Cadence slept soundly as morning approached the Crystal Empire. As Shining Armor lay awake by his sleeping wife, she began to twitch and grow restless in her slumber, causing him to become concerned. "Cady," he said, gently nudging her to awaken. When his wife only rolled over in response, he nudged her more earnestly, raising his voice slightly as he called to her sleeping form, "Cady, wake up. Are you having a bad dream?" The Crystal Princess continued to fitfully twitch about, but Shining was answered by a puff of smoke that coalesced over her and became a scroll with Celestia's familiar seal on it, which he promptly opened to read;

Prince Shining Armor,

I have written to inform you that you need not worry about Cadence at this time, Luna is with her, and everything is well. In the meantime it would be appreciated if you would take Cadence to the Chamber of the Crystal Heart. All will be made clear afterwards.

With gratitude,

Princess Celestia of Equestria

"That's... strange," the stallion said, looking again at his not-quite-sleeping spouse as she continued to twitch and turn. Focusing his magic to levitate her alongside himself, he started out of the royal bedchamber. "Let's get you to the Chamber then, so whatever is happening can be sorted out."

Celestia was on her way through the long hallways of Canterlot Castle heading towards the throne room for the morning's court. The brisk morning air from the balcony clung to her coat in a pleasing fashion. Suddenly she felt a shock, as if from a blast, that made her stumble momentarily. A glance down the hall revealed to her that the guards had not been so affected, but were approaching to be sure of her wellness. Before either guard could speak she cut them off, "Inform my steward that today's court is cancelled, and I will address any concerns tomorrow." That said, the great princess of the day turned and quickly ran towards the Lunar suite.

Luna sat at a small table on the western balcony of her chambers, enjoying the early morning vision of Canterlot as many of her little ponies went to work or rest. As she happily awaited her morning supper, she felt a strange wave of sorts, and quickly set about surveying if anypony had been hurt. The scene below hadn't changed, ponies still milling about as was their routine, and this was cause for alarm. Stepping quickly to the main doors of her chambers, she opened them and addressed the guards standing outside, "Celestia will be coming shortly, do not impede her entry. Also tell the servant to place my supper on the lectern, I will partake it when ready." With that she closed the doors and turned to her bedroom.

Celestia came running into her younger sister's bedroom unannounced and was almost startled to find Luna's midnight blue form laying peacefully on the bed. Approaching she saw a short note on the bed next to Luna, "Join me." Celestia recognized what this meant and turned to the guards at the door. "We are not to be disturbed under any circumstances. Any emergency that should rise will have to simply be noted and ourselves informed later, understood?" When the two guards nodded the affirmative, she turned and trotted to the side of the bed not presently occupied by her sister and lay down, forcing her own mind to be quiet as she drifted off.

"Tia? Luna? What's going on?" Cadence rather urgently asked the two princesses who'd apparently invaded her dreams.

"Twilight must already be awake and investigating," Luna said, observing the purple princess' absence.

"No doubt that is the case, so I take it you two felt the disturbance as well?" Celestia asked her counterparts.

Cadence nodded and Luna spoke, "Yes, of course sister, but I have a favor to ask." Celestia looked to Luna, who continued, "I need you to inform Prince Shining Armor that he needs to get Cadence to The Heart. Meanwhile, I will stay and keep Cadence here with me for her own portion of the briefing."

"Very well, I will see you soon Cadence." Celestia nodded to the other princesses and vanished as she awoke.

"The Heart?! Luna! what is going on here?" Cadence asked, quite surprised to have heard the words she had.

"It is nothing to fear, you are still young and do not yet know all of the mysteries of this world. Shortly a new being will come to Equestria, and you have a critical role to play in their introduction," Luna said.

"What? What do you mean I have a critical role to play? What new being? What's going on?" Cadence asked hurriedly.

Luna sighed. "Fortunately, we have the nature of dreams and their separation from real time allowing me to properly explain. You do want an explanation, don't you?" she asked the pink mare, who stared at her incredulously. "Alright, just watch, and as you do, all will become clear regarding the urgency of this matter, and the role you are to play."

Something akin to a movie screen appeared to the side, and as the two watched, an old story was told.

