As The Sun Sets

"Wait! Silver. Please." Cadance stood up. Silver sighed deeply and spun around. Cadance expected some sort of verbal dressing down, but nothing came, Silver just spun her hoof in a 'go on' gesture. Quickly, the mix of situational knowledge and skill at diplomacy had a short, subconscious shouting match about what to say. Cadance stumbled out a "Will you tell me what about this you find so irksome?"

Silver waved her hoof, "First of all, don't ever say 'irksome' again." Silver made a 'blegh' face. "B. I'm not your friend Little Princess." Silver waved a hoof between the two of them, "THIS?" Cadance flinched back, unprepared for the shout. "This is a thing you're forcing me to do. We?" Silver took a few more steps, angrily gesturing between the two of them more sporadically. "We cannot be friends, and I'm disappointed in you for not thinking before doing this. You had a week to think about it and you just didn't. Haven't you figured it out yet? Why Luna picked you and not Twilight?"

Cadance bit the side of her cheek. Silver's approach, despite the heat in it, was anything but threatening.

Cadance saw the game this time.

Distraction, and a coded message, followed by something I'll want to ask about. Three tricks, cleverly constructed. Not this time. I just have to keep pushing.

"You're right." Cadance said slowly, setting her jaw. "I am forcing you to do this." Silver's fake angry expression was instantly replaced by that same amused aggression. "And I'd appreciate it if you stopped trying to play games."

"You don't control me." She snarled, getting right up into Cadance's muzzle, staring up at the taller mare.

Then she pushes back.

Cadance's reply was simple. Elegant, in her opinion. "No, I'm blackmailing you."

And I push back harder.

Silver's gaze softened, and there was a little bit of light that filled her eyes, for just a second before she huffed and turned away. Cadance let her eyes go wide in a measure of letting the surprise of success onto her face.

She blinked first.

Cadance had never gotten this far in a conversation with her, there was a moment of dumbstruck, grinding to a halt thoughts, as Cadance metaphorically wedged her hoof in the door before it closed. "So will you tell me?" She asked softly, moving to step around to Silver's side.

"Fine." She whispered. Twisting over to the basket and blanket, "There better be some decent sandwiches in there." She grumbled.

Cadance let her walk passed, and watched her take a seat and reach for the basket. Cadance lifted it out of the way and Silver rolled her eyes. "Fine. Geez." Despite the acquiescence, Silver still didn't explain, she just stared off into space. Cadance moved over to the opposite side of the blanket and set the basket down next to Silver as a sign of trust, Silver didn't go for it again.

As Cadance was about to break the silence, Silver spoke.

"I have work to do." She hummed, "A lot of it. You do too, so you should know." There was a momentum that filled her voice as she started talking a little faster. "I'm not going to waste my time sitting around doing nothing. This whole exercise in futility is something I can accept due to you making me have to placate you, but if all we're going to do is sit on some dirt and talk about our feelings..." Silver shrugged. "I can't justify spending my time doing that."

"You're not against it?" Cadance asked

Silver gave her a pointed look. "Did I say I was?"

"No, but I can never tell with you." She smiled, sitting down herself. "It's worth asking, just in case."

Answer given, Silver reached out for the basket and flipped it open. Her cerulean aura reached inside as her hoof lit, and the contents lifted themselves from the basket for a second before Silver narrowed her eyes and dropped the mix of objects back into the basket before smacking it on the side to knock it over and spill the contents over the blanket.

Cadance watched in confusion as Silver reached for a packet of salt and put it in her mouth.

"Right." She said helpfully, using her own telekinesis to lift a daisy sandwich and unwrap it in tandem.

"You haven't had breakfast yet." Silver stated, "You need to be more conscious of your eating habits."

"You could tell that from me lifting a sandwich?"

"No... well... yes, but not really, just pay more attention."

"You're one to talk." Cadance pointed the sandwich in her direction, "Have you eaten anything aside from that salt packet since last week?"

