He honestly didn't even remember. It was a single short tower, detached from the rest of the castle structures, but deep within the walls. All he could tell us that it was one of the shit details that they gave new recruits. Standing still in the hot sun guarding something that nopony would ever try to break into, most likely.

He snuck a glance over his shoulder at the placard on the door. Apparently this was the Royal Long Term Planning Tower, whatever that might mean. As he was looking, he caught a glimpse of Princess Celestia landing on a balcony above. He snapped immediately back into position, just in time for an out of uniform guard to round the corner with what seemed to be a short and wingless Princess Cadance. He held his frozen pose.

"This is the place," Hank announced, "she'll be waiting for you inside."

Cadance looked up at the tower, confused. She'd never noticed this one before. An odd little tower in a nearly unused section of the castle grounds. But if Celestia wanted to meet her here, apparently it was about "Long Term Planning."

Intrigued, she dropped her disguise with a resounding pop. The guard at the door jumped in surprise, which earned him a stern glare from Hank. She glanced the stallion over. Looked young, probably a recruit. Kinda cute. Probably worth introducing herself to later, but right now Celestia was waiting. She stepped through the doorway.

The entry room was almost the entire height of the tower and all but empty, save for a large central spiral stair. It was unlike any other structures she'd ever seen on the castle grounds, an undecorated and apparently unused tower that seemed to serve only to hold up the room at the very top.

She turned back to face Hank, "Are you sure this is the right place?"

He was still standing just outside the doorway, "I was as surprised as you, but the princess was very specific."

Cadance turned back to the stairwell. She wasn't exactly sure what to expect as she ascended, but this entire tower had a strange feel to it. As she started up the stairs, she heard Hank close the door behind her. The whole tower felt ominous and out of place, and here she was climbing the stairs because Celestia wanted to show her something.

The feeling lingered as she ascended to the upper chamber. What could Celestia want to show her here? She inwardly hoped that this would just turn out to be another of Celestia's moments of eccentricity. As she stepped up to the door at the top of the stairs, she braced for anything.

As she reached for the door with her magic, she felt it impact something. Some sort of powerful ward was on the door, but it seemed to dissipate the instant she touched it. She cautiously reached for the door again and swung it open.

Her first thought upon seeing the upper chamber was that it was beautiful. It was a large, ring shaped room, bereft of Canterlot Castle's standard adornment, but that's not to say there was no decoration. All across the walls, there were pictures of ponies, cities, objects, all connected with filaments of glowing magic. She stepped closer to look over a section of the wall. It was fascinating to look at, even without knowing what it was. Yet something about it felt odd to her and left her on edge.

"You are the first pony other than myself to set hoof in this room in about seven hundred years," came Celestia's voice from behind her, "what do you think of it?"

Cadance nearly jumped out of her skin at the surprise. She turned to face Celestia, who was sporting her standard amused grin. Even after hundreds of years, Celestia still took great amusement in startling ponies.

Once Cadance's heart settled down, she replied, "What is this place?"

Celestia's expression turned more serious, "Exactly what the name implies. This is where I have spent the past millennium preparing."

"Preparing... for what?"

"Everything."

Cadance looked around herself once more. She finally realized what this room reminded her of. She'd heard of madponies papering their walls with things they think important and drawing lines between them in an attempt to find patterns. This realization did not help her confidence in the situation.

Cadance turned back to Celestia hesitantly, "So... What do you need with me?"

"Ah, yes, that will be obvious in a few moments. This way," Celestia gestured to a different section of the room and started moving that way.

Cadance cautiously eyed the room as she followed. One of the walls seemed to serve as a focal point for many of the filaments. She cautiously edged closer to it while still walking. By the looks of the images and notes, Celestia was trying to narrow six groups of ponies down to six individuals. Mildly fascinated, she looked the panel over, casually wondering if it was any ponies she knew. Not spotting anypony immediately, and noticing Celestia had gotten pretty far ahead of her, Cadance stopped gawking and moved to catch up.

Celestia had stopped in front of one of the sections of pictures and turned around, "This one."

Before Cadance was an oddly bare section of wall, by comparison. Central to the diagrams were images of Celestia and Cadance. There was also a map that Cadance thought resembled something the military would use. It showed what seemed to be troop movements that led to every major population center in Equestria, all starting from some swamp in the southeast. Hayseed. She'd honestly never heard of the place.

She turned to Celestia, "Wait, are we being invaded?"

"Well... Not yet," Celestia replied, "but yes, that's what this is about."

Cadance pointed to her own picture, "But where do I come in? I'm no military strategist."

"Ah, but that's not what's needed," Celestia smiled, "I have a job that only you can perform. It's absolutely vital to the safety of Equestria. Will you help?"

Cadance stood bolt upright, "of course. But..."

"'But?'"

Cadance faltered, doubting herself, "Well, what could only I be capable of?"

Celestia smiled awkwardly, "I... need you to help me find my true love."

Chapter 3

Cadance wasn't sure what to make of anything anymore. As she stepped out of the Royal Long Term Planning Tower into the early afternoon light, her normally cheerful and composed expression was replaced with the only things she was feeling at the moment, surprise and bewilderment. The young recruit at the door was looking at her with concern. She had to quickly pull herself together.

She took a deep breath and tried to rationally process what just happened. Apparently it was of vital importance to the safety of Equestria that she find Princess Celestia a lover. She could barely follow the argument as to why, but as best she could tell, Celestia genuinely believed this. Something about prophecy, dark forces, and divination. It looked and sounded like one of her aunt's insa-- eccentric moments, and yet...

She took a second deep breath. If it's not true, what harm does it do? Celestia wants to find her true love. Whatever her reasons, that's not something Cadance could reasonably object to. Finding their true love was a wonderful thing she wished for all ponies, so of course her beloved aunt deserved her help in finding the one. And if what Celestia said was true?

She took another deep breath. This was going to be... interesting. There was a more fitting word that she couldn't remember at the moment. She was pretty sure she could do this, though. Just so long as she assumed the whole "End of Equestria" thing was just her aunt making an excuse out of embarrassment. Just pretended it wasn't horribly stressful and important. Just her aunt being silly. Yes. Yes, that would do.

"Are... you okay princess?"

Cadance blinked rapidly, pulling herself out of her thoughts. The young recruit was still there, trying to judge the situation and if he needed to call someone. Cadance let out a sigh and recovered her smile and grace.

"Nothing to worry about, just... Well let's call it the peculiarities of living with family."

The guard seemed to accept this, letting out a light chuckle and smirking like he had his own experience in the field, "Understood, Princess."

"By the way, you're new here, right?" Cadance inquired, "What's your name?"

He shot to attention, "Trooper Shining Armor, day guard, at your service."

"At my service?" Cadance smiled impishly, "Perfect, follow me."

Shining's expression turned to interest and confusion. He could tell she was up to something, and had certainly heard rumors of Princess Candace's prankish side, so he felt the situation was slightly dubious. He was under orders to guard this spot until told otherwise, but now a princess had just given him a new order. He glanced back at the unadorned doorway to a seemingly irrelevant building, and then to the princess already turning to walk away. He followed.

To the southeast of the Hayseed Swamps, the land is dominated by flat moors, sparsely populated by small tribal flocks of sheep. The late afternoon sun had cooked away the morning fog and the air was growing humid from the damp soil evaporating. A small drove of hares nibbled at the plants as a flock of birds landed to drink from a pool.

All at once, the animals scattered, leaving just the sound of the wind in the grass and the smell of peat. A long and near silent pause hung over the area. Some strange odor, like copper and ozone, slowly filled the air. In a sudden flash, a ring of green flame ignited and licked skyward, two black equine forms slowly rising from the ground.

"There should be a small settlement about a mile from here," Queen Chrysalis explained, "Let's get going."

Squire, loaded down with luggage, was busy stamping out a small brushfire that their magic had ignited, "Just a... sec... yes, okay, good. Will we be needing disguise?"

The Queen paused to think. Goats perhaps? Their lands were nearby, and she needed an excuse to look like a traveler. Relations between the goats and sheep were passable. It would only be for a few hours at most, she could probably put up with being horrifically ugly that long.

Without a word, Queen Chrysalis was wreathed in a burst of green flame, only to emerge a large, grey goat. Squire nodded and followed suit, in a flash becoming a rather stocky example of hircine form. They looked one another over, as to judge each other's disguises, and turned to continue on their way.

The walk was a rather quick one, the settlement being even closer than the Queen's estimate. A small village of thatched roof cottages with only two stone buildings, the chief's hall and a tavern. The locals eyed their visitors with suspicion, not exactly used to outsiders in their midst.

Chrysalis quieted her thoughts and reached for the hive mind, finding two voices chattering away about the day's business. By the sounds of it, they had a very successful operation going in the region. Excellent, but not her primary concern.

"Attention. This is your queen. I have just arrived in the town of Baaladair."

After a stunned pause, a third voice came back, "I am within the village, my queen, in what way can I serve you?"

Good answer, this one had potential. Chrysalis replied, "I require a map of the Hayseed Swamp and regions beyond."

