As The Sun Sets

"Nope, we still don't have anything prepared." Shining chuckled at Rarity freaking out about every single detail.

Cadance watched on from her spot on a cushion, mid conversation with Applejack and Fluttershy, Cadance took the moment to glance at her husband, just to check on him.

For being the only stallion here after we ditched the cakes... gonna have to go apologize for that later... He's doing pretty good.

Applejack turned to Cadance, drawing her back into the conversation, "Princess, how's the Empire nowadays?"

"It's beautiful as always." Was her simple response to lead into, "Though things have been getting more and more complicated recently."

"I've heard." Fluttershy said

"Really?"

She nodded, "A birdy friend of mine accidentally ended up in Ponyville after going from Trottingham to Manehatten. She was really confused, and I had to explain transportation magic before sending her on her way."

"What's that gotta do with hearin' about the Empire?"

Cadance answered, "It probably has to do with Tack & Co; Silver's front corporation."

"They're not very careful with animals there."

Applejack made a face, "Even I've heard of 'em, taking Equestria by storm. I heard from Granny that Filthy had some kinda business deal going through with them." She tilted her head towards Cadance, "That's her? The mare that was-"

"Yes, that's Quick Silver."

Fluttershy shuddered, "She's scary."

Cadance's mouth folded into a neutral line, "She... is, sometimes. She tries to be." She was more thinking out loud than making a real comment, "Aside from that though, honestly I've had enough of talking about Silver and such. How's Ponyville been? The Farm?"

Fluttershy timidly began with a smile, "Oh. Ponyville has been okay... Ponies are starting to get more used to the strange things that happen around here."

Applejack started, "Remember the Sister Hooves social? Big Mac just put on a dress and everypony looked the other way." She laughed at the tail end in quiet amusment.

Cadance made a face, "He what?"

Fluttershy answered, "Applebloom wanted to attend, but-"

Applejack interrupted, "I wasn't available."

Fluttershy continued after nodding, "So Big Mac dressed up like a mare, with makeup and everything. He went with her instead."

"Did... Was..." Cadance tried to imagine the sight, having only seen Big Mac in passing once, "Nopony said anything?"

"The way I got told was that everypony knew. You can't exactly hide as Big Mac, everypony thought it was cute though, so..." Applejack shrugged as the end of her explanation.

"I wish I could have seen that, isn't he as tall as I am?"

"I think he might be just a little bit shorter." Fluttershy said

This is nice... No talk about world ending entities, just normal inane stories about wacky nonsense

Cadance let out a sigh and picked up her empty paper plate in her magic as she stood up. "I'm going to grab everypony's trash, there's not a can in here, we'll have to take it back with us."

"Okay." and "Sure thing Princess" came from the two of them as Applejack hoofed Cadance her own plate.

As Cadance walked away, they continued talking. She glanced around at the room. Pinkie was spinning on the disco floor with a small alligator and Rainbow Dash, Shining was still messing with Rarity, and Twilight was investigating the Tree of Harmony. She'd expressed her desire to look it over before enjoying the festivities. Walking towards Shining and Rarity, Cadance reached over with her telekinesis to grab Rainbow's plate off the floor. Pinkie didn't use plates.

"Hey you two." Cadance said, striding up to the conversation.

"Cadance!" Rarity said in mock exhaustion, "Your husband is going to be the death of me. Please tell me you two have more planned than nothing?"

Shining just chuckled

Cadance shook her head, "We planned on doing this. Shining made an appointment with the hospital on Monday before we left. After that, well..."

Shining finished for her, "We've had a bunch of ideas bouncing around. I'm sure Cadance already has a plan or two."

"Three, actually." She giggled and Rarity rolled her eyes, levitating her own plate into Cadance's growing stack. "Thank you."

Rarity responded with a quick "Thank you" before turning back to Shining, "So let's talk name-" Cadance tuned out of their conversation as she approached Twilight.

She was concentrating, her eyes closed and her horn lit.

"Anything yet?"

Twilight huffed, her magic went out and she opened her eyes. "No. I don't know what Silver was talking about. As far as my magic can tell, the Tree of Harmony is an immense living enchantment. It's not sapient, it can't be asked things..."

Cadance lifted a wing over Twilight's back, "Maybe it's time to join your friends?" and she tilted her head back towards the party.

Twilight shook her head and stepped away. "You have to be more careful with Silver."

Cadance frowned. "Twilight, I don't want to talk about her." She said with more exhaustion than sternness

"I'm being serious. She's not even a pony."

"I take it Discord told you that?" Cadance smirked

Let's change the subject

"He did." Twilight said slowly, warily.

