As The Sun Sets

A week later
Still Cadance's perspective though

Midday, Quick Silver led Cadance down into some... old looking building that definitely needed a paint touch up on the outside. No signage, no markings, and hidden away in an old road zone, now behind a bunch of high value apartments deep within Manehatten. The only reason Cadance didn't feel like she was walking into the start of a horror movie was due to her knowledge that Twilight had a hoof in preparing this with Quick Silver.

Having the two of them work together was surprisingly much easier than expected.

"Get out of your head Little Princess, adventure awaits." Silver said from ahead of her, ducking into the building after unlocking it.

Cadance adjusted her saddlebags and followed with snark, "You know, it's empress now."

Whatever Silver said next was cut off as Cadance dipped into the room, ducking a little to keep her horn from glancing the door frame, and getting a look at the interior.

It was a skating rink

With the video game inspired carpets filled with random shapes and stains from spilled drinks. Silver flicked on the lights as Cadance marveled, lighting up the whole place in a quiet strobe that flashed purple and green around the rink itself, as the blue and purple lights lit up the outskirts of tables, an arcade by the corner, and what looked like a bunch of old, terrible chain restaurants that had long since been cleared and emptied. There was a disco ball, there were dumb table covers, it was everything Cadance remembered from when she was young.

"I haven't figured out the music an-"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" Cadance interrupted.

"Okay." Silver responded, smiling to herself as Cadance danced on the tips of her hoofsies.

"This is fantastic! Silver! Ooooh~!" Her excitement bled into her voice. The sparkles shooting out from her mane as she expressed herself lit up the space around her in a tiny aurora. "When you said to bring my old jazz stuff, I was hoping, no, dreaming that this is what you had in mind. It's just like what I remember! Where did you-"

Silver waved a hoof, "That was the Twilight part. Pinkie found this place a while ago while they were here. Twilight hooked me up with the owner and helped me with the repairs on and off since last month."

Last month huh? You really do plan for everything.

"It's perfect. You even got the stains right."

Silver nodded slowly, "... yeah. That was intentional."

Cadance stared.

Silver stared back.

They both started giggling.

"So, when's everyone else getting here?"

"Nuh-uh. Keep your head out of scheduling-" Silver smushed her mouth together when she said "empress."

Cadance 'snrked' to herself and took another look around. The building had a deceptively low ceiling, like a bowling alley.

"Show me what you brought? I'm dying to know how you're going to set this up, I missed the decade all of this is from so I'm honestly clueless about what I copied." What silver had 'copied' was a leather jacket combo with a white under-T that fit her a little too well for Cadance's liking. It was abdominally jarring, and doubly so funny.

"So!" Cadance levitated open her saddlebags, "I'm sure you noticed my coat is extra poofy?"

"It was the first thing I noticed." Silver nodded sagely, "You've got about a quarter of an inch of extra floof. Very impressive."

Cadance continued, "I had these earth pony hoof braces commissioned for yak negotiations-"

"Strength enhancement?"

"Yaks." Was Cadance's answer, followed by trying to finish her sentence. "Me and Amber did some pattern work-"

"How is Amber? I haven't bothered her in so long."

Would you stop interrupting me?

Cadance huffed, "Amber is doing really well. We got her to move back into her home without throwing everything out- I say we," Cadance flopped a hoof over, "It was mostly Ivory and Morning-"

"They got together right? Through your speed dating cult?"

"Yes." Cadance hissed, "And it's not speed dating, and you're- Would you quit trying to stop me from explaining what you asked me to explain just to be annoying?!"

Silver laughed.

"You're impossible." Cadance snarked

A much more serious, "You're impossible." Came from Silver.

Cadance sent her back a softer smile before pulling out her leg warmers. "These. We made these." They were a softer pink than her coat, nearly purple, bunchy, and were all wrong for all the right reasons. The top held a strap and the magic strength enhancing braces. "Cause we found out that a side effect of channeling all of my magic into earth pony strength is this!" She said, slipping one on. Immediately upon her telekinesis folding down the strap, the magic articulating her flowing mane cut, and her hair turned back into normal tangible hair, flopping down over her muzzle and into her face.

"OoOoOo" Silver marveled.

A pair of brushes and a mirror followed out off Cadance's bag, and she went to work.

Silver continued to 'ooh' and 'ah' as Cadance turned her now magic-less mane into a giant ball of fuzz with a clever application of static, magic, and skilled brush strokes. It took barely under a minute, emphasizing how many times Cadance had done this before. When she looked up from her mirror, Silver's mane was slicked back, and the top half was mulleted.