"Hmm..." her subject pondered for a moment before announcing, "I know just the soul to ask. He’s staying at the tavern, a visitor from those lands. Calls himself a 'pony.'"

"Excellent. Show me to him.”

Shining Armor was a little confused, sitting at a donut shop with the Princess of Love. The odd part wasn't protecting the Princess at this establishment. After all, Pony Joe's was a well respected Canterlot business that both of the princesses visited quite frequently. It wasn't being her only bodyguard, clearly, since he had managed to silently signal for backup on the way out of the castle. No, it was the conversation.

"So why did you join the guard?" Princess Cadance asked, taking a sip of something that looked to be a mocha.

When Shining heard he was going to be escorting the Princess to Pony Joe's, he had expected to be standing at attention nearby while she had a light snack. As he adjusted his seat across from Cadance, he stared at his mug of coffee as if it had the answer to her question.

"Well..." he stumbled for words, "I guess I was just looking for some, I dunno, structure in my life."

Cadance popped a powdered donut hole in her mouth and contemplated his answer. After a moment, she replied, "But why the Royal Guard?"

Shining paused and tensed up, not entirely sure how to frame his answer. It was honestly a very personal question and he wasn't incredibly comfortable with it, so he decided to try to talk his way around the answer.

He leaned back in his chair and looked out a window, "Well, I've never been much of a wizard. The only magic I can really claim any mastery in is protective spells. While I was contemplating my options, an Academy recruiter came to my school and found out about my talent. It just went from there."

Cadance paused, her drink hovering in her grasp, "You mean the Hurricane Academy? That would mean you're in the officer program?"

Happy to veer onto a tangent, Shining Armor relaxed some and responded, "Yeah, they've just got me on detail while I study. Getting pretty close to finally graduating to a rank and position, though."

"Your family must be pretty proud of you," Cadance replied sincerely, taking an elegant sip of her drink.

"My parents are happy for me, yeah," he explained, "but I'm not certain my little sister has even noticed. She's been so wrapped up in her books recently, trying to learn all there is to know about magic."

"I always wished I had a sister," Cadance mumbled wistfully.

"She can be a hassle sometimes, but she's worth it," Shining joked, "It seems like all she cares about anymore is studying and magic, but she's pretty adorable about it all."

Cadance chuckled, "I'd love to meet her someday."

"You'll have a chance soon," Shining offered, "She's applying for Celestia's School and has her interview in a few days. Knowing her, she'd love to meet a princess."

"I'd like that."

At this point, something finally occurred to Shining Armor. It had been a while since Cadance had touched her donuts or drink. She'd been rather wrapped up in the conversation. Currently, she was sitting there, staring at him with a dreamy smile, apparently oblivious to anything else. Sure, Shining Armor was no genius like his sister, but he could read this scene.

That's when the panic set in.

Chapter 4

Cadance sat across the table, deep in thought. Shining Armor was not exactly the stallion she'd expected him to be when she'd first encountered him. He lacked the macho military streak that most of the guards had, and that made him interesting. She could tell he'd evaded the question of why he joined the guard, but let him off the hook on that since the question had made him visibly tense.

As she watched him grow flustered, she could tell her efforts had paid off. It didn't take an expert in body language to see he was attracted to her. She just kept smiling and sipped her mocha. He'd been fun to talk to and even more fun to toy with. Maybe, just maybe...

Cadance stood gracefully and finally spoke, "Would you excuse me for a moment?"

Shining looked like he was happy to get some time to think, but then realized, "I'm not really sure I can, I'm supposed to be guarding you."

"Oh please," Cadance teased, "I'm sure you guys already have the building surrounded. I mean look, Lancer is right over there."

Behind Shining Armor, and doing a remarkably good job blending in, another royal guard unicorn had taken up a position near the end of the bar in order to watch the hallway that lead to the back door and restrooms. Sergeant Lancer had been in the guard for many years and had developed a decent rapport with Cadance in that time. She wouldn’t quite call him a friend, but he was always a welcome presence.

Cadance nodded toward the back hallway and continued, “Besides, it’s not like you’re allowed in there anyway.”

It only took a short moment for Shining Armor to catch on, “Oh, yes, of course. I’ll just, uh… wait... here then.”

Holding in a light chuckle, Cadance turned toward the restroom. On her way past the bar, Lancer spoke up, “Torturing the new recruits again?”

The chuckle finally escaped her lips, “Only a little.”

They both subtly turned to look at Shining Armor, who was facing away from them shuffling awkwardly in his seat. Lancer was the first to speak up, “I guess he still takes you seriously.”

“Lancer,” Cadance replied with mock insult, “I’m a princess. We need to be taken seriously. It’s his job. Yours too, I’ll remind you.”

“Don’t worry Princess,” he replied after a sip of his black coffee, “I take you exactly as seriously as you deserve.”

“Shut up, Lancer,” Cadance snapped playfully.

Stepping into the hallway, Cadance turned back to look at Shining Armor. He still seemed to be distracted with whatever he was stressing over, so this was the perfect opportunity. She closed her eyes and focused on her magic. Despite her inherent magical aptitude and it being her special talent, it still took immense focus for her to view the strands of fate and see whose souls are bound to one another by their destined love. She took a deep, practiced breath, putting a hoof to her chest as she inhaled and letting it fall as she exhaled. She was hopeful for what she would see, and it was distracting her. She repeated the process, letting her mind clear. Finally ready, she opened her eyes.

Lyra was at the table. Clearly flirting with Shining Armor. Concentration immediately shattered, Cadance quickly started moving back towards the table. Lyra had some sort of package, it almost looked like a gift of some kind. Cadance wasn’t sure what was going on, but since it was Lyra, she didn’t like the odds.

Lyra turned to her as she approached, “Oh hey, there you are.”

Struggling to not show her distress at the situation, Cadance responded, “What brings you here, Lyra?”

Lyra shrugged, “Eh, you know. Walking home when I saw a suspicious number of bulky stallions wandering around outside the building, so I figured you were here.”

Cadance glanced to Shining Armor, who looked more confused than ever, before asking Lyra a follow up, “Did you need something?”

“Nah, just felt like saying hi, since you bailed earlier,” Lyra explained, a smug grin slowly forming on her face, “Mind if I join you two?”

Cadance finally saw what was happening, “Actually, I was about ready to leave. Shining, could you go grab the bill from the counter?”

Shining Armor, happy to have a mindless order that brought him away from confusing mares, hopped up and walked away from the table. As soon as he trotted away, Cadance turned to Lyra and spoke in a frustrated whisper, “What’s your game, here?”

Lyra smirked, stealing one of the last donut holes from Cadance’s plate, “You’re not the only one who can cock-block.”

Cadance quickly blushed and stammered, “I wasn- I mean. He’s… Shut up.”

With her victory secured, Lyra leaned on the table, looking over to Shining Armor at the counter, “Not bad, though, how’d you find him?”

“He’s a guard,” Cadance replied shortly.

Lyra smiled and parroted in a poor imitation of Cadance's voice, "'I don't look at my guards like that.'"

Cadance only responded with a flat, disappointed stare. At least, until something caught her attention, “What’s in the box?”

Thrown off, Lyra looked at her gift box. After a few seconds staring, she looked inside, “Looks like chocolate things.”

Cadance leaned over, “Bon-bons? You bought two dozen without knowing what they are?”

“Yeah,” Lyra replied, “I dunno, I was at the chocolate shop and they looked good.”

“You stole my donut,” Cadance announced, stealing a bon-bon and taking a small bite. Her eyes widened, “Where in Equestria did you get these?”

“You know that confectioner on Saddle Street?” Lyra asked, lifting a bon-bon but not taking a bite. “Apparently a mare from out of town is apprenticing there and makes these.”

“I need these in my life,” Cadance responded seriously, finishing her confection.

“Need what?” Shining armor asked, returning to the table.

Cadance pointed at the box of chocolates and the large decorative label on the lid. Shining Armor regarded it seriously as Lyra ate her bon-bon whole. Just as he was about to reach for one, Lyra abruptly closed the box with magic and put it under the table.

“Nope,” Lyra announced, “These are mine. Both of you go get your own.”

Disappointed in Lyra, Cadance turned to Shining Armor, “Well, I suppose I can’t spend the whole night here, can I?”

“After you,” he gestured toward the door.

Over his shoulder, Lyra was making exaggeratedly encouraging faces at Cadance, but she shrugged Lyra off and turned toward the door. Reminding herself she would have more chances to catch Shining Armor alone, Cadance defeatedly left the shop.

The smell of an herbivore owned tavern never set well with the Queen of the Changelings. The drinks smelled like mulch and there wasn’t that wonderful aroma of charred flesh. On top of that, the sounds of a dozen or so rowdy ovines was a cacophony even to the ears of one who lived with the song of a thousand voices in her head at all times. The atonal bleats were pushed to the background as she noticed her target.

She looked almost like a light brown furred changeling without wings. What an odd creature. Chrysalis couldn’t really tell what the face looked like, since he had a large hat on and was writing some notes as he sat in the far corner of the bar.