"What's going on with that then?"

Twilight's eyes darted to the side, "Going on? Nothing, he's just- well, he's been talking to me more is all."

Cadance laughed, "You can't hide that from me Twilight."

Twilight hung her head, "Ugh. Okay, well, something happened..."

"What?" Cadance practically danced, "You've got to tell me."

"I dunno... It's complicated..." She looked away

Cadance took a deep breath and "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaa-"

"Cadanc-"

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-"

Twilight let a smile come to her face, "Cadance sto-"

"eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-"

"Okay okay!" Twilight waved her hooves at the noise, her ears flapping, "Fine! I'll tell you."

Cadance nodded to herself, job well done.

"He told me he... liked me." Before Cadance could say anything Twilight rolled her eyes, "Yes, like that."

"Oh! Twilight! That's so exciting!" Cadance's glee infected Twilight, as she slowly started becoming more comfortable with explaining.

"I was floored at first." She was going to say something else, but Cadance interjected.

She said knowingly, "He surprised you and you teleported away?"

Twilight flushed red, "I was floored at first." She sternly reiterated, "But we talked... some, about it... He said he'd ask me on a date in a couple decades..."

"A few decades?" Cadance asked, already understanding the time scale of immortals. She asked to be polite.

"I've... got a lot going on in my life right now... I wasn't really sure, that's just what he said." She rubbed the back of her neck with her hoof, "He's been treating me differently. I can tell he's been trying to impress me." She scoffed, "Doesn't stop him from filling my pantry with custard though."

Cadance giggled, "That just means he likes you."

"Oh thanks, glad I know that now." She said sarcastically, they shared a titter between the two of them.

"I'll be around for you to ask advice from once he does; you're right though. Now's probably not the best time."

She probably hasn't thought about how she feels about him... lemme just...

Before Twilight could show her appreciation for Cadance's previous statement, Cadance asked, "What do you think of him?"

"What do I think?" She repeated back

"Uh-huh" Cadance bumped her with her flanks, "Are you interested?"

Twilight flushed and blinked, looking away from the taller Alicorn, "Cadance!"

Cadance giggled at her expense, "Just teasing."

Not really, heh

"Well, don't" Twilight ruffled her wings, smiling in annoyance.

"Noted." Cadance smiled and pointed off onto the disco tiles, where Applejack and Rainbow were dancing against each other, with Pinkie as the referee. "Feel relaxed enough now?"

"Yeah. Thanks." Twilight started walking off towards the three before stopping and turning around. "Hold on, I wanted to check this." Twilight waved Cadance over to a table in the far corner, covered in a pink tablecloth. Cadance followed, not having a reason not to, still trailing her ball of trash.

On the table was a small rectangular white box no bigger than her hoof with a golden stick on bow placed on it.

"What's this?" Cadance asked Twilight as they both came to a stop at the table.

Twilight reached out a hoof and brought the box towards the edge of the table. "I don't know, but it's covered in complex magic."

Cadance raised an eyebrow and reached out for the box. Flipping the top of it off, she glanced at the jewelry inside. A mix between functional and fashionable, the material was clearly metal, but Cadance couldn't determine it at a glance. It was both inlaid with and hung gemstones that glowed on their interior like they had veins, the magic flowing through the filaments of metal interwoven around and inside the gems to a central red and grey perfectly spherical gem sitting in the center.

"Whoah." Twilight leaned her head in to get a better look, "That's... Physical enchantments? Are those runes?"

Cadance lifted the now identified necklace out of the box. It stuck to her hoof as she grabbed at it, the necklace functioning like a magnet. It was light, and very flexible, the metal curved like it was liquid, even though it had very few joints. The gems jingled as they bounced against each other.

"What the..." Cadance muttered in confusion. Even she could feel the magic coming from it.

"There's a note." Twilight used her telekinesis to lift a slip of paper out from underneath the wrapping in the box. Once it was in front of her, Twilight began to read aloud. "Congratulations Little Princess?" Twilight looked confused and muttered, "Congratulations is spelled wrong..."

"It's what she calls me." Cadance clarified.

Twilight shook her head and continued, "This is the best I could rustle up as a gift for your little one. I'm not a particularly good tailor, so I went another route."

"I'll say." Cadance said sarcastically, still awkwardly holding the thing

"To clarify what it is. It's a-" Twilight cut herself off as her eyes bulged, she stuttered out, "A true polymorph charm?"

Cadance's eyebrows lifted, and she magicked away the note and flipped it around to read herself. The writing was rough, like it was hastily written.

Congradulations Little Princess
This is the best I could rustle up as a gift for your little one, I'm not a particularly good tailor, so I went another route.

