Having been granted rulership over the city of Vanhoover, and confessed their feelings for each other, Lex Legis and Sonata Dusk have started a new life together. But the challenges of rulership, and a relationship, are more than they bargained for.
Cadance felt like she was going to be sick.
“A field of body parts…?” she whispered weakly, unable to bring herself to picture such a thing. She’d known the situation in Vanhoover had been bad – Pillowcase’s death had driven that home, even if that mare with the picket fence cutie mark hadn’t alluded to further fatalities – but what Coal Hopper was describing was an atrocity on a scale so grand as to be unimaginable. Twilight needs to know about this, she realized. I can send another letter to Ponyville…Spike will get it to her. Then she and her friends-
Shining Armor’s voice cut through her half-formed thoughts. “Coal Hopper, are you absolutely sure about this?” The mare in question gave him a dirty look, causing him to hold up a hoof in a placating gesture. “I’m not saying you didn’t see a body-”
“Parts of a body,” she corrected, tension making her voice terse.
“I believe you,” replied Shining Armor quickly, his voice soothing. “But you said that it was already dark when this happened, right? And the only light around was from the stars and the campfires, which were behind you. Is it possible that you stumbled across…that, and it freaked you out enough that your brain played tricks on you? Like how tree branches outside your window at night can look like the claws of a monster trying to get in?”
The oddly-specific example brought a smile to Cadance’s face, despite the macabre subject they were discussing. A little while after they’d started dating, Shining had told her about the time that just such a tree branch had left Twilight – who never would have told that story voluntarily, even (or rather, especially) to her favorite foalsitter – too scared to go to sleep at night. Shining Armor had only found out about it because he’d been going to the bathroom in the middle of the night and happened to hear Twilight whimpering when he’d passed by her door. When she’d tearfully confessed what was frightening her, Shining Armor had volunteered to stand guard next to her bed to keep her safe, even if that meant staying there all night.
He’d made good on his promise, despite how exhausted it had left him by the time Princess Celestia had raised the sun. “But it was all worth it when Twily woke up and saw that I was still there,” he’d recounted with a warm smile. “She jumped out of bed and hugged me as tight as she could, and I remember feeling absolutely certain that was what I was meant to do: protect ponies. I didn’t even realize that I’d just gotten my cutie mark until Twily pointed it out a second later.”
It had been, and still was, an incredibly sweet story. If Cadance hadn’t already been infatuated with Twilight’s big brother when she’d heard it, that would have done it. As it was, hearing reference to it now was enough to restore a measure of her calm.
But the reference was lost on Coal Hopper, who scowled back at Shining Armor. “I know what I saw,” she snapped irritably. It was only a second later that she seemed to remember who she was talking to, flushing in embarrassment as she looked down. “Your Highness,” she added lamely.
Shaking off the last of her reticence, Cadance took a step forward. “Did anypony else on the train staff see this?” she asked, her eyes turning to Ticket Stub.
But the earth stallion was already shaking his head. “No ma’am, er, Princess. But I completely believe Coal Hopper,” he added quickly. “If she says that’s what she saw, then that’s what was there.”
Cadance nodded. “I understand. Thank you both for coming to us with this.”
Shining Armor cocked his head at her, hearing the implicit dismissal and clearly not having expected it. But he didn’t object as Coal Hopper and Ticket Stub gave them polite bows before turning and walking away. “So, where do you want to go for dinner?” asked the latter as he looked at his companion.
Coal Hopper shook her head. “Uh-uh. No way. I’ve done my part already. Everything else is on you now. You’re going to choose the place, you’re going to hoof the bill, and you had better believe that you’re taking me to a separate dessert place afterward.”
Ticket Stub tried to smile as he trotted after the irascible mare, though it came out as more of a worried grimace. “Heh…whatever you say,” he mumbled, reaching back and glancing nervously at a pouch on his belt that looked like it couldn’t have contained more than a dozen bits.
“And don’t think that I’ve forgotten about that apology you owe me either, buster.”
Cadance couldn’t help but smile as she watched the two of them leave. She could see a thin red thread connecting Ticket Stub and Coal Hopper, the equitable distribution of its soft glow indicating that it was mutual. It wasn’t anything definite, but the potential was there.