Chrysalis approached calmly, calling out to the stranger in her stolen voice, “Are you busy?”

The pony looked up, clearly surprised at a goat abruptly appearing, “Um… Not particularly. Do you need something?”

Now able to get a good look at her, Chrysalis could see the pony’s face properly. So oddly similar to a changeling. It was almost troubling. She could taste the suspicion and curiosity off of the pony, and she knew enough to guess that this particular soul had seen strife before.

“I’ve heard that you’re an adventurer like me, I was just wondering if we could trade notes,” Chrysalis effortlessly lied.

The pony calmed, “Oh, sure. I take it you’re from the tribes to the south?”

“Yes,” Chrysalis bleated, “I heard you’re from the other side of the Hayseed, is that correct?”

The pony nodded, “Yeah, a nation called Equestria. Wonderful place, very peaceful. If you can find a way through the swamps, it’s worth a visit.”

Chrysalis cackled inwardly, “I might just. Do you have a map?”

“Yeah, hold on,” he said, rummaging through a saddlebag, “Here we go.”

It was a smaller swamp than Chrysalis had realized. The details of the map were certainly good enough for her. Now knowing where she’d be going, she looked up to the pony, “These maps reasonably accurate?”

“They’ve always worked for me,” he replied.

With a smile, she stood to leave, taking amusement at the pony’s confusion. Apparently he expected something in return for that information. The thought amused her. After a passing nod of gratitude to the subject who brought her here, she silently collected Squire and walked out the door of the tavern, into the darkness of night.

Princess Celestia stared up at the moon, regrets and pain in her heart. What was wrong with her? Why was she always lying to her loved ones in an attempt to keep them safe? It was no wonder the Elements of Harmony had given up on her. Honesty had left her heart centuries ago.

It hurt her to lie to Cadance like this. To manipulate her dear niece. She just saw no other way.

Looking back down to the streets, she saw Cadance and Shining Armor walking along and chatting amicably. Maybe there was hope. Maybe she didn’t need to force fate to her designs.

No.

She had to keep trying. There wasn’t enough time left for things to develop naturally. It would be easier if prophecies were more exact in their nature, but she knew. She only had a matter of days to make this happen.

Damn everything, Celestia was willing to hate herself for this. Equestria must not fall. The Millennium of Peace must be upheld. She looked up at the moon once more with determination. There was only one path to walk that would see her redemption. She was going to walk it.

Chapter 5

As the sun was lifted skyward, two ponies stood in a circle of charred grass on the outskirts of Canterlot, a blue unicorn and a brown earth pony. As the brown earth pony adjusted his saddle bags, the blue unicorn simply stared up at the immense spires of Canterlot Castle.

“I don’t like it,” she announced.

Turning to the unicorn, the earth pony spoke, “Don’t like what, my Queen?”

“That castle,” she explained, “It’s tacky. It looks like it was designed for a pupal queen and she never bothered to have it razed and replaced with something proper. Also, it’s bigger than mine.”

“Shall I start a list of things to do when the kingdom is taken?” The earth pony asked.

“Oh no, I’m certain I’ll remember this one. Let’s go.”

As sunlight filtered into her room, Cadance slowly blinked awake. Sitting up with a quick stretch and polite yawn, her mind was still in the night before. It was a surprisingly fun night, despite Lyra getting in the way. Shining Armor seemed like a nice colt. It momentarily flicked into her mind that she was easily fifty times his age, but that weird feeling was one she was more than used to.

After getting herself ready for the day, something she had always insisted on doing herself despite having servants, she sat and stared at herself in the mirror. She was expected to attend court this morning, but that was honestly just for show. She’d been placed in charge of a few of the more minor aspects of governance, mostly just in oversight capacity, and today a few had to give official reports at the day court. It felt irrelevant, but it was her duty and she was going to do it.

Stepping away from her vanity, Cadance crossed the room and opened the door to head out. Beside her doorway stood Hank, who quickly checked over his shoulder and then stood at attention.

“Good morning, Princess,” he intoned.

“Always one for the formality, aren’t you,” Cadance teased in reply.

“Doin’ my job, M’Lady,” Hank replied with the slightest hint of a smile, “On that subject, you received a letter this morning. Would you like it now, or some other time?”

Cadance cocked her head in surprise, “A letter? Who sent it?”

Pulling the letter from a pouch at his side, Hank read, “The return address says it’s from one Twinkleshine.”

“Oh, sure,” Cadance said with slight surprise as she gently levitated the letter from his hoof, “Thank you, Hank. Carry on.”

Barely registering his salute, Cadance turned towards the solar between her quarters and Celestias. Rather surprised to be getting a letter from her friend who lived only minutes away, Cadance couldn’t help but open the envelope as she walked.

Removing the contents of the letter, Cadance found herself looking at what appeared to be a poster folded into quarters. Opening it out, a single small sheet of writing paper tried to fall out of the center, but was already in her magical grasp. The poster was advertising “Dancing in the Park,” an event that happened every year and Cadance had been to a few dozen times all told. Looking over at the written note from inside, Cadance immediately recognized her good friend’s script.

Cadance Dearest,

On the way back from our date at the café, I couldn’t help but notice this poster. Given our conversation, I simply knew that this would be perfect for us. Can you attend?

Kisses,
Twinkleshine

PS:
Lyra just visited me late in the night and informed me you were out with a stallion! Wonderful news, please bring him along!

With a sigh of frustration at Lyra, Cadance folded the letter back up and started thinking about what to write back.

Shining Armor, once again, was standing guard of a random doorway that didn’t matter. This time, he knew it was for show. Tour groups were passing through the castle grounds and the Guard always made sure to be present in force for such events. Not that they were particularly concerned with the tourists being a threat, mostly just for appearances and because it’s what the tourists expected to see. Not the worst of all tasks, honestly. At least the tourists were looking up to him like a hero for standing in a random, irrelevant doorway.

Just as he was thinking this, he spotted two ponies, a blue unicorn and a brown earth pony, walking along and seeming like they were inspecting the place. He watched them for a moment before deciding something felt wrong about them. Possibly because they hadn’t said a word to each other since he noticed them.

Approaching with a serious expression, Shining Armor mustered the sternest voice he could and asked, “Are you lost?”

Shining Armor could have sworn he saw a flash of disdain in the eyes of the blue unicorn as she turned to face him, but it wasn’t even remotely present as she spoke, “Terribly sorry, sir. I seem to have lost track of my tour group. I believe they were headed toward the throne room. Could you tell me where that is?”

Nothing about this situation made Shining Armor comfortable. He was about to ask the mare more questions when he felt the piercing pain of a migraine headache. Raising a hoof to his forehead, he lost track of the scene for what felt like no more than a second. By the time he opened his eyes, the two ponies were gone.

Princess Celestia stepped into her solar to see Cadance finishing writing a letter. Lifting a fruit from a basket nearby, she sat down across the table from her dear niece, “Good morning.”

Cadance finished sealing her letter and looked up, “I’m rather surprised to see you still in your quarters this late, should I be concerned?”

Celestia smiled in amusement, “Not at all. I was just pondering a few things.”

“Long Term Plans?” Cadance quipped.

“Well,” Celestia mumbled absently, “Related.”

Cadance slid a large poster across the table to Celestia and looked at her meaningfully, “This seem like the sort of place you’d want to go looking for love?”

Glancing down, Celestia saw the familiar poster of the ‘Dancing in the Park’ event. She never really liked attending such things, but that wasn’t really important here. The date posted was two days away. Perhaps that would be the right time, it seemed fitting, but Celestia was ever the type to play it safe.

“Would you object to doing a little searching before then?” She posed.

Cadance shrugged, “I suppose no reason to not, but I feel like the park would be a good bet for seeing as many ponies as possible.”

Celestia nodded in agreement before asking, “Do you have any plans for this afternoon?”

“What, you mean after you hold court?” Cadance asked in shock, “So soon?”

“Would it be an issue?”

Cadance stopped to think, “I suppose not, it’s just that love isn’t the sort of thing you ru-”

“Thank you,” Celestia cut off, “I really appreciate your help with this.”

Cadance forced a smile, clearly thrown by the situation. Keeping her in the dark might be more trouble than it was worth in the long run, but the payoff for this was already closing rapidly. Now she just needed to make sure all of the candidates attended the dance.

Eyes darting around the atrium in confusion, Shining Armor hunted for the blue unicorn and the brown earth pony. Barely managing to hear the sound of hooves down an adjoining hallway, he set off in pursuit. As he reached the corner, he spotted a brown tail rounding a bend at the end of that hall. Moving as quickly and quietly as possible, he made chase.

He peeked around the corner they had vanished down, spotting the pair in the distance. Watching them, they were clearly talking, he could see it in their body language. He watched their lips to see if he could read them, but… nothing. Their mouths weren’t moving at all. Telepathy?

He glanced around for any other guards on duty. The place should have been stuffed with them, today was a tour day, but nopony was in sight. He stopped and thought about his training. Signal for backup, but do not lose the intruder. He tried to think of some way to signal for backup without giving himself away and giving the two intruders a chance to escape. He knew of countless spells he could try, but he knew equally well that he’d never succeeded at casting any of them before.

