Author's Note

Apologies for the long wait, my friends! Family came over this week and I've been getting dragged along with their vacation.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

"Glory and Honour, the Land of Equestria."

Chapter 4: Curious Cadenza

"We can't hold them back much longer!"

"No! Are you Insane?!"

"You are our only hope..."

"Where are they? What happened?!"

"You idiot! You absolute fool!"

"I'm so, so sorry..."

"There's nothing else we can do, is there?"

"I have the perfect plan."

"THE UNDEFEATED SUN!"

Daybreaker shot up from her bed panting. Her coat was covered with sweat and her mouth felt dry, her heart beat rapidly in her chest as her mane writhed and flashed periodically.

She looked around the room, trying to comprehend what in the the everliving f-friendship just happened.

"W-what?" she said breathlessly.

She rubbed her face with her forelegs before taking a glance at a nearby window. Looks like Celestia was in the process of raising the sun.

After taking a deep breath, Daybreaker tried to focus on recounting her recent dream. Or perhaps it was a nightmare?

"The hell was that about?" she wondered to herself.

The voices that she heard were oddly vivid, it was almost as if they came from actual people... or ponies. Something that Daybreaker realized about the dream was the fact that she can almost remember everything they said. It all seemed random at first, but there was definitely a sense of urgency and panic in each voice.

The ex-human looked up to the ceiling, "Are you messing with me, Nighty?"

During this time, Nightmare Moon had already corrupted the nyx, turning them into the Nightmare Forces. Daybreaker assumed that she had taken notice of her and decided to send a nightmare to put the flaming mare in her place.

"It's not exactly impossible..."

Obviously, this was all mere speculation. For all she knew, it could just be her mind being a massive wreck of various trains of thought ever since she got transported to Equestria.

She sighed, "Whatever. Might as well get ready for the day now..."

"~Because my flames are hot, you mess with me? You better not, or else you might get burned~"

Daybreaker softly sang to herself as she made her way to the throne room. Today, it was her turn to accompany Celestia as an aide during open court. Which meant dealing with ponies with genuine problems and whiny nobles who'll be trying to weasel their way through the law to do... whatever it is they did.

Raven had suggested to bring something to entertain herself while listening in. Daybreaker was pleasantly surprised when the secretary sheepishly admitted that she mostly used her clipboard to sketch out random ponies in the room who caught her eye. Her drawings were so detailed and lifelike that one could mistake them for monochrome photographs.

"The fact that she does it with just her mouth... like... how?"

Daybreaker entered the throne room from a hidden door behind the throne itself before walking up the dais and flashed Celestia a smile with a bow of her head. It was then that she noticed Cadance sitting off to her left on her own seat. She seemed quite nervous.

"Your highnesses."

Celestia returned the smile and nodded, "Lady Daybreaker. Please, take a seat. We will begin shortly."

The advisor sat on a large ornate cushion prepared specifically for her. It was placed on the lower platform to the right of the princess' throne.

The monarch turned to her and whispered, "I hope you don't mind me bringing Cadance along today. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity for her to observe and learn the duties of a princess."

Daybreaker nodded in understanding, "Considering her destiny, it would be wise to do so early." she whispered back.

"Indeed."

Celestia then nodded to a guard, notifying him that court has started.

The guard responded with a salute and proceeded to head outside to call on the first petitioner.

Daybreaker adjusted her position and straightened her posture.

'Here we go...'

The first pony in line entered, but almost immediately halted his walk when he saw a demonic alicorn with a burning mane and tail sat to the side of the princess.

The unicorn stallion trembled in place while blankly staring at Daybreaker.

"Haaaaa..."

The three alicorns up on the dais shared a look of concern, as if knowing what was about to-

THUD!

Clunk! goes Daybreaker's shoe as she facehooved and struck the top of her helm.

While not exactly used to the characteristic sound caused by a pony fainting, both Celestia and Cadance have come to expect such outcomes when the fiery mare is in the same room. For the last few days she's been at the castle, pretty much everypony who isn't an alicorn, a royal guard, or Kibitz has at least fainted once in her presence.

Daybreaker heaved another all too frequent sigh and shook her head.

'This is going to be a looong day...'

'Well that was something.' Cadance thought to herself as she trotted through the castle garden to refresh her mind.

Court was... quite the experience. While she was no expert in such things, she was pretty sure that there wasn't supposed to be that much fainting involved.

'What's up with that, anyway?'

Even now, she was still utterly baffled by the very weird effect Daybreaker had on ponies. Sure, she could be quite intimidating with all the pointy regalia-armor and certain body parts that really shouldn't be on a pony, but for the few days she's known the flaming mare, there was nothing to really worry about. In fact, Daybreaker's been nothing but nice and polite to everypony she meets, and especially to Cadance herself. She always greeted the young princess with a smile, and occasionally gave her words of encouragement whenever she noticed her looking overwhelmed by all of the fancy princess duties. The only other pony who did so as frequently as Daybreaker did was Princess Celestia herself.

'Maybe I should talk to her more...'

She continued to take in the sights of the garden, enjoying the fresh air and peaceful atmosphere. Or she would have, if a familiar voice hadn't captured her attention.

"Where the hell is he?"

Cadance paused her walk and looked around the area to see where Daybreaker was. She peeked over a couple hedges and statues, trying to locate the flaming mare.

'For an armored alicorn with a burning mane, she sure is hard to spot.'

She eventually made her way towards the maze in her little quest of finding Daybreaker, and it seemed like she was in luck, as the royal advisor could be seen standing in front of a statue that depicted a... creature, singing its heart out to the world. It also looked like she was talking to herself while examining it.