But her enjoyment of a possible budding romance was cut short as Shining Armor moved alongside her. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to let them leave without telling us more?” he asked quietly. “If we want to verify what somepony else from that train tells us-”
“Then we shouldn’t ask those two,” interjected Cadance. “Or any of the train staff. They weren’t in Vanhoover very long, and from what they told us Coal Hopper was the only one who did more than unload cargo and help retrofit one of the cars. If we want answers we need to talk to everypony else.”
Shining Armor nodded. “Right. In that case, you should go talk to Pillowcase and Produce Aisle. I’ll go back to the hospital and talk to those ponies that you cured. The doctors might not have found anything wrong with them, but they still wanted to keep them for observation.” He couldn’t keep the wry tone out of his voice; it was easy to forget how, unlike in the Crystal Empire – where Cadance had personally trained a small but significant number of ponies in Lashtada’s worship to the point of receiving spells from the goddess – healing magic wasn’t really known throughout the rest of Equestria. When the doctors at Canterlot’s hospital had heard that the eight ponies that had just been brought in had been healed via magic, there’d been a rush to examine them.
But rather than paying that any mind, Cadance was glancing back at the guest room where Pillow and Aisle were now conversing quietly, Cozy still deeply asleep in the nearby bed. After a moment she sighed. “Alright. As much as I hate to make them relive what they went through, especially right now when they’re just starting to figure out how to make their new relationship work, we need to know what happened, for everypony’s sake.”
She felt Shining Armor place a comforting hoof on her side. “If you’re worried about Celestia and Luna, don’t be. Even if that Lex guy does turn out to be another King Sombra, they’ve won against a pony like him before. Besides, maybe he’s not really that bad? Ticket Stub and Coal Hopper said he was fearsome, but he didn’t sound like he was hurting anypony.”
“Except for Cozy and Aisle when he cursed them.”
There was nothing Shining Armor could say to that, and an uncomfortable silence fell for a few seconds before he spoke up again. “Listen, Celestia and Luna will probably send a reply letter as soon as they get yours. That guard you sent to Twily’s castle will probably come running back with a message from them saying that they’re both fine real soon. In the meantime, just focus on Cozy and her stallions, okay?”
Finally tearing her eyes away from the open door of the guest room, Cadance gave Shining Armor a tired smile. “Okay. Once you’re done interviewing the ponies at the hospital, and I’ve talked to everypony here, we’ll meet back up and compare notes. Then I can send Celestia and Luna a follow-up letter, and if things look really bad we’ll send one to Twilight too.”
But Shining Armor didn’t look reassured by her plan. Quite the opposite in fact, as a perturbed expression settled onto his face. “Wait, Cadance, are you planning on meeting with those other five ponies too? The ones who said they were responsible for what happened to Pillowcase?”
“I don’t think they were all involved,” noted Cadance. “The way they were acting made it look like they were covering for each other. I’ll need to ask Pillow about it, if it’s not too painful, but-”
“Cadance,” cut in Shining Armor. “You can’t.”
The flat statement was enough to make Cadance blink. Although his tone wasn’t imperious or overbearing, it was still rare for Shining Armor to be that abrupt with her. “What do you mean?”
“You should just focus on these three ponies. I’ll come back after I’ve talked to everypony else at Canterlot General, and then we can compare notes. After that, I’ll talk to those other five.”
“But that’ll take a lot longer,” Cadance protested, still not sure what had brought this on. “This way we’re each interviewing eight ponies, with yours at the hospital and mine here.”
“I know,” admitted Shining Armor. “But based on how tired you look, you’ve used most of your alicorn magic, haven’t you? And at least one of those other ponies is a murderer. It’s a lot safer if I be the one to talk to them.”
For a moment Cadance wavered between mild exasperation at her husband’s sudden bout of paternalism and feeling warmed by how worried he was for her. But neither emotion changed the fact that he’d been spot-on in his summary of her current condition. She didn’t think that those five ponies would try anything, but if they did…
Cadance had never been particularly magically-gifted. Unlike Twilight, she’d been a pegasus before ascending to become an alicorn, meaning that she hadn’t had the early education about spellcasting that ponies with a horn typically received. Even after she’d become a princess, the only type of unicorn magic she’d put much practice into was using telekinesis, which was too convenient not to learn. Besides that, she’d been far more focused on fulfilling her destiny of bringing out the love in ponies around her.