No point in not trying. If they were using telepathy, he would too. Focusing on his magic, he tried to reach out. The spell was unstable, but he managed to get something approximating a connection.

“... llo? Who … s this?” came the barely recognizable voice of Lancer.

”Sargeant Lancer, this is Trooper Shining Armor. I am in pursuit of two suspicious individuals, they are in the South Wing, first floor. A blue unicorn and a brown earth pony. Repeat, I am-”

”Shini ... come back, I can’ … … are you?” Lancer replied as the mental link grew ever more unstable.

Shining Armor peeked around the corner once more to see the two ponies moving again, ”Repeat, I am in pursuit of suspicious individuals, a blue unicorn and a brown earth pony. They are currently in the South Wi-”

Shining Armor yelped in pain as the mental link abruptly severed, sending shockwaves of pain down his horn. The two ponies both turned in unison as he made the noise before bolting down the hall at speeds they didn’t look capable of. Shaking off the pain, Shining Armor galloped in pursuit, shouting after them to stop.

They might have been unnaturally fast, but Shining Armor was nothing if not athletic. Within seconds, he was almost on top of them. Almost as if choreographed, the two ponies swerved into a side room to dodge Shining, but he managed to catch the turn and found himself in the small room with them.

The door shut behind him with a green luminescence. The room went black save for an ominous glow. Shining Armor looked around for the two ponies in confusion. What he saw instead froze him in place.

It looked like a huge black unicorn, easily two feet taller than him, its entire body made of glossy black plates held together by thin membranes. From behind ill-kempt locks of teal mane, it looked down at him with draconic eyes, smiling with fanged teeth.

As Shining Armor felt a pool of warm liquid forming between his hind hooves, it spoke in a voice that sounded like a chorus, “There’s a line between courage and being an idiot.”

His mind filled with fire as a headache overtook him and he felt himself land on the floor.

Chapter 6

His name was Shining Armor, Royal Guard Officer in training. He had a little sister named 'Twiley,' who would be going to a prestigious school soon. He knew the layout of the castle backwards and forwards, having studied it thoroughly in the Academy. He had met both of the princesses of the castle, a Cadance and a Celestia. Celestia was the powerful one and Cadance was possibly attracted to him? They had gone out to eat, officially on business. Cadance liked chocolates. He’d put in great effort to remember the address on the label of the box of chocolates. Most importantly, his mind was weak.

Queen Chrysalis opened her eyes, pulling back from inside the mind of the pony collapsed in front of her. Squire was peeking out the doorway to the room they had both hidden in, making sure nobody was coming.

“Status?” Chrysalis thought toward her minion.

“I’ve seen one guard moving around in suspicion,” Squire’s voice chimed back in the Queen’s mind, “This one might have had a chance to report our presence.”

“I need more time, let’s take this somewhere more private,” Chrysalis responded, a ring of emerald flame forming on the ground around her.

As soon as Squire stepped in, they sank through the ground. Reaching out mentally, Chrysalis searched for a decent point to transfer to. She felt the perfect place, directly under the castle. Rising from the ground in a darkened cave system, the flare of green flame reflected off of the countless crystals on every surface.

“It looks unoccupied,” Chrysalis said aloud, “Secure the area anyway.”

As Squire buzzed off to investigate the tunnels, her Queen dove back into her victim’s thoughts.

As Celestia and Cadance were leaving their quarters to hold court, Celestia began to notice something was just a little bit off about the guardsponies on duty. Waving one over, Celestia spoke in a motherly tone, “Something is wrong, isn’t it?”

“We’re not sure on the exacts, Mum,” he quickly replied, “There was a hard to understand report from a trooper, and we can’t find him at the moment.”

Celestia noticed Cadance looking to her, clearly in an attempt to judge her aunt's response, so she was sure to stay calm, “Tell the commander to run down whatever leads you have and double security on the throne room.”

“Yes, Mum,” the guard replied, galloping off to relay the order.

Celestia immediately turned to continue on her way, leaving Cadance to catch up and ask, “So I take it you think this is nothing?”

“Well,” Celestia looked for words, “These things happen, it's likely nothing the guards can't handle.”

Cadance apparently accepted the idea, since she didn’t bring it up again in the time it took them to reach the throne room. After all of the usual pomp and pageantry, Celestia was on her throne, Cadance standing by her side. The whole event carried on much as it always did, except with slightly more stallions in armor in the room and guarding the doors.

Deciding things looked under control, Celestia called forth the first courtier.

Shining Armor slowly stood up, hearing a voice calling his name. He sat up, slowly taking stock of the room he was in and the pony approaching him. It was Sergeant Lancer, and he was saying something. Shining shook his head to clear away the grogginess.

“-you been? We’ve been looking for you for hours. What happened?”

Shining stumbled to his feet, “I… honestly don’t remember too well. I feel like shit.”

Lancer did a few quick field checks to make sure he didn’t have a concussion before continuing, “I could barely understand anything you were saying in that mindlink. You really don’t remember anything?”

“I…” Shining struggled with his memories for a while, “There were two ponies, a grey pegasus and a white earth pony. They were sneaking around, so I tailed them. They must have hit me over the head or something after my spell rebounded.”

Lancer made sure to remember the statement for later, continuing his questioning, “How were they being suspicious?”

“They looked like they were casing the place,” Shining Armor answered, “and I just got this weird vibe off of them in general. I dunno.”

“Alright, trooper. Just settle down, let’s get you to medical.”

Soon enough, all of the day's business had been brought to Celestia's attention and she gave appropriate judgement on the matters. All in all, it was just another day of running the country, almost exactly like the hundreds of thousands of days prior. Having Cadance here was a nice change of pace, but even that happened enough to be routine. Cadance had certainly shown improvement over the years in handling matters of state; she just needed to learn how to better hide her boredom.

As all in attendance filtered out of the room, Celestia waved a guard over again, “Status of the search?”

“He’s been located,” reported the stallion, “They brought him to medical for a quick checkup and will be debriefed shortly. So far we only have his basic statement, which matches what he initially reported.”

“What was the report?” Cadance chimed in a fraction of a second before Celestia could say the same.

“He was in pursuit of two suspicious individuals in the South Wing,” the guard informed.

Cadance looked to her aunt with concern, unsure what the best approach would be. Celestia was about to reassure her to trust in the guards when Lancer trotted into the room. After asking something of the guards at the door, he headed straight for the throne.

After a short bow to the princesses, Lancer spoke directly to Celestia, “You’ll have to pardon the interruption, but there’s a short matter for you to attend to.”

Cadance looked startled, but Celestia could read the scene. This was something Lancer wanted her to know, but not Cadance. She stared him down for a moment, trying to read his posture and expression for clues. He stared back with certainty in his course of action.

“You’ll have to excuse me, Cadance,” Celestia said apologetically, “Would you mind starting to get things ready for the afternoon while I take care of this?”

From her niece’s expression, Celestia could tell that Cadance knew something was wrong. Despite that, she accepted and went on her way. Grateful to her niece, Celestia walked the halls of the castle, being led by Lancer.

Deciding they were sufficiently far along, Lancer finally gave his report, “Sorry to resort to that, it’s just… I didn’t really want Princess Cadance to know what happened before you did.”

“Sergeant Lancer,” Celestia reprimanded, “Princess Cadance doesn’t need to be coddled like a child.”

“It’s not that,” Lancer elaborated with a dour expression, “The guard who went missing, she had taken him as personal escort last night. Based on how they acted together… well I was worried she might get emotional. He’s not in the best condition.”

Shining Armor. Celestia was immediately concerned, “He’s in the medical wing?”

“Correct, I brought him there once I found him,” Lancer answered, “I was worried he might be concussed, but they can’t find any evidence of it.”
Reaching the medical wing of the barracks, Celestia spotted Shining Armor. A doctor was still looking him over and asking questions, but he seemed fine, like nothing had happened.

Spotting Celestia with some surprise, Shining Armor quickly stood to bow. Celestia smiled to him, “Don’t strain yourself, I heard what happened.”

“Well I…” he looked at a loss for words for a moment, “I appreciate your concern, Princess, but it’s nothing that’ll affect my duties. Right, doc?”

The doctor ruffled through the pages on her clipboard before nodding in agreement, “There’s a little memory loss, but combining magical rebound and head trauma can do things like that. You should remember bits and pieces over the course of the upcoming days.”

Visibly relieved, Celestia asked if Lancer and the doctor could leave the room quickly before turning to face Shining Armor once more, “Since you’re fit for duty, there’s one easy thing I’d like to ask of you.”

Shining Armor slowly opened his eyes. He was in what looked like a cave made entirely of large crystals, a purple glow coming from somewhere on his chest. As he thought about it, there was something heavy on him. Looking down, he saw the source of light was a horn. His little sister was laying with her head on his chest, crying.

“Hey, Twiley, you alright?”

Twilight bolted to her senses and jumped forward to hug him, crying into his shoulder, “Shiney, oh my gosh, I was so scared when you weren’t waking up.”

