As The Sun Sets

Stepping away from The Spire, Cadance guessed it was somewhere near eight thirty-ish. The night was quiet aside from the clacking of hooves on glass. That is, Cadance's hooves.

Not making any sound when walking must be some kind of spell

"Is there a reason we're not flying?" Cadance asked, after she was side by side with Silver, her longer gait making up for how quickly Silver was moving.

"Weeeeell..." Silver rubbed the back of her neck with a wing, "This was supposed to be the night you were gonna probe me for all those questions piling up... That got tossed out the window." A notepad appeared in front of Silver's face, seemingly from nowhere, she stuffed her muzzle into as a few pages flipped over the top. "It won't put us too far behind," she dismissed it back into the aether and shrugged, "But if you've got something important to ask, now is the time."

"You want me to ask you questions?"

"What kind of megalomaniac would I be if I didn't want to monologue? I have to play the part just a little." Silver said, scrunching her eyes

Cadance tilted her head, "You don't really seem like you want to."

"Oh Tartarus no. I just fall into the role enough that I don't fight it anymore."

Don't fight it anymore?

Despite that line of conversation, Cadance wasn't willing to throw away the chance to ask the series of questions she had available to her. "Remember Banana?"

"The lawyer?"

Cadance nodded

"I gave him some advice, but told him to go screw himself."

Cadance suspiciously stated, "You're being very forthcoming right now."

Silver shrugged, "It's a short walk." She smiled, and gave Cadance a knowing look while bouncing her mane, "Why don't you go for a bigger question?"

???

"Tack & Co.?"

Silver let out a stomach laugh.

"Okay, well, firstly, why is that so funny?"

Silver, her laughter tapering off, said, "I was gonna do this whole thing, but whatever, just remove the 'and'"

"The and?"

Tack Co-

Cadance shook her head, "Wait..."

"Oh come on, not even a laugh?" Silver pouted

Cadance shook her head again, "Did you... spend however many bits, organize a nation wide cooperation, and create however many hundred jobs just to get me to say taco?"

Silver struggled not to burst out laughing.

"You're completely insane." Cadance stared off into space.

It is kinda funny...

"Yes and no." Silver answered, the mirth gone from her voice, "The name was spontaneous, but the company is the crux of my plan to destroy The Empire."

Cadance raised an eyebrow, "Destroy? I find that hard to believe."

"Believe it sister."

"You're just telling me that you're planning to destroy the Crystal Empire?"

"Yup."

They walked silently, turning down the last street to Silver's home. Silver avoided Cadance's gaze, boring into the side of her head.

Cadance started, once she collected her thoughts, "Even if that is true, why tell me?"

"It'll be more challenging if you try to stop me." Silver said, without turning, focused on her house off in the distance.

"Do you find the back and forth entertaining?"

"Not really, I honestly find the whole charade exhausting."

Cadance desperately asked, "Then why do it? Why do any of this? Why the dark magic? Why the... the... manipulations? The company, becoming a noble, what is it all for?"

Silver just shook her head, "All that and you only ask the right question right at the end the walk."

Cadance gestured forwards, "Uh! No! We've still got at least a block." Hoping to drag anything out of the smaller mare.

"Fair enough, I can't argue that." Silver tapped a hoof to her chin, "Why?" She said rhetorically, drawing the moment out as long as possible. "I guess you can fully place the blame on Luna."

Cadance rolled her eyes, "What, Luna made you do this?"

"I'll give you a leading question, to finish off the whole thing. I'm feeling generous." They came to a stop on the grass of Silver's yard. "Luna had an idea of how this," Silver gestured between the two of them, "would go. She wasn't entirely wrong either, but in case you haven't noticed, she chose" Silver dramatically leveled her hoof at Cadance, "You."

Silver's face morphed into a frown, "I'm not a friendship problem. Luna knew that." She spat the world friendship. After she dropped her hoof, Silver turned and headed for the door, Cadance struck dumb by how quickly the gears in her head were turning.

"Wait-"

"Nope, that's the end of that. I can't give up the whole fish."

Fish? What?

Silver stopped at her door and tapped her hoof, "Mmm... I don't think that's how that phrase goes..."

Cadance trotted up behind her, "Please? Can you at least finish your thought?"

"I just did." She pressed a hoof against her door, the wave of light unsealing the room barely visible in the dark, "You weren't listening." Then Silver entered inside.

Dang it!

Cadance stomped a hoof, still trying to parse what exactly Silver meant. The good news was that Silver had clearly meant something.