In hindsight that had been a mistake, one that she’d needed to learn the hard way. Her lack of even the most elementary combat magic had left her helpless against Queen Chrysalis, and nearly so against King Sombra. Although love and friendship had carried the day against both villains, Cadance had still vowed to learn at least the basics, just in case. It had been a wise decision, since a short while later when Discord had (inadvertently?) caused her and Twilight to get into a fight with a tatzlwurm, she’d been able to fight back instead of having to let her sister-in-law handle everything.
When she’d met Lashtada and entered her service shortly thereafter, a pivotal point in her life that Cadance now considered to be akin to when she’d become an alicorn, the goddess had blessed her with numerous new abilities. But none of them were combat-related. She could see the bonds of love between individuals, and cast a number of divinely-granted spells of healing and purification and enhancement, and even invoke Lashtada’s blessing directly, the way she had to heal the sick ponies at the train station and bring Pillowcase back to life – though doing so required her to use her own alicorn magic, the special “magic that enhanced magic” (as Princess Celestia had referred to it) which only alicorns possessed, in order to channel the goddess’s unfiltered power – but directly attacking or defending hadn’t been among the repertoire of powers she’d gained.
And she’d already expended virtually all of her alicorn magic a short while ago anyway, leaving her fatigued. She’d regain it after a short rest, she knew, but for the moment there was no time for that. But that meant that if Shining Armor’s fears came true, and those five ponies attacked her…
Her worries were interrupted by the sound of hooves. Somepony was rushing down a bend in the hallway, causing both her and Shining Armor to turn toward the sound. As an afterthought, Cadance closed the door to the guest room where Cozy, Aisle, and Pillow were, not wanting whatever was happening to draw them into it.
A moment later, a stallion in Royal Guard armor turned the corner, rushing toward them until he was only a few feet away, skidding to a stop even as he snapped a salute. “Your Majesties!”
Shining Armor’s time as Captain of the Royal Guard immediately came to the fore, as he gave a matching salute automatically. “What’s going on?” he demanded.
The guard hesitated for just a moment. “We have a situation…”
Cadance and Shining Armor do their best to hold down the fort at Canterlot, but it seems like they're about to be put to the test!
What's this "situation" that the guard mentioned, and what will Cadance and Shining Armor do about it?
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I'll admit, I daww'ed at Shining Armor's cutie mark origin story. It's different but more unique than the typical 'defended Twilight from bullies' bit that wouldn't really apply to this story's Equestria.
Now we know that the alicorns have magic that's unique to them which could potentially spell Lex's undoing should he try anything hostile.
Also, I find it funny how Cadence was so quick to involve Twilight and have her and her friends solve the situation just like Celestia though there's no lesson to be learned here.
As for Coal Hopper's testimony, Shining's reasoning for it being 'a trick of the light' is rather flimsy. Feels more like he said it to help Cadence calm down than anything else. Which would also explain why he wanted to interview the 'murderers' on his own. Likely decided so he can ask for a better explanation without troubling his wife with the gory details
Too bad that whatever the situation is has put a monkey wrench in his plans.
A Wild Situation has appeared. Attack, Defend, Tea Party, Run Away.
Oh dear.
Its always sad when a given story canon clears up a given point of confusion of AU reality, and it permanently locks out an OC from that entire AU.
So, I'm guessing one or more of the sick ponies turned ghoul. Any takers?
somepony needs to fill Candy but in on what is really going on before she makes a real fool of her self.
but i am betting Discord is enjoying this.
The her. Nice one.
So, Cadance casted 5 resurrection spells. Would Lex be able to do that?
9411808 Doggone it. Typo fixed now.
Sorry, how are you calculating that Cadance has used resurrection five times?
9411354 I was a little nervous with writing original backstory for an existing character. That always leaves you vulnerable to being contradicted as the show goes forward. But given that the show only has one more season left (according to the circumstantial evidence, at least), and Shining Armor is a decidedly secondary character who doesn't seem like he'd get that level of backstory development, I decided to take a risk.
