Cadance scrunched up her muzzle and looked in the mirror. She must be doing something wrong. Maybe her tone was off? That had to be why she wasn't sounding like a Canterlot pony. She sighed, her own reflection copying her, the long mane she had pulled back with a big blue bow swaying slightly. Nopony would care about her smile now, no matter how much attention the bow drew to her usually cheerful face if she couldn't speak the words right.
A simple greeting, that's all she had to manage. She was a princess now, an alicorn; and nopony would listen to Equestria's newest princess if they couldn't understand her accent. Back in the village, nopony cared that Cadance and her parents had thick accents that blended with each note when they sang, and made each sentence in Equish, Equestrian, or as it was sometimes called, Everfree, sound like a song. What was she supposed to do, sing at a summit? Cadance wanted to be able to speak - she loved to talk to ponies. If she was the Princess of Love, how was she supposed to help ponies if they couldn't understand her?
She wanted to sound like all the other colts and fillies her age. Sure, she already looked like them, she loved styling her naturally curly mane like they did in magazines, bright buttons, legwarmers, and other accessories just like every other filly her age and enjoyed everything from bubbly pop that she jogged to in the mornings, or the screeching hard rock she blasted when she thought nopony was listening. Only now, she stopped waving or saying 'hi' to every other jogger or park-goer that passed, especially when she had to repeat herself six times and give up.
Princess Celestia had suggested she get a small job to keep her busy during the summer, one that would allow her to talk to ponies and pick up the Canterlot accent she so greatly desired. Celestia suggested talking to one of the guards, a promising new recruit, who had a little sister who was too young to be left at home on her own.
So far Cadance had refused, since she was appalled by what could happen if she were to foalsit a sweet little filly who couldn't even understand her. She might be scared, or worse, she could get hurt by mis-hearing something Cadance said.
It was because of things like this that Cadance chose to remain in front of her mirror repeating 'Good morning' and 'Hi, I'm Princess Cadance, nice to meet you' gods know how many times.
Well... it was that and one other reason. Whether she would admit it or not, Cadance was lonely. There was hardly anypony to talk to, since the princess was often busy when she wasn't giving Cadance magic lessons. This had been fine for the past months since Cadance's diary and fountain pen with glitter ink were the only friends she needed for now, and throwing rolled up potato chip bags into soda can pyramids was a great way to spend her time when she ran out of wall stickers to collect and she couldn't think of any new hoofshakes.
It wasn't like there was anypony to share them with...
...
Hours later, Cadance, a small tiara perched on her head in front of her bow, found herself standing next to Princess Celestia's throne, craning over to peer at the document the princess was reading, and trying to look as official as possible.
The older princess' gaze drifted over to the tall pink filly.
"Are politics really that interesting to you, Cadance?"
Cadance was startled by Celestia's voice even though her tone was friendly and conversational she found herself nearly swallowing the gum she had been chewing. She was about to open her mouth to speak, before closing it again. Even if Princess Celestia understood her accent, princesses probably didn't talk with a mouthful of gum. Instead, she gave a tiny nod.
She spent many days in here with Celestia, sitting next to the throne with Raven, the scribe. Cadance took notes alongside her, although in a much less fitting spiral notebook. Cadance was a bit more princess-in-training than she was Faithful Student, as she had earned her horn on her own and had never studied magic under the princess that rigorously (or at all), nor had she passed any academy-sanctioned tests that would guarantee that role. So she studied court interactions in silence, most of the time, asking questions only after meetings had ended and in between magic lessons that took place later in the day.
"Princess?" Cadance whispered.
Celestia continued to read the long scroll, unfurling it slowly as she did so. Raven had to pull a sick day so it was just Cadance, the princess, and whatever ponies had scheduled meetings in the throne room today.
When she received no answer, Cadance tried again, calling a little bit louder. "Princess Celestia?"
At Cadance's second attempt, the princess was jolted out of her peaceful reading. "Yes, Cadance? Is there something wrong?"
"A b-bit, I wanted to talk to you later, if that's okay."
Celestia smiled warmly, as she often did to her subjects to make them more at ease. "While I am a bit busy right now, after I finish up looking over this latest treaty we can talk about whatever troubles you before we begin your magic lessons this afternoon."
"Thank y-you."
"It's not a problem at all, my door is always open," Celestia assured.
...