Cadance shook her head, her mane bouncing as her hoof came up to hold back a laugh.

"What?" Silver asked

Cadance pointed at her shapeshifting mane, "That's cheating!"

Silver chuckled and struck a pose, "So how do I look?"

Cadance squeezed her eyes shut to hold back a guffaw and let out a breathless, "We both look ridiculous."

Silver laughed a little harder, stomping a hoof a few times and wiping away a tear. "Totally worth the embarrassment. Though I have to ask, what's next? Braces?"

Cadance shook her head and pulled out a pair of hoof skates.

Silver gasped in surprise, "Little Princess! Please don't tell me you already know how to rollerblade."

Cadance made short work of the shoes and straps, magic and all, then gave a little flourishing pirouette. Except... you know... quadrupedal roller skates.

Silver looked impressed, "I can't believe you've been holding out on me; and here I thought we'd get to have fun learning together." She frowned and tilted her nose up, "This would have been the perfect thing to know about before we did this." Another indignant huff, "I could have practiced!"

Cadance levitated another set of skates out the other side of her saddlebags. Levitating them over to Silver and waving them around, "~We've got some time~"

"You're too playful for your own good." Silver snatched the skates, "But no, I still need to get the sound working before we-" Silver struck a pose midway through walking off to the side, "Take To The Floor!" She took another completely normal step, "C'mere and look at this." She said, gesturing and walking over to one of the carrot booths.

Carpet wasn't the greatest to roll across, but it was easier than taking the shoes off, that, and Cadance hadn't worn these in so long that she didn't really want to take them off. Funny how they still fit. There was an analogy there for immortality, or something, Cadance wasn't feeling too needlessly poetic at the moment.

Silver ducked behind a counter, there was a flash of magic that Cadance had to look away from. Silver poked her head back up around the counter and was dressed like a Carrot Shack employee, the hat and everything. It even looked like she'd been aged down, the metallic freckles on her face had enhanced to form the 'highschool job' look.

"Uh-" Her voice cracked, "What can I get for you?"

Cadance laughed before regaining control of herself, "This is too much Silver. Seriously, I'm not gonna be able to handle this."

"Uh-" Her voice cracked again, "I'm not sure we have that on the menu?"

Cadance burst into giggles, and Silver pulled the hat off of her head and returned to her normal shape.

"For realsies," She said, now in her normal, non-pubescent voice. "Want any snacks? I can make popcorn back here, if the circuitry still works from the last time I looked at it." She turned around and telekinetically dragged a popcorn box forwards.

What is my life.

Cadance didn't have to try to smile, not recently.

"Sure, hook me up."

Silver shook her head, "I'm never gonna keep pace with you on slang, you know that right?"

"Oh I know, I'm only feeling the razzle up in this place!" Cadance laughed, and spun around again on her skates as Silver fought with the machine. "Thank you Silver, for realsies, this is wonderful."

Popcorn started popping.

"So tell me, what's your favorite part so far? Besides me, of course." Silver waggled her eyebrows and framed her muzzle under a hoof.

"Duuude." Cadance waited for Silver to stop giggling before she continued, "It's definitely the lights. Even those clubs didn't know how to mesh lighting and floor texture."

"Well you can thank whomever abandoned this place. Most of the equipment was still intact."

"Makes you wonder why someone would abandon it to begin with..."

"Wanna hear a ghost story?"

Cadance shook her head, "Please keep that away from me, thank you. I'm not into ghosts, and that's-" Cadance turned and pointed at the general space in the room, "not an insult. Personally, I just don't care for ghosts. So if you're a ghost, and you're feeling spooky-" Cadance narrowed her eyes and passed her gaze over the room. "Keep it to yourself."

Silver put a bag of popcorn up on the counter. "Look at you. Talking to ghosts I made up."

"I've come a long way." Cadance picked the bag up with her magic. Popcorn, freshly popped, covered with far, far too much butter to be legal.

MMmmm... Perfect.

The door at the front opened. Chrysalis walked in. Silver peered over the counter, and Chrysalis froze a few steps into the room when she spotted what the two of them were dressed up as. They all shared a glance, Chrysalis looked around at the room once, then turned around to walk back out.

Cadance rolled up while Silver laughed.

Cadance magicked the door shut. "Where are you going?"

Chrysalis just stared longingly at the now closed door. Sighed, and then pressed her hoof into that throbbing spot between her eyes. "I swear, the pantheon is a bunch of children."