"Come in! We are here for a reason after all!" As Cadance approached, "And you lot, we've got a guest! Best behavior now."

Oh right, I can't believe I forgot there were five other ponies living here

As Cadance stepped inside, she was greeted by the 'foyer' again. In addition to a trio of ponies playing cards on the floor, in front of the table. Point Flare, Kayfur, and Riptide

I wonder if all of these rooms are stored somewhere? Or does Silver have to make them fresh every time she dismisses one? Also, why are they all on the floor?

Deciding to voice at least one of those questions, Cadance spoke to the trio of ponies just turning to look at her, "Why are you three on the floor?" The unsaid: 'since there's a couch and a table right there', clearly being the point of the inquiry.

Silver, from the other end of the room admonished, "I know we're here for you, but that doesn't mean you get to interrogate my staff. Let them sit on the floor! Who cares!" She disappeared down a set of stairs

There was a mixed series of greetings from the ponies on the floor, their game forgotten. Riptide was the one who answered her question, "The couch is too hard for us. I don't think Silver realizes we're not five thousand pounds."

Point Flare rolled her eyes, "What he means," She sent him a look, "Is that it's her couch, and she's a lot heavier than we are."

Kayfur unhelpfully shrugged, "I don't mind it."

Well... you are made of crystal...

There was an echo of Silver shouting up the stairs, "Move your rump wings and horn!"

"Better go. It was nice seeing you all again." Then Cadance hastily made he way towards the stairs, carefully starting down them as they were a bit short for her, too deep, and the hallway was just about as wide as she was. Halfway down, the stairwell transitioned from crystal to a dull metal. An oddly dull metal.

Stepping down into the room, Cadance glanced around the numerous objects she had no hope of recognizing.

"Your lab?" She asked, meeting the eyes of Silver at the other end of the room.

"Just about. This is where I kept all my old equipment." She was rooting around in a cabinet, so her voice echoed.

Seeing her backside awkwardly sticking out of a cabinet while she was digging inside for something almost made Cadance forgot who she was. Just for a moment thinking that this was just a normal pony, rather than a fellow immortal. Curious, she asked, "Are you doing that intentionally?"

"What?" Silver pulled her head out from the cabinet and turned around

"Are you... acting so normal? Intentionally?"

Silver's ears perked in understanding, "Oh? Surprised you picked up on that. The short answer is no." Silver looked back to the cabinet to reach into it again, then stopped, looked back at Cadance, then at the cabinet again and made an 'o' face. Flipping her hoof, a wave of cerulean magic swept the room. Silver rolled her eyes, stepped to the side, and opened the opposite cabinet. Using her magic to pull out a scroll and unrolling it.

She studied the spell while speaking, "Would you mind sinking the island? Just grab the rim in telekinesis and push."

Cadance appraised the island in the center of the lab for a second before complying. Initially it felt pretty sturdy, but as soon as the whole surface was wrapped in her aura, she felt some of it's weight shift. Pushing down, she felt it yield, and watched as the table slid down into the floor. It went down a bit further than expected, and a magic cover made of Cadance's signature blue aura covered the floor where the table used to be.

"Is that a hard light projection?"

Silver was still nose deep in a spell, "It uses the telekinetic force to create it."

"Huh." Cadance pressed her hoof against it, testing it's rigidity. Felt like floor.

"Okay." Silver roughly threw the spell off to the side, "Normally I need a platform for this, but I can free style." She took a moment of limbering up, stretching her body out like a cat. Once she was done, she spread her wings open, and then her feathers before twisting them

Her wings spun grossly, the joints clearly designed to do that, but not on any real pegasus. Trailing lines of cerulean light, Silver began to draw out an enchantment in the air.

It was far too complex for Cadance to follow unfortunately, but it was very pretty.

Once Silver was done, the lights began to orientate themselves, snapping together and twisting around each other jerkily, like the interior of a clock. After a few rotations of several of the components, a sparkle appeared over where the table used to be, followed by an expanse of lines and nodes so complex that it looked like an ocean of stars.

"Whoah." If Cadance thought the spell was pretty, than this was absolutely flooring.

"Like it?"

Cadance nodded, "What is it?"

"You're looking at my soul."

Cadance believed her. The sight was indescribable, exactly what one would expect from looking at a soul.

"At least, a projection of it." Silver had stepped out of the spell, and up to the projection. "Watch this." She stretched out a wing, and wrapped it over Cadance's back and pulled her close. There was a warmth in the action that Cadance wasn't expecting, and a flicker of Love passed over the wall that was Silver's mind.

