"I can't believe we were woken up at six thirty on the morning and told 'I hope you didn't unpack your luggage, because you're going on a train in five minutes to the middle of nowhere'!"

"Cadance, honey, that's an exaggeration and you know it. We were given half an hour to get ready, and the train wouldn't leave without us," Shining Armor replied, not bothering to look at her despite sitting next to her. Instead, he watched the trees outside the window gradually convert from deciduous to evergreen as the train chugged ever northward.

"I know, but can't I complain about how quickly Auntie dumped all this on us? I mean, we got back from our honeymoon yesterday evening, and the next morning I wasn't even given enough time to curl my mane! Do you know how hard it is to do that on a moving train?"

Her husband decided not to answer that, as he had helped her with that earlier. Instead, he went for an indirect route. "Well, maybe thinking positive about it will help you feel better about it."

Cadance almost scoffed at this, then her eyes twinkled a bit. "Oh, that's a great idea, I'll think of it as our honeymoon."

That got Shining to look at her. "Didn't we just have one?" he asked, not-so-secretly hoping for a specific response.

She smirked. "Well, yes, but what about a second honeymoon?"

He laughed quietly in response, and she giggled at how easily the reference could do that in the right situation. He used it a few times when they started dating, and he had explained it was from one of his favorite books (or was it book series? It was long enough ago so that she couldn't remember that, let alone any titles). It didn't take long for her to get the gist of it and start making her own versions of the joke, which left him overjoyed. She treasured the memory of his expression the first time she did it.

After he settled down again, Cadance said with more seriousness, "I'm just trying to unpack how I feel about all this so I can put it behind me, and you're the best pony in the world for me to confide to." She then added with a light snort, "And the only pony on this train."

Shining leaned his head against hers. "And I wouldn't have it any other way. Minus the bit about the train, of course. And I know you would be there for me, too, if I needed to do the same. In fact, I will right now." He pulled away and let the moment stretch on with a self-depreciating smile, "I'd feel a bit better if we went over the plan again."

The young alicorn sighed and rolled her eyes in mock frustration (her husband could easily tell by the grin she had the entire time), muttering loudly enough to be easily heard, "That's what I get for marrying a Guardstallion," and pulled a scroll from her saddlebags hooked on the wall. On it were the instructions that Celestia wrote for them while they were getting ready to leave. The magical flow transitioned from baby blue to pink as her husband took it in his own magic.

"Right, so first things first, when we reach the end of the railroad, we'll get out with our luggage and make the rest of the way in hoof," Shining said, paraphrasing what was written as the first instruction.

"Oh, I'm not going to like that part. I bet twenty bits that Sombra's Curse has a blizzard for gift-wrapping."

"I'd be twenty bits poorer if I took that bet. Though I do wonder why the track ends there, a good distance from where the Empire should be, but also so far away from the nearest town or even village."

"Oh, I was actually there for that in the castle. See, Auntie wanted to build a railroad to Yakyakistan, although I wouldn't put it past her for this mission being the real reason, and the rail builders went on a strike partway through. While one demand stood out, the rest were all about better working conditions, all of which should've been given to them already, as a crown corporation handles railway building, and those are supposed to follow a stricter version of our labor regulations. She checked the Labor Ministry as to why that never was dealt with, and it turns out it was a teensy bit corrupt."

The unicorn raised an eyebrow. "How did that happen under the watch of the Ministry of Good Governance?"

"Oh, that got really corrupt since the last time Auntie thoroughly checked on it. Apparently, the nobleponies had been doing their best to bribe it for the last decade so that they could do the same to other parts of the government. In a way, it was lucky that the strike happened so that all that could be rooted out before it got any worse."

Shining quietly let the gears in his head turn. He could vaguely remember her talk about it some years back as it had happened, but he didn't find politics all that interesting, neither then nor now. Still, something didn't quite add up, and he soon figured out what the missing piece was. "What was the unusual demand the strikers made?"

"Hmm? Oh, they didn't want to build all the way to Yakyakistan while we were still at war with them. It's not like we've had any battles in decades, but Prince Yoki was adamant that nopony could enter his territory, not even the diplomats we sent to negotiate a peace treaty."

"Well, that part hasn't changed yet, as far as I know." He moved on to the next part of the plan. "We're to appraise the situation when we arrive. Once we get a reasonable idea of how things are, we'll have a guard deliver a message to the train, which will take it back to the Princess so she can act on her part, assuming it's safe to stay. If not, we gallop back to the train and ride back to prepare multiple full guard complements for a war."

