As The Sun Sets

"So how does this work?" Cadance asked.

She was at Tack & Co. Point Flare was walking her through the operations grounds, showing her how they'd set up walkways and tarps, and those little cloth lines then ran between poles to set up impromptu barriers to show ponies where to stand in a line. They had paused operations today to do a dry run for the Crystal Solstice, Point Flare had invited Cadance, the whole place reminded her of an empty beehive. She could feel the experience and dedication of hundreds of ponies, but nobody was there.

There was only Cadance and Point Flare in the whole warehouse.

"The process or-"

"Everything, if you could." Cadance amended, "Silver's only mentioned vague details in passing, how does it all work?"

Point Flare made a face, "You know I can't tell you that Princess."

"I could shut this whole operation down, if it's dangerous. Black magics don't belong in civilian transportation." Cadance said it sarcastically, rhetorically. It wasn't meant to be a threat... just a warning... totally not side speak. Cadance wouldn't do that.

Cadance was still hoping that she could find something out of her control to blame for shutting down the Crystal Solstice on. Something that wasn't her. She needed something to work with, anything.

Flare laughed, "Oh Princess, if there's one thing I learned from Quick Silver, it's this." She gestured out towards the warehouse, "Everything can be dangerous." Her horn lit with fire, and Cadance watched a gust of smoke lift one of the velvet ropes, "If we arranged these just so, we could confuse a bunch of ponies, and that's just rope!"

Cadance frowned, "You know that's not what I mean."

"I can assure you, everything we do here is safe."

"Even the portals?"

Come on...

Flare nodded, "Yup! Even those."

...

"How do they work?"

Flare dropped the rope, and the flame coating her horn doused itself. "Weeeeeell~ I can't really tell you... I know, I know, I probably should, but... Silver's Orders."

You have no idea who she is. Okay Cadance, you can do this.

If Cadance couldn't cancel the Crystal Solstice, she'd find someone else who could. Point Flare was the de-facto leader of her group, if she could change Flare's mind about Silver then there was a chance it would all come crashing down.

"To change the subject, how is Silver?"

Flare raised an eyebrow, "Didn't you two get into a shouting match a few days ago?"

"Oh that?" Cadance fake laughed, "That was just a-a... uh, well you know how Silver gets."

Flare's eyebrow remained raised.

Think. Formulate. Project.

"We butt heads." Cadance stated, followed by a deep breath. "Silver jumping into the noble scene cold made a lot of noise in the inner circles... especially because she's so..."

"Herself?" Flare offered.

Cadance felt a hint of disbelief, and was that... sorrow? Was she upset about something?

"Yes. Herself."

"You two don't argue like stately officials." Flare commented, the hint of suspicion weaving its way into her tone.

"Ah-hah. Could you get through to Silver by talking serious shop?"

"Yes." Flare responded with zero hesitation. "Silver's always been a listening teacher. She might get annoyed when my questions are dumb... but she still always answers me." Cadance ignored Flare's annoyed tone.

Really? Please teach me how to- oh. Right...

"That must be nice." Cadance deadpanned.

Point Flare made a face, and turned away from Cadance and trotted on down the warehouse floor. "Anyways, as you can see, everything is set up like the night of." She pointed outwards to the winding rope lines, "Everything but the portals, of course. Keeping them running all day for just a show and tell would be a waste of power."

You're losing her Cadance

"How much power do they use?" Cadance asked conversationally. She needed to move this dialogue one topic over.

Flare's disbelief intensified. "It's really not so much how much. It's more about stability."

Did she just lie?

"So... the longer the portals are open, the less stable they become?"

Flare looked at the ground. "Yeah, something like that-I- I'm not a technician, so I wouldn't know. You'll have to ask Misty." Then Flare trotted off again, at a quicker pace.

Cadance followed after, her nervousness growing. She wouldn't say she was desperate, but after a whole day of planning...

Cadance had nothing. Aside from shutting down the whole Crystal Solstice, Cadance didn't have any options. She couldn't just open up an entire new event for Crystal Ponies, every staff member and bit the palace had to spare was focused on making sure everything ran smoothly. There was no going back. No easy, scot free way to disrupt Silver's plan. That was the worst part of it.

