As The Sun Sets

Cadance awoke calmly.

Mmmmm... good sleep.

It was probably the most well rested she could have been, the best sleep she could remember, in her still half asleep state.

Shining was nearby, that was good.

She pulled him closer to herself, and he nuzzled into the fluff on her chest unconsciously. The warmth helped her mind start to fully come into focus, and she smiled while resting her head precariously close next to Shining Armor's horn.

"You mwake?" He mumbled.

"M-hmm."

"How was last night?" He shuffled a little.

It was barely lit in the room. Somewhere past the shield, over the mountains, the sun was just beginning to rise. They spoke to each other softly, fitting in with the quiet theme of the morning they had woken up to.

"I don't know." Cadance admitted, pulling on her thoughts to try and organize them to be translated into Ponish. "I think it went well. We went out for dinner. I uh- was introduced to Chrysalis. Again."

Shining grumbled, "You know what. Never mind."

"She said she would bring us into her information network."

"Hmm?" He buried his muzzle in her fur again, and she shuffled her wing to get the blood flowing.

"I gave her some love in exchange for updates about the world as whole. Chrysalis has a massive spy network."

"Of course she does."

Cadance's gears were turning. She felt compelled to say more, to convince Shining the way Silver had done with her.

"It'll put us on the map Shining. Trade, and I want- The Empire is." Cadance's wing fluttered involuntarily, "The Empire is what I want to build for our daughter. I don't want to just be another Equestrian colony. The world is big, bigger than I thought an-"

Cadance was cut off my Shining pushing away and lifting up his head to look at her in confusion and weary blinking eyes. He had noticed that she was getting passionate and tried to wake up all the way to listen.

"Sorry. I know it's early."

Shining rubbed his eyes with a hoof and sat up, Cadance remained laying on her side. "No no, keep going, that sounded really important to you." He said through a yawn.

Cadance gestured out with her hooves while laying on her side. The attention from Shining grew, only fueling her rambling. "Celestia put me in charge of the Empire, but I don't know if I've really earned that? All we've done is what we were told. I want to change that, I just don't know what I'm doing. I need answers..." She rolled onto her back momentarily before remembering how much she hated that, then she fell back onto her side. "I don't know when exactly... I came to this conclusion, I think it was some kind of... immortal meeting fueled apotheosis or something, but it doesn't matter. It's time we get our flanks into gear."

"Name it Cadance, you know I'm with you."

"I know, I Love you."

He leaned down and gave her a quick smooch as a response.

"So we're getting up early?" He asked after the prolonged moment, Cadance had grabbed his head in her hooves and expressed her satisfaction.

"Yes. We're both going to the morning staff standup."

"Should I bother to get dressed?"

"No, nothing..." Cadance inclined her head as she sat up, "Well sure, if you want. It's just the staff though, they have the same jobs we do."

"I like to impress." Shining joked as he jumped off the bed

"You just like being in uniform." Cadance snarked

"You just like me being in uniform."

Cadance coughed into her hoof and let the conversation tract end there before Shining said anything too embarrassing. Then they both got ready for Amber. Like usual, Amber arrived just on time after the royal couple were well and properly freshened up.

There were two knocks on the door and Cadance magicked it open immediately, wooshing Amber's mane.

"Amber!" Cadance trotted up to the door, levitating a brush over to the armoire and roughly shoving it in. Shining stood up from where he was being brushed and joined Cadance at the door. "Good morning!"

Amber quickly adjusted herself, "Good morning. Is there a particular reason for your excitement?"

"Yes." Cadance and Shining exited together and began making their way down the hallway. Amber followed at pace, waiting for Cadance to continue. "Remember that promotion I was talking about giving you?"

Amber blinked once, "Oh, yes. Uh- it's, you don'-"

"How do you feel about running open court?"

Shining coughed and Amber stumbled. "I'm sorry?"

"Run it. Be in charge of it. Permanently."

Amber's trotting started coming in shorter anxious steps, "I- Princess, I don't think that's a very good idea, I-"

Cadance kept her smile up, she was in control here. She'd already thought of exactly what to say. "Before you tell me you can't, you can. You're my advisor though, so why is it a bad idea?"

Amber took a second to mentally go over what Cadance had just told her, and asked her. "I- Well, I'm not the Princess... ponies wouldn't respect my authority..."

