//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: To Her Own Rhythm // by mrscribt //------------------------------// As far as Cadance could tell, when Twilight Sparkle had been studying the plants, she had turned out to be doing preventative studying. Which made no sense to the teenage mare, but it did make the young filly different enough to be interesting. It also meant the filly was sharper than most. "So are you sure you're a princess?" That came after Cadance had proven she could stand on her head for almost two seconds. She had blamed her horn. "Last time I checked," Cadance replied calmly as she got herself straightened out. "It's from my mother's side, so I'm extra princessy that way." Cadance had liked that joke since she was a filly. Especially when she pointed out to her cousin Blueblood that he was only a prince from a princess, which made him only half a prince. The mathematics of childhood meant that it made perfect--or in Blueblood's case horrific--sense. Twilight, however, was not your average filly. "That doesn't make any sense!" "Well, it did to me when I was your age," Cadance answered defensively. "But you're not even in the book of Palace Ponies, Politics, Princes, Princesses and Pastries, in order of least to most important I took out of the library when I found out I was coming here! And it's the most recent edition!" Twilight retorted with exasperation. The meek filly that had first come into the garden was gone. It was a very self-assured filly that confronted her now. "Do they still list the chocolate-filled-banana-glazed don...err, I meant biscuits as number one? Because those are absolutely the best" "Err, I'm not sure; I skipped the pastry section. Anyway, you're not answering my question: if you're a princess, how come you're not in the book?" A self-assured filly was perfectly fine with Cadance. Still... "What book was that again?" "Palace Ponies, Politics, Princes, Princesses and Pastries, in order of least to most important!" Beat. "Although I'm not sure why it's named that way. Princess Celestia is on the first page, but on the last page there's a picture of a cake...*" "Ohhhh! That book! That's simple!" Cadance answered with feigned innocence. She paused before going on. Wait for it... "Well?" Sub-zero temperatures imminent, Captain. "Why?" There we go. "That's because those books never include foals, fillies or colts. Princess Celestia is very strict about it." Cadance gave the most prim look she could manage. Which, being an unnatural expression for her, was not terribly prim. For a moment Twilight Sparkle looked like she would explode. Her face turned red, her ears started to steam, and she looked on the verge of apoplexy. Cadance started wondering if she had gone too far. Just wait for it, she reassured herself, making sure her hooves were at the ready. "Aurgh!" The crisis passed as quickly as it came on, and the lavender filly deflated, falling on her back with a final exclamation, hooves splayed every which way. Now! Cadance moved in for the attack, her hooves deft weapons. She aimed for the most vulnerable belly, unopposed. Twilight had no defense. "Gotcha!" In seconds Twilight was giggling fiercely, and in a minute she was laughing so much she was running out of breath. Cadance was a merciless tickler, as any pony she had foal-sat could attest. It was the better part of two hours later that Mi Amore Cadenza wondered if she should not, perhaps, take a nap. Just a quick one. Twilight Sparkle, after all, looked quite happy snoozing under her wing. Plus skimming through all the books the little filly had brought with her had made her eyes wobble and her brain protest in the form of a headache. Luckily a palace servant passing through a half hour earlier had been kind enough to bring a carafe of water and some glasses when asked, or she would have been far worse off. As it stood, the dull pounding she felt behind her eyes made her question if Twilight Sparkle had actually read any of the books. She shook the thought away. She had spent over an hour with the filly, and Twilight seemed far too knowledgeable for anypony that young. They had spent much of that time simply verifying her knowledge on the plants in the garden, with Twilight walking up to a shrub, bush or flower and listing off name, genus, gestation, pollination method, and so on. Cadance had then looked it up in the botany text Twilight had brought with her, only to find that the filly remembered everything correctly. The single problem had occurred when Cadance had mistaken biannual for diurnal blossoming on one of the shrubs, and Twilight had fallen into despair that she had made such a trivial mistake. When they finally worked out the truth, Cadance apologized profusely, but Twilight had been dismissive. "It's okay. I was just really worried that not getting any sleep last night was making me make mistakes." It turned out after a little bit of careful prodding that the blank flanked filly was running purely on nerves, anticipating that she would be meeting Princess Celestia that day. It appeared the Princess had decided to teach all sorts now, first a mystically mad magical maven and now a perfect pony prodigy. Having been run ragged over the past two weeks on the Princess's errands as one of her official Pages, Cadance wondered where the ruler of Equestria could possibly find the time. Twilight admitting having not slept and insisting she didn't need a nap was when Cadance hatched her foal-proof plan to get the filly napping. She had been resistant, claiming -- even after all the tickle-induced laughing -- that she needed to make sure she could be ready for her lessons, but had finally succumbed to the joy of laughter and temporary oxygen deprivation. Which was just as well; Cadance knew from personal experience that nervous energy always deserted a pony just when she needed it most. None of that helped her with the quadratic equations she was looking over right then. She had never been too interested in math -- even though both her teachers and tutors had insisted that a strong handle on math was very important to a princess, and it was an integral subject for any pegasus that wanted to fly over the horizon and not get lost. It was also the one subject, aside from preening and feeling self-important, at which she could never hope to match her cousin Blueblood. She took a drink from her glass, only to realize that there was no more water in it. Looking to the carafe, that too looked empty, although that did not prevent her from pouring the last few drops into her glass, which she then tilted into her mouth. The feel of a few drops of water reminded her that there was a drinking fountain in the garden, somewhere to her right. She looked in that direction, hoping to find that the fountain was closer than she suspected it to be, but if anything it was further. Which meant that it was unlikely should could manage to levitate the carafe all the way there and back. Cadance looked to her left and the sleeping Twilight Sparkle. The filly had tried to poke her nose into the space where the young pegacorn's wing was attached to her body several times. She seemed to share that with about every foal that had ever napped at Cadance's side. After some fussing, Twilight had finally settled on poking her nose into the youthful princess's side instead. It was only then that she noticed that there was a very large white pony lying down on the other side of Twilight. "Don't mind me, dear, I'm just enjoying the sun." The Princess of Equestria then looked straight up into the sun's rays, acting like she had not a care in the world. * In fact Palace Ponies, Politics, Princes, Princesses and Pastries, in order of least to most important had a cake not just on the last page, but also as a footer on every page. It also had Princess Celestia as the header on every page. And on the last page it had The Princess grinning widely. This led to sharp-eyed pastry chefs starting baking contests across Equestria within days of the book's publishing, all of them insisting that they could not possibly know if they were the best unless Princess Celestia herself approved. Princess Celestia accepted demurely, albeit quickly, and became a very happy monarch. She also made the author, Clever, her Chief of Public Affairs. Within a week he insisted that he should denounce his name and scrub off his cutie mark. It also led to the common wisdom that being a very clever pony was not always a good thing. It should be noted that Public Affairs is heavily involved in spreading common wisdom.