Silver pursed her lips.

"That's what I thought."

Silver frowned and lifted a hoof, "I'm not pregnant, there's a difference."

Cadance smiled, taking a bite. Daisy sandwiches were alright, in her top seven comfort foods for ease of access. "Speaking of, my magic has been getting stronger, recently."

"How so." Just like that, Cadance had Silver's full attention.

"My empathetic senses have been getting stronger, emotion magic seems easier than when I first tried it, and I've found that I have more energy during the day." Cadance listed off, tapping her hoof on the blanket as a light nervous tick. Despite the casualness, Cadance was still worried somewhere deep down that Silver was about to tell her that the symptoms she'd just described were a sign of something terrible.

Silver rolled the salt packet around in her mouth. Thinking, there were flashes of weight that pressed against Cadance's senses. The moment passed, and Silver returned to a state of vague attention. "The truth is, Little Princess, I don't have a perfect answer for you. I have guesses, but you're basically the index case for ASGP."

"ASGP?"

Silver made a face before clarifying. "Alicorn induced Spontanious Geothuamosomphonic Primigravida."

Cadance mulled over the description for a second before deadpanning, "You made that up didn't you?"

"I actually stole it from Fair Treatment's notes." Silver flipped a hoof while ignoring Cadance's look, "Anyways, I didn't want to go on before saying that." Silver shifted, "Have you noticed any strange dreams as well? Noticed your behavior becoming sharper, terser, and more willful?"

Cadance retracted her head.

Yes and yes.

"And if I have?"

Silver moved her hoof in what Cadance could only describe as a clinical gesture. "Then it has something to do with your special talent, your baby, your Alicorn nature, and your greater destiny as a whole."

Cadance let the concern show on her face.

"The good news is that there's no bad news."

Cadance raised an annoyed eyebrow.

"Sorry. The point is, your biology is magic. To differentiate between the normal pony genetic structure which has magic, Alicorns are magic, all the way down to the most obscure level of abstraction. Even the air you exhale is slightly more magical than the air around it. That, plus a second Alicorn gestating in your system is doing something, which is increasing the flow of the ambient thaumic weave through you, but it isn't just overcharging you, no." Silver tapped a hoof to the side of her head as she kept speaking, "That magic is coming from the same place Alicorns come from. From the above, Eternity, All, the things that make up reality."

Cadance leaned forwards again. "What does that have to do with me?"

"No idea." Silver shrugged. "It may be that your pregnancy isn't an accident at all, or it could be something special about you in particular. Chronomancy could be involved, anything. When you get to this depth of magic, it stops making sense, even to me. Alicorns are a kind of magic that I never deciphered... Sorry."

"You don't have to apologize. I think I get it though, and that makes sense right? Something like that would have to happen if they..." Cadance trailed off, mulling over the details, "If they're an Alicorn, right?"

"I guess." Silver shifted, "Thing is, I've never seen an ascension move so slowly. It could be that she won't be an Alicorn until she's born, but I don't understand why that would matter retroactively. There's no build up of magic not meant to be in you, so..." Silver waved her hoof sporadically, ending in tossing up the limb in question. "I dunno. I'm flying as blind as you are at this point. All I can say is that it's normal. That kind of universal magic getting pumped into your system should do those things, it means that the extra magic is safely finding avenues to expend itself."

"Thank you. That's all I wanted to hear." Cadance said, trying to let go of what felt like an ax hanging over her withers.

Silver's mouth slipped through a ghost of a smile before returning to a neutral line. "I'm moderately surprised you'd trust my judgment."

Cadance grasped at the moment to express how she'd been paying attention. "I can tell how seriously you take it. Were you a doctor? Some time ago?"

Silver's wings ruffled.

"You don't have to answer that." Cadance added on.

"Good." Silver pointed pointedly. "I do a lot of things that you probably don't want an answer for."

"I think there's a difference between don't want and shouldn't have." Cadance bounced her mane, "But I won't argue the point."