Cadance felt a growing sense of anxiety when she thought to greet Daybreaker. This was a rather common phenomenon, and she had discovered that this feeling appeared to be equally shared between anypony who intends to approach the blazing alicorn, but it was still pretty off-putting just how suffocating that feeling could be.

She stood there silently, almost mimicking Daybreaker's own stance, though with a lot less confidence.

The armored mare still hadn't realized she was there and continued to inspect the odd statue whilst quietly muttering.

"I know you can hear me in there..."

'Wait, what?'

"And I've read enough fanfics to know you can."

Daybreaker was... talking to the statue? Getting curious, Cadance decided to hear out more of the one-sided conversation.

After a moment of silence, Daybreaker jumped slightly in place. She was facing the statue with her back towards Cadance, but it was clear that the flaming mare was surprised by something.

It didn't take long for Daybreaker to calm down and begin nodding.

"I see... but I'm guessing you're not going to tell anyone, huh?"

Another moment of silence passed.

"Wait, just like that? No str- oh who am I kidding, there's probably an entire textile factory's worth of strings attached to this, isn't there?" she said while shaking her head.

Cadance only got more and more confused as the conversation went on for a few minutes. It was clear to her that Daybreaker was interacting with something. Whatever that something was, it was either invisible or could only be heard by the advisor herself. She decided to stay silent, getting even more curious of the older alicorn's odd behaviour.

'Should I step in now?' Cadance considered.

Daybreaker sniffed, "I'm sure. As long as I pick ponies with little potential, we'll be able to collect them without any possessions."

'Possessions?'

Yet another moment of silence.

"Deal. But I'll have to wait until the Empire's back before that. "

'Empire?'

The fiery mare nodded, "Okay then. See you in like, a decade or something."

She suddenly turned around and stopped midway as her eyes locked on to the young princess'.

'Uh-oh!'

Daybreaker froze, stunned by the unexpected appearance of a confused and alarmed looking Cadance.

"Princess Cadance?" the advisor asked.

The princess of love forced a smile, "O-oh! Miss Daybreaker! I was taking a stroll around the garden when I found you. I just thought I should greet you. That's all!" she answered a little too quickly.

The taller alicorn looked her over before returning the smile, "You know you don't need to call me 'miss' every time we meet, right?"

Cadance felt a wave of relief wash over her, "Well... you also don't need to call me 'princess', since I haven't been coronated yet." she playfully replied.

Daybreaker chuckled, "Touché. Now, I was just about to head back for lunch. Care to join me?"

The young princess gave a genuine smile, "I'd love to!"

"Wonderful! Now come along. For some reason, I feel like eating a big slice of chocolate cake." the fiery mare commented as she walked away from the statue, acting like she hadn't been in a full on conversation with it a few moments prior.

Cadance took another glance at the statue while Daybreaker was trotting away. Somehow, she felt like it was looking back at her, despite the eyes of the creature it depicted being closed.

Shaking her head, she followed the older alicorn back to the castle.

'Creepy...'

It seemed like Discord already had an inkling on what's really going on even in stone. Typical.

'And he's being all mysterious about it. Double typical.' Daybreaker complained in her mind as she took another bite of cake from a levitated fork.

Initially, her idea of looking for him in the garden was born mostly out of curiosity, what fan wouldn't want to see Discord's statue in real life?

However, as the search for his petrified form continued, Daybreaker realized that there was an opportunity to be had if she was able to communicate with him.

Obviously, it was a wild guess. While Discord had admitted being capable of listening in on his surroundings in the cartoon, it was never shown if he could communicate with anypony outside of his imprisonment in some way. Daybreaker simply hoped that the years worth of fanfiction she had read were right and that he was able to at least telepathically talk with her.

And to her surprise and delight, it was possible! The spirit of chaos was indeed capable of speaking with her through telepathy.

'Made my head feel all tingly, ugh.'

The conversation they had could be summarized as Discord considering her offer of friendship and him eventually agreeing to it if Daybreaker could secure each and every one of Cosmos' stars and store them in a safer location.

The draconequus was initially rather hesitant about the idea, considering the risk of the alicorn getting possesed due to her high amount of magical power. But with enough coaxing, he finally relented and accepted the deal.

Of course, she wasn't that gullible. She knew that Discord could have been lying or twisting his words to have an outcome that would only benefit himself. It was why she chose to free him after the star in the Crystal Empire was discovered and secured, so that she could have the Elements of Harmony prepared as a failsafe in case the spirit tried to backstab her.

'The Element Bearers might be pretty hard to figure out because I'll be changing a few things. Hopefully I won't prevent the Sonic Rainboom...'

All Daybreaker needed to do for now was to inform Celestia of this new revelation. She hoped that the princess would consider the help Discord could give Equestria if they could get him on their side.

She sniffed at an amusing thought, 'Need to work on my charisma if I want that to work.'

Cadance sat on the other side of the table while eating fruit slices as she recollected the events she had witnessed that day. Specifically the conversation Daybreaker had with that statue.

'What's up with that statue, anyway?'

She still couldn't shake off the memory of the sensation she felt when she took that final look at the large ornament.

'Super creepy...'

The young princess sighed. Maybe she was digging into it too much. It could just be one of Daybreaker's many quirks.

'Maybe that's just how she deals with stress?'

Cadance turned her gaze to the alicorn who sat accross from her. The advisor was devouring an entire tier from a large cake in the kitchen, and she had bits of chocolate and icing that covered her mouth.

She covered a giggle with a hoof, 'Yeah, it probably is.'