I asked nervously “Um Cadence, why do you wish to speak with me? No offence but this is coming a little out of the blue.”

Cadence blinked “What’s wrong with wanted to get to know you?”

I frowned “I have done horrible things to you and we haven’t even spoke about the wedding yet alone the latest incident.”

Cadence sighed “You’re not wrong, I do want to get to know you but also I have a few misgivings about all this and I need an outside opinion.”

I frowned “On what?”

Cadence replied “There are too many of us, damn Alicorns must be Princesses is becoming a problem, think about it when it was me and Celestia things were simple, Luna came back and then there were 3 fine, Luna protected ponies dreams and raised the moon. Of course I ended ruling the Crystal Empire, of course then Twilight ascended, she didn’t even have a castle until after Tirek, now there’s Starsong and of course there’s my daughter Flurry. The question is what are we supposed to do with new Alicorns, your Fiance doesn't have a fancy title, she’s just Princess.”

I frowned “Yes, I do realise having so many ponies in charge could become a problem but at the same time Starsong would appreciate being in the background, lacking a title or a castle would draw less attention, as for your daughter, well she is your heir should something go wrong.”

Cadence sighed “I’m glad you listened.”

I smiled “The Alicorn situation will be fine as long as we don’t have any more ascensions.”

Cadence asked “Why does Starsong want to say out of the limelight?”

I sighed “Her reason is that she is an Earth pony at heart and all this attention is aggravating for her, even is she does her best to hide it. My reasoning is that her magic and flight lessons have been scrapped.”

Cadence gasped “Why?!”

I whispered “Cadence, you know how Alicorns specialise in one type of magic or another.”

Cadence whispered back understanding the need for secrecy “Yes, I do.”

I whispered back “Well then as you know you are more like a pegasi, having stronger pegasi magic and the other two aren’t as strong as you were a pegasi, well it’s the same for all Alicorns, Twilight is more like a Unicorn as is Celestia.”

Cadence frowned “Isn’t Celestia a natural born Alicorn.”

I nodded “Yes but even then they do still specialise in one race’s magic or another because it is impossible to achieve a completer balance between all three, Luna is more like you while Celestia is more like Twilight. Still Starsong’s problem is that hers is very different. Most Alicorns are weaker they are still far stronger than the strongest ponies of each race in their weaker traits.”

Cadence nodded “Does that mean Starsong has weaker Pegasi and Unicorn magic?”

I frowned “It means Starsong probably is barely above the middle ground for unicorns and pegasi, she can teleport and levitate objects, as for her pegasi side, she barely hover. Her Earth Pony strength is insane to compensate, we’re still unsure of her limits, she could lift a mountain with her hooves without even flinching.”

Cadence gasped “That’s quite strong.”

I frowned “We’ll discuss this back at the castle, let’s go and have lunch.” Cadence nodded, we arrived at the local donut shop. I asked “What is this place?”

Cadence smiled “This is Donut Joe’s he sells the best donuts in Equestria.”

I smiled “Well lead on.”

A stallion trotted out in front of us, he asked “What would you like?”

Cadence smiled “I’d like a regular platter Donut Joes, I brought somepony who hasn’t been here before.”

I watched as Donut Joe trotted back into the back. I asked nervously “So, um how has life been?”

Cadence smiled “Um life has been good, Flurry has been doing well. Urghh this is tough.”

I sighed “Yeah, urghh this whole trying to get along stuff, doesn't work.” Then something clicked “I think I should start teaching you combat, you have very little skill in combat and let’s be honest you put no resistance to me or my changelings during both invasions, I think it’s time to change that.”

Cadence asked “Are you sure this would be wise?”

I said “Well I suspect the Storm King is going to invade soon and Celestia has been planning for their invasion for 6 months with Twilight.”

Cadence blinked in confusion “What do you mean?”

I smiled “I’ll show you after we eat come on.” Donut Joe trotted out with a huge platter. I grabbed a plain donut, it tasted heavenly. I smiled “You certainly are amazing at this.”

He grinned as he went into the back. After we ate I was stuffed “Cadence, it’s time to show you. Follow me.”

I staggered to my hooves Cadence sighed “You ate too much.”

I whined “But it was so good.”

Cadence frowned “You were going to show me something right.”

I nodded and I guided her to the training grounds, we were both shocked as to what we saw, my fiance was shouting at Twilight whose coat was mated in sweat as she had a huge heavy box on her back. Starsong roared “Get up bookworm, you have been neglecting you Earth pony side for too long now back to the start, you will not stop until you reach end of this field am I clear.”

Twilight nodded and slowly trotted back to the start. I frowned this wasn’t right “Starsong!”

She frowned “Why are you shouting at me?”

Cadence had trotted over beside me, I shouted “You are pushing Twilight too hard!”

Starsong frowned “But she needs to be ready, the Storm King is coming.”

I snarled “Proper training is about knowing the limitations of the trainee, anymore and she is going have some serious injuries, she is was dangerously close to her limit.”

Starsong sighed in resignation“Twilight stop, we’ll take a break for the day.”

I heard a shout “Come on Applejack, focus you are barely concentrating.”

I sighed “Well anyway, me and Cadence are going to do some standard drills since she needs practice for oncoming threats.” Twilight mouthed thank you as she followed my fiance out of the training grounds..

Cadence smiled “I’m surprised.”

I rolled my eyes “Did you really think I could get Starsong’s attention by being the old me? Let’s just say starvation does a lot of things to anyone regardless of species.”

Cadence nodded “Fair enough, anyway what are we doing?”

I lifted a sword in my hoof and tossed her another one which she caught in her magic.
Cadence asked “So do I just swing in it.”

I shook my head “There is a reason why sword fighting is a Earth Pony thing when it comes to actual combat, Unicorns use magic and Pegasi use spears.”

Cadence frowned “You mean I need to use my hooves.”

I nodded “Yes Cadence, I’ve seen unicorns try to use swords with their magic and fail epically, weapons require stances, magic fails to compensates for that and often leave the fighter overexposed.”

Cadence sighed as she fumbled with blade in her hooves. I shouted “Cadence, stop trying to force it, swords fight for you because they are an extension of your will, never forget that. Let your will flow into your blade.”

Cadence began to concentrate but even as she poured her magic into it, nothing happened. I sighed “Cadence stop thinking of the sword as a tool to be used, watch.” I trotted over to a dummy and I lifted my practise sword into the air, I swung clipping the top of the dummies scalp off. I said “You can perform godly feats simply be respecting the blade, how do you think Starsong could use Unicorn and Pegasi elements without being one, her sword converted the magic for her, because she showed it respect.”

Cadence said “I see, well then let’s keep going.” I nodded and we trained all day straight.

Author's Note

I did think these two needed to interact.