Silver waved a hoof while staring at Cadance. "I wasn't going to answer anyways."

"I'm not going to make you." Cadance said, mildly confused from the comment.

She sneered, "Didn't you want me to talk about my feelings?"

"Not if it makes you uncomfortable."

"You're doing a pretty bad job at making that happen."

She's trying to throw me off again...

Cadance lifted her hooves to her face and did something that felt mean. "Awww.... is widdle baby Silver upsetteded?"

Silver's muzzle wrinkled in rage and her ear twitched. The expression fell away as quickly as it came. She looked away again with that same glazed over look, staring out into the snow.

Cadance stuck her hoof further into the door. "I want to get to know you better." Her tone dropped as she continued, the low tone mixing well with the timber of her soft voice. "I want to connect with you properly, not this sideways back and forth."

"You want information outta me." She snapped back.

Cadance responded with the same soft voice. "I do, and I think you want to give it too, you have so much to talk about."

Silver's ear twitched again. She stared, looking at Cadance with an unreadable expression. Her mouth opened slightly, then closed again.

Maybe that was too much...

"Does it hurt to mention that I'm genuinely interested in what you have to say?" Cadance said along with a careful smile. "I don't think I've ever seen somepony talk so passionately about what you talk about, in a way I can understand. Misty was very impressive."

Give her an out Cadance.

"I thought you said you weren't an emotion mage? Where'd she learn all of that from?"

Silver shifted through a series of body languages, and expressions in each, her ear flicked throughout it all, until Cadance felt the weight of Silver's curse press down on her. Cadance's horn lit on reflex, and she kept it at bay. Barely.

Silver spoke like a ghost, like she was far away. "Ms. Scarlet is a natural when it comes to flexing her emotions along the wavelength of magic where psionics meet the thaumic energy form. I'm not a good emotion mage, I'm a good teacher. We work together, I've learned a lot."

"You are a good teacher. I've learned a lot from you."

"Thank you." Silver tilted her head slightly, "But, everything you learned from me, you did on your own. I never give out answers for free." Cadance opened her mouth, horn still lit, but Silver cut her off with a command, still absent of emotion. "Accept that the work you've done is your own, and respectable."

"Okay." Cadance said, shifting in place. "I also want to thank you for breaking me out of my rut."

"I was happy too." A little, tiny spark of amusement and affection zapped across the growing weight of magic in the air from Silver to Cadance. "Watching you basically piss away the responsibility of ruling a kingdom was grating."

Cadance grunted under the force of the curse bearing down on her, her horn shot up to two corona's, and she shifted her weight again. Silver continued to watch, expression unreadable. Cadance smiled, despite the exertion, "I'm glad you know what I mean."

"I wish you did." The weight retracted slightly, "Have you noticed the civil war yet?"

Cadance tried to look sheepish under the lessening strain. "The... what?"

Silver rolled her eyes and looked away again. Her ear stopped flicking in agitation, and the weight lifted from Cadance. She doused her horn and took a breath.

The quiet moment dragged on for longer than it should have.

"The quiet civil war, happening in The Crystal Empire?" Silver eventually answered, the tone and grace having returned to her voice. It sounded both right and wrong in Cadance's ears. Something she could notice, but didn't really want to.

"I-" Cadance wanted to talk about that. She wanted to reach out to Silver, to do anything else other than ignore the moment that had just happened in front of them. Silver looking off to the side with a kicked puppy look didn't help. Her mouth moved on autopilot. "No, I don't know of a civil war..."

More often than not, Cadance found her sympathy extending out to the silver mare.

"Well... you might want to look into it." She winked

"Wait- back up." Cadance lifted both her front hooves to hopefully stop Silver from going on. "Civil war? What do you mean by that."

"Is that your question?" Silver's eyebrows waggled at her, and Cadance very intentionally didn't look at her eyes.

"No. I'm only asking."