Hugging her back, Shining Armor looked around the unfamiliar room, “Hey, come on, I’m fine. I’m your big tough royal guard brother.”

Twilight pulled back and smiled before looking around the room in fear, “Where are we?”

Shining Armor stood up, struggling to remember. That’s when the migraine ripped through his head. His thoughts were completely scattered, his memories with huge holes in them. He remembered pursuing… something? Was that something in the castle?

A single image flashed into his mind, hazy like he was trying to forget it, but scarred in nonetheless. A huge monster, towering over him with fangs and piercing eyes. He was just happy Twilight couldn’t see him go pale in this light. He had to be the hero for her.

Lighting up his own horn, Shining looked around the now glowing room at the hundreds of reflections of himself and Twilight. Struggling to stay calm, he put on an air of wonder, “Wow, look at this place. I’ve never seen a cave like this. It’s really pretty, right?”

With her brother confident and the room clearly lit, Twilight visibly relaxed, “Yeah, it’s fascinating.”

“Come on, let’s find a way out,” Shining suggested, walking towards an entrance to a tunnel nearby with well faked confidence.

After a short moment to judge the direction Shining Armor had chosen, Twilight grinned maliciously, “Sure, that way looks perfect.”

Chapter 7

As the residents of Canterlot sauntered down the town’s central parkway, none really stopped to take note of the two mares sitting at a chess table discussing their plans. A few foals noticed how familiar the two looked, but their parents hurried them on to whatever assuredly important business they had.

Cadance glanced up and down her companion’s disguise, “You know, I have to say I like how your mane looks when it’s not… floaty.”

Celestia adjusted her sleek, wavy mane so she could see it, “It has been a long time since it looked normal, I suppose I kind of missed it.”

Reaching into the bag she had tucked under the table, Cadance lifted out a small notebook in her magical grasp, opening it to the page she had bookmarked, “So, I suppose we should discuss where to start.”

Celestia smiled, gesturing to the notebook, “I’m glad you’re taking this seriously. Do you have a particular idea in mind?”

“Well,” Cadance mumbled, looking over her notes, “First I suppose we need to figure out where to look. Would you mind if I ask some personal questions?”

After a subtle glance around to confirm nopony was listening, Celestia gestured for her to proceed.

With doctor’s orders to take the rest of the day off for recovery, Shining Armor sat in his bunk room, studying. All of these books on military protocol and strategies would doubtless be useful. Know your enemy.

Celestia expected Shining Armor to meet her at a specific location outside of the castle in about half an hour, which meant there was still time to collect as much information as possible. The collection of texts and notes from officer training were a treasure trove of intelligence.

“How goes keeping him distracted?”

Squire’s voice sang back up to her from the depths under the castle, “Perfectly. He gets more lost at every turn.”

Queen Chrysalis was no stranger to a well executed scheme, but this one was going almost too well. This was clearly not a nation used to war, evident both in how they acted and what they taught their soldiers. She absently flipped through a chapter on crowd control in emergency situations with an amused grin.

“Update me if anything of note happens,” she mentally mumbled back to her minion.

With Squire’s short confirmation, Queen Chrysalis got back to her studies.

Cadance set down her notebook, resting her chin on her hoof to think, “Based on all that you’re saying, I’ve had a few ideas.”

Princess Celestia looked hopeful, “Please, go on.”

Taking a deep breath to approach the subject with an objective tone, Cadance presented her evaluation, “Everything you’re telling me makes me think your past relationships all stumbled over your power and long life. I can only come up with about two options in that regard. You could find somepony who can actually look past all that and see you for who you are, but those are few and far between.”

“I’m sure they exist, though,” Celestia interjected.

With a defeated sigh, Cadance grumbled, “I’m not so certain.”

Cadance looked up to see her aunt looking at her in what seemed to be confusion, so she went on, “I feel like I’ve been having the same problem. Being royalty, it’s so hard to be viewed as anything else. I’ve spent generations looking for my true love and seen nothing. Part of me wonders if I’ve already missed the opportunity to find them.”

Celestia reached forward and held Cadance’s hoof reassuringly, “I’m sure you’ll find them. Isn’t that how it works? It’s fate.”

Cadance let out a single, airy chuckle, “Fate guarantees an opportunity, it’s up to you to take it.”

Not really sure how to break Cadance out of the slump, Celestia just changed the subject, “What was the other option?”

Cadance snapped back to reality, “The other what?”

“You said there were two options,” Celestia explained, “One was to find somepony who saw past my being a royal. The other?”

Cadance rolled her eyes at herself, “Well, it was just a stray thought I had once, not exactly practical. Basically, you’d need to find somepony who saw you as an equal.”

Celestia nodded slowly as she came to terms with the idea, “I suppose that would limit the options.”

“So yeah,” Cadance mumbled, “fate of Equestria hangs in the balance.”

As hypocritical as it felt to say, Celestia tried to reassure her, “Oh, don’t be so pessimistic. I have a good feeling about this.”

Despite herself, Cadance was intrigued, “Any particular reason?”

“There’s a rather significant planetary alignment coming up,” Celestia explained like it was common sense, “It feels like a good omen to me.”

“Planetary alignment?” Cadance replied, incredulous, “Somehow I didn’t realize you took astrology quite so seriously.”

Celestia looked at her in disbelief, “So you’re telling me your special talent is seeing the strands of fate, but you don’t believe in astrology?”

Cadance pulled back with slight surprise, thought it over, and answered, “Yeah, I suppose that does sound kinda weird, doesn’t it? I just always figured there was a good reason so many ponies stopped caring about it. Scientists always insist it’s just confirmation bias and has no basis in fact.”

Celestia just smirked in return, “Well, we’ll just see, then.”

Queen Chrysalis noted the time and calmly put all of Shining Armor’s books away. She had to go pick up Princess Celestia from the parkway shortly, and it would be a good opportunity to learn as much about her as possible. Silently leaving the barracks, she passed another guard who she recognized from Shining Armor’s memories.

“Heya, Hank. You off duty?” she asked in her best imitation of Shining’s speech patterns.

Hank gave her a friendly punch to the shoulder, “Yeah, I see you’re skipping your post.”

“Doctors orders,” she replied with a slacker’s smile, “gotta take care of myself, after all.”

Hank nodded, “You okay? I heard they found you knocked out.”

Chrysalis waved off the issue, “Nothing major. I’m back on rotation tomorrow, pending no more problems.”

“Alright, well,” Hank offered a lazy and half joking salute, “carry on then.”

Responding with an absent minded wave over her shoulder, Chrysalis headed off castle grounds.

“I’m thinking intellectuals,” Cadance proposed, “particularly wizards and mages.”

Celestia pondered the idea, “Worth a look. I’ve been with more than a few in my time, and it tends to go well.”

Cadance giggled her response, “I remember all those rumors around you and Starswirl.”

Celestia hid a blush, “Any other ideas?”

Cadance offered a halfhearted shrug, “I mean, a few, but none feel quite like as good of a start. Unless you know any other deity level entities around.”

“Other than you,” Celestia contemplated, “almost every other one I’ve run into I’ve either banished, imprisoned, stripped of power, or exiled from the flow of time.”

The weight of the statement crushed the flow of the conversation, leaving Cadance only to look up at the one who said it. Celestia could be terrifying sometimes, it was just her demeanor and grace that distracted most ponies from that fact. The thing that shook her the most was Celestia’s expression, completely calm as if all she’d said was what was for lunch.

With a deep breath to clear her mind, Cadance moved to stand up, “Well, I’d suggest we go poke around one of the colleges or arcane research facilities, see if we spot anypony for you.”

Quickly checking a clock tower, Celestia put on a gentle smile, “Actually, would you mind checking to make sure they don’t just happen to be walking around here?”

Cadance looked around, watching the many ponies of Canterlot going about their business, “I mean, it’s not like there’s much of a chance, but sure. No harm.”

Cadance took another deep breath to focus, closing her eyes and letting the magic flow through her. When she opened her eyes, she could easily see the strands and webs of fate binding every pony in sight. As always, she saw that her future and her aunt’s were deeply entwined, but she’d seen that a hundred times before. Looking around, she saw a few ponies walking with their lovers, many more moving about their business, but no strand from Celestia to her destined love.

“No luck,” Cadance announced.

Celestia quickly checked the clock tower again, “Could you keep looking?”

Cadance turned back to Celestia apologetically, “It won’t be much use. We should probably move on.”

“Please?”

Cadance let out a deep sigh and went back to looking, “Okay, but there’s not much point. If they’re not here, they’re not. You can’t force fate to your will.”

Cadance noticed a new glow out of the corner of her eye. It was something she’d wanted to see for so long that she didn’t believe it despite it being right in front of her. Her eyes traced from herself to a figure in the distance. Her eyes focused. It was him.

As the clock tower chimed, Celestia grinned and replied, “Watch me.”

Chapter 8

The Queen of the Changelings had felt many things in her long life. She’d felt the warmth of holding one of her own young, the sear of countless magical attacks, the embrace of easily a dozen species, and she was particularly partial to the feeling of cool grass under her hooves. This… this was a new feeling.