In the spiraling tangle of what a spider would consider clockwork, a little blur of pink movement flashed throughout the nodes and lines, lighting up a section of the projection. Silver closed her eyes and the projection changed, zooming into the particular section as the projection exploded around them.

Cadance watched in stunned wonder as the image settled.

Silver pointed a hoof, gesturing vaguely at a cluster of nodes, "That's you."

"Huh?" Cadance looked from Silver's hoof to the projection, not having a response ready.

"Souls connect to things, it's what they do. That's what you look like to my soul." Silver pointed again at the cluster, then squeezed Cadance again. The nodes lit up again, one of them practically burning, sending a cascading affect of pink spiraling throughout the nodes around Cadance like fireworks.

"That right there." Silver pointed to the burning node, "Is your connection to Love. Your divine aspect."

"Why is it..."

"Here? In my soul?" Silver finished her question, "It's because where ever you go, you take your divine aspect with you. It even affects me, such is its power."

"This is beautiful."

"Geez. You really know how to talk to a girl."

Cadance shook her head and stepped from out underneath Silver's wing, "Aaaand you ruined it." Despite herself, she couldn't help but smirk.

Silver laughed, and the projection lit up again, far off in the distance. She waved a hoof and the projection shrunk down into a point again. "Sorry, I got a little distracted. I may have wanted to show off a little." Silver stepped to the side. "Here, go stand in the spell, it'll scan you, and I can actually get to work."

Cadance nodded, walking over to it.

"Oh!" Silver exclaimed, and Cadance turned her head, "Do you mind if I record this? It may be useful in case anybody else get's pregnant with an immortal, or if another immortal is trying to conceive."

"Uh"

"I'll ask you before sharing and all that, it's your body and baby after all." Silver said the statement like it was completely innocuous, but Cadance was, at least at the time, sure that such a thing was what Silver would just do without asking.

It seemed a little out of character for her is all. In fact, the whole night seemed a little out of character for Silver.

What was that hug by the way? Don't forget about that.

"Yeah, go ahead." She nodded, stepping into the spell.

Silver was right behind her, and started making adjustments to the swirling arcane symbols floating around in the air. "Okay, you're definitely going to feel a tingle, please don't blow up my basement."

"Is that a possibility?" Cadance concernedly asked

"Alicorn souls are known to be explosive when directly stimulated." Silver said nonchalantly, spinning the spell into action.

Cadance shuddered, letting out an involuntary 'oooo' noise as it felt like the opposite reaction for which suddenly standing under an ice cold shower, but from the inside, and if it were warm. She couldn't help but twitch slightly, a sparkle of magic leaking from her horn.

"Okay, we're going to have to try that again."

"What happened?"

Silver continued physically fiddling with the spellwork.

I wonder how she makes enchantments physical like that? It'd be a wonder if spell casters could work with their magic tactilely, like she's doing.

"This spell is rated and tuned for me." She twisted her hoof, and a spell circle grew, it's features deepening into more copies of itself. "I've never used it on an Alicorn before, of which have fundamentally different souls. It's like the reverse of using an oven to cook toast."

Cadance, trying to keep herself still in the spell evenly said, "I'm struggling to understand that analogy."

"Your soul is the oven. Mine is a toaster. The spell is the bread."

Cadance laughed in her head as she worked out the details, "So it's doable, but more delicate?"

"Yeah. The image is going to be wonky, but it's okay because..." Silver adjusted a few more things, "We only need..." The spell began to spin again, a ring appearing around Cadance, spinning in the opposite direction of the rest of the magic, "One section."

Cadance felt the tingle again, this time able to suppress her shudder at the far less intense sensation. The ring around her started sparking blue and pink as it spun... oddly enough, there was a hint of gold mixed on the interior of the line that Cadance could barely make out.

"Alright, hold still, it's going to have to stay active while I look."

"Okay... So what is the point of doing this?"

Silver went over to the projection, and began spinning a smaller version around, inspecting it by orientating it in different directions. "The short answer is that souls are smart. Alicorn souls are wise. If your magic jumping up is an issue, it's because it's a defense mechanism for something that's gone wrong, that'll be easily noticeable in this projection, since it's stimulating and projecting the same base that your soul is operating on." She spun around the projection again, watching it intently.

"I'm definitely seeing the thaumic jump. Nothing damaged though." She hmmed to herself, "This is interesting though."