As for the nature of alicorn magic...well, what's here speaks for itself. I will say that this does match with what we've seen in the show, which has indicated that "alicorn magic" (as its own thing, rather than "(any) magic used by alicorns") is something that increases the potency of other magic that's used. As for how that dovetails with what's in the story, I've laid down some basic clues; I don't think they're that hard to fit together, but then again, as the author I probably wouldn't.
As for involving Twilight, I recalled how Cadance was apparently completely on board with giving Twilight all of the alicorns' magic in Twilight's Kingdom - Parts 1 and 2 (season four, episodes twenty-five and twenty-six). So she seems to be okay with passing the
buckbit, above and beyond how she was playing passive defense in the third season premiere against King Sombra. That was particularly damning since Tirek shouldn't have known that there was a third alicorn princess, let alone a fourth, and yet everyone acted like he knew about Cadance already. It's like everyone knows that she's a support character, rather than a front-liner.Shining Armor's doubting Coal Hopper's story (which was what he was doing, despite his disclaimers) wasn't meant to be disingenuous. Rather, that was him also having trouble believing that something so horrible could have happened. While Cadance was stunned, Shining Armor was skeptical, much like how River couldn't bring herself to believe everything she'd been told (and even seen) at first. Large-scale loss of life like that simply doesn't happen in Equestria. So it's difficult for everypony to process. I suspect that once it started to settle in that Coal Hopper wasn't exaggerating, that stimulated his protective instincts to put himself between his wife and danger (hence why the beginning part of the chapter reiterated that his destiny was to protect others).
Of course, now something else is going on...
9411481 I'm not sure what you meant there, but I think it was in reference to my coming up with how Shining Armor got his cutie mark? If so, well, I'm betting that the show won't invalidate what I wrote...but we'll have to wait and see.
9411614 We'll have to wait and see. But if you're right, it could be a disaster...unless, of course, there are some ponies around who are experienced in fighting ghouls.
Hmm...
9411690 Cadance is working with incomplete information. But as so often happens, it looks like circumstances are conspiring against giving her enough time to figure everything out. That's one of the harder parts of leadership.
As or Discord...he's always absent (presumably back in that dimension that he resides in) until he decides to stick his nose into things.
9411968
Oh, oops. Not resurrection. But she did heal those 5, and used resurrection on Pillow.
9411981
Oh, not Shinings cutie mark at all.
About alicorn magic, Clarkes laws, and someone must have been able to make Legendary Artifacts, even if accidentally.
Which if published research the last year or so is correct, theyve been using AI to analyze complex expensive dug making procedures, and coming up with the equivalent of throw everything into the pot and stir for half an hour to get high yeild result.
The AI does the equivalent of Edisons Reasearch Shed, but in virtual space.
9412003 In fact, Cadance called on Lashtada's power directly (rather than utilizing spells), to heal no less than eight sick ponies, and then healed Pillowcase. It's strongly implied that she did the same thing when she repaired the defective heart of a newborn baby in Cozy's story back in Chapter 219.
Given that Lex only has a single weak healing spell, it's pretty clear that he's outclassed with regard to healing by a truly significant margin. Insofar as resurrection goes, he brought Waterlily back to life...or rather, he asked the Night Mare to do it for him, and she acquiesced. She also gave him a gemstone with a spell in it; he hasn't had the time to look more closely at that so far, but he might very well in the near future...
9412637
If he does manage to figure it out, he might get very busy.
9412013 I'm not sure how any of that relates to what Cadance noted here about alicorn magic.
That said, you're right to note that powerful artifacts had to come from somewhere. The problem is that the show doesn't really tell us much in that regard. Things like the artifacts in Twilight's school (or at least, the six mentioned in A Matter of Principals (season eight, episode fourteen)) are associated with certain individuals, but insofar as I recall there's nothing to necessarily indicate that the individuals named actually created them. Numerous other artifacts, such as the Alicorn Amulet shown in Magic Duel (season three, episode five) don't bother to discuss their origins at all.
Even the artifacts of the Six Pillars of Old Equestria don't seem to be very notable; they're said to have some magic in them - presumably (though not definitively) gained from pure association (though Flash Magnus's shield Netitus was already a named item before he acquired it) - but they don't really seem to do very much. Stygian clearly thought they did, since he wanted to make copies of them in order to be a Pillar, but that doesn't really confirm anything; what does a blindfold or a flower or a mask actually do if you're going into a fight (remember, he wanted to "stand by their side in battle")? Put that way, it's easier to understand why the others thought it was a spell to steal their powers: if the "artifacts" weren't really anything special, it's easier to imagine that a spell would try to exploit their associative links (i.e. sympathetic magic) with their original owners.