From over the counter, Silver shouted, "There's no point in being grown up if- OOf" She fell over the counter, comically. Cadance tittered, Chrysalis shook her head again.

"Fiiiiine." A green flash of flame, and Fanatic was back, done up with a double braid, braces, and a big white poofy jacket with a tie-dye shirt underneath.

Cadance gasped and sat back to clap.

"We take thish to our gravesfh."

Cadance desperately tried not to laugh. Silver didn't bother trying, "Braces! What did I tell you."

Chrysalis huffed.

"Oh stop it." Cadance admonished, "You look great."

Chrysalis rolled her eyes and moved over to one of the long tables.

"Silver?"

"Snack tray-" Silver answered in confirmation, "Got it!" and she dove back behind the counter.

Cadance rolled over to the table and sat down. Chrysalis opened her mouth only to be interrupted by the long trumpets bursting out of the doors and playing an overcompensating jazz thrump. A red carpet rolled out, and the door burst open to reveal nothing but light, smoke, and lasers.

Everything paused.

A tiny Discord ran into the room with a scroll.

"Announcing his majesty of Chaos! The purveyor of all things random! The King of Misfortune! The Master of Insults-"

Silver poked her head around the counter, "I refute that!"

"The King of swing! The creator of jazz-"

Cadance looked at Chrysalis for the verification of that last one. Fanatic shrugged.

"-ty of Dem-Beatz, the King of Swi-err, wait. I already said that one. The Arbiter of Afros! The-"

Cadance stared as the tiny Discord just kept going.

Fanatic slammed her hooves down on the table, "WE GET IT. Get in here you piece!"

The tiny Discord and the comically long unfolded scroll poofed, along with the smoke and lights. Discord stepped in, made a few strange grunts to match his 'Elvis' look. Complete with sunglasses, slicked hair, and extremely loud white clothing from top to bottom.

He contained himself for barely a second before exploding into the room with the sound of confetti and the smell of fish. "HELLO!" He yelled, materializing on the table. "I couldn't resist. Sorry," He booped Fanatic, who tried to bite his hand off. "Goodness how much of joy it is to finally have a non-scripted speaking role-" He looked at me, "Took you long enough."

Discord floated up, "And look at the two of you! Perfect! I wouldn't change a single thing." He spun to face Cadance, "Actually, what do you think of being completely clear?"

Cadance shrugged, "I'll try it once."

Snap, and Cadance was clear. Her hair was still present, among the skates and leg warmers.

"See! Now we really have ghosts."

"Od- wait, how did you know about that?"

"I read ahead- anyways-" Another snap, Discord took his seat next to Fanatic who looked very much like she was ready to either bolt or explode. It was a wonder how Cadance couldn't feel anything from her, what with how red her face was getting. Mostly in rage. Probably a little bit of hatred. "So what are we going to talk about? OoOoO-" He clapped, "I remember this age, ladies? Gossip? Huh? How about it?"

Cadance, still clear, lifted a hoof to conspiratorially lean over the table. "Twilight?"

Discord shrunk back as if being smacked over the head. Chrysalis laughed and pointed at him. He pulled at the cuff of his shirt. "Ah-oh-well-you see,"

"You bucked it up didn't you?"

Chrysalis burst into maniacal laughter.

"Alright you kids." Silver came up around the edge of the table, now wearing the second pair skates Cadance bought for her. "Soup's on!" Silver slid a few trays of fries, mozzarella sticks, carrot dogs, and all manner of greasy fast food that had gone out of fashion before Cadance had gotten tall. A few cups and straws sat themselves down around them in a plethora of colours and solutions.

"Wrong demographic." Discord chided.

Fanatic levitated up a box of fries and slurped up two of them. Cadance sent her a questioning look. "I like the texture." Was her response. Silver jumped up onto the chair next to Cadance. "So when are the rest popping in? They should have been here by now, I'm sure."

Cadance could feel Twilight and Luna somewhere in the city, but Fanatic beat her to an answer.

"Twilight said she had something to do first. Luna wanted to get involved, you know her." She said dismissively from around a mouthful of fries.

"Chew, Fanatic. You're gonna choke." Silver joked.

Cadance wasn't sure that was possible, but it got a massive eye roll from the-

Well, I guess everyone here is a shape changer besides me, so maybe not an accurate comparison.

"Oh!" Silver perked up, "I nearly forgot-" Chocolate pudding flung itself over the table at Discord who got caught in the mullet. "Fuck you, Discord." Silver snarled.

