As The Sun Sets

"What did you think? In the end?" Cadance asked, observing the now empty trees as they walked through a clearing towards the path.

Shining rolled his eyes, "I clearly don't have the talent for it like you do."

Despite trying to keep a straight face, Cadance still smiled, once she noticed Shining noticing she broke into a laugh, "Sorry- I'm not making fun of you."

Shining just shook his head.

There were no confections either, Applejack promised some next time; so he had that to look forward to at least. It didn't hurt his pride at all to have spent nearly an hour kicking trees and failing to do anything other than have an apple fall on his head.

Cadance continued to giggle at Shining's exaggerated frown as they walked back into town.

"Lunch next?" Shining said, Cadance nodded. She seemed to have enjoyed limbering up; despite the initial setback to the activity.

Now that it was noon there were plenty of ponies going about their business outside. Mostly walking to and fro, Shining could pick out a few conversations as his ears swiveled around; not anything important enough to eavesdrop.

"Sugar Cube corner’s in the center of town." Cadance picked up her pace at that, supposedly heading in the direction.

"Do they do lunch things?" Shining asked as he matched her pace

Cadance shrugged with her wings, "They're a bakery, they do everything."

Shining made a face before realizing that he couldn't think of a bakery that didn't fit that description.

Huh

"That, and we need to apologize to the Cakes."

"I was thinking the same thing earlier."

It didn't take them long, weaving around the few small gatherings of ponies that could hardly be called a crowd. Nobody reacted until they'd walked past, something Shining enjoyed about this town. With the resident Princess being his adorkable sister, the ponies were acclimated to seeing royals wandering around; thus, no fuss.

Well, a little fuss, there was the odd pony that bowed, and plenty who stared. It was better than anywhere else he'd seen though.

Cadance kept moving with that in mind, mare on a mission.

Moving mare

Unluckily, or luckily, depending on how you looked at it, Sugarcube corner was closed until the evening.

"I didn't realize they ever closed..."

Cadance added in her agreement, "With both Pinkie, and the Cakes working... what do you think they're up to?"

"It's Pinkie and the Cakes." Shining surmised, "Could be anything."

"Well what now?"

"We could go wandering again."

Cadance made a face between mock sadness and petulance. "But I'm hungry."

"Wanna see if they have any fresh lunch things in the market?"

She smiled, to which Shining briefly internally cheered, "Yes!" Her smile turned into more of a smirk, "Yes I do."

She took the lead, marching at first, before going back to a more casual trot. Shining followed along, of course.

The town of Ponyville became more dense in its structure and ponies as they got closer to the open market. The large space in front of city hall was taken up by anyone trying to sell their wares, or on the flip side, anyone looking to buy any wares. The houses split from single floor and sparse structures to taller buildings with shops on the bottom, and houses on top. As the two royals approached what went for 'town square' in Ponyville, they got a little look at some of the odd businesses that had been grounded enough to warrant having a building of their own.

Shining saw a shop that, from the outside, seemed to sell exclusively sofas and quills. That was by far the most accurate description Shining felt one could form when describing Ponyville.

'Hey, what's Ponyville like?' and then Shining would say, 'They have a sofa and quill shop.' Then everyone would silently and confusedly fail to respond, much like how Shining's first glance of the shop left him dumbstruck.

Anyways

He caught up to his wife, who was standing on the outside of a crowd. As he approached, he noticed how this wasn't the 'hustle and bustle' crowd, this was the 'looking at something' crowd. Once he was next to Cadance, he was able to hear what was going on, that, and he was tall enough to simply see.

"That's right ponies! Only our wonderfully wizardly magical manipulations can complete such a feat!" Said a yellow stallion with a straw hat and a striped vest.

"And with the Magically Manifesting Portal Rock, you can do it too!"

Wait...

Shining mistook them for the same pony, but they must've been twins. He leaned over to Cadance and mumbled, knowing she could hear him over the din of the crowd. "What's going on here?"

Cadance's mouth was firmly in an unimpressed frown, "Swindling, if I've ever seen it."

"Continue?" He asked

"They're trying to pawn off some kind of... Portal..." Cadance hmm'd to herself, "I bet I know where they got the idea."

Shining matched her frown, now following as he watched the shimmer around the stone they were supposedly trying to sell. The pair lapsed into silence as the stallions began addressing the crowd once more.