Cadance gave a light chuckle, "Amber. You practically run open court anyways, this is just making it official. They'll respect you 'cause I said so. Simple as that."

Goodness... I sound like Silver

"But! I don't have the vision you do! Not everything is about law!" Amber protested, a bit louder than Cadance expected. Amber was worried about this to the point of being frightened.

"Then make new laws, or dismiss cases that aren't worth our time." Cadance inclined her head, "Anything else you can forward up to me, and-" She stressed, "And. I want that change to begin with."

"What change? Is that, exactly?" Shining decided to pipe in.

"I've always thought keeping an 'open court' to the public is silly." Cadance shrugged, "It's good for publicity, but I don't need publicity. I need things actually done."

Shining raised an eyebrow. Amber equally didn't know how to respond to that.

"Where are we going?" She eventually said, they'd gone past the route up to Cadance's office.

"We're crashing-" Shining snorted, "I'm crashing-" Cadance corrected "the morning stand up, The Spire is organized. It's time to get everything moving at full capacity."

"Is that why you want me to run open court?"

"No." Cadance stopped, having arrived at the hallways just outside the foyer for the staff sections of The Spire. Cadance looked Amber in the eye, "That's why I need you to run open court. I know you can, and we're going to need it now more than ever."

Amber half shuddered, "Ho-okay." There was a glint of determination. Cadance didn't realize how intense she was being, but having someone so forcefully believe in you was enough for Amber to truly trust that the pink princess was correct. Plenty of eavesdroppers heard the conversation, and began talking aloud about it.

Guess it's not gossip if I'm right here.

Cadance leaned over to Shining, "Round everyone up for me?"

He gave her a strange look at first, but then he nodded and began walking forwards. Cadance jumped and caught the air, gliding her way over the heads of all of the staff and turning into the open doors of the room. She flew up to the little stage and caught the eyes of Ivory and Easy Morning just before she landed and the sound of Shining's 'deep' voice carried into the room as he got everyone's attention and ponies began filing in.

"Hey you two."

"Princess Cadance." Ivory curtsied

Cadance frowned and a quick series of thoughts shot through her head before she glanced at Easy Morning and said, "Okay. No more of that. I work here too."

"Princess?" Morning asked

Cadance lifted a hoof. "Just Cadance. I'm making some changes, you both can do your jobs as soon as I finish, but I have some announcements to make."

Both of them shared a glance.

"Also, you should both finally ask each other out." Cadance glibly quipped, turning away quick enough to not see their response. She could feel the sudden embarrassment that flowed between them, so she didn't technically need to see. Cadance took a few steps forwards to the edge of the stage, making herself the clear center point of attention for the ponies finding their spots inside.

Cadance waited until everyone had settled.

"Good morning!" She called out, and received many in kind. "Today, there's gonna be a few changes. First and foremost, I have a few announcements." She took a breath, managing the tempo of the speech. "Amber, my secretary, will now be in charge of open court, with the hopes that the citizenry will use it more to verify and test the structural integrity of our laws, rather than to settle disputes." Cadance gestured towards Amber with her wing, and she lifted up a nervous hoof when ponies looked around to identify the mare in question.

"Secondly, I want to formally announce the Crystal Empire College of Science. Me, along with a small specialized team have been writing out the scope of what we hope to be the largest school in mainland Equestria, as well as a research institution specialized in advancing the sciences of magic and technology." There was a few looks shared, but the general feeling that wafted throughout the room was excitement.

Perfect. Exactly what I wanted

"This is the most important for all of you. The timetable for the Crystal Faire is being moved up to a week before Hearths Warming, on the night of the Winter Solstice." There was confusion now, some fear, "The reason for this is two fold; and before anyone begins worrying about how exactly we're going to setup a city wide festival in under a month, I'm going to be spearheading the operations myself, calling in some favours, we're going to get it done." She took another breath, getting another feel for the emotion of the room. Some measure of resolve. She noticed ponies nodding along, some in uninformed agreement, other just because they could. "Firstly. The Crystal Faire will no longer be an Empire only event. This year, we're going to start a new tradition: The Winter Moon Celebration. We'll be inviting Princess Luna to preside over the events, as will I. Equestria will remember us, as the ponies who started a national holiday." There was more agreement, a few ponies already mumbling to each other.

The trick was to give them the bad news first, that is, the work they'd need to do to prepare for such an event. She softened the blow by sharing that she'd be doing most of the work, and then got them excited about the mark their work would leave. Now, for the final part, just a little bit of flair to cement her words and the excitement of the ponies.