Discord magicked the pudding out of his hair and frowned.

Cadance lifted a clear hoof between the two of them, "Let's keep drama out of our day out okay?"

Silver whined, "But I started it!"

Fanatic matched Cadance's internal confusion externally.

Discord's face filled with a malicious grin as he flicked the pudding down onto the floor where it came to life and ran away. "So~" he hummed, "Speaking of romance, have you two-"

"Discord." Silver cut him off, agitated. "Cadance is barely a thirty second of my age, can y-"

"I've thought about it." Cadance interrupted nonchalantly.

Silver did a spit take.

Fanatic pounded her hoof on the table and cackled at Silver's surprise.

Discord looked just... decently confused.

"Cadance!"

"What?" Cadance responded petulantly. "Princess of Love? Hello? What, do you want me to lie? Of course I've thoug- ugh, not seriously." Cadance flipped her hoof, which looked weird due to being basically invisible. "Geez. Get off my back about it."

At least the admission defused the animosity.

Fanatic leaned over, "Seems like the Princess is a little more promiscuous than we thought, I wonder who else yo-"

Cadance frantically waved her hooves, "Leeet's not go there."

Discord snapped.

There was a beat of silence as everyone tried to figure out what he'd done while he blushed.

"Oh my."

"Discord! Did you just steal my thoughts!"

Discord looked down into the middle distance, "Oh goodness me."

"Discord!"

Fanatic continued to cackle. Cadance was smiling despite it all.

The front door opened to reveal Selene. She flapped her way to the table. "Hey everyone."

Silver smacked her on the shoulder, "Selene! Good to see you again, how's guard work been treatin' ya?"

"I am well, just..." She turned back towards the door. "I felt it a good idea to prepare you all for-"

Twilight led Celestia into the room.

Fanatic leaned back into her chair with a deep frown like she was about to stand and leave. Discord snapped and returned Cadance to her not clear self before calmly looking on. Silver narrowed her eyes. Selene let out a nervous chuckle, coupled with a toothy smile. "She-"

"If..." Celestia interrupted, still being led forwards by Twilight. The smaller mare was giving her encouraging looks and quiet pushes to continue. "If I could be given permission, I'd... I have something to say."

Cadance knew she couldn't extend that. She waited.

Silver waved a hoof. "Let's hear it."

Celestia sucked in a breath. Shook once. Her ear flicked.

Twilight said something too quiet for Cadance to hear.

Celestia opened up her eyes, tears welling up and said, "I forgive myself."

The weight of the words fell silently over the table. Twilight looked on for a response, and the tension was very jarringly, suddenly cut open by Fanatic who raised an eyebrow, "Why didn't you lead with that?"

Celestia imperceptibly let out a breath of relief.

"Cmon then!" Silver jumped up, "Grab a snack for the road and let's get rolling. Discord?"

"I thought you'd never ask." Discord snapped both his hands in staccato rapid fire, speakers appeared in flashes of white on the ceiling, the rink rolled all the dirt and grime up to one end of itself where the pudding monster ate it all and then disappeared, the lights mixed in with lasers and a few spotlights that started roaming the rink. He turned himself towards Twilight, Celestia, and Selene and fired off three finger gun shots from his shoulder, behind him, and under a leg that turned the three of them into their nine-twenties relative generalization.

Twilight turned into a nerd, which wasn't really much of a change in look; Celestia into a school teacher trying to be cool, and Selene into a jock, very reminiscent of Silver's getup.

Discord blew smoke from his fingers and then struck a pose. "Let's hit it!" He appeared on the rink as the first beats of some oldie but goodie rock song started to play.

"Yea-yeah!" Silver flapped herself over the table, telekinetically grabbing Cadance by the hoof and dragging her out of her seat with a quiet 'oop!'.

Fanatic rolled her eyes and got out of her chair like a normal adult.

Silver was apparently not joking in the fact that she had no clue how to skate. She tripped a few times to the rink, and with a quick explanation on how exactly she should be pointing her hooves, she and Cadance managed to be the last ones in.

Cadance had to keep pushing Silver with her magic to keep her speed up, but Silver didn't seem to mind, and she was getting the hang of it quickly.

"So!" Silver said while staring at the ground to get her hoof work right. "You wanna do the credits?"

Cadance smiled, raising an eyebrow.

What is this now?

"Credits?"