"Now mares and stallions, this fine young pony brings up an excellent point!"

"Yes dear brother, an excellent point indeed."

"We've been chased out of town before." The stallion not talking took off his hat and held it to his chest, looking pensive, apologetic. Shining wasn't sure if he was seeing through some trick, but Cadance's comment filled him with suspicion at the clearly intentional display. "How could we try to sell something here again? Without any brand trust? Witho-"

"You almost hurt somepony!" and calls of "Brand trust!?" and other cries of indignation at the continued attempt to 'market' led the brothers to take a step back and reassess the situation.

"Ponies, ponies! Can't we all change?"

"Can't we turn over a leaf?"

"Why would we pass up the opportunity to do real good, when everypony stands to profit?"

The last comment sent the crowd into a deeper pattern of thought, the argument more sound than the few jeering ponies amongst them were expecting.

"And what is more, why trust us when you can see the results for yourself?"

"Indeed brother of mine, I think a demonstration is in order!"

The stallion's horns lit, and a pair of stones lifted into the air, making a strange shimmering streak in the air as they separated. The brothers didn't waste any time, charging their horns while directing the mana at the stones between them, as they did, the visual distortion became more prominent, spreading over an area as a light glow filled the space even in the direct noon sun.

There wasn't any flash, before the stallions concluded the procedure.

"And there you have it folks!" The first said, levitating an apple and tossing it through the portal.

It came flying out of the other end, at the center of the opposite distortion, and the other brother caught it in his magic, "A working pair of portals!"

"Yes mares and stallions, with one of these, you can be-" They synchronized their next phrase as they both stepped into the portal, switching places as they did, "Anywhere! Anytime!"

There was a scattering of applause, Shining was distracted by Cadance poking him in the shoulder with his wing.

She gave him a look.

"Go do your thing." Shining said.

Cadance needed no other prompting, and began to push into the crowd.

"Excuse me!" and numerous 'oofs' and 'Princess Cadance!' came from a few places as Cadance muscled her way forwards.

Why walk through the crowd instead of... ah, right, crowd focus... duh

Shining strained his ears as Cadance got to where she wanted to be.

"Ah, Princess Cadance, why-"

"-We didn't know you were in town!

"I hope you liked our little demonstra-"

Cadance's voice rang out like a gong to the stallion's ongoing performance, not so much the volume, but merely the intensity of her displeasure; from the supposed Alicorn of Love no less, her words stunned the crowd and the brothers equally.

"It's fake."

"Prince-"

Cadance took a step forwards, flaring her wings in a show of intimidation. She didn't speak, but the brother in question wisely shut his mouth. Once it was clear neither of them would attempt to interrupt her again, she continued. "The stones are just an illusion, you passed the apple and yourselves through with teleportation." She nodded towards the brothers, "Now, lightless teleportation is impressive, but costly. These 'portals' probably only have a range of eyesight, not to mention the difficulty of fooling everypony you try to use it on."

"Now, now, Princess! Let's not be hasty in judgment, surely you'd be willing to let us test, work out your misconceptions?"

"Sure." Cadance smiled, lowering her wings and relaxing. "Maybe I was too quick to judge, go ahead."

"Dear brother of mine, I do believe we should show them as far as these portals can go."

"Oh yes, I agree, let's not leave these ponies waiting."

They lifted a bag, and a long chain from it, proceeding to send one end through, while grabbing it from the other side of the portal. Its length stayed upright between both ends, floating like it was cut down the middle by a pony length of space.

"Now if we were teleporting the objects through-"

"How would the chain stay straight?"

Cadance laughed, then pointed at the ground, "The shadow isn't blocked by the visual disruption." The brothers looked shocked to the ground as Cadance continued, "You can see the hanging chain link."

Shining couldn't see it himself, but the sudden angry agreements by the other ponies close enough to see.

"Well-"

"It's-"

"It's an incredible talent, you two have, for teleportation quick enough to make it look like a chain is passing through a fake portal like that." Cadance gestured at the trick, "Lightless too, you two could have easily sold your skills, or practiced to be mages with raw talent like that. So why do this?" Her wings unfolded, gesturing around her to accentuate the question.