Silver inspected the back of her hoof while she turned away, taking on an aloof pose. "Like I said, I don't give anything out for free, maybe you should look into it."

"Ugh." Cadance hadn't made such an un-princessly vocalization for years. "One hint."

"One hint?" Silver mimed before coughing. There was a viscous series of twitches and she spat the salt packet out, sans salt, onto the dirt nearby. "I'll clean that up later." She wiped her muzzle. "Just one?"

"Can you point me in the right direction at least?" Cadance didn't whine. "I know there's not a civil war going on and I didn't notice, but can you..." Cadance trailed off, appraising the warning look Silver was sending her through a side eye.

"I'd take my comment very seriously. Like them all, if I were you." She twisted her hoof awkwardly to grab at the other daisy sandwich. "As for a hint?" She bit into the sandwich, through the wrapper and immediately spit it out. "What- is that a flow- right. Herbivores. Right-rightrightriteri-" She shook her head, "Anyways." She shifted, twirling a wing and somehow managing to seem ominous despite the bread crumbs stuck to her muzzle. "Where does Amber sleep?"

Cadance's eyebrows shot up.

Silver chuckled.

"Amber? As in, my secretary?" She asked tentatively, with a bit of iron. "That Amber?"

"One in the same."

Cadance let her frown flow freely. "Firstly, you shouldn't spy on anybody else, you definitely shouldn't be watching them sleep. Spying on me is one thing. I'm almost halfway okay with it."

Silver's prodding, antagonistic smile grew.

"Secondly... what is that look for?"

"I think..." Silver singsonged, "~You. ~Should. ~Mind. ~Your. ~Own. ~Business." She giggled to herself, "Me and Amber have a particular, yet professional relationship" She exaggerated a pop with her lips on the vocal phonics for 'ship.'

Cadance leaned away as Silver leaned in. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just saying." Silver leaned up to rest on her haunches. "Maybe you should look into her. I mean, there's lots of things that don't make sense, right? Like how she's always in The Spire in the middle of the night, her strange encyclopedic knowledge of law, say, I wonder who she caught the eye of?"

Caught the eye o-

Cadance's ears swiveled aggressively. "You!?"

Silvers giggle turned into a full laugh

"You're her secret admirer?"

Silver continued to laugh, and that was enough of an answer.

"Silver. That is not okay." Cadance tried to talk over Silver's exaggerated laughing. "Silver! I'm being serious! Amber is a sensitive mare an-"

"Sensitive!" Silver laughed at the word like the phrase itself was hilarious.

"I don't appreciate my namesake being mocked."

Cadance tried to genuinely not be offended, of course, that seemed to be the whole point of Silver laughing at her. There was a mix of frustration and sympathy from before, Silver thought viscerally different from anyone she'd ever met.

She's just trying to get under your fur Cadance, it's what she does. Relax.

Silver wiped a tear from her eye and tossed it to the side. "Aaah. Thank you Little Princess. I haven't had a good laugh like that since I was born."

"I'm going to need an explanation. A serious one." She said, crossing her front hooves.

Silver let out one last fading chuckle. "I think the main issue, is that you think I'm incapable of finding Amber attractive."

Cadance raised an eyebrow.

"You think. That I'm incapable of actually admiring her."

Cadance's gaze narrowed, "You mean to tell me that you're actually, genuinely, romantically interested in Amber? That you're not stringing her along to mess with her? She was really excited, and... well she was excited! You know how heartbroken she'll be when she finds-"

"Finds out it's only me?" Silver smirked, presenting her face under her hoof like a model. Then she shrunk back and lifted a hoof to her forehead in a mock faint. She fell onto her back, "Oh! Woe is me, my secret admirer is only a terrifying ageless master of magic and society!" She rolled over and sent her a look. "I'll try to not be offended by that."

"I'm going to need an answer, not a distraction."

Silver winced, "When it comes to my preferences? Maybe let's not go there?"

"Silver, you-"

"She needed the hope."

Cadance's retort cut itself off. There was silence for a moment as she mulled over the words.