To clarify, it's a True Polymorph Charm, capable of manifestively applying a combination of conjuration and illusion into transmutation. If you let your filly wear it around her hoof from birth to age, eventually it'll be able to recognize enough of her biology and unique magical signature for her to change shape at will.

Alicorns are very hard to manipulate the forms of. If she's going to be ageless, she'll appreciate having to wear it for as long as it'll take for it to work if it works for her.

Cadance didn't need to read the note over again

She looked at the necklace, or rather, the bracelet and just... continued looking at it.

Twilight tentatively asked, "What's the rest of it say?"

Cadance flipped it around to the top side of her limb, the bracelet moved on its own, the metal shifting its size and length to fit snuggly around her hoof. Immediately, she began to feel the sensation of it scanning her, trying to make sense of what it might have to change.

"It's... It's a long term investment... I think." Cadance said, letting it scan her. Eventually the sensation faded to the point where she couldn't feel it anymore, but somehow she could just still tell it was there. Studiously looking at her until it had everything it needed. It was alive in a way. Complex enough that it had some kind of intelligence.

"What's going on over here?" Shining wandered over with Rarity in tow. Cadance turned her head to see the dance battle heating up, but she turned her attention back to Shining.

Rarity added, "And what is that gorgeous piece?"

"A gift from Silver, to... our baby." Cadance summarized.

Shining gave it a skeptical look, "It's not a bomb is it?"

Cadance gathered her intent.

Off, please.

The bracelet shifted, the spot where it had bound itself around her hoof created a non-visible flash of light as it disconnected and reverted back to it's normal size. Cadance kept it balanced on her hoof.

Twilight had taken the note and was reading it over, answering Shining's question without looking up. "Supposedly it's a charm capable of cheap true polymorphing once it has time to identify and adapt to it's user."

Shining made the face that matched his following question, "Did you just say, 'true polymorphing?'"

Rarity said, "As in, real transmutation?"

Cadance nodded, "Silver made it for her. So that when she gets older, she's not stuck in one shape." Cadance shook her head with a slight smile.

Shining mimicked her mood with a phrase, "That's so her, it's almost funny."

"Leave it to Silver to cobble together a feat of magic never before seen and then downplay it as a quick gift." Cadance turned to Twilight, "Do you think you could reproduce this? If you had time to study it? If you can, then thousands of foals born with defects don't have to live with them anymore."

Rarity gasped

Twilight took the bracelet from her half reverently in her hooves and inspected it, "I don't know. It'd take longer than a few days. The whole thing is an enchantment, the metal, the gems, everything. It's all woven together, and that's only if I can figure out how this was done." Twilight switched into a lecturing tone as she stopped fully talking to the ponies around her, "The process of making it is part of the enchantment, and I've never seen a metal like this before, or this method of inlaying gemstones. The runes are so small, you'd need precision equipment to do this, and you'd have to do it while growing fresh gems from the ground up."

Twilight's ears flopped around, "I don't know." She finalized, "There's... no way I can think to build something like this all at once. In steps? Maybe I could reproduce parts... but I just don't know."

Cadance lifted the bracelet from Twilight with her magic and put it back in the box. "Just try. If you can't, you can't. Send me any questions and I'll see what I can get from Silver."

"It appears, at least, that the mare knows how to give gifts." Rarity monotoned.

Shining just shook his head in amusment.

"Alright!" Cadance clapped her hooves and flared her wings. She did a quick turn and strutted towards the rainbow floor. "I've got winner!"

After cleaning up the streamers and trash, Pinkie took the balloons, the mares bid Cadance and Shining goodnight even though it was more of an 'evening' at the time. Twilight, Cadance and Shining took the express way back to the Twilight's castle, Cadance had gone straight to the kitchen with Shining in tow for water and conversation. Twilight said she'd meet them there, and went to go deposit the bracelet in a lab.

While they were walking, Cadance said, "Can we agree to leave The Empire and Silver at the door for the rest of the weekend?"

"You bet. Outside of that bracelet, which will absolutely distract Twily from our visit."

Cadance shook her head, "I just can't stop worrying. Was taking a weekend off a mistake?"

Shining smiled, "No. It has it's upsides and downsides, I'll help you keep your mind off things."

"Oh yeah?" She sauntered as she walked, "How are you going to do that?"

He gave out an 'eheh' clearly not having been prepared for that response, recovering, he said, "With charming nothing?"

"Perfect. Nothing is exactly what I need right now. Just two days of..." Cadance remembered all the work they brought with them, "Paperwork and relaxation."

"Drinks first. Then we can bother Twilight more about the goings on."