"Ah-"

"Well you see-"

The brothers shared a look as they stumbled over each other

"When we-"

"Sometimes-"

"That is to say-"

Cadance laughed a deep, aggressive thing, interrupting their verbal stumbling. "Never mind. I think I understand." Cadance began advancing on the brothers, while lighting her horn.

They shared a gulp, one of them said, "You do?" Before they were both consumed in a flash of light. The two rocks fell onto the ground, inert, and the brothers were nowhere to be seen.

There was a palpable silence that went through the crowd, something Shining saw Cadance notice as her head and ears perked up, and she turned towards the onlookers; looking sheepish.

"Eh-heh, I only teleported them out of town..." She waved a hoof, "They're fine."

"Alright, show's over ponies." Shining said from near the back of the group.

Ponies did as they do, milling around and slowly dispersing while conversation broke out between them all. Shining expertly maneuvered his way through the crowd and quietly addressed Cadance as he approached, "Something about them bother you?"

She smiled, glad to explain, and to know Shining hadn't judged her. "They're tricksters, through and through. There wasn't an ounce of empathy or regret when I asked them for it. They just tried to figure out how to recover their blunder."

"Bet they weren't expecting to fail so drastically." Shining said, pushing one of the stones around on the ground.

Cadance rolled her eyes, "Food. Shining, I'm starving"

Shining chuckled and looked around, Cadance beat him to the punch, "I see raw vegetables, that's enough for me!" Then she was off.

Mare on a mission

Shining followed after her at her pace. Until there was a flash from behind him, reflected on the surfaces in front. Less than an instant after his visual recognition of the sudden change in ambient luminescence, a shockwave blasted at his mane and a little rumble passed through the ground beneath his hooves.

There were cries of alarm that Shining spun to look towards, catching the fading smoke of an explosion over the rooftops of the town center. Without thinking, he took off.

Cadance was by his side in the next moment, or rather, slightly above him as she had taken to the air. Shining's run nearly stumbled as the nervousness of 'my wife is charging into danger' faded and was replaced with 'we are charging into danger together'

They swerved past a series of houses, and Shining sprinted over a bridge before he heard a crash and pivoted on his front hooves to change direction, Cadance just a little ahead of him. He saw a rainbow blur as he swerved around a building to see a toppled over structure near the edge of town, with an orange mare gripping a lasso in her mouth while in mid air; the other end of the lasso attached to a wolf five times his size made of stardust and magic.

His strategic mind defined three key combat details.

Number one, high value civilians. Fluttershy was near, hiding on the other side of the tipped over home, a flash of pink and yellow was all he needed to confirm she was there. Then there was Applejack and Rainbow Dash; Applejack was currently in imminent danger. No-one else was nearby.

Number two, dangerous element. Lupus minor, large wolf of magical origins. They rarely left their territories, and even more rarely hunted ponies, it was even stranger to see one in the light of day, so he couldn't count on it acting anything like a normal Lupus.

Number three was less of something he noted, and the sensation of his mind magically coming into position with the years of training. His horn lit in tune with his muscles as he continued his sprint.

"Catch!" He yelled out to Cadance while dragging his horn across the air and willing the spell structure for a sideways bolt of magic to go slicing through the air; the technique came to him like walking. The bolt traveled for a second and then snapped Applejack's lasso, she made a country-like yell of surprise as she was whipped into the air.

Shining was already priming a second, far more powerful spell once the Lupus was distracted by the flying Applejack and Cadance's airborne dive to catch the mare. Shining put on the speed and snapped his tail in front of the massive canine as he ran past it.

It made a sound of confusion followed by a growl as it gave chase to Shining's retreating form, within three iterations of a gallop, he released his spell. A large orb of crackling energy drifted away from his horn, floating in the air directly in the path of the wolf that had just begun to bound after him.

The two made contact and there was a flash of pressure that almost knocked Shining over. Once he regained his footing, he turned to appreciate the sight of a Lupus minor contained in a trap shield spell.

He felt the danger and adrenaline switch off, and he lit his horn again to ensure the shield would stay stable under the thrashing Lupus, he also made the shield progressively more translucent, until it became opaque.

"Everypony okay?" Cadance said, landing on the ground with Applejack floating in her aura.

"Ah will be, soon as I'm back on the ground."

Rainbow landed on Shining's shield spell. "Awesome, great work Armor!" She did a faux salute from the top of the little dome.

