Cadence sighed looking through a mountain of paperwork. Hours have passed and she barely made a dent, but she made a promise to do what she could.

Honestly, she didn't think it would be a tall task. The crystal empire owned Rockhoofs home and the museums. Cadence thought she would just sign on the dotted line and that would be that.

She couldn't have been more wrong, she owned the island but multiple countries dug through the land. Getting them to leave would be tricky. Otherwise, she would have just signed the lined and enacted, I'm a princess I make the rules. Cadence couldn't risk the already unstable alliance Twilight worked so hard to build.

She stared into the pile of paperwork she borrowed from Celestia. This would take much too long to do. Cadence would have to go through the local museum and hope that showed initiative. She just had to prove she was working with them and not against them.

Magic whirled and papers aligned, only to be replaced with more paper. She stared into the archive list of everything the museum owned. This path had led her down to some very strange options. All these things used to belong to creatures and places. Not a single exhibit featured the crystal empire.

If she returned these objects to Sombr, Discord, and the other creatures. It would benefit Twilight's and the fragile alliance. Perhaps put her in good standing to get that island back. Duplicates could be easily made and that would be that!

"Yaaaaaa-" Cadence yawned, it would just have to wait a little bit longer. She pushed back her chair and teleported right into bed. It didn't take long till she was dead asleep.

Beautiful hilltops sprawled as far as the eye could see. The blades of grass were misted by the early hours of the morning. A breeze so gentle you could the universe just woke up too.

Cadence leaned her head down into the small patch of bright flowers hinted at with the smell of freshly baked bread.

Her husband lay not far from her cradling their child with care. How she so desperately loved him. A sense of peace crept into her soul, one that felt foreign.

Cadence kicked the flowers with a scent of lavender and a strange sour smell. "Did you?" She begin to ask Shining but he was long gone, pushing his daughter on a nearby swing.

Cadence looked back at the orange and red flowers. She kicked them again. This time ascent of lemonade and that strange scratchy order. Kicking it again she decided it wasn't scratchy but bitter?

The kicked flower became more and more yellow. The scent became stronger, overpowering. Did it smell burnt? Soon the heat of her hooves caused the flower to engulf in flames. The flowers turned to her and started to scream. "Errr, err, err .... err err err."

"Fire!" Cadence screeched her husband yelled with her. Jumping up and into action faster than Rainbow Dash. Bells loudly rang through the halls of the castle followed by a small flashing light.

"Where? What?!" Shining said sleepily. His magic is armed but his brain chugging slowly.

A burnt smell wafted through the air. Cadence threw the door open to see the entire hallway engulfed in flames. "No, no, no, not again." Cadence clutched her chest and heaved.

"Darling it's ok, it's just a fire." Shining whirred his horns, wondering why the sprinklers had not taken care of the blaze. A puffy white goo appeared on the flames. "See, there. It'll be ok, you seem stressed honey maybe we should see-"

A burst of heat singed the tips of the royal's fur as the fire came back to life. Their jaws dropped as the flames danced along with the bedroom doorway.

"Magic fire, you don't think it was.." Shining started that thought but just couldn't end it. In a flash, he was in his daughter's room. The floor was covered in smaller flamed and a candle.

Flurry babbled as she lifted the candle up, a large puff of fire drastically missed the wick. It certainly did not miss the flammable curtain behind Flurry.

"Shit." Shining picked up his daughter, tossing the candle aside. Flurry cooed and tossed another small ball of fire nowhere near the candle. Shining just shook his head and teleported his daughter away.

"Flurry oh! I was so worried" Cadence cried out, holding her daughter tightly in her hooves. "Was it....again?"

Shining nodded soberly, he remembered last time. "They are going to insist on a magic cap."

Tears formed in Cadence's eyes. "We can't let them."

"I know, but this is the second time." Shining frowned as he remembered the day Twilight was put into one. Much to Celestia's dismay the world around her demanded it. Every pony busted their hides training her as quick as possible. It came with so many nasty side effects.

"We'll find another way, we have so far. We'll just well tell a fib and call Discord. He teleports Flurry back all the time he can probably do this."

"And if Twilight already knows?"

"We just have to hope." Cadence tilted her horn onto Shining's. They teleported away onto the field just outside the castle. Cadence did a quick count to make sure the staff was all there, which they were. She sighed in relief.