Chrysalis felt like she was drowning in love. She wasn’t really sure how to process this feeling, particularly because it felt fantastic at the same time it felt oppressive. It was all she could manage to focus and see where it was coming from. Slowly turning her head to look, she saw two familiar forms in the distance. The princesses, albeit without their wings, sitting at a chess table in the parkway. The paler of the two sat smugly, like everything was going just as planned. The pinker one had stood from her seat abruptly, eyes wide in shock, amazement, happiness, and… she was the source of this all.

She had no idea what was going on, but the swell of love over Chrysalis was almost too much to process at once. She was starting to feel lightheaded.

Cadance was just in shock and awe. It really was him. She knew she’d felt something between her and Shining Armor, but… She couldn’t help but stand frozen. Hundreds of years of searching for her one true love, and there he was, standing at the opposite end of the parkway.

Celestia chimed in, with a tone to her voice like she was playing dumb, “Is everything alright? Did you notice something?”

Cadance just laughed, heart fluttering in her chest in a way she hadn’t felt in centuries. She just had to find an excuse to head over to h-

Shining Armor abruptly fell to a knee, wobbling on his hooves. Before Celestia could say a word, Cadance had kicked off the ground, galloping to his side. It was far, a distance she would usually fly, but she didn’t have the time nor the clarity of mind to drop her disguise. Galloping farther than she had in years, Cadance’s lungs were on fire by the time she reached Shining Armor’s side.

Cadance leaned down to him in concern, “Hey… What happened, are you alright?”

With another sway of his body, Shining Armor looked up into her eyes, obviously surprised to see her at his side so suddenly, “I… Yeah. Sure. Don’t worry about it.”

“You look like you’re about to collapse,” Cadance said softly, “you should sit down.”

Shining Armor stood with a determined expression, “I’ll be fi- No actually, that’s not a bad idea.”

Guiding him over to a bench, Cadance sat down beside Shining Armor, anxiously watching him to make sure he was recovering. Shining just settled into the seat and rocked slowly like he was drunk. A million thoughts raced through Cadance’s mind as she was seated beside Shining Armor. It was a weird feeling, knowing that the pony next to you was your true love, but barely having met them yet. She wanted to act, to let him know, to treat him like a partner, but she knew intellectually that none of that made any sense and might just scare him off.

“You feeling a bit better?” Cadance checked with a motherly tone, “Do you have any idea what happened?”

Shining Armor smiled, his mood entirely unaffected by the circumstance, “Yeah, I’m doing fine, don’t worry about it.”

“If you say so,” Cadance murmured with a hint of disbelief, looking away.

Shining Armor, rapidly regaining his balance, grinned back at her, “Why are you worried, though?”

Cadance quickly looked back to him, blush hidden in her pink coat once more, “Just… If somepony you knew was about to collapse, wouldn’t you show concern?”

Shining Armor smiled wider, apparently getting his answer anyway, but made no comment, “Yeah, I guess. I didn’t realize I looked quite that bad.”

“We’ll probably have to take you off active duty until we sort out what the problem is,” Celestia stated.

It took a few seconds, but Cadance and Shining both nearly jumped out of their seats as they noticed her, standing behind their bench. Neither of them had noticed Celestia approaching, had seen any evidence she’d moved at all, she was just… there, standing like it was a completely natural thing for her to abruptly appear behind them.

As Cadance settled down, she was immediately troubled by her aunt’s statement, “Do you… think it’s a major problem?”

Celestia looked over to Shining Armor before putting on her usual mask of majesty, “Even minor matters require due prudence when it’s the Royal Guard.”

Cadance had known Celestia for long enough to know she was hiding something from her. She hated having things like this hidden from her, but didn’t want to make a scene in front of Shining, so…

“Sure,” Cadance replied, the tiniest sliver of frustration in her tone, “It’s our safety, after all.”

Celestia smiled peacefully to Shining Armor, “Take the rest of the day, be sure to take care of yourself.”

“I’m fine,” Shining lied, “but, if that’s an order…”

“It is,” Celestia clarified.
Shining Armor sat upright at the confirmation, forcing a bit more military poise, “Understood.”

Celestia looked back to Cadance, hidden amusement in her eyes, “Would you mind looking after him for a while?”

Cadance immediately heard the tease between the lines, but kept a straight face, “I suppose that wouldn’t be an issue, I don’t remember any obligations this afternoon.”

“Well, I should get back to the castle,” Celestia announced as she turned away, “I’m sure something needs my attention by now. We’ll pick up where we left off later.”

Cadance is immediately caught by the change in urgency displayed by Celestia. Just minutes ago, she was very intent on finding her true love, and now she casually wanted to leave it done for the day. She looked between Celestia and Shining Armor, more than a little confused. There was something that told her she shouldn’t just shrug this off to her aunt’s eccentricity. Something was going on.

“You know,” Shining Armor interrupted her thoughts, “I think I could use some food. Interested?”

Cadance snapped out of her thoughts at the proposition, offhandedly replying, “Sure.”

It was only Shining Armor’s smile at her answer that made her realize quite what had been proposed. With a blush that actually started to show through her coat, Cadance struggled to not look horribly awkward. Shining didn’t seem to care too much, just nodding toward a side road with a smile.

“C’mon, I know a good place.”

Squire chased after Shining Armor, struggling to keep up in his little sister’s body, “Hey, wait up!”

Shining Armor stopped abruptly to look back, “Oh, shi- shoot. Sorry, sis.”

Squire faked exhaustion, “We’ve been walking around for hours…”

“Well…” Shining Armor contemplated, “Yeah, you’re right. I forget I’m trained for this stuff sometimes.”

Spotting a flatter portion of the mines, Shining gestured toward it and walked over to sit down. More than happy to have slowed down his progress, Squire followed. They sat there together for a moment, Squire nuzzled against Shining’s side.

“Don’t worry, Twiley, I’ll get us out of here soon. I feel like we’re going the right direction,” Shining assured.

Squire managed to hold in her amusement at how wrong he was, instead her stolen voice came out hesitant, “I… Okay. I trust you, Shiney.”

The gentle, familial kiss Shining Armor planted on Squire’s forehead sent a chill through her body as she soaked in the love he was seeping over her. She was rather impressed, the love of ponies was quite delicious. This country would make a good acquisition.

“Hey,” Shining Armor got her attention, “How about you show me that magic trick you’ve been practicing again. Whatever’s happening right now, you’ve still got your big admissions test in a few days.”

Squire blanched, no idea what he was talking about, and sputtered out an excuse, “I… I think I’m too tired for that.”

Shining Armor looked at her quizzically, but let it slide, “Yeah, I guess that’s fair. Don’t force yourself, we’ll need our energy.”

As relieved as she was that this moment had passed, Squire was worried. She had no idea how long she could keep this going for. Unlike her Queen, she only had a handful of years experience at impersonation. Still, this was the Queen’s order. She would do everything she could.

It wasn’t the classiest restaurant, and it wasn’t her favorite type of food, but Cadance had never been happier to be out to eat. Looking across the table at Shining Armor, Cadance couldn’t help but smile. This, most certainly, had become a date.

Shining Armor smiled back to her, “Thanks for looking after me. Like… I really don’t need it, but I appreciate it.”

Cadance furrowed her brow at him, “You nearly collapsed on a busy thoroughfare, and you don’t know why. It could happen again and you could get run over.”

Shining looked like he was trying to come up with a retort, but just admitted, “Yeah, okay, that’s fair.”

Cadance couldn’t restrain a light giggle at the display. Shining Armor really was cute when he let his guard down. She reflexively tucked her mane behind her ear struggling at conversation. It had been far too long since she’d been on a date. After a while, she’d given up on normal dating entirely, since she knew none of them were the one, so she’d grown rusty on what she should be doing.

Shining took the initiative and broke the silence, “So what, uh… when do you need to get back to the castle? I feel kinda bad about keeping you away from your duties.”

Groaning lightly, Cadance admitted, “I don’t really have ‘duties’ these days. Sometimes I feel decorative.”

“Well hey,” Shining joked, “You’re not a bad decoration, so there’s that.”

Making a face at him, Cadance slumped forward a little, “I kind of wish I had something to do with my time, though.”

“So make something to do with your time,” Shining Armor suggested in a more commanding tone than she’d yet heard from him, “You’re a princess, aren’t you? Do what you want.”

Something in the statement hit home, and Cadance sat back upright. She was so used to thinking of her aunt as in charge, the thought hadn’t crossed her mind before. She did have authority. If she wanted to do something, she just… could.

As their dishes arrived at the table, Cadance smiled, “You know what? I will.”

Chapter 9

Shining Armor was not a clever stallion. The crystal cave was a maze, and he had gotten lost in the palace’s labyrinth enough times to know full well he was bad at mazes. Still, he had to stay strong, since it wasn’t just him trapped.

Yawning silently, looking down at his sister’s sleeping form, cuddled up nervously against him. It felt like they’d been down there for days, but logically he knew it couldn’t have been more than a few hours yet. Not wanting to disturb Twilight, he just laid there, trying to come up with a plan to get them both out.