"And she's cute." Silver flipped a hoof, "I won't lie to myself, she's hardworking, got a good head. I've got a thing for bookish mares."

Cadance took a second to push aside the rationalization going on in her head. "You mean like Twilight?"

Silver did a spit take with nothing. "Hah! No. Not in one thousand, two hundred, and thirty years." Silver pointed an accusatory hoof at Cadance, "And Twilight is distinctly an adventurer. There's nothing bookish about her."

Alright. Ignoring that oddly specific timeframe.

"Fair enough. So... real attraction?"

Silver rolled over again, staring up at the slanted roof of the shield. "Fine. Yes. It is. With things like this though, distance is best. It won't end in anything, so I expect you to be there to support her in finding something real. All knows the mare needs it."

"Of course." Cadance said on reflex.

Silver rolled her eyes and the pair lapsed into silence again.

Cadance looked up, following Silver's gaze towards the snow splatting itself against her pink shield.

This is going okay. I think...

The moment dragged on, and Cadance eventually found her eyes drifting over to her companion. Silver caught her eye and spoke, "So how long do we have to do this until we meet your socialization quota?"

"I really don't like treating it like that."

She let off a lightly pitched hum. "You can't have both, Little Princess. You can force me into interacting with you, or you can let me leave, and mind your own business." She spoke nonchalantly, like she didn't care one way or another.

Cadance clenched her jaw, speaking in frustration with a hint of hurt and outrage. "Am I really that awful to be around?"

Silver turned back up to face the snow and spoke into the air. "The better question is, why, in this tiny little universe, do you care?" She snorted, "Why would you waste so much time bothering with me."

"I-"

"Actually, shut up for a second." Silver waved her hoof to silence Cadance. "I've had this thought for a while, somebody has to tell it to you straight, and it might as well be me." During the length of the sentence, Silver stood, and glared at Cadance as she spoke again. "How fucking dare you."

There was no rage in the comment, just disgust. Ire of the dispassionate kind.

"You know how many of us would kill for a life like you have?" Silver spat off to the side, "Don't even get me started. Shining Armor? You know what Chrysalis would do if she had a stallion in her life like Shining Armor? Luna? Me?" Silver angrily smashed her hoof against her fur, letting out a dull thwump. "and you have the sheer audacity. The absolute gall. To rule a kingdom while he wastes away?!" Her voice continued to pitch up in frustration. "If I were you, I would have found a deserted island and relaxed the rest of his life away. A vacation of perfection with a pony who only cared about me."

Cadance, having backed up into a near standing position as Silver had advanced on her, she finally clicked together the two stunned neurons in her brain to respond in deep confusion with, "You're jealous?"

"Jealous!?" Silver gestured out at nothing, "Cadance! One of the other immortals literally kidnapped you to get the attention of your husband. Are you kidding me? Jealousy doesn't even begin to describe it! It's barely even fair!" Silver huffed and flapped her mouth like a fish, making angry noises, but not actually saying anything else. She spun and kicked a spare sandwich hard enough that there was a crack of air and a simple smear left over of the poor food item. Then she flopped, her deceptively heavy form making the blanket flap once before going still again.

"Stupid..." She mumbled, "But I'm happy for you... It's... how it's supposed to go, you're younger. You get the benefit of all of our wisdom to guide your lifetime." Cadance opened her mouth, but Silver whirled on her. "But that means that you better use it. Stop neglecting your husband, stop fooling around. You've got all the tools you need to be more than all of us. So do it."

The fire fell away from Silver's limbs again. "There." She laid down again, and rolled over onto her back to look at the sky again, through the snow. "Somebody had to say it."

"You're..." Cadance muttered, "What?"

"What?" Silver questioned right back

"What was all of that?"

Silver shrugged, "Call it a message from the pantheon. We were all thinking it. You're privileged."

"I don't..." Cadance raised her voice to stop Silver's incoming snide remark, "Let me think about that for a second. That was a lot to process."