The set of artifacts whose origins we do know are the Elements of Harmony: they're creations of the Tree of Harmony (or perhaps pieces of it, similar to how the Castle of Friendship and the Cutie Map seem to be). The Tree of Harmony itself was created by the Six Pillars of Old Equestria, having invested a crystal seed with some of their own magic. But that doesn't tell us very much at all: even if we leave aside questions of the nature of that crystal seed itself, we don't know if the Pillars' magic - specifically, their representation of their particular elements of hope, strength, beauty, bravery, healing, and sorcery - is something that other ponies could conceivably have/replicate, or if it's unique to them (since unlike the Mane Six, who represent their own elements by way of their connection to the actual Elements of Harmony, the Pillars have no such physical designations to explicitly confirm their own elements). If it is unique to them, then only those six working together could make another Tree of Harmony (though the idea that they could is interesting; certainly the process doesn't seem to have been debilitating to them, since they did that and then promptly went to go face the Pony of Shadows).
But even then, there are problems: the Pillars flat-out admitted they had no idea that their crystal seed would grow into what it became (Mage Meadowbrook says it in the seventh season finale). Likewise, we know from What Lies Beneath (season eight, episode twenty-two) that the Tree of Harmony itself is growing and changing over time. So it seems to have potentially surpassed its creators in terms of what it can do.
All of which is to say that the Elements of Harmony can safely be called "unique," in that there probably isn't any way to manufacture more. The best bet you could hope for is to have the six Pillars plant another crystal seed and wait...potentially for centuries (since we don't know how long it was between when they planted the seed and when Celestia and Luna originally "harvested" the Elements in order to defeat Discord). Even then, I'm skeptical of how well that would work; if the Tree of Harmony is "the living spirit of the land" (as Mage Meadowbrook surmised), then I question if the land could have two (or more) such spirits.
Beyond that, there's not really much to go on where the creation of powerful magical items are concerned, at least as far as Equestria and its surrounding lands go. Of course, I've taken things a bit further here; that can't really be helped when writing a story that places some emphasis on how things actually work.
9412674
Sorry about that, is just, I cant even remember if Cadence had arrived when I joined thr groups, I keep forgetting when I signed up to Fimfic, as I was reading for at least a few months before. But I remmeber something from late childhood many years ago, involving two items bought from the local electronics shop, and how they behaved when connected directly. Flashing Christmas lights, which flashed in all sorts of patterns, when all each light did was switch on and off. There is an explanation, but that came after many years of school and university work and understanding of how nonlinear electronics interacted.
So when I joined the fandom, I thought, what could I use, or bend, given the several years prior to the show, to come up with something my character could useful for. I ended up working out how to design and build something over a 5 year period using what I assumed was possible given steam engines, sewing machines, cheap gems etc. It was only when I put it all together and started working out what it might actually be capable of, and canon was expanding, that I realised that Id accidentally created an Artifact.
Since then, real life discoveries announced in publications and news have not just ensured its working, but also gone towards effectively being able to describe it so that its bechaviour can be selected and designed for before building.
It all started with the idea of using hair thin spun sapphire on a loom at 80 strands per inch. From quality gem fabrics for trade with dragons and hazerdous enviroment workers. Fibres that are transparent to light, but with not being pefect, the light leaks. In, as well as Out.
I was hoping to stick with being a long distance heavy cargo hauler, but canon is trying desperately to make that be done by 3 pegasi and a mouse with a handcart,
Not sure about the surprise. I'm surprised Cadance didn't slip a pouch of bits to Ticket Stub so he could afford a nice date.
9412826 Well, maybe if he'd made it clear that he didn't have much money before he was halfway down the hall.
9412826
With Equestria the way it is, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a discount for a couple's first date at some restaurants. Though the way they're acting is more like a married couple at the moment.
9414035 Or at least, discounts in the Crystal Empire. I could totally see a classy restaurant having a symbol of Lashtada carved on the door, and anyone who goes there on their first date gets half off.