Silver's plan wasn't really the whole of the issue. If Cadance could solve the Crystal Pony morale issues, then Silver could achieve little to nothing. She was just pushing in the right direction, and exacerbating the problem. It would get too bad too quickly for Cadance to stop. There were so many details Cadance hadn't considered, and it was all too late.

Yet, Cadance wasn't to the point of hoping for the best after. She couldn't grasp how Silver even went about dealing with ponies on the individual level. How was that even possible? Stopping any Crystal Ponies from forming new bonds? If anything, it was a sign that Cadance was failing as the Princess of Love.

The bubbling anxiety? The need to do something? She was trapped in her own head.

Okay. I'm just going to be direct.

"Point Flare." Cadance said, "I'm... I have to be honest with you."

Flare's ears perked, "You're not really here for an inspection?"

"Er- yes. Uh..." Anyways "I made a mistake."

Flare narrowed her eyes, "What kind of mistake."

"Like all things recently, it has to do with Silver."

Flare waited.

"You see... oh, how do I explain this?"

How do I explain this...

Cadance started off slowly, "Tack & Co.... it's a trick. A complex plot to damage the Crystal Empire. I let it fester, and now it's too late to do anything about it. Silver's not just immortal, she's... deranged, she wants to hurt ponies."

"I understand."

"You do?"

Flare whirled on her, "You think! You..." The angry look melted away immediately. Point Flare was upset, but above that, she was confused. "You sent me to Silver to learn magic. You want me to teach at your school, and now you... you want to shut down everything Silver's created?" Confusion meshed into resolve, "Yeah. I understand, Silver told us you'd try something like this, that you'd try and undermine her for something. So-" Flare shouted, "No!"

Oh crud

"No... Princess." Flare turned, "I don't know why you'd turn on her, but she hasn't betrayed you. If you want me to show you the rest of our facilities, I will, but..." Flare looked back at Cadance, "I'm not getting involved in whatever rivalry you have. I don't know the complexities, but Silver is a good mare, and I'm not going to... help you with whatever it is you're trying to do."

That was it.

Now among feeling betrayed, Cadance was embarrassed, Point Flare was onto her in the first line, and Cadance was so desperate to get something done that she'd overlooked the obvious.

Of COURSE Silver would warn everyone about you filly! Duh! She has nothing to hide! She's not technically ever done anything wrong! Well... aside from public use of blood magic, which you pardoned her for. UGH!

"Princess Cadance?"

"Huh," Cadance focused herself.

"Are you okay?"

Concern, confusion, fear.

"You look angry."

Get a hold of yourself Cadance.

"I'm sorry for wasting your time, Point Flare."

What are you doing.

Cadance spread her wings, "Thank you, genuinely for your hard work for the celebration, I know what organizational work can be like."

You have to do something.

Flare looked about as satisfied at Cadance's end to the conversation as Cadance felt. There were rules. She couldn't light her horn and blow the top of the warehouse off, despite the fact that she could; the fact that she wanted to. It would be...

So easy. A little destruction. Could they repair it in a week?

Stop it Cadance.

Cadance sent a smile towards the other mare. "Goodbye for now Flare. Don't worry, I know my way out." Cadance flapped and flew away.

~~Dear Prin~~

~~Dear aun~~

~~Luna, I made a huge mistake. It was exactly how you said, Silver tricked me and now I don't know what to do. I know you won't want to get involved, but I need help, I~~

~~Princess Luna, as a fell-~~

~~So... Silver's 'harmony' training isn't going as planned, and~~

~~I have no idea what~~

Dear Princess Celestia

I lied to you. Dusk Swirl did escape. They took on the guise of Quick Silver and took on the Crystal Empire with a vengeance. She tricked me, and now the Empire is heading for something I can't stop. I-

Cadance let the quill in her magic drop.

...

What are you doing Cadance.

What am I doing.

The quill raised again, and the quill settled on the page.

Just one letter. Celestia deals with it. The Solstice gets canceled, a pony tried to hijack it. What else could I do? It's not my fault.

The quill wavered.

Who are you trying to trick? Even if Celestia doesn't hurt Silver, you'd still be condemning her.