Celestia rose from the silken blue bedspread and walked to the nearby desk where Luna's personal writing supplies were. Quickly she wrote a letter to settle Shining's nerves, and instruct him to carry Cadence to where she needed to be. Then calculating the time needed for his task, wrote another with a delayed sending spell to arrive at the correct time before rejoining her sister and Cadence.

As the story came to a close, Cadence was on the verge of tears, barely managing words, but doing so, "So, that stallion?"

"Yes," Luna answered.

"He came from..?"

"Yes."

"And then he?"

"Yes, he did."

"And after all of that?"

"All on his own," Luna said with a faraway voice, swallowing a hitch in her throat. "That is why I- we are glad to have you in The Empire, and with the Heart in a position to prevent a repeat of history's past."

"That's... That's terrible! All that time and, and..." Before Cadence could finish, she found herself in a warm embrace with Luna as they were wrapped in Celestia's luminescent wings.

Shining Armor at long last got Cadence to the top of the tower, to The Chamber of the Crystal Heart, and carefully laid her down on a cushion brought by a servant. Almost as soon as the servant left the chamber, another letter coalesced and fell before Cadence;

Shining,

I need you to position Cadence so that she is facing eight and a half degrees to the right of Canterlot, with the Heart directly in front of her. This I know will sound like quite a strange request, but the clarity I promised before will be among the results.

Thank you, truly,

'Tia

"Your affinity for love makes you quite sensitive to such matters of the heart Cadence. So, do you understand what must be done? What must be prevented?" Celestia asked, keeping her wings around the other two princesses.

"Yes 'Tia, I do," Cadence said, wiping a welling tear from her eye. "And thank you Luna, for helping me see what is now needed of me. Guess I have my work cut out for me, huh?"

"As do I," replied Luna with a warm smile as Celestia removed her wings. "Take care Cadence, as that is powerful magic you wield."

"Same to you Luna," Cadence rebutted with a raspberry as the dreamstate faded around the three alicorns.

Luna awoke to find herself inexplicably warm in her own bed, even though she was on top of the bed's covers. Not that she minded the warmth, but a brief glance at her back revealed the source to be a large white blanket, born of Celestia's own wing draped across her. "Tia, not that I mind, but you do have some work of your own to do, as do I," Luna groaned at the elder alicorn in her bed. "I'm already going to get little enough sleep today, don't make it worse by giving me such warmth only to steal it away."

Taking just slightly longer to awaken herself, Celestia smiled sheepishly at Luna, "Sorry Lulu, you know it's just about the only way I can reach the dreamstate at this hour." As she spoke, Celestia pulled the smaller princess tight in a hug with her outstretched wing before climbing from the bed. "Hm, your bed is softer than mine, almost hate to leave it..." the white alicorn declared with a stretch and restrained yawn. "Alas you are right, there is much to be done, no naps today. First I should probably save the poor creature from Twilight's paperwork," a delicate snore answered her, "No, you're right Lulu, first I should place an order, it will take at least some time for the paperwork to get started anyhow, if past experience is any indication." With a satisfied nod to herself, the Princess of the Day sat again at the desk and set to writing.

Cadence awoke to find herself in the topmost chamber of the Crystal Palace, facing the Heart, and a faraway town to the south almost in the direction of Canterlot. "Shining? I'll need your help with a spell," she said with a sly smile at her Prince.

"You need my help with a spell?" Shining Armor asked, quite baffled by the request.

Cadence tittered, and with a sultry look said, "Let me rephrase; Get over here and kiss me."

"You know you don't need to make that request twice," the stallion replied with a smile as he approached to stand in front of his mare.

The ponies of the Crystal Empire had just settled in for their daily routines when from the palace came a light show the likes of which they hadn't seen since the Crystal Fair two years prior.

As the afternoon hour rolled around Celestia returned to Luna's bedroom. "Sister, did you rest well enough? It is time for us to depart to take delivery on what I ordered earlier," she said to her resting sibling with a smile that showed only the slightest mischief.