"For too long, The Crystal Empire has been recovering"

Pause for dramatic affect

"Now?"

She had the crowd at the edge of their seats.

"We're going to remind the ponies of Equestria why we're called an Empire."

The crowd, subconsciously aware of the presentation for what it was, began to stomp, the ponies sitting began to clap. Cadance beamed from the stage, and lifted a wing and waited for the crowd to quiet down.

"And last, I have a surprise."

A brave pony spoke up, "How is that not the surprise?"

Cadance glanced over to the sound, but wasn't able to pick out the speaker fast enough, she kept smiling as she continued, "I am... inordinately happy to express this..." She took a deep breath. "I'm pregnant." Her wings flared unconsciously.

Ivory gasped really loudly. Loud enough that Cadance turned around, giggling to herself to see Ivory covering her mouth with a hoof. The same brave pony whooped and there was scattered stomping and ponies shouting 'congratulations.' Cadance didn't expect for the polite applause to turn into cheering as ponies began pointing out having an heir to the throne. Few probably realized the weight the moment bore for Cadance, but it warmed her heart, and she opened her mouth to try and say something but failed to come up with anything to say.

At least I still know how to work a crowd.

She smiled to herself as she watched the overflowing emotion make the walls begin to glow. The ponies began doing the collective spell to push the magic down towards the base of The Spire, and down towards the heart.

There was a waft of pressure followed by magic, and everything was crystalized.

Cadance folded her wings, after having realized they were opened. "Thank you everyone! Ivory and Easy will continue the standard standup meeting, when we have the rest of the work organized to begin, you will all hear about it."

Cadance turned around towards Ivory and nearly stopped in place as she looked over the mare, she was gorgeous, crystalized. There was a very brief moment of appreciation before she broke the observation. "Alright you two. In the next two days, starting Monday, I'm going to be slamming you guys with work goals and management projects."

"You had me at work goals Prince- er- Cadance." Easy Morning said quickly sneaking a glance towards Ivory; since she was already looking at him, he got caught immediately and looked away again. Cadance chuckled.

"Alright, I'll see you both then, bye for now, if I don't see either of you." Cadance took wing and flew across the room again towards the door. There was more scattered stomping and she waved, there were probably just over one hundred and fifty ponies in the room, half of them Equestrians. All shimmering crystal ponies now. She landed in front of Shining Armor, and did a quiet series of movements that told Shining she wanted him to say something.

"You did great." He said, answering her silent request for his feedback.

"Congratulations Princess Cadance." Amber said softly, her face still mostly neutral besides a small smile.

That was when Ivory and Easy morning began the meeting; Cadance, Shining Armor, and Amber let themselves out. Once they were back out in the hallway, Shining began hushedly talking in the quickly formed triangle between the three ponies. "Okay, so. Massive curveball, I need to go make an appearance down near the barracks at least, and then I can join you for whatever it is you're up to." He said to Cadance.

Cadance nodded and turned to Amber, "You can go get ready for open court, I'll want to see you after."

"Of course, Princess." She nodded, and Cadance looked back to Shining to verify he had nothing else to say, and she nodded and started moving. Shining broke off, so did Amber, and Cadance made her way to her office to pick up a few things, her hooves clacking differently with the sound of crystal against crystal. Almost like a solid wind chime.

Do they make crystal wind chimes? That sounds p- oh, right, no good wind to hang them in.

Don't get distracted Cadance, get your flanks into gear. First things first.

Cadance entered her office bluntly. Simply throwing the doors open and trotting inside at pace. "Alright..." She said to herself, lifting pages up off her desk. "Two... letters... first one-"

Hey Auntie Celestia!

I had a wonderful idea, and I'm going to need some resources to get it done, in short, I'm asking for a favour.

I want to host a Crystal Faire on the Winter Solstice for Luna. I want her to be the guest of honor, start the parallel to The Summer Sun Celebration: The Winter Moon Celebration.

You know more about logistics than I do, so there's no reason for me to explain. I have the details, but I want to know what you think, personally?

Love you Auntie,
-Cadance

"Aaaaand..." Cadance lifted up the second sheet of blank paper before lowering it.

I can just talk to her in my dreams...

I can just do that right? I should probably send a formal letter...

It'll be better as a surprise, I don't want her worrying about it.

