The bright, optimistic light from the late morning sun streaming in through the windows seemed to mock her. Cadance lay on her side in a large bed in a great round bedroom decorated in elegant colors of dark blue that contrasted with the white and yellow sheets on the bed. The rumpled pillows and tangled sheets were stained with tears. A silver tray bearing buttered toast, fresh oranges and strawberries, and a mug of tea lay untouched on the table a few feet from her. Cadance stared apathetically at the wall, completely still except for her breathing.

There was a knock at the door, which opened after a moment. A frost blue unicorn stepped into the room. His normally military regulation mane was untidy and tangled, and there was a light dusting of stubble along his jaw. His watery blue eyes were exhausted and he blinked heavily every other second. His Royal Crystal Guard uniform, which was normally pressed and pristine, was now rumpled and wrinkled.

Sergeant Frost Shield looked at the tray, then at his charge. "Your Highness, you should eat something," he said, speaking in Crystalline, their native tongue.

"I'm not hungry," Cadance mumbled, which was at least partly a lie. Even though her stomach ached with hunger, it also heaved like the bed was the deck of a ship in a storm.

Frost frowned, then walked over to the bed and sat down upon him. "You should write to him, piccolina," he said softly, drawing a hoof through her tangled mane.

Cadance blinked. "Will that help, you think?"

"I know that bottling up how you feel will not help at all," Frost said, continuing to stroke her mane. "And he must be worried about you. This will set both of your minds at ease."

"As much ease as it can," Cadance muttered. She took in a quivering breath and sat up. "You're right, though. I should write to him."

Frost Shield nodded and stood up from the bed. "I will be outside if you need me, Your Highness," he said, bowing slightly and turning to make his exit.

"Frost?" Cadance called in a quiet voice.

Frost Shield paused at the door and turned to give her a soft look over his shoulder. His eyes seem to glimmer, a crack in his mask of control.

"I will miss them, too," he whispered. With a final nod, he exited and closed the door behind him.

Taking a steady breath, Cadance sat up on the bed and lit up her horn. Parchment and a pen flew out of the nearby desk and floated in the air in front of her. Cadance hesitated with the same trepidation of a pony standing on the end of a diving board standing thirty feet over a small pool of water; memories that she'd spent the last several hours trying to bury after having them play on constant repeat all night began to resurface. Concentrating on taking slow, deep breaths, Cadance began to write.

Shining,

I know you’ve probably been worried sick since you heard what happened, but this is the first I could get word out. I’m still trying to process what happened: maybe writing this down will help me deal with it a little.

First of all, I want to say that Twilight and your parents are all okay: they weren’t involved in this at all, so don’t worry about them. It all started that morning. I’d gone out to do some light shopping for myself: Battering Ram and Frost Shield were following me.

We’d just reached Donut Joe's when two soldiers wearing Crystal Army uniforms stepped up. They said that they had received a message from mother: I was to return to the Crystal Empire immediately. Something didn’t feel right, and Battering Ram must have felt it, too, because he started to step in between me and them.

I told the soldiers, “Strawberry ice cream.” That was a code phrase that mother taught me when I was young. If she sent somepony to fetch me, she’d tell them to say “Crystal berry pie.” My favorite dessert. But they didn’t understand; they just stared at me. For a moment, everything just seemed to freeze, and I thought, "What do I do now?"

At that moment, there was a loud popping noise from somewhere. It sounded like a firecracker to me, but then I realized that the soldiers were both drawing their guns. Battering Ram immediately charged in and knocked them over, and he and Frost started to bustle me down the street, heading for the nearest police station. I could hear them shouting and chasing after us: Frost started putting up ice barriers behind us to slow them down.

I just ran. I didn’t know what to think, or where to go: all I could think was that I was being attacked and that I had to get away. Frost Shield was behind me, covering the streets behind us in ice and creating walls: Battering Ram was in front of me, yelling for everypony to get out of the way, pushing aside ponies that didn’t react in time. Everypony around me was frozen, like time had stopped and we were the only ones who could still move. It just didn’t seem real: I remember I started laughing at one point because I thought this was all just a crazy dream and I was going to wake up and be safe in bed at any moment.

That was when the shooting started. The Crystal Soldiers had caught up and one of them was firing his revolver at us. Battering Ram shoved me around the corner, then just grunted and fell down like he’d been shoved. I didn’t think to stop—Frost Shield just pushed me into the alley, closed up the entrance with ice, and we kept running. The next thing I knew, I was at the police station and everypony around me was yelling, and then I was in some kind of office with a cup of cold coffee in my hooves.

That’s when it really started to hit me: it was real. All of that had just happened. Soldiers from my homeland had tried to kidnap me. I had had to run for my life. Battering Ram…

Her pen paused, quivering in her magical grasp. Cadance's breath shook and came out as a choked sob. She had to take several breaths to calm herself enough to continue: the faces of her friend and her mother flickered before her face like holographic images in a funhouse mirror. Closing her eyes, she forced herself to write out the hard truth.

Battering Ram was really dead.

Shuddering, Cadance paused to recollect herself. Fresh tears stung at her eyes, but she wiped them away and continued writing.

He had a marefriend back home, Shining. A beautiful mare, a sculptor. He was going to propose to her when we got back home: I helped him pick out a ring for him last week. He was standing right next to me one moment, and then...he was gone.

Gone just like my mother. I didn't learn what had happened to her until after all this.

She was dead. Battering Ram was dead. Dead. Gone forever.

I don’t remember much until Celestia showed up with some of her bodyguards. She just walked in and hugged me, and I broke down and started sobbing on her shoulder. She carried me out of there and we went back to the Palace. Once I calmed down a bit, Celestia explained what was happening. She told me about mother dying, about how the soldiers were claiming that my own bodyguards had kidnapped me, and how she was going to go to Couer to get an explanation.

Frost Shield kept a stiff upper lip the entire day, right up until later. After Celestia talked to me, she told me to go get some rest. I didn’t really want to, my head was spinning with thoughts, but I was so tired from the day. I was walking to one of the royal suites when I heard crying from a bathroom. I peeked inside and saw Frost laying on the floor, bawling his eyes out. He and Ram were best friends—Ram had asked him to be the best pony at his wedding. I just lay down next to him and we hugged and lay there for hours, until we couldn’t cry anymore.

I didn’t sleep a wink last night, and I feel sick: I could barely eat anything at breakfast, I thought I was going to throw up. Celestia popped in earlier to say goodbye before she left.

I hope that Sombra listens to her. I hope that they can reach an understanding and get to the bottom of all this. I hope that I can go home soon and properly mourn my mother and get ready to take her place on the throne.

I hope that your land and my land don't have to go to war.

Be safe. I love you.

Cadance.

The ending words felt inadequate, too small to properly express her feelings, but they were the only words she could come up with. She laid back on the bed, closing her eyes. The weight of emotions was temporarily relieved, and sleep rolled in like a tidal wave, enveloping her.

The last thing she was aware of before she slipped into sleep was Frost Shield creeping into the room and gently taking the letter from her grasp.

Author's Note

"Piccolina" is Italian for "little one," and is a common term of affection or endearment.