Author's Note

For the sake of not displaying the full extent of my insanity, Silver's thoughts are not written out in this chapter about some stuff that happens off screen to Cadance's perspective.

Interlude: Fall for it

Quick Silver was stood in a fanciful garden along a crystal flagstone path, walking up to a mansion of seemingly modest proportions in comparison to the alternate shapes and sizes manors tended to take up.

Silver had come through the open gate at the end of the property, at least, it was open now; she actually visibly ogled the garden and its well trimmed grass, and perfectly shaped hedges, running water, exotic flowers and so on.

She approached the pair of semi-circle doors, jarringly placed right at the edge of the building without a veranda or any sort of porch. Then she knocked.

Stepping forwards as the door opened inwards for her, she was greeted by a smart looking grey crystal stallion, who gestured her inside. "Greetings and salutations Ms. Silver, please, her madam Immaculate is waiting in her study for you."

"Why thank you, please lead the way." Silver methodically stepped up from the flagstone onto a strangely soft uniform soft pink crystal, almost like carpet. The doorstallion led her through a short series of turns, then down a grand hallway, up a exorbitantly decorated staircase, and then up to a singular large ornately carved wooden door, which he knocked on.

"Please send her in." Was the quiet response that came through moments after the knock.

The stallion fit his hoof into an invisible hoof hold, and then slid the door into the wall, gesturing for Silver to enter. She did so without fuss, a massive Cheshire smile on her face as she took sight of Immaculate Gemstone sitting at her desk on the interior.

"Immaculate!" She called out, lathering on excitement in tandem with mirth in a way that was clearly sarcastic. The door slid closed behind her, sealing the room.

Once the door was closed, Gemstone put down a pamphlet she was appraising and sent a hard look towards Quick Silver, "You didn't hold up your end of our agreement."

Silver's false smile turned into a false frown as she gave the earth toned mare a once over. Gemstone had done a fine job of concealing her age visually, but Silver could see all the little telling movements of old age. Having been in the position many times herself.

"So we're not playing then. Alright." Silver stepped forwards, pushing an opposite chair out of the way as she lounged on top of Gemstone's desk. "I bet you're wondering why I didn't take any of your resources too, in addition to not doing what I said I was going to do."

Gemstone's hard look remained unchanged, "It was a distraction, to keep me away from Tack & Co."

Silver huffed. "Well, looks like you're a bit smarter than I gave you credit for."

"You'll find that The Empire is far more resilient than you would expect." Gemstone calmly placed her hooves over the table. "I don't know what kind of criminal you are, but it's only a matter of time before you're caught in the act."

Silver laughed a short, sardonic laugh, "I don't think so. My stories are straight, my background is perfect, the only thing you'd ever be able to take me to court for is a suspicious lack of my face in college and high school yearbooks. You don't have the bits to pay for any kind of tech to record me, or my dealings-" At least not any Silver couldn't invisibly disable at range, like the one under the pamphlet on Gemstone's desk, "Face it filly. I'm untouchable."

Gemstone shook her head, "I knew you were prideful, but nopony is untouchable, I'll find the chink in your armor and take you down just like everypony else who's stood in my way."

Silver waved her hoof non committedly in response, "Oh I doubt that. Everything has been smooth sailing so far after all."

"Winds change."

"Sure they do." Silver's smile was back in full force, "Say, what is it you hope to achieve, by interrogating me?"

Silver took note of the invisible setting of Gemstone's shoulders as she spoke, "I want no information from you, I know your likes, petulant business mare. I invited you here to offer you a warning."

"Ooo, do go on."

She did, "The Crystal Empire has seen far worse than you. The Crystal Maidens, Empress Glacier, the Yeti barbarians, you will fail." She ended simply, her expression still unchanged.

"Hmmm..." Silver tapped a hoof to her chin, still laying across Gemstone's desk, "No, I don't think so. It's interesting that you knew what to threaten me with though, I'm surprised you're old enough to remember the Crystal Maidens."

Gemstone responded with, "Even Sombra fell, the screaming child never truly had a hold over The Empire, only what we gave him, you will fall just like any tyrant."

Silver glared back, her eyes not matching her glib expression, "I am quite sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you have it all backwards. I'm not going to take over your stupid little country." Silver flipped a hoof, "It's like you said, I'm a business mare. I saw an opportunity, a weakness, and I capitalized."

"Then you were fooled."

Silver ignored her, "No, because if I were going to take over your dying culture, I'd need several other degrees. I'm going to destroy The Empire." Silver said it calmly, placing her hooves gently on the table, "I'm going to gouge every single last bit from this eyesore in the north, and turn whatever's left into a tourist attraction so Equestrians can come and point in excitement at where your people used to be."