Cadance lifted from her desk a notebook, a folder full of the draft notes for the school, and what was left of her work from yesterday as she spun around towards the door; the objects trailing behind her. "Now I need to find Homeward."

Cadance had gone up in the office rooms where most of the slower work in The Spire took place. Next door was the massive file chamber that Celestia had suggested as a stop gap instead of just leaving things in desks, or sending them to the libraries. That's where she found Homeward and Blue, they were pouring over legal documentation for the school.

And this early in the morning. I should ask how much they're getting paid for this.

"Cadance?" Homeward asked, looking up from the spot where Blue Skies and her were sitting in front of an open metallic drawer with papers scattered around them on the floor. Blue turned when Homewards called out, to see Cadance approaching, a look of surprise crossed over her face.

"Hey, I'm glad it didn't take me long to find you. I have some things to tell you about your project." Cadance trotted right up to their spot on the floor, and casually sat down with them.

"You're not canceling it are you?" Homeward said, fearful.

Cadance laughed, "No! no, nothing like that. I'm advancing it. In just under a month, we're hosting the first Winter Moon Celebration along with an early Crystal Faire."

As soon as Cadance said 'cyrstal faire' Blue Skies' eyes lit up. "Really!?" She stood up, probably on accident, and danced in place once Cadance nodded in affirmation. She squee'd in excitement like a filly. Homeward was more collected than the crystal mare, more curious.

"What does that have to do with us?" Homeward said, though Cadance could equally feel and see the gears turning in her head.

"We're going to get you your experts." Cadance said, "This Crystal Faire is going nation wide, I'm shooting to have ponies from everywhere in Equestria coming to celebrate in The Empire, I want a booth, a big one, dedicated to the school."

Homeward nodded along as Blue watched with barely contained glee. "You want marketing. That's not my field, but I can relay the details. What do you have planned so far?"

"So far? This is it. I'm still gathering together all my favours and resources. Tomorrow you'll hear more, but the long and short of it is that we need something concrete. Something to show off, and I have just the idea. Everything else is going to come from you and your team." Cadance glanced between both of the mares, "I'll handle catching the eye, all you have to do is reel them in with real documentation, real policies, plans, everything; that's what the experts will be looking for."

"Princess, this is bound to work!" Said Blue, "Oh I'm so excited, an early Crystal Faire!"

"Mhm, it'll be something else, by the time I'm done with it."

"Is that everything, Cadance?"

Cadance just then noticed the lack of title usage. It only bothered her because it was out of the ordinary, that, and it was something Cadance hadn't explicitly told Homeward to do. She ignored it, trying not to care, "No, I have something else." Cadance levitated a key out from the pocket space spell in her mane, "This is the key to your new office, it's two floors down from mine, on this level, no more sitting on the floor. Tomorrow, I'll have Ivory get you a dedicated maid, and they'll be able to help you fetch documents and me if you ever need anything."

Homeward took the key as it floated to her hooves, almost reverently. "Cadance... I-"

"I won't have it." Cadance interrupted, a smile on her face, "This project is important to me. I may be hyper fixating on it, but so long as it gets done, right?"

Homeward made a face. Something difficult for Cadance to read despite the emotions coming clearly. Homeward was upset, she felt shame for something, something Cadance wasn't going to dig at. She stood instead, "Okay, that's everything. I'll send more details to your office as I get them. Thank you both!" She said, already halfway out of the filing room. She exited before either of them could respond.

She took a deep breath once the crystal door slid closed behind her. "Alright. Now Silver." She took off, not letting the moment pass for very long. A paper came off her notebook and lifted into the air, she wrote as she walked towards her next destination.

Hey Silver

I'm doing a thing. I need your advanced transport magic to host the largest Crystal Faire ever. Getting ponies here with one way train tracks isn't going to cut it for what I have in mind.

Will you help me?

The letter went spiraling off in bolt of Emotion and cascading levitation just as Cadance reached the room The House of Mirrors was building their newsroom in. She was here to hopefully find someone in charge, what she ended up finding instead was Fractured Mirror himself, covered in dust, polishing the bottom side of under half of a floor covered in concrete crystal adhesive. The plan, from what Cadance could tell by the stacked up materials, was apparently to lay a solid kind of glue and then specialized tiles for print work over the crystal structure of The Spire.