"Alright... And I'll try to be less of a stick in the mud."

Shining made a face, "You're not a stick in the mud, what do you mean?"

"Am I wrongfully projecting my internal stress and thinking it's affecting you all more than it is?"

Shining blinked once at the complex sentence, and then carefully lifted a hoof while he was walking and calmly responded with, "Yes."

Cadance ruffled her own mane by shaking her head. "Okay. Sorry." She said, out of politlness rather than actual remorse. She knew what he was going to say.

Which he said, moments after, "Don't be sorry. The whole point of the trip is-"

"Destressing... Just some time away from it all. Yup, I know... I just wish my head would go along with it." They entered the kitchen together, both of them coming to a stop at the crystal island in the center of the room. The shape reminded Cadance of Silver's lab.

"Snacks, and then a good night's rest should do us both some good."

Cadance leaned over and smooched Shining on the cheek, "Thank you for staying strong for me."

He gave her back a genuine smile before wrapping his hoof around her neck and pulling her into a hug. Carefully, as to not poke himself in the neck with her horn, they shared the moment with each other. "Anything for you Cadance."

"Mhm..." She nuzzled into his chest and neck.

Eventually, Shining, without breaking the hug rhetorically asked, "Water?"

"Yes please."

There was the sound of cabinets and magic, and a faucet. Cadance leaned away just as a glass came floating to her.

I wonder how this place has its plumbing set up if none of the internals exist unless...

Shaking out her left hoof as she felt a mild ache, she stuffed the water down her mouth with her telekinesis. Deciding that she didn't have the patience to manually drink water with her hooves. Water was just as hard to manipulate with magic, but after years of practice, it was like lifting any other object.

Cadance glanced over at her husband as he rooted around in a cabinet. She let her gaze linger on his form.

The door they came in from opened up as Twilight cantered in, "Hey."

Shining lifted his head out of the cabinet near the floor, "Hey yourself."

"I never got the chance to thank you guys for that surprise." Twilight was all smiles. Happy to be here, happy to be talking to her family.

Cadance wanted to titter, but the sound fell flat due to the calm nature of the moment, she opted instead for a simple response, "It wasn't hard to set up, and your reaction was fully worth it."

"I still have so many questions."

Shining laughed once, "Snacks first, then you can interrogate her."

Twilight made an 'oh right, of course, that's what we're doing here' face, and then lit her horn. The cabinets all opening as she magicked a series of items out of them, crackers, snack cakes, the works.

"Before you ask. I do actually have a repeatable answer." Cadance said into the air as a plate flew over to her in a show of telekinetic mastery. Not that she needed a plate. Unicorn and all that.

"What do you mean?"

Cadance's simple response was a stressed, "Why."

"Oh... well..." Twilight wanted Cadance to continued, and she did.

"I got this from Silver, but the way she said it, the little one isn't just an Alicorn in features. She's got a connection to Eternity, and it sped up her development so the bond didn't overtake her soul."

Twilight made a cute face trying to translate the summary into technical phrases in her head.

Shining said something before Cadance could comment on Twilight's thinking face, "We're still going to get you checked out though. I'm not willing to trust Silver at her word."

"I don't disagree." Was Cadance's careful response. In truth, she was willing to trust Silver at her word.

Why would she lie? Go through all that effort just to give me an incomplete answer?

Additionally, Cadance figured there wasn't a reason not to go get checked out anyways.

Twilight finally finished 'processing' and asked, "Does that mean they're conscious? A full soul?"

"I don't think so. There's not a fully formed filly in my gut." Cadance turned to the side and lifted her wing, "As you can see."

"But that will change in two months." Twilight stated, half a question, half reminding herself.

"So I've been told. She'll grow on par with standard Alicorn regeneration."

"That's not going to be comfortable. I just realized." Shining said from the other end of the kitchen island after levitating a cracker into his mouth, "Having your body displaced by a baby in two months time."

Cadance gave a weary smile

Twilight tried to hold a neutral expression that looked seriously uncomfortable.

"Well on that note." Cadance levitated the third snack cake she had picked up back down onto the island, "I'm going to bed. Shining. You're coming with." She leaned over to Twilight and wrapped a wing around her, Twilight stepped forwards with a slowly rising smile as they shared a hug. "Love you, Twilight."

"Love you too." She weaseled he way out of the hug early and went for Shining, "And you BBBFF"

Oh yeah. That's what we like to see.

The storm of Love the two shared was deep and almost violent; daring anyone to test it's might.

They separated and Shining joined her at the door. "Goodnight" Cadance said

"Goodnight" Twilight parroted back.