Cadance had run out of ideas. After flubbing getting something from Point Flare, all she had left was sending that letter. She couldn't do anything else. Silver had said: 'I win.' All the pieces had been set and moved before Cadance was paying attention.

Except... She could still kick over the board. She could still get Celestia.

Unless.

Unless that was part of the plan too. How much had Silver thought about this exact moment, of Cadance leaning over a page, trying to will herself to do something she shouldn't? Cadance was wasting time doing nothing, Silver had propped up this moment constantly.

Could it be a red herring?

Silver said Celestia could beat her, but was that a lie?

Celestia stood less than a hoof from Silver at the gala.

Silver constantly lied, but then claimed to not be a liar, and then told the truth to prove it.

This...

The quill straightened up again.

Silver is your friend.

I was never Silver's friend.

I don't know her.

She's going to hurt so many ponies.

Is it even really her fault?

Is it mine?

I-

The door to Cadance's office opened. Shining nosed his way inside. He was like that, Cadance didn't know how, but Shining could tell when she was in a mood. This particular mood was a bit extravagant.

"Hi honey."

So extravagant that Cadance made the attempt to hide it.

Shining frowned from the doorway at her greeting and walked over to her desk. He wasted no time, and looked straight at the page she had been scribbling on. He saw her asking for help, saw her inner thoughts of confusion, betrayal and failure. Cadance could tell how upset he was that she hadn't told him herself, but she sat on her cushion and watched him read. At least it was happening now. It was one thing that didn't have to be in her control. The inner turmoil came to a peak when Shining snorted and looked up at her.

He raised an eyebrow.

So Cadance told him everything. Funny, she'd gone three total days without spilling her guts. A record for her.

She ranted as the sun was going down and whined about how confusing it all was. Not Silver, though the name came up frequently. Being a Princess. Being responsible. Being a ruler. It was all so complicated, and nobody would sit down and talk to her about it, it always had to be some adventure. Some complex plot. There were always games and ponies who wanted things that didn't even benefit them.

There were a few tears, no bawling or crying. Cadance wasn't sad, the tears just rose with her emotion as she ranted, and she was too focused on showing her husband how she felt to cry properly. Then she started talking about her baby, and being pregnant. She yelled about that.

Ruling a kingdom? Being a mother? A wife? A sister? A role model? A friend?

Cadance couldn't do any of them. Much less all of them at the same time.

For the first time in the better part of that year, Cadance truly thought about everything she'd done. All of the points in ruling the Crystal Empire that lead her to this moment.

And she... didn't want it.

She didn't want to be a Princess.

She'd finally felt like she'd seen what it meant, and she wished out loud for her horn to fall from her head.

She couldn't believe that she'd ever wanted this.

The only thing that was right was...

Right in front of her, with a neutral line across his face, staring unblinking as she ranted and raved about everything wrong with her life. He was an immovable cavern for her voice to fall into, and she knew that he was memorizing every word. She felt the resolve in his core, and the Love, and the worry. He knew he couldn't truly help her. All he could do was be a witness, and it was tearing him up inside.

It was tearing her up inside.

A thought struck, something Silver had yelled at her.

"Let's run."

Shining's ears twisted.

"Let's... find an island somewhere. We can have our baby, we... it can just be us, no one can make us stay here."

Cadance knew she shouldn't have said it. She was mentally resisting the words as they came out. She rationalized that it was an option maybe. Maybe if Shining said yes, she could really think about doing it.

Shining blinked. Hard.

Cadance felt his inner turmoil shift up and away from her, to focus on something else.

"Sure." He said, almost humorously. Cadance could tell he was being serious. "I'd follow you anywhere Cadance."

Cadance looked away.

Of course he'd say that...

Oh...

You can't...

but-

No.

Abandon everything?

Everything that doesn't matter.

Since whe-

Shining is all that matters.

"Cadance."

Cadance shook her head, she'd zoned out. Shining looked worried. He felt worried.

And then Cadance realized how she was treating him.

She flinched, physically, as it sank in why Silver had yelled at her.

She was actually considering tearing Shining away from his family. From Twilight, from his parents. From Spike. From his guard friends, and Shining was about to go along with it, because of course he would. Cadance was about to play god with the stallion who loved her more than anything; she was so trapped in her own head that she hadn't noticed when her perspective changed from loving him to owning him. She'd been using him as a crux to keep herself stable, and he'd been there at her side every step of the way.

