Crystal Castle, Crystal Empire – April 3, 9:12 AM

“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!” Princess Cadance uttered out loud to herself as she quickly made her way from her private quarters into the hallway.

The co-ruler of the Crystal Empire wound up oversleeping this morning on the account that Flurry Heart kept her awake most of the night with her crying. The Princess was taken aback by her daughter’s actions recently as she showed signs of extreme overattachment towards her and displayed severe separation anxiety. According to the nanny, Flurry Heart has been constantly asking for her mother and her father for the past few days and will start to bawl uncontrollably if she does not see them on command. As a toddler now, her magical abilities have grown to the point where they have become overbearing to everypony whether she uses it to teleport to her mother or to destroy the room during a temper tantrum. Princess Cadance has generally been capable of curbing Flurry Heart’s powers whether it is casting a spell to temporarily prevent her horn from using magic or going a bit further and magic-proofing an entire room when it comes to assisting the nanny.

“It is alright, my lady.” The Princess was receiving reassurance from her personal assistant, Diamond Tablet. “We have plenty of time to make the meeting with Prince Rutherford.”

Diamond Tablet has been serving as the personal assistant to Princess Cadance for the past three years and could not be more grateful for the job she earned. She has a spring green-colored coat that is reminiscent of mint chocolate chip ice cream and a long, blonde-colored mane and tail which perfectly complimented her physique. Diamond is a crystal Earth pony who spent the better half of her later teenage years growing up under the rule of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. She was in her early teenage year when living under the rule of King Sombra thousands of years ago, a time she has worked to put behind her as it was very traumatic for her and her family. Since being brought back after the Crystal Empire’s reappearance and the ascendance of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor to leadership of her kingdom, Diamond Tablet’s life has turned around and could not be happier for the positivity that has taken shape in the Crystal Empire and her life.

“Perhaps you are right.” Princess Cadance responded to her assistant as she kept moving at a quick pace down the hallway. “But you know I always try to be as punctual as possible. Especially for this meeting as it concerns constructing a railroad line to Yakyakistan”

“Oh, I certainly understand that this proposed construction project will be one of our most challenging tasks we’ll ever tackle.” Diamond chuckled lightly as she kept up with her boss. “But if I can be honest, I believe you’re too punctual sometimes.”

“Well, I am having a meeting with the the Prince of Yakyakistan. So, I’m not taking any chances of being late at all.”

“Oh, come on now. His behavior has gotten better. He doesn’t go on many yak smashing rampages like he used to.”

“I suppose you’re right” The Princess agreed. “But still, he is rather unpleasant to be around when nothing goes his way. So I won’t take a chance at being late to this meeting.”

Princess Cadance and Diamond Tablet finally reached the staircase at the end of the hall and descended the stairs heading for the main entrance hall. Waiting at the bottom of the staircase were two royal guards who seemed adamant to share news with the Princess.

“Your highness.” The gamboge pegasus guard to the right, Flash Sentry, acknowledged her with a bow as did the purple unicorn guard on the left, Charming Cavalier.

“Why, good morning.” The Princess responded as she and Diamond Tablet reached the bottom of the stairs. “Do you have anything to share, Flash Sentry? Has Prince Rutherford arrived yet?”

“Why yes I do, Princess.” He replied. “We received word from Yakyakistan a short while ago that Prince Rutherford has taken ill and will not make it to the meeting this morning.”

“Oh, my. It’s nothing serious, is it?”

“Oh, nothing to be overly concerned about. It’s really nothing more than a 24-hour bug.”

Diamond Tablet decided to assert herself into the matter. “Was there any mention of what date they prefer to reschedule our meeting?” She grabbed her clipboard and pen out of her saddle bag ready to make note on it.

“As of this time, there is no word on when they want to reschedule.” Flash Sentry replied. “But we will be sure to keep up to date on that information.”

“Well, thank you for briefing us on this matter.” Princess Cadance said.

