Cadence felt quite a bit of shame as she sent away the scroll with a brief flash of magic fire.

She hated calling for help, she really did, but what was her other option? Agree to their wild demands? Hardly.

Sending out her guard to deal with the uprising *was* an option, but the crystal miners had met Shining's last attempt to force them back to work with force of their own.

She still remembered the shock of seeing her well trained soldiers being beaten and captured by the mob. Hiring mercenaries would cost more than she was willing to pay, so asking her aunt for help it was.

It merely took a minute for the god-tier sorceress to arrive.

The older alicorn didn't waste any time on pleasantries.

"I read your letter," she declared, glaring down at her slightly shorter niece. Cadence fought the urge to cower, they were equals now, well almost.

"I am very disappointed in you," Celestia eventually declared. "It's been less than a year since I put you in charge of The Crystal Empire and you are already having this much trouble?"

Cadence opened her muzzle to refute, but it was true. She hung her wings and admitted defeat.

"Yes, now will you help me?"

Celestia seemed to genuinely consider denying the request, but after a tense few moments she reluctantly agreed.

"I will, we can't risk any of them spreading any ideas to my queendom. But if this happens again, I will replace you with Twilight."

Cadence bit back her resentment at that. At least Twilight was better than Celestia's usual threat, of bringing back that bitch Sunset Shimmer.

She forced herself to follow the senior ruler as she turned on the spot and strode out on the palace balcony.

The noise of the protests grated against their royal ears as they surveyed the rabble occupying every square and street surrounding the palace.

Celestia clicked her teeth in disappointment. "Is this really all? I can roast them in seconds."

Cadence didn't like the slight to her power, but decided that playing the subservient was probably her best course of action. She'd usurp her aunt eventually, better if the old hag didn't see it coming.

"We don't all have the full power of the sun, Auntie," she said, putting as much adoration in her voice as she could stomach.

"You speak true," Celestia agreed, and then everything went white.

It took Cadence several seconds to regain her vision after the blinding display.

"Fucking warn me next time!" she whined.

"Silence!" came the reply. "You are on this ice as it is, niece. Now hurry along and clean this mess up."

With another blinding flash, the alicorn of the sun was gone, leaving Cadence with a city full of charred bones and no workers to clean them up.

"Bitch," she muttered.

Author's Note

Another short one, picking this back up after the stress of NaNo.
The prompt was: Loud Opposition.