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

Shining woke with a start and immediately tried to bolt, knocking over the table he was sitting on, as well as the stallion sitting on top of him. "Sorry about that," he groaned, picking himself up and offering a hoof to his masseur. "Are you okay?"

"I will be," he nodded, standing up on his own. "I'm sorry I scared you like that."

Shining waved it off. "No big deal." He looked up at the clock. "Did I really sleep that long?"

"I heard from your wife that you were up early."

Shining nodded. "I have somewhere I need to be in twenty minutes."

"I was supposed to wake you in five. Did you want me to finish your massage, or...?"

Shining shook his head, but picked up the table off of the ground. "I'll go ahead and clean up, so I can be on my way."

With a nod, Shining was taken into the shower and assisted in his washing. The attendant wasn't interested in touching his danglers any more than what his job entailed, and Shining was in a bit of a rush, so it was a quick shower. Cadance had brought his jacket to the spa, so it was waiting for him when he stepped out, and now he just had to wait for her arrival.

It wasn't a long wait. "How do you feel, Shiny?" she asked, welcoming him into the carriage.

"Better, I suppose," he yawned, still a bit drowsy. "It was a nice nap."

"Good."

"How was yours?"

"Oh, I didn't take one."

Shining glanced at her.

"I was busy," she shrugged. "You needed a break, but there was still work to be done. You're not the only one who cares about the crystal ponies."

Shining nodded. "I suppose that's true..."

"Are you ready to face the cameras?"

Shining looked at her. "I haven't looked in a mirror. Are my eyes still as baggy?"

"Nope. All tightened up."

It wasn't a long carriage ride to the hospital. Rather than the clinic that they'd sent all of the injured to, they were going specifically to the general hospital, as that's where all of the severe injuries had ended up. The clinic had a few tables, sure, but the hospital had actual beds, in which the injured could rest.

Luna was waiting for them. She looked to be a bit worse for wear. "It is unwise to make a princess wait."

"You could have gone inside," suggested Cadance. "Besides, I scheduled this press event for five-fifteen, so we're actually three minutes early."

Luna helped Shining down from the carriage. "You look to be doing better."

"I had three showers, a nap, and I'm wearing a nice jacket. If I don't look nice right now, there's no hope for me. You don't look too bad, either."

"Oh, please. I'm a wreck. I barely slept at all today."

"I saw a wreck this morning," snickered Shining. "You look incomparable."

Luna blushed, turning her head to the hospital. "Shall we go in, now?"

"Yes, let's."

Over the next two hours, Shining and Luna posed with the victims, checking in on their recovery and wishing them good health. At the end of it all, they looked over the pictures, with over five hundred images captured. It took some time, but they picked out twenty that they would keep, to be spread across a dozen newspapers.

Luna was exhausted. She'd had a nap in the middle of the day, but it wasn't much. An hour and a half, at most. She was in need of some rest, but she was about to take control of the night. Ponies would be dreaming, and since a lot of ponies had presumably read about the train crash, there would likely be a lot of nightmares she'd have to deal with. It was going to be a long night.

"I suppose I should return to Canterlot," she sighed. "There is much yet to be done, and we can only rely on our acolytes for the more simple tasks."

"You can stay, if you wish," offered Shining. "If I recall correctly, you needn't be in Canterlot to do so. Stay here tonight, and you can go back in the morning. I insist that you rest a bit more before guarding the night."

Luna bowed her head. "How very generous of you. I accept your offer."

"I'll run ahead and prepare a room for you. Please, take my place in the carriage."

Before Luna could object, Shining was off, galloping towards the castle. She was once more alone with Cadance as the carriage door closed.

"Have there been any problems?" asked Luna. "Aside from him just not forgiving you?"

"I asked him this morning if there was any hope for us. If there's any chance that I could be forgiven without wiping his memory of the events, entirely."

"And?"

"He says there's still a small glowing ember that could potentially grow back into a flame of passion, but it's a single coal in a frozen wasteland."

"A single point of beauty, surrounded on all sides by ice and snow," mused Luna. "Remind you of anything?"

"It's Shining's heart," noted Cadance. "And also, the Crystal Empire."

"The Crystal Empire as it was," corrected Luna. "The Crystal Empire as it is is a vast wonderland, whose wellspring of love has grown and spilled out, creating a wide patch of beauty. If Shining can build the empire out in such a way, one would think it a large-scale model as to how to cure his broken heart."

Cadance nodded. "I've made a few decisions."

"Oh?"

"He's told me on multiple occasions that he's been keeping himself so busy that he never had the chance to recover. If I want him to forgive me, then regardless of apologising, I need to let him heal. I need to make it so that he has the freedom to recover. If that does end up killing the love between us, at least I'll have given him a chance to repair the broken pieces."

Luna nodded. "That's important, yes, but so is the apology. If we are to compare it to a wound, giving him time is removing the foreign object, and the apology is the stitches. Add in some love to act as the antibiotics, and his recovery will be underway."

Cadance took a deep breath. "You know, he has told me that he'd like you to join him in bed..."