Cadance shuddered at the thought, but didn't add any remarks.

Shining continued, "That's only the worst case scenario and the one Princess Celestia found least likely. The most likely is where we get there safely but have to defend the place from Sombra's Curse, in which case we should hold the line until Twilight and her friends arrive." He lowered the paper as his eyes turned towards his wife. "Any reason why she wants us to wait for my little sis to come save the day for us?"

She shrugged. "I think Auntie has big plans for them. You know how she is."

He nodded and resumed with the plan. "Should we get to the point where we cannot maintain a defense, we are to try and neutralize the threat. Should we fail, a tactical retreat is to be attempted." He grimaced at that. "That'll be difficult without a train engine letting us make a quick getaway. The final possibility is where the crystal ponies manage to defeat the Curse by themselves. If that occurs, we are to officially congratulate them, offer them aid in adapting to the new millennium, and pave the way for future diplomacy."

"Is it bad that I'm hoping for the last one?" Cadance asked half-jokingly.

"No, no it's not," he replied, nuzzling her. "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, expect the most likely. It's an old guard saying."

The two quietly enjoyed each other's company as the train rolled along. Far too soon, a knocking came at the car's door a guard walked in. "Sir, we're almost at the end of the tracks."

Shining sighed, knowing that their moment was drawing to a close. "Thanks for letting me know. Tell the rest of the guards to prepare so that we can leave for the Empire as soon as the train stops."

The guard nodded and left the way he came. Cadance gave her husband a quick squeeze before the couple got up and walked to the wardrobe.

"Everything we'll need to brave the tundra is right here," Shining said as he opened the wardrobe. "We've got enough scarves to cocoon the both of us and snow blinders."

Cadance incredulously lifted with her magic what looked like a black rectangle with two slits cut into it. "Snow blinders?"

"Yep. They keep the snow out of your eyes and prevent the sunlight reflecting off the snow from blinding you."

She took a glance at the snowflakes rapidly increasing in quantity outside the window. "I think we'll just need it for the first part."

Her husband frowned at the view. "That's got to be the Curse. The last snow this heavy should've been a month and a half ago at the latest, and most of the snow on the ground should have melted by now."

"How do you know so much about the tundra, anyway?"

He blushed a bit at the question, a rare sight that his wife always enjoyed. "Well, the thing is, Twily always liked to play trivia games, and she got good at them very quickly. I had to start working to keep my lead, and started studying for those during the times when I usually studied for school." He chuckled sheepishly and added, "I'm not sure if it's a good or a bad thing that my grades actually improved when I started doing that."

Cadance laughed at that last sentence. "Just admit that your little sister is a good influence on you, Shining!"

He echoed with his normal laughter. "I never denied it."

The two decked themselves out in as many scarves as they felt necessary. Cadance rolled her eyes at Shining only taking a single one. A long and bulky one, yes, but still only one, while she took five of them. It looked frightfully cold outside, after all.

It wasn't long until the brakes were hit and the train slowed to a stop. The couple left the car and quickly joined up with the guards. All of their manes and scarves whipped in the wind as Shining gave a quick speech. "Men, we're heading for the long lost city of the crystal ponies, sent to today from the distant past by the curse of their dark enslaver, King Sombra. We are going to do what we guards do best for our ancient brethren, defend them from the evils that lurk. To arms!"

The guards hefted their spears into the air and shouted back his last words. They quickly began marching to the city's silhouette barely visible in the distance, and Shining made to follow them until he noticed his wife wasn't moving.

"Cadance? Are you coming?"

She shook her head and tried to fight down the blush she had ever since he started the speech. "O-oh, yes, of course."

As they followed the guards to the snowed-on city, she mused how, for a moment, her husband looked like the cover art of some of the... steamier books she had read in her late teens. Any teeny-tiny lingering regrets on marrying him have been blasted out of the water with that.

Author's Note

Given how we get zero idea of how the couple went from 'sent on a mission to save the Crystal Empire'(-ish) to 'crowned rulers and barely holding it together' (well, okay, maybe not that last bit, but you get the picture), I figure a short look into their trip would be interesting. Plus, it lets me space out the doubly depressing nature of Thorax's and the Empire's situations with something more heartwarming.

Anyway, second longest chapter so far, mostly because of dialogue. I wanted to do some worldbuilding to set the stage for later chapters and I couldn't help but add some fluff in there, too.