Celestia still had that serene smile hours later when she sat down with Cadance at a little table in the castle gardens for an early lunch. Cadance smiled weakly in return - only a mare like Celestia would know how to make absolutely anypony feel at ease. She was always so serene, so calm. Cadance never saw Celestia upset, only slightly disappointed with ponies. She was a beautiful, smart, and kind pony who ruled Equestria as if each subject were her own foal. Even though she was a powerful goddess, she was never arrogant, nor did she feel alien to be around.
"What is it that's been bothering you?" Celestia asked while calmly sipping tea. Her tone was light and comforting.
"I miss ponies."
The teacup returned to the table, and Cadance tried to decide how best to word her concerns while chewing on an oatmeal raisin cookie that she had plucked from a plate that rested in the shadow of a vase of flowers.
"I miss being able to talk to them without getting strange looks, or feeling like they are only trying to listen to me out of pity. I don't want to have to wonder if I'll be understood the first time I speak. This was never a problem in my village. None of the other fillies or colts cared that I sounded like I came from the Old Country Mama and Papa talked about. They asked me to translate their names or teach them all the words I learned and tell them about the city where my parents came from, where there were canals instead of roads. Other than that, I was just an Equestrian foal like them, but now that I'm here... I feel so foreign."
"Do you think that's such a bad thing, Cadance?"
"No, of course not," Cadance added quickly, swallowing the last bits of cookie as she did so. "It was never a problem before, nopony had to remind me before. It's just that now I feel so out of place, like I'm not meant to be here."
"So this is still about your accent? Did you not like the foalsitting suggestion I made?"
"Yes, partly, and no, it's not that, I liked it a lot but I just can't do it. I'm the Princess of Love, aren't I?"
Celestia tipped her head in a brief nod.
"Well it's just so frustrating, because nopony can have love without communication of some kind! You're the only pony that's been able to understand me since I arrived in Canterlot."
"Now, what was this 'partly' you brought up?"
Another cookie found its way towards Cadance, the gold aura setting it down right in front of her forehooves, which had busied themselves by twisting a cloth napkin since her mane was still pulled back with the cheerful bow, the bright, deep sapphire blue a cool contrast to the warm colors of her mane. Cadance offered a slightly sheepish, yet grateful, smile to Celestia, and began to nibble on the treat, her gum having long since been discarded at the mere mention of the kitchen staff's oatmeal raisin cookies that Celestia knew Cadance loved.
"I just feel lonely, you know? I haven't been able to make any friends yet and even though I've been getting a ton of letters from home, they are often late since the mailponies have a hard time with Everfree routes and just finding the little hamlet nestled in the south border of the forest, it's all just so far away... I miss my family."
Celestia said nothing, and Cadance almost flinched. Had she done something wrong?
"I know I'll get to visit them for Hearth's Warming and Nightmare Night, but it just seems a bit far away..." Cadance's sentence trailed off into a sigh.
Celestia still wouldn't say anything. Her expression was unreadable. Maybe was she mad?
"Have you ever felt that?"
"Homesick?" Celestia responded, her voice a distant echo.
"Yes, princess."
"No, or at least not in the same way you feel."
"What about lonely?"
"Yes, Cadance, I've felt lonely before."
Cadance had grabbed a third cookie now, and silently prayed that the goddess in front of her wouldn't find her to be greedy. "Have you ever been separated from somepony you care about?"
A small, almost unnoticeable nod.
"Princess, would you mind if I asked you something?"
"Not at all, what is it?"
"What's your family like?"
Celestia almost dropped her teacup, and swallowed her tea suddenly in a manner that Cadance thought looked painful. Now it really seemed like she had done something wrong.
"M-My f-family...?"
"Princess, are you okay? I just asked about your family-"
"I know." The princess' tone was suddenly terse and uncharacteristically direct.
Cadance bit her lip. "Don't you have a family?" she asked, voice meek.
"What kind of family?" Celestia no longer spoke kindly, but her tone was not hostile. In fact, it almost seemed devoid of something that Cadance couldn't place.
"Well, to start I guess parents..."
Cadance almost fell back in her chair when she saw Celestia's darkened expression, her eyes were unfocused and she rose from the table and strode away, clearly troubled by something important.
"Princess!" Cadance called, "Princess, I'm sorry!"
She was already gone.
...
Magic lessons had been cancelled. Celestia hadn't appeared in the throne room after she left the gardens. For Cadance, it felt like all this was her fault.
Celestia was a calm and rational pony, but Cadance had just seen her storm off and knew that something wasn't right. She knew something was seriously wrong when Celestia didn't show up to anything else even though she was a mare who went with the schedule.