"All in a day's work." He said, frowning to himself.

You're missing something...

"What happened?" Cadance asked

"I dunno, Rainbow came and got me-"

The prismatic mare in question interrupted, "Yeah! Then we were showing this puppy dog what it means to mess with ponies!"

Shining lapsed into concentrated thought while Cadance convinced Fluttershy it was safe to come out.

We... I caught it with the shield, Cadance caught Applejack after I cut the rope, we turned the house corner after the bridge...

Shining stepped up to the group while looking around. There weren't any signs of explosions, or damage. Not even the smell of smoke hung in the air. "Hey, what was that explosion?"

Applejack tilted her head slightly in confusion, "Explosion? What explosion?"

Cadance smiled for some reason, "Wait, you didn't see the massive explosion? That wasn't-'' she stopped and looked around, noticing the same thing Shining had.

"We should probably go check that out." Shining monotoned

Cadance tilted her head into the air and took a deep breath, "I don't smell any smoke."

"I'll go check it out. I can scout out this whole town in a jiffy." She zoomed off without any more prompting, a 'don't wait up!' getting tossed into the wind as she shot off like a bullet.

"Okay well, a Lupus minor and that happening at the same time can't be a coincidence, can they?"

"Fluttershy said the Lupus was agitated by something in the forest." Cadance answered as Fluttershy nodded, "I don't see how they could be connected?" The lilt at the end was the unasked question of, 'do you see a connection?'

Applejack chimed in, "It's nothin' too much to be concerned about Princess, Ponyville is a magnet for trouble like this. We're used to it by now."

A few unreadable expressions went across Cadance's face before she shook her head, "Well first and foremost." She gestured back at the bubble shield keeping the Lupus in place. "Think you can get him back into the forest?"

"Him? And yes, I just need a boost." He lit his horn as Cadance walked over.

"Masculine emotions have a kind of texture to them." She tapped her horn to his, and Shining grasped at the magic there. Pulling upon his own mana pool felt like lifting weights, the sensation of power you have but can't measure, and the ability to use it using nothing but your intent, sometimes he could feel his limit when he pressed, 'lifted' more than he could handle. On a few occasions in his life, like when he gave himself burnout during boot, he was vaguely able to sense his own well of mana in his core due to the medicine he was on to keep him from using magic on reflex.

Cadance's magic did not feel anything like that. When he reached for her magic with his will, it grasped at him, filling his 'muscle' with its strength and augmenting it with the raw fabrics of magic his wife commanded; the only invitation it needed to fill him to the brim with compliant power was his permission.

That being said, the Lupus disappeared along with the bubble shield in a non-climactic flash of teleportation, the whole spell lasting less than two seconds. Cadance lifted her horn, but the sensation of her magical presence didn't leave him, it never did, really. It was just easier to feel in moments like that, when they were more conventionally connected.

"Done and done" He said

Cadance chuckled, "This trip is really laughing in the face of relaxation."

"Sounds about right." Applejack joked, chuckling along.

Cadance's posture snapped into a standing position, her body language telling the story of her runaway thoughts as the alicorn focused on something else, "Applejack, do you know anywhere to get lunch around here?"

"Well sure, there's-"

The blur of Rainbow returning was joined by the dust of the settling building she landed in disrupting Cadance's quest for lunch with coughing.

"Oops."

Fluttershy was the first to recover, "Did you find anything?"

"Nope, what exactly do you mean when you say 'explosion'?" She sat back on her haunches, "Do you mean like:" She mimed an explosion gesture with her hooves, "Or like:" Followed by another, slightly different explosion gesture.

Shining and Cadance exchanged a glance.

"You know what." She shook her head, "Whatever. Relaxation, vacation, lunch."

"Didja try the market?" Applejack asked

Shining answered for Cadance, "That's where we just came from."

Rainbow tried next, "What about Sugar Cube Corner?"

"Closed." The married couple said together

"Closed?" Fluttershy asked, clearly on the same page as everyone else.

"What about the Hay Burger?" Rainbow tried again

Cadance quietly said, "I'll eat anything at this point."

"Well, good luck Princess, I've gotta get back to work. Weekends are long days."

Shining wrinkled his nose and nearly laughed

Monster attack? Meh, gotta get back to work, Saturdays right?

