Cadance stared.

Papers, whiteboard, and half of an office desk made out of crystal. Courtesy of Amber Stone; all of it had been roughly shoved into her room due to the mild secrecy. Everything relevant to 'Quick Silver' was stacked up here.

Ever since the Solstice, and Silver's 'goodbye', Astralation's strange and vague prophetic warnings, Cadance had been carrying around this sinking sensation that she was missing something. Something desperately important. So she stared.

There was the transcript from the press conference where Stone Cut got arrested. Silver's words had been cut out and put down on a list of quotes Cadance had looked over a few times. Shining wanted her to go to bed, but was still awake, relaxing on their shared blankets while Cadance worked herself up.

"What am I missing." Cadance tapped a hoof on the ground.

Silver wanted the Solstice to happen.

She missed most of it.

She also tried to explode herself moments before, why throw everything away?

Trying to get into Silver's head was difficult. Like most ponies, she was more complicated than one individual tract of thought. She just had this habit of trying to make it seem like she was far more in multitudes than she actually was. It was such a compelling disguise of intent that there was no way to sift through the implications to find the actual truth. Since there were no technical lies, not ones that Silver would recognize as lies.

Her main loop-in was Point Flare and her gaggle of cultists friends...

But they were deeply loyal to Quick Silver, and as Cadance had learned, diving that low into political intrigue was something that... well... it left a bad taste in her mouth. Looking back on what she had tried in desperation really only brought embarrassment to the forefront of her mind.

At least Point Flare didn't seem to mind all that much.

Cadance's hooves were sore and her eyes were heavy.

The nobles had made the decision. They were ambushing Silver with all of the documents tomorrow. There would be a quiet hearing, like with Banana, and that would be that. Unless Silver had a very compelling argument to convince the nobles to change their minds, to convince everyone to change their minds, everything should work. There was, on paper, nothing she could do.

On paper.

Of course, Silver didn't care on a good day. There was a nonzero chance that she'd shrug, and then fight everyone in the room until they declared her empress of the world. Like Sombra all over again, except Cadance would be there. Silver wouldn't hurt her. Probably.

There are ways of coercion that don't involve pain, Cadance.

Her mouth turned sideways with her head. Looking at the white board sideways didn't help, just like it hadn't helped the last three times she tried it. It only made it harder to read. Not that the words had made any sense for the last thirty minutes anyways.

Brick wall. Thinking about it didn't help.

"Shining?"

Shining perked up from the bed, his ears swiveling forwards and his eyes met hers.

"Am I overworking myse-"

"Yes."

...

"Should I j-"

"Yes."

Cadance frowned.

"I'm not going to be able to sleep anyways."

It was exactly as Silver said. Climactic, thematic, whatever she wanted to call it.

and on Thursday too. How ironic. Guess she was right about that too.

It was all going to come to a head tomorrow. That was that. It would go the way that it went. Cadance hadn't ever felt so prepared for something in her entire life. That sinking feeling that it was all about to go wrong simply wouldn't leave her be.

Shining spoke up, pulling her from her thoughts, "I'll tell you what. You come over here, lay down, and talk out all the thoughts in your head until you fall asleep."

Cadance considered it. She started tapping her hoof rapidly, looking between Shining and her mess of information.

Shining smirked, "Okay, executive decision. You need to relax."

Cadance hung her head and plodded her way over to the bed. Sighing dramatically like a filly being sent to bed early with no desert. Shining tried to hold in some low chuckles and mostly failed. A louder, more dramatic sigh that was more akin to a bear sighing accompanied Cadance actually getting into bed, leading Shining to proper laughter.

A flomphf of the covers, and Shining repositioning himself to rest his head over her shoulder, and Cadance let herself relax.

oooh. That's nice...

Of course, as Shining had suggested, the ‘tired’ rose up to meet her anxiety, and the two did fierce battle. Similarly, as Shining had told her, Cadance began to try and turn her thoughts into words. The mind jelly that had suddenly overtaken her the moment she laid down was making it annoyingly difficult.

"I don't understand. That's the issue. I know why she's... doing all of this... but... there's still something that would have needed to prompt her. It seems like me waking her up isn't nearly enough to send her on a crusade against me, personally. So why?"

Shining nestled his head a little further into her, a small, physical affirmation that he was going to listen, and only listen.

I should probably do that more often.

"It's infuriating. She's insane. It's obvious, but she's proven over and over that she's some level of functional, she hasn't done anything without a reason, even if those reasons are ridiculous. So there has to be some justification, but I just can't put my hoof on it."

Another sigh.

"Am I overthinking it? Is she just crazy and that's it? I've kept thinking that, you know, that all of the charade and acting is a cover for the fact that she is simply evil. She even told me that a few times."

Cadance felt the need to gesture. Her wings and her hooves felt like talking for her, expressing all of the emotions.

Being comfy won out over exasperated flailing.

"And there's no back up plan. Even if I wanted to, all I have on the table is send a-"

I guess I should prepare a letter to Celestia, just in case.

Cadance moved

"Nope." Shining stopped her with his aura, gently, it wasn't so much as stopping as letting her know he didn't want her to move. "Morning."

Cadance huffed, but pushed herself backwards again.

Tired brought to bare warmth and the slow release of stress in her legs. Anxiety fought back with too many questions to think about at once.

"Ugh..." Cadance closed her eyes and elected to keep them that way. "What if... That's it. Just... What if?"

Swirling thoughts.

"She got into my head really well, Shining. I don't know which way is up anymore."

Another quiet moment passed.

"I'm... frightened."

...

"All of it happened so quickly but so quietly. There's so much deception and I can't control any of it. What if it was all a trick, and there's a bomb underneath the Crystal Empire that Silver explodes regardless of what we do? That's the same mare who took me out to dinner to meet Chrysalis, she kept it civil. She reminded me how to have fun and how to be angry... How can they be the same? How can someone..."

...

"She started a fight, and I have to finish it before things get out of hoof. So why do it at all? She said that it was always about me. I don't understand."

...

"I just don't-" A yawn. "Understand."

Cadance kept her eyes shut, despite wanting to glance out the window at the sky. After a few days, most of Luna's spell had melted back into the shield, turning the sky back to its normal non-bright self. Except, there were a few stars in the sky that Cadance could still see, that she was sure hadn't been visible before. She wanted to look at them again, but didn't.

Relax, Cadance.

"That's the same mare that took care of Amber when neither of us knew to help. It was weird, and insane, the way she did it."

...

"But it worked."

That was the thing. Overtime, Silver had begun to make sense. Cadance had felt as though she'd figured it out. Now, when Silver said something crazy, Cadance found herself thinking it was far less insane than it was. That first day they met. Publicly fighting a duel? Catching a rapier in the leg, all the way up to the shoulder? Madness, except now Cadance saw the setup for proof of her use of blood magic, it was a mirage, to make ponies think 'Quick Silver' was a skilled mage in only one particular field.

It wasn't snarky or quirky. Silver didn't try to intimidate anyone, it was a gambit to set up plausibility for a later argument. The fact that it won the duel was just a bonus. She was preparing for moments months in advance, but then, she'd also just causally forget crucial information like a regular mare.

Call it an unnecessary analysis of Silver's personality, but she was accelerating cultural genocide intentionally.

but why?

...

Tired was beating anxiety into submission. Stress had run out of questions to circle around.

...

Cadance stopped talking. It would be fine, it would be.

They could talk about it.

It would be fine.

Author's Note

Last chapter before It All Happens.