And it did... make sense to a degree. Cadance's lifelong troubles could be boiled down to being the focus of attention so early on in her childhood. There was something about the pressure to perform, to be a good princess that still got to her, even today. Coming from Silver's comment, it made the sinking sensation she used to feel in her former years drift around in her stomach. She was the youngest amongst the oldest. Twilight had already saved the world countless times.

and what have I done? Made some trade deals?

Cadance internally scoffed

She's wrong. I'm not privileged, but I got to grow up in a nicer age... And I could use my skill for... more...

"I have been trying harder." Cadance said slowly, "Because of you."

Silver let out a single fake laugh. "Me, huh? Wonder why that happened."

"That." Cadance pointed at Silver. "That's why I 'bother' with you. You pretend like you don't care, but you do." Cadance kept talking, to stop Silver from interrupting her. "You say and do things that go totally opposite to what you act like, and I don't even know how, half the time-" Cadance cut herself off, "No, I do understand how. You're crazy. You spend hours a day thinking about what to say days in advance, you don't sleep, you don't eat-" Cadance noticed her spread wings and calmed herself for a moment.

"But you get me." Cadance spoke again, with slightly more urgency. "I don't know if it's just because you're old, and you've seen it all or whatever, but you understand me. Shining Loves me, and there's nothing more important to me than that, but he doesn't get it. Luna is... We're so vastly different, I don't know how to connect with her, Celestia is my mentor, she'll never... She's never tried to connect with me. Twilight, I love her to death, but she's barely thirty."

All Silver did was raise an eyebrow as Cadance went on.

Cadance continued in a low tone, having finally found the words to express the feeling. "I've never had a friend like you."

"We're not friends." She said

Cadance felt heat rising to her face at the curt rejection, whether it was embarrassment or frustration was up to interpretation. She continued regardless, "I want to have a friend like you."

"Pfft, and you wanted me to talk about my emotions."

"Dammit Quick Silver!" Cadance stood, "Take me seriously!"

Silver shook her head and tsked. "Little Princess, where do you think this goes? Honestly? What is this, some kind of relationship drama? A stage play?"

Cadance stuttered.

"You bear your lonely heart out to me, and I suddenly have a change of heart? Is that what you wanted? ~Princess~?"

Stop it.

Silver continued in monotone. "There is nothing, no place, no way we get to win." She gestured around her, "But look at what you're doing. Isn't this enough? Can't you be happy with success?"

"I don't understand what you're saying!"

"When do you!" Silver shouted back, "Think about what you're asking for. You just want me to bend over to make you feel like you're not alone in the world? Cast away all my plans? For what? Being a mom again? You're not my daughter, I'm not going to raise you."

"That's not-!" Cadance huffed and broke off the interaction by stomping her hooves. "Calm down Cadance." She said aloud. It took a moment for her to get the peace of mind to take a deep breath, with a hoof outstretched, bringing it back in as she exhaled.

"You only get a perfect-whirlwind-destiny-cave-shit-romance once Cadance." Silver said softly. "This is the real world now, and people don't win in the real world. We only survive."

"What..." Cadance let out a breathless chuckle as she dropped backwards onto her haunches, winds knocked from her sails. "What does that even mean..." She rolled her eyes.

Silver chuckled to herself. "It's a detractment, from the conversation, to confuse and calm you down."

"Do you always have to try and confuse me?" She asked quietly.

"You're always paying attention. More than most, credit yourself on that, at least."

Silver was close enough for Cadance to ensnare her in a wing hug, her wing jumped out like a coiled snake and pulled in the heavier mare with her Alicorn strength. "You're a jerk."

"I'm supposed to be a jerk Little Princess." Silver grumbled from under Cadance's heavier weight, "I'm your rough awakening into the scuffed up world we live in."

"Scuffed?" Cadance questioned

"You've never heard that word before?"

"No. I like it."

"Words are funny, most of the time."

