The Prince's Predicament 2: The Princess's Predicament

When Cadance awoke, Shining Armor was gone. The aide was still there, sleeping soundly, but Shining had left. That was a worrying change. Shining had always stuck around to ensure that his guests were cared for. He usually wouldn't leave until they at least had a shower.

With a sigh, Cadance sat up. Her head was fine. Luna smacking her around was just a dream, and while she'd felt it in there, she'd remained fine out here. That was good, because it meant she could go through her day without a headache, which would make it easier to find an answer to Luna's challenge.

After waking up the aide and taking her to the shower to clean up, she sent her off to take care of her duties. As the young mare ran off to do her work, Cadance stepped out into the hall and found the nearest guard.

"Does Shining Armor often go off without waking his guests?" she asked.

"Not usually, ma'am. Is he not in there?"

Cadance shook her head. "I was hoping you would know."

"He had an emergency to which he needed attend," answered another guard, rounding the corner. "I can take you to see him, ma'am, if you so wish?"

~~*~~

Cadance wasn't expecting that she'd be needing to leave the palace. Shining had gone a long distance away, apparently. He'd even left town. It was a good ten minutes past the city limits before she saw him. As soon as she did, she could understand leaving early.

The Friendship Express was stopped. Well, stopped wasn't quite the right word. Derailed was more correct. Some of the cars were sideways, a number of them were off the tracks, and guards were escorting passengers to a series of wagons to take them the rest of the way to the Empire, albeit late and injured. From what Cadance could see, there were only light injuries; scrapes, small cuts, bruises... Nothing to be too concerned about, as long as they saw a doctor soon.

Shining was standing at the front of the train, talking to a few of the guards he'd brought with him. Also in the mix were a few Canterlot guards, judging by the uniforms. Shining was looking pretty dirty. He was covered in dark smears, as if he'd tried to wipe off whatever was stuck to him, but it was pretty sticky stuff.

He looked up as she came closer. "Something you needed?" he asked.

"What happened here?" asked Cadance.

Shining pointed to a big pile of wood that had been sawn up and tossed aside. "A tree came down across the tracks. Middle of the night, nopony saw it until it was too late. A lot of the passengers were woken up by the hard braking, and then tossed even further by the impact."

Another guard approached, holding a clipboard. "Sir, we have..." he stopped to bow to Cadance. "Princess."

"Continue," ordered Shining.

"Yes, sir. We have all passengers accounted for, sir."

"How many dead?"

"None, sir."

"That's good, isn't it?" asked Cadance. "Isn't that the optimal outcome?"

"Nopony said it wasn't," shrugged Shining. "Make sure everypony else makes it back okay, would you?"

"Of course, sir."

As the guard returned to the wagons, Princess Luna climbed out of one of the sideways train cars, glancing around. Shining waved her over.

"We were unable to find anypony else," she reported.

"Your lieutenant just informed us that everypony was accounted for. If you were looking for somepony in particular, I'd ask him."

With a nod, Princess Luna started walking to the wagons, and Cadance followed her. "Was this why you cut our meeting short?" asked Cadance. "No judgement, if so; this was more important. I'd just have preferred to be here earlier, is all."

"I was unaware that it was this bad until I saw it for myself," explained Luna. "I felt a vast array of dreams all turn sour at once, then all end just as fast. I traced it here. I was halfway to the site when I heard the news from a guard that was running to find help. Shining Armor arrived half an hour later."

"Why didn't you come back and wake me up?" asked Cadance. "I'd have come down here with him."

"That's a question for your husband to answer," said Luna, holding out her hoof to the guard with the clipboard. "I didn't tell him, either. Somehow, he just knew." When she was given the clipboard, Luna scanned the list of names until she found what she was looking for. "Already left..."

"Somepony you knew?"

Luna shook her head. "A mother was looking for her foal. He was one of the first sent off. He was one of the first to leave because he was one of the most injured. I'll have to personally check in on him. Not a big deal."

"I wouldn't let his mother hear you say that her son isn't a big deal."

Luna gave Cadance a cold look. "Visiting an injured colt once he wakes up will not be a big deal. I will, in fact, be mostly unbothered by going to see him when he wakes up. I would be more bothered if I don't go see how he's recovering."

"I'm just saying, you could have phrased that better..."

Luna sighed and rolled her eyes. "Have you given any thought to our discussion?"

"Not much, no. I haven't even had breakfast, yet. I only woke up about an hour ago."

"Neither has your husband. He's been here for the last four hours." Luna gave the clipboard back to the guard. "Take him home. Give him a shower and something to eat. In the meantime, think of what I said, and see if you can't apply that knowledge."

Luna resumed working on her tasks, most notable of which was trying to stand the cars back up on the tracks. Everypony's luggage was still scattered around, and some of the cases had broken open. What was still sealed could still be shipped to the owners, but everything that had spilled out needed to be sorted, presuming that it was still intact.

Cadance returned to the front of the train, relaying Princess Luna's orders, and commanding Shining to come back to the palace to clean himself up and have breakfast. He'd done so much, already, and now it was time for him to take care of himself.