"You rest and I'll go get him," Shining said, he hated parting from his wife but her emotional state concerned him. The dark circles under her eyes did not help either. He waved over a familiar muzzle. "Watch over her while I go for help."

"Yes sir." Ivy would not fight him on this, the fire ponies had been fighting the flame for several hours by now.

Cadence softly sobbed trying to hide it for her ponies, fear, and panic was the last thing they needed. She stared at her burnt castle. 100 rooms and the whole castle, twice. They were going to catch on

Ivy took her queen softly and hugged her. She stayed them back and forth humming softly. "It'll be ok," She said every second that ticked by sunk in the truth. She was more than a queen she too was a pony. "It's ok to cry, I won't tell anyone. It's raining anyway and I don't think I can tell." Silence overcame the field, the spraying of water and shuffling of hooves. Shining coming back just as quick, Discord and Sombra in tow.

Sombra groaned, approaching the flames. He knew what he was here for, his magic. The fear was palpable, the voices of the massive crowd consumed this mind.

"What now?"

"Who attack us?"

"Is it Sombra, is he faking?"

"What if it's Chrysalis?"

"What will happen to my child now?"

Unlike all the others, it caused Sombra to turn his head curiously. He watched the massive amounts of ponies, so many there was no way to tell who that came from. He quickly got overwhelmed, heading to the castle to avoid the deafening sound of fear. A loud swoosh was heard before the castle was enveloped by darkness.

Cadence looked to her husband and back at her baby. She took a deep breath. "In the morning. Shining takes the people to safety. Guards, patrol the area look out for anything suspicious or anyone. Sombra and DIscord come with me, we are going to lay some traps." Cadence frowned as her husband look at her with disappointment She nodded, unsure if he knew she agreed. This was not the way Cadence wanted things done, but she could not see another. She would talk to him before bed.

They parted ways, Cadence moving closer to the blackish purple orb of magic. A woosh sounded and the castle was covered in an inch of snow, the flame nowhere to be seen. She sighed in temporary relief.

Discord smiled "welp done and done!"

"You say that as if you did something," Sombra growled as he sat back down. "So when will Twilight be here? I'd like to fill out one of her reports as quickly as possible. I wish to go back to bed."

"She....won't be coming." Cadence took a deep breath. "It's Flurry she keeps doing this but I know she doesn't mean to."

"So? I'm sure she will just put Starswirl on it and whatever his name was. The orange one in the cloak." Sombra yawned.

"I'm afraid it is more complex than that. Due to the shakey alliance, they will want a magic blocker on her. It's mostly used on alicorns in training. It's awful, I had one myself. It makes you nauseous and gives you headaches. That's just on the good days, it's nasty. She will have to grow up in one of those. What if she grows up to fear her magic. Or what if she never gets her cutie mark because of it. The future of my child will be stunted. I can' have her freedom taken from her."

Discord frowned, lack of freedom, the one thing he valued over anything else besides Fluttershy. "I can't say I don't understand that but I love mine just as much. Twilight would have us frozen in time."

"It's not pleasant and we refuse to go back." Sombra slammed his hoof into the ground and huffed. "Do you know what it's like being frozen for thousands of years? No, because you were just placed in charge while I was on the ice. It was horrific and I will spare you the details but I will NOT go back."

Cadence bottom lipped twitched "please, you can live here. You can have your own room, we will pay you. Whatever you need, want! I can't let them do this to her and if you refuse... I guess I will have to step down."

Discord and Sombra stared at each other in pure shock. Just for her child, she would give it all up? Sombra took a breath. "If you agree to our terms I supposed we will think about it. One: we need somewhere to retreat to if this should get us frozen. Two: you will agree to never hand us back over, no matter the cost. Three: if it comes to it, you will admit to Twilight this was your idea alone and say anything that comes to mind to make us look good."

Discord said nothing as he twirled his fingers "Four: we can confide in one other being of our choosing." He threw in there, he couldn't lie to Fluttershy, not ever again.

"I suppose I have no other choice, grab your things. You move into our castle on Monday." Cadence frowned, she would just have to take what she could get.

Author's Note

i go on vacation so next chapter may be late.