The worst part is that he knew. He wasn't some dumb colt. Cadance had been emotionally unavailable for the better part of the year, maybe even past that, maybe the whole time, and he knew. He didn't care. It didn't matter to him. He Loved her. She'd just gotten so distracted. Cadance was just so confused, Cadance had to balance so many things. Cadance. Cadance. Cadance. It was always about Cadance.

Cadance...

Cadance...

What is wrong with you?

And then she started crying. She just couldn't hold it in anymore. She pulled her hooves in, her wings came down around her. She sat across from the husband she felt like she had alienated and started to ugly-cry.

Shining came around the desk, because he would. He knew not to jump in and hug her. All he did was sit as close as possible to silently be there with her as she cried. It stung. It stung that he knew so well what she wanted, and it only brought more tears.

That evil question resonated through her mind again.

What is wrong with you?

A shiver ran up her spine to accompany the choked crying.

Cadance had no clue what she was doing. All she knew was that she was doing it wrong. No wonder Celestia never married. Somewhere in between her huffs, Shining's aura lifted up her letter and crumpled it into a ball. It joined the others in the can. Cadance sniffled.

"It's okay." He said softly. As warm as he possibly could. His voice rumbled with the tone, and it drew her attention.

"It's not okay." She disagreed.

"You're overreacting." He countered.

Cadance blinked, and a hiccup interrupted her tears as her face grew cold and the blush fled from her face.

His hoof came to rest on her shoulders. "It's not as bad as you think it is."

Cadance looked at him like he'd grown a second head. She looked like a proper mess, so it likely didn't end up being the look she was going for, but Shining smiled and rubbed her back while leaning into her.

"Of course it looks bad from where you're sitting, but you keep forgetting that you're not alone."

I'm not alone?

"You took on Silver by yourself. You tried to take on The Empire, by yourself. You keep thinking you're above it all, that you can do anything all by yourself." Shining smile-frowned, "I used to think you were right. My immortal Princess, incapable of failing, impossible to beat, perfect."

He bumped her. "Perfect is being flawed, and you never did it all alone. It was hard to see, but your greatest strength was always the ponies you loved. Twilight, Luna, Me." He took a deep breath, and Cadance watched his neck strain as he forced out, "Silver..."

"I don't-"

"You do." Shining interrupted her. "You wouldn't stick your neck so far out for her if you didn't. That's something I... I know it's cliché, but I Love that about you." He chuckled, "You don't have any patience. The moment you find someone who will take your Love, you're all in, all the time. You'll meet a pony on the street, and then I'll hear about how they're doing months down the line and wonder when you had the time to check on them. That's all you cared about when I met you in Canterlot. Ponies. Whoever you could Love. It was your mission."

Cadance had no response.

"So stop worrying." He joked, "No really. Stop." He didn't joke. "You can do this. You just need to get out of your own head. Get Silver out of your head, because you can do this. Buck if I know how, but I know you, and I know you'll figure something out."

...

Was it that simple?

Could she?

Would she?

Cast away all of the confusion and worry? The doubt?

Just shut up and do it?

...

There was a Spark.

It was the same feeling she felt when she defeated Prisma and ascended. It was the feeling of doing the impossible, of bridging the gap, of knowing that you could do anything. Prisma had said yes then, it was everything Cadance had wanted. She'd known she could do it, and she did. It was that simple.

Cadance took a breath.

What would I do?

...

Her wings spread.

I would stick to my principles.

Her horn lit.

I would do what I would.

Cadance wiped the snot from her face.

I would win.

The energy flowed.

I'd do something so impossible, that nobody saw it coming.

Cadance felt alive.

Down beneath the Spire, the Crystal Heart shone and spun with barely contained magic.

Homeward was outside.

It was night.

She was feeling the emotion that one would feel when stalking through the back alleys of Trottingham, not the glowing streets of the Crystal Empire. That being said, she was avoiding the main roads. If one had been paying attention from her walk that started at the base of the Spire and followed it on her route all the way home, one might even say she was trying to hide from something.

She was, of course.