"Already? I am afraid I shall require another ten minutes, or as many cups of strong coffee," Luna complained groggily, but was answered by a wafted aroma from two pitchers of fine coffee resting on the bedside table. Luna quickly sat up, took both pitchers in her magical grip and downed the first in seconds, setting to drink more leisurely from the second.

Celestia looked scoldingly at her sister. "That one was supposed to be mine, to drink on the way..."

"Then I guess you shouldn't have set it upon my nightstand," the younger sibling retorted as her head cleared from her heavy sleep. "Wait, 'what you ordered earlier'? Tia, just what are you up to?"

"Why, Lulu, we're going to the party of course. But first we need to pick up our disguises," Celestia said with a devilish grin now showing proudly.

Looking quite confused, Luna couldn't help but ask, "Tia, hasn't it been obvious for some time that no disguise will suitably hide the... 'Royal Stature'? Not to mention our particular assets that make us even more unique among the populace."

Stepping to the large window, Celestia opened it before replying, "Worry not sister. I have it all under control, including our return trip, and a few extra things that should be quite appropriate to have on hoof." With that she gestured for her blue counterpart to follow before leaping out the window and into the wind.

Deep in the Everfree Forest, Zecora set about filling quite a lucrative order that she'd been quite baffled to receive earlier that day. No sooner had she finished the concoctions than a series of knocks came on her door. Opening the door and smiling, she greeted her guests, "Come on in, my royal friends, my work on your order is at its end."

Beaming a grateful smile at the zebra, Celestia spoke to thank her, "Good work Zecora, I take it you had no trouble with my special requests?"

"While to most they'd be quite strange, for me your order was well in range," the zebra replied with a smirk.

Celestia clapped her hooves triumphantly. "Oh, goody! Here is your promised payment, for the potions and for confidentiality," she said, floating over a generously sized bag full of bits.

Zecora took the bag and placed it in a nearby box, then grabbed two pair of very plain saddlebags and placed them on the table. Opening the bags she began explaining their contents, "I have numbered the bottles as you can see, so they may be kept quite orderly." She then indicated the left pouch of each as she continued, "One through six are your party tricks." Then indicating the right side pouches, "For seven through twelve I had to delve." She then held up a differently shaped bottle, "The last is quite a special trick, but why so much focus on somepony's dick?"

"TIA!!! Just what in TARTARUS do you have in mind?!?" Luna shouted, scandalized at what her sister had obviously requested.

Celestia was glad that her sister had thought not to use The Voice in the apothecary shop, but spoke to defend herself, "Well, surely somepony will be thankful for it. You know who, and what, those last seven are for, so really you shouldn't be so surprised Lulu." Celestia managed to flex in time to absorb Luna's quick jab, but rocked herself to make a show of the impact.

"Really Tia! That's just! It's, ugh!" Luna shouted at her sister in frustration.

"It's calculated foresight?" Celestia offered.

"Now why, sister?" Luna asked with a hoof to her face, unable to articulate the question properly.

"Didn't I already explain that? Hmm, I would almost wager you may end up thanking me," Celestia declared with a cocked eyebrow at her suddenly fuming sibling. "What do you think Zecora?"

"To gamble with royalty, I would be out of my wits," the zebra replied, eyeing the two princesses in turn. "But, put me down for twenty bits," she continued with a sly smile.

Ignoring its normal coloration, Luna's face went completely red, her expression stuck between embarrassed and livid. "Well, Fifty bits say you're both wrong!" she shouted defensively with a huff.

Celestia grinned wide and answered by placing a small pouch of coins on the table before suggestively saying, "I'll get the betting pool started."

"Let me end this situation, before it ends with no more fun," Zecora interjected, bringing a tea set to the table. "Before feelings can get quite sore, what can you tell me of the strange minotaur?" she asked, getting two very curious looks from her guests. "He appeared in Ponyville today, and spoke to Twilight and Rarity in a seductive way," she stated, intending to clarify what was meant. Answered by a pair a slack-jawed faces she asked, "Was it something I said?"

Author's Note

So, what do you guys think of that? huh? Again I will warn that I will be a smartass in the comments, all in good fun though.

And yet again many thanks go to my proofreader Sneaky be sure to go check out his stories, especially Close Bonds which I have proofread for him, it's really good stuff for you Dashy fans