Gemstone steepled her hooves in front of her, "Then you've made your intentions clear, and the full might of the Crystal Ponies will come for you."

Silver leaned into Gemstone's face, the elder crystal pony not budging an inch, even though Silver could see the telltale signs of her curse just beneath Gemstone's eyes. "When I'm done mangling your pathetic city, I'm going to retire to a twenty acre estate with beautiful gardens, and then build an amusement park around it."

"Get out."

"You wanna know what I'm gonna call it?" Her tone came out even, deep and menacing.

"Get out."

"Heh." Silver shook her head and then backed away from the table. "Be seeing you then." Silver turned, and opened the door herself, startling the grey stallion waiting outside. She pretended that her sensitive hearing didn't pick up on the Gemstone's hooves shaking as she left. She pretended that she didn't hear Gemstone burst into confused tears as Silver shut the door behind her.

And after the grey stallion led her back down the exorbitantly decorated staircase, through the grand hallway, and past a series of short turns and Silver was standing back outside in the garden; Silver looked up to the structure sitting on a twenty acre spot of land, set her jaw and somberly said, "I'm very sorry about that little one. With hope, you won't ever have to go through that again."

Then she walked off.

Silver oddly looked at the closed sign hanging on the opposite side of the crystal glass door, peering past it to see moving boxes, trolleys, and other equipment of the same ilk.

She was currently in the residential district 'roundabout midday, when there was very little hoof traffic. She knocked on the door vehemently, hoping somepony was inside. Of course, this being Silver, she already knew of the two ponies inside, and was merely knocking like a lunatic to let the two ponies know she wouldn't be leaving.

Eventually, a cream coloured crystal mare, no older than twenty years old came to the door and wrenched it open, "Excuse me miss." She said tersely, "But we're closed."

Before the mare could slam the door closed again, Silver stuck her hoof into the doorframe, "That's exactly why I'm here." Her phrase gained her a confused look from the young mare, and she continued, "I noticed your shop has been closed for the last couple of days, and I grew worried you were closing for good, that's not the case is it?"

The cream coloured crystal mare frowned, and sadness filled her voice, "I'm sorry ma'am, but yes, we're closing for good."

Silver shook her head, "Well that just won't do. If I can have a moment of your time, I believe I can offer assistance, though I will say it may not be what you're looking for. It's only what I can offer."

The mare's confused look intensified, "What kind of help?"

"A business deal. I'm an accountant from Equestria, working for Tack & Co. They have a program that can re-open your shop."

The mare frowned as soon as Silver said 'Tack & Co.' She turned her head back inwards to the building, and bit her lip. She opened the door slightly as she thought, before pushing it open all the way. "I'll hear you out."

Just as Silver stepped inside she said, "Thank you, what's your name by the way miss?"

"Creamy Freeze."

Silver internally laughed at the name. "Well happy mid-day to you, I hope I can help you."

"Thanks" Creamy said tentatively as Silver stepped inside and looked around.

Snapping her head back to Cream, Silver sat back on her haunches and began talking with her voice and hooves in tandem, "So! In short, there's a local stimulus program going on for businesses getting outplaced by Tack & Co's industry."

"Outplaced is a kind of word for it." The mare grumbled

Silver's voice went soft, "Now I know, it's... well, it came to the regional department's attention when local businesses started to shut down. We probably shouldn't've done those ad campaigns. Given the locals a chance to slowly acclimate to our delivery services. I'm sorry for the damages it's caused you."

The mare's ears did that pony thing where they go from being floppy when they're dejected, to being perky when they're happy. Cream clearly liked, or at least accepted the sympathy.

"That's why this program exists at all." Silver continued, gesturing with her hooves, "The premise is that we begin buying your products at a discount, and selling them elsewhere in Equestria, in exchange, the discount percentage we get from you, is the percentage of the cut of profit we give back to you from what we sell." She made a chopping motion, "If we buy your products at twenty percent off, you get twenty percent of any profits we make when selling your products, antiques will sell excellently, especially with our safety packaging."

Cream was mulling over the idea with more and more visual hope, "What's the percentage?"

"Uh-" Silver's hooves stopped their motions momentarily, "Well, that's- rather, I don't know, I'm not part of that department. I can help you set up the paperwork, but I think it's a fluid rate, you'll be able to discuss the details and decide what works best for you."

"That..."

"In addition, there's a stimulus, a sort of incentive to take the deal, and an apology for the financial damages we caused the area."

"How big of a stimulus?" Cream lilted her voice with curiosity and suspicion.