“Now, is there anything else you need, your majesty?”

“Actually, there is something else I’m curious about. Has there been any word from my husband?”

Flash Sentry wished he had positive news on that matter. “I’m afraid there has been no word from him.”

Princess Cadance started to feel her blood boil as she comes back to the realization Shining Armor has been more distant recently. The least he could do was drop her and Flurry Heart a message now and then to let them know how he has been. The last time she saw him was a little over three weeks ago when Cadance felt she needed to make the effort to visit him in Canterlot rather than waiting for him to come back to the Crystal Empire. To say the least, their encounter was rather unpleasant as the pink alicorn showed up unannounced and left Shining Armor a bit annoyed. Princess Cadance knew she needed him back home as it was causing her and everyone else in the Crystal Castle to be a bit uneasy, from Flash Sentry to Diamond Tablet.

The Princess kept her composure as she responded to the blue-maned guard. “Oh? Well, thanks anyway.”

“We’ll be sure to keep tabs on his messages, your majesty.”

“I appreciate that. Thank you.”

Flash Sentry and Charming Cavalier both nodded to the Princess and walked away to attend back to their guarding duties. Cadance gave a gentle smile to them as they left, although the smile quickly went away as she started to slowly trot away towards no particular destination. Diamond Tablet knew right away why she was frowning as practically everypony in the castle knew why the Princess was feeling down. She knew that she needed some light, confrontational conversation to get her feelings out in the open.

“I’m taking a wild guess you’re not frowning because the yaks canceled the meeting, right?”

Cadance briefly glanced at her assistant and kept walking. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Diamond was not willing to give up that easily. “You can’t bottle your sadness and frustration over Prince Shining Armor forever.”

The pink Princess erupted at that moment. “That selfish S.O.B. can take his own horn and go fuck him…!” At that moment, she covered her mouth in embarrassment fearing the entire Crystal Empire heard what she just shouted.

The green-colored assistant could not help but laugh on the inside. “I never knew you had a filthy mouth, your highness.” That response made her start to chuckle.

“Okay, you are right.” Princess Cadance started to open up on the matter. “I have been bottling it in, and now I feel so uncouth using the f-word like that.”

“Well, not even the most royalist ponies of Equestria are immune from erring now and then.” Diamond Tablet tried to reassure her. “Now, since your schedule has been cleared up for the next couple of hours, I have a suggestion of what you should do.”

“And what might that be?”

“Spending time with your daughter. Of course, that’s just my suggestion.”

The Princess had not thought about her daughter much today and figured this was the best time to spend with her. “You’re right, Diamond Tablet. I’ll tell the nanny to take the next few hours off as I use this as quality time to bond with my beautiful daughter.”

The two started to head back towards the staircase and meet up with Flurry Heart and the nanny. As they walked back up, Princess Cadance made a comment that slightly took Diamond Tablet aback.

“If Shining Armor won’t show love for his daughter and I, then maybe it’s time I did the same towards him.”

It was at that moment when those words would inflict more damage than Princess Cadance could ever imagine. Right outside the doors of the castle on its pedestal, the center of the Crystal Heart developed a small shade of red.

“Oh, goodness.” The Princess lost her footing as she grabbed the stair railing.

Diamond Tablet was by her side right away as she took Cadance’s right hoof within her own. “Princess? What is wrong, your majesty?”

Despite the fact she felt a strange sensation course through her body as it felt rather cold and was enough to briefly knock her off her hooves, she ultimately brushed off what had just occurred and lied about the incident.

“It was nothing. I just lost my step and stumbled. Now, let’s go see my daughter.”

Author's Note

Apologies for being late on this chapter to all of you following this story. I also apologize as I feel there might be some confusion since I only revised a little bit before publishing. Meant to publish it last weekend, but I ended up going hard on the booze and never got around to finishing it. But enough about me, thanks for reading. I'm looking forward to writing the next chapter. Peace out!