Cadance giggled, sensing his amusement. "Do any of you want to come? I'm buying of course."

"Oh no, thank you. I have to go make sure the other forest animals didn’t get too scared by the Lupus."

"I uh- have something else to do." Fluttershy's response was mostly cut off by Rainbow rocketing away into the sky. Cadance watched her go with an upside down smirk.

"Well." Shining said, still a little out of sorts at the sudden monster attack, followed by the immediate dismissal of said attack.

"Do you need directions?"

"Yes please."

Cadance and Shining were back to wandering around Ponyville. Either Fluttershy's directions were wrong, or they had just gotten lost on accident. Shining was still mentally keeping a lookout for signs of an explosion, but really, if nothing was wrong then, would it be wrong if he ever found out what happened?

I just want to know

"Shining" Cadance said in excitement. "Shining, I see a flag with a burger on it." Her wings ruffled themselves.

"Of course, now is when we find out that there's a store that sells banners with burgers on them, and that's just somepony's house."

"Don't say things like that." Cadance jokingly admonished while picking up her pace.

Shining got a look at the banner as they turned the next corner, and began to approach the structure.

"Oh no..." Cadance said slowly. "No no no no..."

The building was empty.

Shining saw Cadance's aura wrap around the entire door and heard the clonking noise of a door that was locked.

Cadance huffed, "Come on! Is there some kind of holiday today or something?"

"Maybe we should just go back to the castle? We know they've got food there."

Cadance mulled over the idea before narrowing her eyes, "I won't admit defeat."

Shining smiled

She's having fun.

"What's next then?"

Cadance thought for a second before responding, "We could just break in."

"Vetoing that." He wasn't sure if she was joking or not.

"The market again? It's only been about an hour."

"Lead the way." He said in a certain way

"Uh-huh" She responded in the same particular way, flicking her tail in his general direction as she walked past. "Lunch first, Casanova."

"Don't have to tell me twice."

Shining could practically feel Cadance's eye twitching from where he was standing, such was her body language. The market wasn't deserted per say, but almost all of the stalls were closed. There were only ponies talking about their days so far standing around, or the occasional pegasus gliding by.

"How."

"Maybe they close everything early on saturdays?"

"We were only gone for an hour! Two at most!" Despite her frustration, Cadance was grinning like a loon.

"We still have time." Shining looked up at the sky, "It can't be past two yet."

"Alright, enough of this walking nonsense."

Shining felt Cadance's aura wrap around him as his vision was tinged the same blue as his eyes. "Cadance?"

Her response was to take flight with him in tow

"Caaadaaaance!"

Shining was casually laying in the air, lofted along too fast for him to comfortably keep his eyes open as he was dragged through the open air. Occasionally he'd hear the confused yelp of a pegasus as his wife quickly combed over the town for somewhere to eat lunch.

"Shining! Keep your eyes open! I need you to help me look!"

"Oh I'm definitely looking!" He said, not doing that, since he was upside down anyways.

They set down a few times, Cadance failing once by misidentifying a townhouse as a bakery; then a second time since the bakery that wasn't a townhouse was out of materials for the week. They had stale bread, which Shining had to convince Cadance not to buy.

"This is bordering on ridiculous. How can everywhere in town either be closed, out of stock, or not somewhere to get food!" Cadance stomped on the grass, having set them down in the park Shining was originally planning on them having lunch in.

"In their- well... its? Defense? You know what I mean- In their defense, that last one isn't their fault."

It was nearing the hours before dusk now. Still day, with a light tinting of orange over the far horizon. The perfect angle for sunlight to come glittering in through the trees. Nature at its finest, in his opinion.

Cadance grumbled to herself.

"That, and we could go get lunch at any time."

Cadance scuffed her hoof, "More like early dinner, at this point."

"At least it was fun." He smiled for her

"You-" She made a face he couldn't decipher, "You goof." She said quietly, pulling him into a hug.

They sat there for a moment, enjoying the environment. Shining unfortunately knew he had to break the already broken silence when Cadance's stomach decided to voice its own protests, "Ready to throw in the towel?"

Cadance 'pbbtttpppbbptt'ed with her tongue, then took a deep breath, "Yeah..."

Shining smiled wide as they both wordlessly agreed to enjoy the view for another few minutes before leaving for the castle.