It just so happened that she didn't know what exactly it was she was hiding from. She had betrayed Cadance once, it wasn't her fault, that's what she told herself. The ponies that cornered her were pushy and angry, they took the files even though there wasn't anything important in them. They wanted to know things about Cadance, and her intentions for the Crystal Faire. They wanted her to be their inside pony. At the time, she had said yes.

But Cadance was so nice to her. She trusted her.

So then Homeward stopped sending them letters. Stopped making copies of the documents that Rim filed away.

She stopped helping them and there'd been nothing but silence for the whole week.

So she was taking an extra safe route home. An extra-extra safe route. Courtesy of Blue Skies, a lawyer Cadance had hired on to their group to help with the legalese. She also happened to be a local, and knew her way around. Blue acted like she'd never had a friend before, so it wasn't hard for Homeward to work that information out of her, despite it being morally wrong. Homeward rather have the itch and apologize for it later, rather than freak out all the time when she was going home for the night.

She was turning past another back end of an old closed down bakery when her nose pressed into something invisible.

There was a split second where whatever it was shimmered, and she saw the outline of a bubble before the sheet she walked into flexed and pushed her back. She fell back onto her flanks, and gasped. The short time she spent rubbing her nose on reflex twisted from annoyance to terror as a pair of ponies appeared around the corner, from the other side of the shield.

Homeward lit her horn for the light.

The arcane visibility let her see the bounds of the bubble she'd been caught in, barely. That, and the two... Very large, suited Crystal Stallions that approached. The first one stepped through the bubble. Homeward's eyes widened, and she stumbled backwards onto her hooves again.

"Good evening Homeward." He said in a way that clearly indicated what kind of evening she was about to be having.

"Listen, I-"

"Calm down, miss." He interrupted, "We're not here to hurt you."

Homeward thought it was ironic that they had to say that.

"I just have a few questions to relay to you." He spoke evenly, he was a professional. Homeward had met his ilk before. Body guards, muscle. He kept stepping towards her, she kept stepping backwards. "Like why your stream of information stopped? Did you get caught? Maybe... you found something big, and needed to talk with somepony else?"

"I-" Homeward's tail pressed against the edge of the bubble, and she sat back down to get as far away from him as she could.

His expression remained unchanged as he came to a stop close enough to loom over her. "Don't lie to me."

Homeward tried to stop the shakes that ran up her hooves. Her horn light flickered. "I- It's- Cadance, and..."

"Really miss. Calm down. You're safe. The bubble is just insurance that you don't run."

Homeward tried to swallow her fear. "I don't know why you'd need that to begin with, if you're not going to hurt me."

The stallion chuckled. It was mirthless, "Look at how scared you are of us already. We haven't even done anything to you."

She could feel the heat from his breath from how close he was. The words were a lie. She had to be careful.

"I don't want to do this anymore. I can't. You'll have to find somepony else." She stuttered out. It was clear enough.

He frowned and looked back towards the other stallion, giving Homeward a chance to breathe. It was a short moment. A moment she let herself hope he'd accept that and leave her alone. He turned back to her, unfortunately, that would not be the case.

"Well that won't do." He snarked, talking like he was making voices to a puppy. "We need somepony on the inside-"

"Get somepony else!" She shouted, "There's plenty! I can't!"

"There isn't anypony else we can use." He countered, "We've tried. Everypony close to the Princess is tight lipped or... strong." He leaned forwards, "Not like you. You have a lot to say, why can't you help us? That's all that we're asking."

Homeward was at a loss. The danger was clear, but this was Equestria. Getting mugged in an alley was unheard of, practically impossible. Except it was happening to her, it was political, and she was definitely in danger. "All of the information is public." She answered, "You don't need a pony on the inside."

"Oh, but we do." Despite already being deep inside her personal space bubble, the stallion just kept getting closer. "You know, all of the juicy office gossip? Cadance's reports in the morning. Things like that. That wouldn't be too hard, would it?"

"I-" Homeward hardened her resolve. They wouldn't actually hurt her. It was intimidation. By Celestia was it good intimidation, but that's all it was. "I just can't. Cadance is a good mare. I don't know what you want from me, or her, but nopony deserves to be spied on."