Closing his eyes, he struggled to remember his basic training, both as a guard and as a mage. There had to be something in there he could make use of. The first thing that sprang to mind was telepathy, but he winced reflexively as he remembered the rebound from trying to cast that earlier. He could try that, but he was nervous to use it as anything but a last resort.

He still had no idea what to do, his thoughts just not gaining any traction. His own reflections stared back at him in the walls of the cave, each looking confused and lost. He had no training in navigation and adventur-

Shining Armor blinked. He was wrong. He had no formal training at this sort of thing, but… He had dozens of hours of training at mapping and navigating caves. They were just never real. He laughed just once, genuinely amused as all of his high-school weekends of wasting time with his friends, some dice, and a dungeon to explore rushed back to him.

Slowly, so as not to shake Twilight from her slumber, he stood, looking around the crystal caves with new eyes. He wasn’t lost. He was adventuring.

The Queen of the Changelings casually took a bite of her sandwich, pretending for a moment that she could taste it and was enjoying the flavor, before smiling back at Princess Cadance from behind her disguise, “You know… I think I could get used to this.”

Cadance grinned at her cheekily, “Now, now, don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“I don’t think I am,” Chrysalis replied with a masculine smirk, “I mean, we’ve gone out to eat together twice in as many days.”

Cadance looked ready to retort, but instead pouted in embarrassed frustration, bluffing, “Well… Last time was work.”

Chrysalis’ laugh was loud enough it drew some attention from the nearby tables until she covered her mouth and ducked low to hide from the stares, “Well, hey, thanks at least for not pretending this time is just business.”

“W-” Cadance’s face turned flush, “I mean…”

Chrysalis reached over with her unfamiliar white foreleg to take Cadance’s hoof, “You know… I understand if this is weird to you. I mean… I work for you and all. Also, uh… age difference.”

“Could you not, like… keep calling me out on my internal monologue?” Cadance replied, looking down at their entwined hooves with a smile.

Chrysalis caught herself, realizing Shining probably wouldn’t have been able to read the scene this well, but tried to play it off, “I’ll see what I can do.”

They both sat there for a moment, each a being of godlike power trying to pretend they were normal unicorns with normal lives, holding hooves and lost for words. Each, for their own reason, knew they wanted to be with the other, and nothing more needed to be said.

Chrysalis sighed and stood, letting go of Cadance’s hoof as she did, “I… have to go do something. I’ll be right back, okay?”

A little disappointed, Cadance nodded, adding a little tease, “Duty calls?”

Chrysalis missed the meaning at first, but laughed and nodded towards the bathroom, “Hey, biology happens whether or not you want it to.”

Cadance nodded knowingly, gesturing that she was free to go.

As Chrysalis stepped toward the back hall, she spared a glance back to their table. Cadance sat there, staring into her drink and just generally letting her excitement slip while she thought Shining wouldn’t see. Chrysalis smiled, watching that living beacon of love stew excitedly over her. She wanted to tell herself that it was just a matter of course, that spending time here with Cadance was just a step on the path to taking Equestria as her own, that she wasn’t growing attached.

She didn’t. She’d promised not to lie to herself.

She spared one more glance at the pink mare and smiled, pushing open the back door of the restaurant and slipping off into the alley. Sure, she’d lied a little, but… The surprise would be worth it. Cautiously moving so that Cadance wouldn’t see her out on the street, Chrysalis excitedly trotted off.

Every so often, when you manage to make something work flawlessly, you just feel like taking the rest of the day off to bask in your success and reward yourself for your efforts. Everypony does it to some degree, just slowing down and relaxing after an achievement, although admittedly some accomplishments are more deserving of the act than others. In the case of ending an invasion ten or more years before it actually happens, you damn well deserve it.

Princess Celestia slid her body down into the warm water of her bathtub, staring up at the ceiling. She’d informed the guards that she was taking the rest of the day off and not to disturb her. This evening was just for her. She relaxed and let her mind drift off, the troubles of Equestria melting from her thoughts for now.

She reached over with her magic, lifting a glass of wine she’d set near the sink and bringing it carefully to her lips. She still had to come up with some way to convince Cadance that lying to her was the best option, but… She took a sip of red, the sharp tang of tannins crossing her tongue. She could worry about that later. Right now, she just wanted to sit back and relish this oh so familiar feeling.

Once again, a dozen years before it even happened, Celestia had saved Equestria and nopony was the wiser.

Sitting alone at the table, Cadance was starting to wonder what was taking Shining Armor so long in the bathroom. It just seemed… off. It was well past the time it would have taken in there, and even if he had stood there psyching himself up in the mirror or something, he should be finished by now. Was something wrong?

What if something had happened to him? The entire reason they’d gotten this moment in the first place was because Shining had collapsed. Fear flooded into her as she pictured her date collapsed on the tile of the stallions’ room floor. She froze trying to come up with some way to make sure he was okay.

The door of the restaurant opened with a ping, causing her to turn on reflex and see what was going on. Her concerns melted instantly as she saw Shining Armor step in, clearly completely fine. It took her a moment to realize that him walking in the door made no sense, and she turned to glance at the bathroom.

“Sorry about that,” Shining smiled as he approached, setting a parcel under the table.

Cadance was confused, looking up at him before leaning over to see what the package was, “I thought you we-”

“Yeah…” Shining interrupted, “I kinda maybe lied a bit. I just wanted it to be a surprise.”

The box below the table was simple, yet familiar. Other than being wrapped in simple brown kraft paper and tied shut with twine, the only distinctive marking on it was a simple stamped logo. Again, familiar, but she couldn’t quite pla- the word ‘confectioners’ was on the label. Her eyes went wide as she quickly realized what part of town they were in and looked up at Shining’s grinning face.

“You asked to come to this restaurant just because it was near that place Lyra found, didn’t you?” Cadance questioned, unsure if she should feel impressed or deceived.

Shining, for his part, seemed proud of himself, “That… yes. I mean, it’s good food too, though.”

Cadance lifted the package and set it on the table, undoing the twine and removing the paper. Sure enough, inside was a pair of boxes identical to the one Lyra had showed up with the night before. Cadance glanced up into Shining’s eyes excitedly, catching a glimpse of his smug pride before he hid it behind a goofy smile. Opening the upper box revealed an assortment of chocolate spheres in cute little paper cups, eliciting a mindless lick of the lips from Cadance.

“Don’t you think you should save them for later?” Shining teased.

“That thing you said,” Cadance reminded him as she lifted one and held it in front of her lips, “about me doing what I want because I’m a princess.”

As Cadance took a bite out of the little chocolate nugget, Shining chuckled with some hint of pride, replying, “Of course, who am I to tell you otherwise.”

Cadance sighed happily as the chocolate melted to her tongue, replying with an almost patronizing air, “I value your opinion, though.”

Playing along, Shining saluted loosely, “Of course, miss.”

Popping the other half of the candy into her mouth, Cadance closed the box, “But yes, I’ll save the rest for later. No reason to not savor these.”

Shining smiled and reached his hoof across the table casually, “I’m glad you like ‘em.”

Cadance took his hoof in her own and replied with a sassy grin, “You knew full well that I’d love these, that’s why you got them.”

Shining shrugged and smiled, “I mean, yeah.”

The feeling of Shining’s hoof in her own was heaven. Cadance looked deep into his eyes, still in shock with how easily this was all going for her. Then again, fate explicitly brought them together, and they were destined to be perfect for each other, so… All Cadance could think of was how much she wanted to see him again.

“We should do this again some time,” Shining announced, shocking Cadance with the words that were just in her own mind.

More than slightly flustered by that, Cadance replied, “Of course! I- I mean, yeah, of course we should. Do you have anything in mind?”

Shining Armor just shrugged, “Like, not off the top of my head. This was as far as I’d managed to fantasize.”

Cadance giggled, looking down at the box of candies, before a thought crossed her mind, “Hey, there’s a dance coming up in two days. You know Dancing in the Park, right? I was planning to go.”

“I guess I’ll have to find my tie,” Shining joked, pantomiming adjusting one with his hoof, before he seemed to be struggling to remember something, like the memory was there but disorganized, “My… sister’s school interview. I think it’s on the same day.”

Cadance deflated, “Oh… I mean, I underst-”

“I’ll see if I can get out of it,” Shining interrupted.

Cadance seemed shocked, “You… no, you don’t have to do that.”

“It’s fine,” Shining reassured, gripping her hoof tighter, “It’s just gonna be some boring, procedural thing. The filly’s a prodigy, she won’t need my reassurance to get in.”

“Still, it’s your family,” Cadance continued to object.

Shining sighed, “Still, I’ll see what I can do. I’d love to go dancing with you.”

Cadance blushed lightly and looked away, “...Thank you.”

The restaurant was still busy and vibrant, but Cadance couldn’t really push herself to care anymore. She was here and happy, even after the meal was long since done. She looked down at the white hoof wrapped around her own and smiled. This was it. This was what she’d been missing in life. Cadance smiled peacefully up at Shining Armor, content.

“Let’s get out of here,” Shining proposed, “Gotta get back to the castle eventually.”