"You said you liked words."

"Some of them, I hate talking though."

"You... It doesn't seem like it."

"So they say."

Cadance let Silver go. She stumbled to the side. "Sorry I murdered that sandwich."

"It's okay Silver." Cadance took another quick breath. "Can you tell me one thing though? No tricks, no lies, no sidespeak, can you just give me a single straight answer? Just this once?"

"For once. Throughout the remainder of our existence?" Silver raised an eyebrow, "Forever is a long time Little Princess."

Cadance nodded. "I promise I won't ask again."

Silver set her expression. "Alright. Save your cached question, I'll give you this one. Once. In exchange for you never doing this again." She waved her hoof in a 'go on' gesture.

"Do you really not care about me?"

Silver's ears flopped down. "Thousands of years of magical experience, countless educations, endless history, so many secrets, and she picks the hard question."

Cadance let out a warning: "Silver..."

"Right, right..." Silver waved off the warning with a wing. "I think it's best if we just pretend I don't. Okay? Can you accept that as an answer?"

"No." Cadance let a tiny smile come to her muzzle. "That's a dumb answer."

Silver closed her eyes and sighed. "This touchy feely stuff is reaching its peak." She waved her wing again to ward off Cadance's next comment. "Yes. Cadance, I do care."

Silver spontaneously jumped into an obnoxious pose, shaking her wings in something akin to 'jazz hands' that minitours did to express sarcasm. "Wow, what a surprise." She said in a mocking rendition of another voice, "Quick Silver cares? Wow, and here I thought she was just a terrifying ten faced monster."

"I don't think you're a monster."

"Then you're not paying attention."

Cadance heatedly retorted with, "Oh no, I've been paying attention. You like to play the part, and you've clearly been practicing for years, but I'm certain of it now." Cadance let her tone fall into a level of finality. "You're a good mare. You're just..."

"Completely gobsmackingly insane?" Silver offered jovially

"Different." Cadance said, then she added onto the end, "Like me."

"Well as much as I like to hear people talk about me-" She leaned in conspiratorially, "and read history books about myself-" She leaned back again, returning to her normal tone, "You should really be focusing on other things. Your tiny empire is a single misplaced link-n-log away from tumbling down, and you have a husband you need to go shower with affection he's been lacking." Silver stretched her wings. "Same time next week?"

Cadance didn't bother to stand. The instinct instilled in her to stand to greet any exiting noble was easily quieted by the context of the situation. "Yes."

Silver sent her an unreadable look. "Do I have to?"

Cadance felt it. That moment, rising up to her. In those times where she was feeling self aware enough to notice a pivoting point in her life, and question the decision of doing something, or not doing something... She always found those moments staggeringly calming, like looking out at your own future in obscurity with an ethereal lack of connection to it.

Cadance had a simple choice here, so she gambled on the future she wanted.

"No." She said, not quite hearing the word as she poured over Silver's features for some kind of visible response. All she got was Silver's ear imperceptibly flicking. "You don't have to come next week. If you don't want to."

Silver stared back at Cadance, "Last chance to reverse that comment."

"I won't be doing that." She said simply.

"Damn." Silver shook her head, "You got me Cadance. You really got me." She chuckled, shaking her head again. "The nerve of you." She took to the air. "Pack any seabound snacks you have for next week, if you're scared of the ocean, now's the time to tell me."

When Cadance didn't respond, Silver flew off without another word.

Cadance made an auditory 'whoo' of relief as she ran a hoof through her mane, straightening the imagined shimmery mess. There was a split second of reflection before Cadance glanced over the basket, and the new hole in the blanket where Silver obliterated a sandwich. "That went well Cadance."

She looked around again, "You know what? She's right. I'll think about all of this later, I have a husband I can go dote on." The basket disappeared back into her pocket spell, in addition to the blanket, which went alongside the basket.

Cadance spread her own wings and took off, leaving the clearing, and the new extension to the Crystal Heart's shield behind.