The door to Celestia's personal parlor really was always open. Only now was it closed, and when Cadance lit her horn to move the handle she discovered that it was even locked.
There was no sound from within.
"Princess?"
She loved company, why would she shut somepony out like this? It wasn't like her. She was the goddess-princess of Equestria, warm and caring. She wasn't called the Matron of Equestria for nothing.
"I'm sorry if I upset you! Please let me in, you've been in here for hours!"
No voice came from within, but Cadance picked up the sound of Celestia's hoofsteps and a faint click. The door was unlocked.
Cadance's magic found the handle once again and she nudged the door open with her hoof.
...
Princess Celestia looked cold. Her perfect posture, slight scowl, and distraught gaze that Cadance could neither read nor meet made her look like the perfect Ice Queen.
Instead of meeting her mentor's eyes, Cadance looked at the decorations gracing the room, which was decorated like most of the castle but with considerably more purple and warm magenta, like the princess' own eyes.
Small photographs and portraits dotted the fireplace mantle. While she wasn't close enough to see details she knew that most were landscapes and Faithful Students and a few mortal partners the princess had been with in her reign, but those were few and far between, as Celestia had explained when Cadance asked a while ago. She had not been involved with anypony in over two hundred years. Even though Celestia had been in romantic relationships before, she told Cadance that she never had any foals.
There were other small trinkets and a few neatly stacked books among papers and quills scattered throughout. Cadance especially liked some of the jewelry that hung on the walls, each and every piece had a story behind it and even though Princess Celestia was not the best storyteller, Cadance still enjoyed hearing each tale.
Philomena made a soft chirping noise from her perch to greet Cadance before she resumed preening her wing.
"You can sit down," Celestia said from behind Cadance, who looked behind her to find the princess looking a bit more composed, seated on a large throw pillow with gold tassles and a reddish purple velvet color, like a sunset.
Cadance chose a nearby pillow of a soft orange hue before looking off to the side. "I'm sorry if I upset you I didn't know and-"
"Cadance, you didn't do anything wrong. It's just that... I don't have a family, or as you put it, a mother and father."
"Are you some kind of sun avatar then?"
There was a forced laugh from the princess. "No, I'm afraid that those sorts of things are much more of a legend than what I am. I have no mother and father, but I was born from two creatures."
Cadance was horribly confused. Wasn't that exactly what... she probably shouldn't ask, but that was certainly a strange response on Celestia's part.
"You don't have any family?"
"Do you see any?"
"No."
"I have a cousin. Neptune of Aquastria," she replies quickly.
"Do you talk to him?"
"No, at least not outside of any formal events."
Cadance had pulled the bow out of her mane hours ago so she might be able to fidget with a few curls of her mane or even the bow itself, the former she did now, the bow clutched in one forehoof.
"Can I be your family?"
Celestia's eyebrow arched in surprise and she moved a gold-clad forehoof to urge her on and explain herself. Cadance was equally surprised by the princess' gesture and went on with what she had to say.
"You seem so lonely, not having any family, or at least any that you talk to. We're both goddesses, aren't we? Well, I guess I'm more like a half-goddess but you've still acted not quite like a mother but maybe an aunt to me since I've come to Canterlot."
Celestia looked at Cadance with barely disguised warmth, her smile looking slightly sad. "Are you really so eager for family?"
"Princess, I-"
"Just Celestia will do, for now at least."
"Celestia, you saw my parents and my village. I was the only pegasus in a village that had hardly even seen a unicorn. There wasn't a pink-coated pony among them or a single drop of pegasus blood. When I was very young, and my parents had just moved to Equestria they found me all alone in the woods babbling and confused. So they took me in as their own since Mama was unable to have any foals of her own."
"You want me to adopt you."
Cadance didn't have to answer and Celestia's benelovent smile had returned.
"Call me 'Auntie' then," Celestia said right before Cadance gave the goddess the warmest hug she had known in a long time.
"Auntie?"
"Yes, Cadance?"
"Is that foalsitting job is still open?"
"Yes, I think so. I'll have to ask, oh what was his name? Shining Armor. Yes, that was it. I'll have to ask him."
Cadance pulled away and re-tied her bow with a smile. "There is one other thing... could we work in some accent reduction lessons along with the magic laser spells?"
"We can, but Cadance, 'laser spell' is not the proper term for what I'm teaching you."
"Yes it is!"
"Cadance, those science-fiction comics you read when you should be studying are rotting your mind."
"But that's just what they want you to think!"