Looking deep into the eyes of the pony she wanted to spend forever with, Cadance just softly replied, “Yeah, let’s go.”

Chapter 10

Squire slowly blinked awake, quickly checking herself to make sure her disguise hadn’t slipped in the night, happy to see herself still small and lavender colored. The absence of Shining Armor hit her suddenly, and she bolted upright to look around the chamber, lighting up her horn to get a better view. Had she lost him? Did he notice? Should… she report this back?

There was a glint of magical light approaching from a tunnel, and Squire quickly called out, “Shiney?”

After a sound of confusion and some muffled swearing, Shining Armor called back, “Heya, Twiley, sorry about that. I’m over here.”

Squire quickly galloped toward the sound, bumping into Shining as they both rounded a corner, and nuzzling at his chest in barely faked panic. If she had lost track of him…

“Hey, relax,” Shining comforted, patting her on the back of the head, “And hey, I think I figured out a way to get us out of here.”

Squire blinked and looked up into his eyes in shock, “You did?”

“Yup,” Shining announced proudly, “just follow me, alright? Even if we have to backtrack. I promise I’ll get you out of here.”

Confident that he was just bluffing to make her feel better, Squire smiled, “Which way then?”

“This way first,” Shining replied, nodding in the wrong direction.

With a relaxed sigh, Squire nodded, “O-okay, I’ll follow you.”

Sprawled. It’s not a word one usually heard in relation to the Princess of the Sun, but it’s exactly what she was doing. Laying on her back in bed, reading from a novel levitating in front of her face, Celestia had stretched out into a comfortable position and was, yes, sprawling. It was the only fitting word.

The gentle tap at her door drew a sigh from her, and she twisted her neck around to stare at the source of the sound, sliding her reading glasses from her nose so she could see properly. She was certain she had told the guards she was taking the night off, so…

Accepting that it must be important, she set her book aside with a light thump and rolled upright, stretching her wings and shaking them out with a gentle shiver before tucking them back to her sides. Stretching her legs as she walked, she approached the door and closed her eyes, focusing her magic to see who was on the other side. Sensing Cadance, she opened the door with a smile.

“Could I come in?” Cadance cut her off before she could speak, her tone serious, almost accusatory.

“Of course, Cadance,” Celestia replied, stepping back to let her through the door.

Silently shutting the door behind her, Cadance turned to Celestia with a flat stare, “You knew already, didn’t you?”

Ah, she was mad about Shining Armor, “Knew what, dear?”

“That he was my true love,” Cadance replied emotionlessly, “I don’t know how yet, but you already knew, didn’t you?”

Celestia tried to laugh it off, “At best I suspected. Since you clearly think astrology and prophecy to not be reliable, I didn’t think you’d want theories based on it.”

Cadance wanted to retort, but found herself backed into a corner, but that only frustrated her more and her tone shifted to match, “The entire affair with you looking for your love was a pretence, wasn’t it? You wanted to see if you were right.”

Being seen through like that was an unfamiliar feeling to Celestia, but she countered the best she could, “I knew one of us was finding their true love in the next few days. What better way than to get us both out and about? I’m honestly happy it was you. How was the date?”

The blush melted into her coat color, and Cadance stomped the ground, “I wish you’d just tell me when things like this are going on. Why must you always make it a scheme?”

“If I had come up to you and told you the fate of Equestria rested on you finding love,” Celestia explained firmly, “Do you really think that would have been better?”

Cadance froze.

“Do you really think that, if I directly told you that Canterlot would fall and thousands would be taken, you would have been of sound enough mind to focus and do your job?” Celestia continued, her tone direct and firm, but not angry, “You know how much effort it takes for you to focus on the strands of fate. Do you really th-”

Cadance flopped her head forward, hiding her face behind her mane, and mumbled something, just slightly too low for Celestia to hear.

Concerned, Celestia stepped forward, “W-what was that, dear?”

Cadance’s head snapped upward to stare into Celestia’s eyes, venom in her voice, “I said ‘stop treating me like a foal.’”

Celestia staggered backward, not familiar with such a tone from her dear niece, “W-what do you-”

“You always do this,” Cadance spat, eyes starting to water, “For heaven’s sake, I’m nearly as old as you are, and you always treat me like an idiot child. Stop it.”

Celestia shook her head, this turn of events not something she had accounted for. She knew Cadance would be frustrated when she knew, but… Celestia had no idea how these sort of thoughts managed to take root in Cadance. She just stood there dumbfounded.

Seeing Celestia’s confusion, Cadance chuckled derisively and looked away, “You don’t even notice you do it, do you?”

“I-” of course Celestia did, this very outburst proved she wasn’t ready yet, “I’m sorry you feel that way, Cadance. I never meant…”

Cadance wiped her eyes with a hoof, still unable to make eye contact, “I… I’m sorry, too. I didn’t mean to snap like that. That was… uncalled for.”

Satisfied to hear Cadance acknowledge that much at least, Celestia took on her normal, motherly poise, “It’s fine, dear.”

Celestia took the few steps forward and hugged her niece, letting Cadance rest her head on her shoulder and draping a wing over her body. She truly was still a child sometimes. Celestia held in a chuckle and tried to comfort Cadance to the best of her ability.

“So,” Celestia decided to break the silence, “How was the date?”

Cadance chuckled with the unique tone of somepony sad remembering something nice, “He’s nice. I… think we’ll be seeing more of each other.”

“Good,” Celestia stated solidly before adding, “I’m happy for the two of you.”

“You could have told me,” Cadance retorted weakly, “I could have handled knowing.”

Despite having even more evidence that Cadance couldn't have, Celestia still replied, “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

Sitting in the barracks, staring at Shining Armor’s books on military strategy, Queen Chrysalis for once began to doubt herself. She knew that if she went through the books, she’d know enough about the Royal Guard’s habits and methods to casually sweep her army through Canterlot in mere moments. These were not warriors, they were barely better than decorations with gruff voices. Yet, despite knowing it was the correct choice for her goals, she hesitated.

Her mind kept drifting back to sitting across the table from a gorgeous beacon of love and hope. She let out a great sigh and mounted the bed, clutching a pillow to her chest as she thought. Could she even go through with this anymore? Even if Cadance wasn’t the true regent, it was her home. Simply wading in and claiming the territory for herself…

She sighed and rolled on her side, staring at the wall. Here she was, Queen of the Changelings, acting like a dumb little worker who just pupated. She was better than getting all lovestruck like this. Well, she had literally been hit so hard with love that she fell over earlier, but that’s… Her mind traced back to how amazing it had felt when Cadance first saw her in the park and she quickly found herself blushing. Pulling the pillow over her face, she rolled over to hide in the sheets.

Chrysalis really had no idea if Cadance would accept her for who she truly was, but… Some part of her had hope. It was a strange, almost entirely foreign emotion, but she knew how it felt and it was certainly the one she noticed growing inside herself. Perhaps, just perhaps, she could find some way to admit it to her, but... that's not something she'd ever done before. She'd never had any desire to be known for who she was.

She sighed. Everything was based on a lie, and she knew that lie could come back to bite her. Still… that hope in her heart was making her feel like it would work out anyway. Even after Cadance found she wasn’t Shining Armor… nothing would have actually changed. It was still her, the one who had said and done all the things to make her happy. She should understand that.

She needed to check up on her loose end. Chrysalis sent her thoughts down to Squire, “Status report?”

“Still wandering aimlessly,” Squire chirped back, “He’s acting like he has a plan, making marks on the wall, but we keep wandering deeper into the caves.”

Chrysalis snickered before replying, “Inform me if anything changes. I can’t have him interrupting me.”

“As you command, my Queen,” Squire accepted tactfully.

With a sigh, Chrysalis rolled to stare at the ceiling. It was far from an ideal situation, but the Queen was used to playing it by ear. She knew she could make this work. Still clutching the pillow to her chest, she lay there, a grin slowly forming across her cheeks. The slow realization of how lucky she’d been to have that chance encounter crossed her mind, and she couldn’t help but smile. This was a relationship she’d do anything to keep.

Prologue

Chrysalis had never seen a pony channel so much magic that they glowed pure white, let alone two at once, but Shining Armor and Cadance were in midair and glowing like torches, the air around them a thick pink cloud of magic.

No. Chrysalis raised a shield spell, but it wasn't an attack that came her way. That same damnable force field that seemed to be the only spell Shining Armor knew had exploded out from them, smashing into the Queen's shield and sending her flying clean out of Canterlot, over the wreckage of her now botched invasion. She'd done everything right, planned for everything imaginable, and yet...

In that moment, as she rocketed away, she came to a crushing conclusion. The last twelve years had been a waste. If only she'd done the right thing all those years ago. If only she'd admitted what she was. If only she'd... what? Where had she gone wrong back then?

Chrysalis felt something coming from deep within her that she usually only felt from others and that she had forgotten she was capable of. Something she hasn't felt since...

It all came rushing back to her in one moment, that wonderful week from twelve years ago in this very city, this very castle. Just one week, but it forever changed her. The week that was taken from her and given to that fool who was now marrying her only true love.