"Hmmm..." He turned to look at his partner again. Then stepped away. He walked to the other end of the bubble and started to 'tsk' "Homeward. Homeward. We're not here to hurt you." He reached a hoof into his suit and whipped out a stick that folded open with a 'snap-crack!' "We're not here to hurt you." He repeated, "but we will."

Homeward pressed backwards into the bubble more.

"This information is important."

"Wait-"

The stallion spun back around to face Homeward. The look on his face said it all.

Homeward cracked. "Wait! I'll do it! I'll help you!"

The stallion approached. "Too late. You already went silent on us already."

Homeward tried to speak, but the fear stole her words, her breathing was coming too fast. The bubble around where she was pressing back into was deformed to fit most of her backside, but it wasn't nearly far enough away.

"Let's see what a broken horn looks like, shall we?"

He raised the stick.

Homeward tracked it with her eyes, and then the sky exploded.

Far away, the heart had been activated, except it wasn't like before, when Homeward had been in the blast radius. The aurora in the sky shone not with blues and pinks, but with red, with passion and fire. There was gold and whites that twisted and danced around the rage and the push against what shouldn't be. What wasn't fair.

It filled Homeward with... Determination.

More importantly, it distracted the stallion long enough for her to leap into his face and deliver a one-two kick right to his snoz. He grunted and stepped back, and Homeward used her telekinesis to try and wrench the stick from his hoof while throwing her shoulder forwards to disorient him.

In the struggle, neither of them noticed the other stallion disappearing.

He shoved her back, and she flashed a directed cone of light into his eyes. The beam shone through his faceted crystal face, but the switch from telekinesis to flashbang freed the stallion's stick hoof for a swing. The hoof rather than the stick came at Homeward's head, and she moved to take it in the shoulder, but the strength behind the swing still sent her onto her side.

She tried to roll, but a kick stopped that.

The fight was over. He stood over her with a bloody nose, and grunted out an "Okay. Let's try that again." He raised the stick again, and Homeward clenched her eyes shut. Her ears came next, clamping over her skull when there was the sound of sound breaking, and glass shattering. It took a second for the reverberation to stop, before Homeward's adrenaline mentally noted that she had remained unharmed.

She lifted her head and an eye cracked open, only for her to yelp and scramble back as her vision was filled with another pair of eyes, cerulean. A mare, a silvery one, had appeared and gotten up in her face while she was cowering.

"Excuse me." The mare said, while Homeward continued to scramble away.

Homeward calmed, and her eyes glanced over to the stallion, who lay crumpled on the ground. She looked back towards the silver mare, now identifiable as a pegasus, as she stood up straight and hefted a massive rifle looking thing over her shoulder. There was white smoke wafting from the business end of it. Homeward wasn't sure how she identified it as a weapon, but she had.

"I noticed you were in a bit of a bind, and well-" The mare waved a hoof, "I just couldn't help myself." She took another few steps forwards and offered a hoof to Homeward.

Homeward, in a daze, took the offered hoof and hefted herself back up onto all four legs. There was a pinch at her side. "Ow!" She jerked her hood back and looked at the bruising on her right side, where the pinch was. The purple under her fur disappeared in a wash of strange tingly sensations.

"There we are." The mare was looking too. "All better. Homeward, was it?"

"Uh- yeah." She answered dumbly, "What-how do you know my name?"

The mare took her by the shoulder, "I've seen you around. You're actually a pretty big name you know? Lot's of things to pay attention to with you." Homeward turned to look over her shoulder at the stallion, but the silver mare nudged her nose the other way. "Nah-ah-don't worry about him. He's just resting." She joked with a hint of menace. Then she smiled and rolled her eyes, "No seriously, he's fine. That was a joke. Sorry, I'm used to poking fun at somepony else's sense of humor."

Homeward's pounding heart had no idea what was happening, but she was being lead away from the scene. That, and the silver mare was strong. Whenever Homeward tried to slightly move in some other direction than where she was being pulled, the pressure of the hoof over her back would slightly increase to match, and keep her walking until she was led out of the alley.

"Go on home. Homeward." The mare said from her side, "Stay safe."

Homeward stumbled forwards from a gust of wind. She turned to the side, and the mare was gone.

Homeward looked back into the alley for a split second before turning tail and running down the road towards her dinky crystal apartment.