"What did you find?"

"Oh nothing yet. I've literally never looked at an Alicorn soul like this before, it's going to take me a moment to get my bearings..." Silver trailed off in confusion

"Silver?"

"..." She kept orientating, and looking.

"Is that a bad silence or a confused silence?" Cadance let the worry seep into her tone.

"I honestly shouldn't be surprised seeing something so new. I mean-" Silver looked over her shoulder, "I'm looking at something that's never happened before, why am I so astounded?"

Cadance shot her rhetorical question a 'mother' look

"Right." Silver twirled her hoof, "Well... Let me check another thing, just to be certain."

"You said nothing was wrong. Is that still true." She told, not asked

Silver nodded, "You and your baby are totally safe. This is probably natural for an alicorn."

"Go on?" Cadance said, no willing to partake in the back and forth anymore

"Your filly, and it is a filly, sorry for spoiling that, is about seven months old."

Cadance's head tilted, "I'm sorry?"

"Yup. You're visibly pregnant with a soul of about seven months of age. Which is technically not possible, however, my best guess for cause is that the divine aspect your child carries necessitated a soul built around them."

"Please Silver, I need a simpler explanation."

Silver waved her hoof, and the magic in the room died, just a single flicker, and everything went out. "Normal new souls start from scratch, grappling at their mother's for facets and details that originally make them up. It's why most pony offspring are female, soul memory and body physicality shape each other in tandem." Silver paused, waiting for Cadance to nod, when she did, Silver continued, "Your child, is connected to an aspect of Eternity, and had no such restrictions. Her soul grew far faster than a regular child's and your body was seemingly expecting that. I give you an estimate of going from showing to gravid in weeks, rather than months."

Silver by now, was standing next to Cadance as she spoke, "I'd need to do a bit more work, but guesswork implies that she'll start rapid cell growth on par with Alicorn regeneration within the next few days. It looks like you're due in about two and a half."

Cadance's eyes, which were opening wider and wider as Silver went on, shot open and she shouted, "Two and a half WEEKS?!

"No, no, two and a half months." Silver clarified, her mane blown backwards in a comical position as she stood in place unperturbed by The Royal Canterlot Voice.

Cadance fell backwards onto her flanks, staring off into space.

"The good news is t-"

"Silver?"

"Yes Little Princess?"

"Shut up."

"Shining Armor!"

Cadance burst through another set of doors, shouting for her husband. Her mane was fritzy, and her wings were spread. Several ponies who knew where the stallion was had already refused to tell Cadance for fear of being involved in what looked to be the moments before Shining's death.

Angry Alicorn wives are scary.

That being said, Cadance wasn't angry, she was panicked, baring the spiraling thoughts spinning through her head, the only cohesive surface thought that could be pulled from her mind was:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Cadance continued bursting into halls and startling the staff, trying to subconsciously piece together how she was going to do anything within the next two months.

"Cadance!"

Her head snapped to the side, Shining Armor running down the hall with objects in his telekinetic grasp that Cadance didn't take the time to look at before hard warping both of them up to their room. Cadance appeared on the bed, and Shining's run took him tumbling over the back board with an 'oof'

Recovering, Shining quickly began asking, "What's going on? Is the Empire under attack? Is it Silver?"

Cadance didn't mean to, which was how she looked at it, but all that came out her mouth was broken stuttering as she began to ball her eyes out. Shining, being an intelligent husband, initiated a hug and mane strokes within the next crucial three to two seconds.

All Shining had to work with at the moment was Cadance's blubbering with tangible phrases like 'I'm not ready' and 'what are we going to do' and 'Its too much' filtering out in-between her crying. Duitifully, he shifted his weight to allow her to lean into him, and continued to stroke her mane back into it's normal wavy shape, albeit, shorter.

Shining's soldier eyes snapped to movement at the door as Silver quietly stepped inside, a series of large poster sized paper held in her wings. She lifted a hoof to shush Shining's initial question of alarm, and held up the first poster card.

"We found out that Cadance is due in two months."

She then flipped to the next one

"She's understandably freaking out about it."

Shining waited for the next card as it came,

"Baby is safe, so is she, but the lack of hormones is going to be changing soon."

Then the last one

"Good luck."

Silver put the cards back under her wings and gave noncommittal salute before leaving the way she came in.

Shining continued to hold Cadance, now equally stunned. Rallying himself, he pushed the thou- he tried to push the thought out of his mind and comfort his wife.

It was a rough night for them.