Fractured Mirror was wearing a thick apron, and some thick cloth gloves, he looked up, his mane tied behind his head in a bun, covered in sweat, like the rest of the ponies working in the room.

"Princess Cadance! Welcome to history's ground floor!" He stood up and threw off his gloves, making his way over to her.

"Fracture. I'm surprised to see you in this line of work." She said conversationally.

"Everyone in my employ knows of my family legacy. I wouldn't dare trust another pony to work that I wouldn't do myself. That's the way of the Mirrors." He smiled, having finished approaching her.

He was lying. She could tell. Even more now, she was sure there was something sinister about him.

Regardless, Cadance turned on the 'princess.' "That's exactly what I would hope for a Noble," Cadance nodded her head, looking around, "I wish some of the others had your kind of perspective on work ethic, aside from Sugar, of course."

"Ah yes, the stallion works twice as hard as me, though, some might say half as smart." He chuckled a noble chuckle.

"Before we continue with making nice, I'm actually here because of your legacy." Fracture leaned forwards, a sparkle in his eye as he sensed Cadance's leading question, it was odd, to see him like this, though Cadance continued. "I have a story for you."

"A story?"

"The first story I want this place to run."

"Princess, I don't think I can say you have me by the ear any more aptly." He waved his hoof in a circle, "Please do go on."

"We're moving up the timetable for The Crystal Faire, and we're going national, in conjunction with The Winter Moon Celebration." She said simply.

He smirked, "By the by, I don't think I've ever heard of a... Winter Moon Celebration?"

Cadance explained, trying to sound as softly authoritative as possible. "That's because we're starting it, on the Winter Solstice, Princess Luna is going to be the guest of honor, and I'm going to make way for anyone in Equestria to make their way here, and I want your ponies to publish it."

She watched the gears in Fracture's head turn momentarily. "That gives us... A month until the Faire, less to actually start printing. How, exactly, do you suggest that we-"

Cadance interrupted by lightly stepping forwards, "I'll be handling the transport. All I'll need is the papers. I can connect you to ponies with the information by Wednesday, and as soon as you start getting papers printed; they'll start showing up in every news stand in Rainbow Falls to Appleoosa."

Fracture mulled over the idea, he slowly began to smile, and the sensation of directed confusion built in the stallion to nearly malicious levels. "Don't let anypony tell you that you don't dream big. You really have those resources?" He looked up, raising his eyebrow, trying to find the answer in her body language.

"Yes." Cadance smiled, it was easy to tell the truth.

I can do this.

"Then it's all hooves on deck." He nodded with a wild grin and spun around, immediately he called out to the crowd and started organizing things. Ponies started moving at double time, and Cadance began to leave.

"Alright, three down, two t-" Her slowly building habit of talking to herself was interrupted by a bolt of lightening that resolved into a scroll. She read while moving.

Yeah, of course I will. Though, I'll want my own booth for Tack & Co. as the provider for the transport and the premier transportation company. I'd like to solidify their presence as Crystal Empire exclusive, that is all I'll ask in return though. I really like the idea of bringing back the Fire Sky Festival

Cadance hastily scribbled a return note as she moved down the crystal hallways with purpose

Thank you.

Of course, I'm concerned at your intentions as always, but thank you. We'll be glad to have you.

I also wanted to ask if Point Flare and her friends would be willing to join Homeward, (you remember Homeward?) and me for a magic presentation for my school? I was... Thinking of hiring them as teachers or researchers, a final part of their, 'work release' program.

Also, I'm going to remember whatever the Fire Sky Festival is and ask you about it later

Also, also, please stop spying on me, it's really unnerving.

And then she sent the letter.

The rest of Cadance's day was much of the same, getting in touch with individual groups, teams, logistics crews and personally delivering the news and giving instructions. She didn't outright say it, but she wanted the ponies with questions to come looking for her.

The trick was for all of the groups she slowly got involved to look to her when they hit roadblocks or when they needed support from another one of the active teams. That was step one, solidify her position as event organizer. It was a little undercutted to take the Faire from the hooves of the event planners, but she needed them for public relations.

Something had clicked in Cadance's head.

She had found her motivation, found her passion, and more importantly, something to channel that energy into.

She found her way to bed that night, Shining at her hip after hours of 'princessing' and the short, winding down hour of going over open court that day with Amber. She passed out immediately once she was snuggled up with her husband. A smile on her face, and the knowledge of a day of work done well.