Silver looked up, "Yeah? I mean, can't you feel it? We're nearing the end of this little adventure. If I was writing out a novel, this would be when I have all the characters... you know, reflect."

Cadance rolled her eyes. "Silver, this isn't a novel. We did the other thing, remember?"

"I know, I know." Silver matched Cadance's eye roll, "But still! Isn't this so... thematically perfect for a recap? Where we've been? What we've seen? I genuinely thought I was going to be dead right now."

Cadance continued to giggle at the absurdity and kept skating to the beat of the music. It was a lot like galloping, the wind trying to undo her frizz, only with barely the same amount of work.

"Cmon, I do this all the time." Silver waved a hoof and nearly fell over. Cadance caught her with a wing. "Talking into the air, that is, you never know. Someone might be listening. Why not have a go? Cadance? Please? Share this with me."

Cadance felt the serious question for what it was.

She looked around at the building, the rink. The other immortals, skating.

Goodness gracious... look at us. What's wrong with us.

Cadance laughed, "Nah." She reached over and draped her wing over Silver's back. "There's nothing to say. As far as I care, I got everything I wanted. Just like you planned."

Silver looked at the floor and skated a little closer to Cadance.

"I wouldn't've been who I am right now, without you. Or without me. Even if I wanted to, there's no putting words to something as complex as ponies-"

"People." Silver perked up to correct.

"The only way it'd make any sense to begin with is if someone was really looking hard from the outside."

They silently did another few circuits as Cadance held the smaller mare close, hoping to comfort her and the whirling thoughts in her head. After the third go around, Silver shrugged off the wing and made to roll into the center as the most recent song cut out.

"In that case, I know how to wrap this up."

Discord floated up as Silver took center stage. A thirty seven stringed guitar appeared in his hand. "Oh I love these." He said, before slamming his talon down on the strings, and a quick jumping beat of chords exploded from the speakers.

Silver stomped a hoof and sang.

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"They keep playing sad songs on the radio!"
"And I feel like I'm so alone, on this six-teen hour flight!"

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Celestia rolled up to her side, her deeper tone mixing with Silver's pitch.

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"And all the while I tell myself to just believe!" - "And all the while I tell myself to just believe!"
"That nobody can give so much, and never get anything!" - "Never get any-"

"Everyone I used to know!"
"They don't know what I've become!" - "They don't know what I've become."

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They harmonized, stomping together,

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"But I'm still the same!"
"Not much has changed!"
"I still know where I came from!"

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Magic flowed from the two of them.

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"I fell asleep with the lights on"
"And I can see that you're the first one in a long time"
"That had some faith in me"
"Had faith in me!"

"Tell my friends we won't be long!"
"The flowing life begs me to come back home"
"And it feels like I'm ready for anything"
"If you can wait for me."

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Cadance shared a look with the other immortals as Discord continued to shred. She rolled towards the center too, opening her mouth and lighting her horn to join the song.

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"And all the while, I say too much of what I think."
""And I can't remember what it's like!" - "To find meaning in anything!"
"For the Life of me!"

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Cadance took center stage, staring Silver in the eyes as she shouted

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"Everything I used to know,"
"I don't know what I've become!"
"But I'm not the same!"
"Everything's changed!"
"And I know where I came from!"

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~ And They All Sang Together ~

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AND!
ALL!
WE'VE EVER!
WANTED!
IS
SO FAR
FROM WHAT WE'VE MADE!

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~ The Walls Came Down. ~
~ Their Voices Changed To Meaning As They Sang ~

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We'll write our song!
We'll sing along!
And hope time heals everything!

Fell asleep with the lights ~ooooon!
And I can see that you're the first one in a long time.
That had some faith in me!
Had faith in me!

Tell them All!
We won't be long!
The lives we make will find us in our Time!
And I feel like!
I'm ready for anything!
If you could wait for me.

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~ Her Voice Raised To Fill It All. ~

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"This is all I have!"

"This is all I HAVE!"

"This is all we have!"

"This is all I have!"

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~ Emotion Raised Beyond Intention ~

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"I fell asleep with the lights ooon~"

"And I can see that you're the first one in a long time."

"That had some faith in me."

"Tell my friends."

"I won't be long."

"Your voice still makes me feel at home."

"And I know that."

"I'm ready for anything."

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"'Cause You Will Wait For Me!"

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~ And As They Sang ~
~ As They Danced ~
~ As They Meant. ~

~ Somewhere. ~

~ Somewhere Very Far Away. ~

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~ The Sun Set. ~

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