Silver gestured at the shelves, and the comically large number of them that said 'sale!' or 'Fifty Percent Off!' "Enough to bring your prices back up to what they used to be. One of our ponies will want to look at your papers, and calculate your loss; it'll probably be around whatever that number is."

Cream was smiling now, "This sounds too good to be true!"

"If it sounds it, then it probably is." The large crystal stallion decided to make his presence known, finally. Silver faked turning around in surprise. "What's the catch?"

Silver's ears folded down, "Well... I'm sure you already understand, I take it you own the antique store?"

The stallion shook his head, "Used to. It's been Cream's responsibility for the past year, once she was old enough." He gave Silver a suspicious look, "And yeah, I do understand, what you're saying is that we'd be reliant on Tack and Co selling our goods. If your people fail, we fail."

Silver nodded, "It's not perfect, and I know it's not... I know I can't just undo what we've done. It hurts to know the amount of good ponies that we accidentally forced their business from."

The stallion nodded along as Silver spoke

"It's what I can offer though. That's all I can do, would you please at least consider it?" Silver pleaded

The stallion and mare shared a short visual conversation between themselves over Silver's shoulder. Silver waited for them to get halfway into that conversation before interrupting, "And you obviously don't have to agree to anything right now, I can get you in touch with somepony, and you can look over all the details yourself."

"Well..." The stallion started, "I guess there's no harm in just looking at what you're offering."

Silver clapped her hooves and spread her wings in fake excitement, "Great! Should I-" She was interrupted at the large stallion pointing his hoof in Cream's direction. "Oh," Silver turned to Creamy, "Should I get you a card? Or, I can have somepony swing by in an hour or two?"

Cream nodded, "In an hour, please, and thank you."

Silver nodded in tandem and stood to shake Creamy's hoof, "Of course, I'm glad to help."

Then Silver ducked out the front door while waving goodbye. After Silver's senses told her that Cream had gone back into the store room in the little antique shop, Silver let out a sigh as she looked up through the Heart's shield at the sun.

"Just after noon. Yeah." Silver shook her head and began trotting off at a near galloping pace, "I've got five more of those in me."

Silver was in a park, taking a leisurely stroll beneath some of the local crystal flora. Blades of near florescent glass stalks of grass glinted in the sun, a beautiful contrast to the deep onyx crystal flagstones.

Silver looked around ambivalently, her gaze passing across the scenery until it settled on a bench just off to the side of the path ahead. She smiled, and approached it, making a show of finding the sight charming, and taking a seat.

She lounged calmly, her head still pivoting around.

"Check." She said, into the air

"Check" Came another voice, from somewhere.

"Direction clear." Silver monotoned, her lips barely moving as she continued to impassively look around.

"Copy." Came the voice from no where again.

"I have a message I need delivered. To your Queen."

The invisible voice spoke again, "She won't like that."

"Did I ask you to talk back to me?"

Silence. Silver nodded to herself as the moment passed.

"I need her to meet me at the fourth drop site. One league north outside of the portal. Thursday morning at sunrise. Make sure you emphasize the importance."

"Understood."

Silver stood from the bench and continued down the path, once she was out of earshot, Silver smirked, "One more distraction."

Nopony was nearby to see what happened, but within the next minute, the bench was gone.

"Here you go, Ivory." Slick Quire planted a massive three ringed binder on a fold out table

"Wow."

Slick chuckled aloud, "I know." She patted the binder and its contents, "This bad boy's got everything you'll need to formalize the origination of your staff, all copied and stored in the relevant locations."

Easy Morning gave a comedic whistle, "It's even bigger than the one she gave me."

Ivory pulled the thing across the table and flipped it open, "There's even a table of contents!" She smiled at Slick, "Thank you, you have no idea how much of a help this is."

"Nothin' to it. I mean I am getting paid, so you know." Slick made an exaggerated shrugging gesture.

"Still. We can't thank you enough, you managed to whip this whole castle into shape in no time flat." Said Easy.

Slick laughed, bumping hooves with Easy as Ivory continued flipping through the binder, "Easy now Easy, you wouldn't want my ego blowing out of my ears do you?"

The two shared an additional series of chuckles. Ivory said, "Once we have all of this presented to the staff, we should be able to begin the subdivision work right?"

Easy nodded, "I've already got the ball rolling on that, tomorrow, the palace should be moving like a pair of greased up gears."

Slick mimed looking at a watch, "Well you two, break time's just about over, I've got work to do."

"Okay" Said Ivory, Easy just gave a wave, Ivory continued, "See you around Slick."

Slick let off an exaggerated salute and a cocky smile as she left their impromptu meeting room, she transitioned from Slick Quire back into Quick Silver in less than an instant. "Glad that went just as quickly as I needed it to." Before wandering off into the depths of The Spire.