by Fuzzyfurvert
~~~
“What’s wrong, Shining?” Cadance raised her eyebrow as she walked up to her husband. He’d beaten her to the bedroom. Between her duties as the Queen Regent of the Crystal Empire and Shining’s duties as head of the guard and de facto leader of the Crystal Municipalities Corps, they rarely made it to bed at the same time. Most evenings, she made it in before him, but tonight he was sitting on the bed with an odd look on his face.
Shining looked up and smiled at his wife. “Hmm? I just had an odd thought.”
“Oh?” Cadance returned the smile and stepped beside Shining to nuzzle him. “I know a thing or two about odd thoughts. Is something on your mind?”
Shining slipped off their bed and put an arm over her withers. “Not really. It’s just…” Shining turned them both toward the master bath suite. “Do you think I’m getting old? I completely blew off the gym today because I was having too much fun in the office. Is city planning supposed to be interesting?”
Shining chuckled and lit the lights with his horn. Cadance turned on the shower and slipped her royal vestments off as she smirked at him. “Having fun rebuilding the kingdom? Where is the stallion I married? Who is this moderately handsome, glorified clerk?”
“Moderately?” Shining groaned. “I’ll have you know I still got all my strength and skill that made me captain of the guard.”
Cadance giggled and stepped into the shower. She looked back and lifted her tail slightly. “Oh? Prove it.”
“You have the power, you know.”
Celestia said nothing but nodded her head slowly.
“You aren’t going to unseal the documents, are you?”
Celestia shook her head and lifted her cup in her magic. “It would not be right of me, you know that Twilight. Cadance hasn’t given her permission for the documents to be released and I highly doubt that she would.”
“I know.” Twilight sighed and upended her own cup of espresso. “But you know how my mind works. I can’t let go of stuff like this. I want to talk to Cadance about it but...I’m scared.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Heavens! The amazing Twilight Sparkle is openly admitting fear? Such scandal!”
Twilight rolled her eyes and finished off her coffee. “It’s just a really weird thing to ask! I’ve know Cadance for a long time, and finding out she has parts of her history sealed by the Equestrian Judicial Authority with your stamp on it...it’s just infuriating. I know it’s probably something Cadance wouldn’t want me to know. I know it’s none of my business. But knowing makes me no less curious!”
Celestia remained silent for a time, watching the steam rise from her mug. After a few moments set it back on the table next to a large envelope that carried her seal from more than twenty years ago. “I understand your plight, Twilight. I’m sure you see the sense in speaking with Cadance about this. Were you, not ten minutes ago, telling me about your wonderful visit to the north and reconnecting with her? Tell her you know that something happened and, you have a deep sense of curiosity born from your friendship with her, about it. Cadance knows how your mind works.”
“But I don’t understand her mind.” Twilight turned the envelope around to stare at it. “This is a criminal case and that does not compute. Cadance isn’t a criminal! She might act oddly every now and then but she is not a bad pony.”
“No,” Celestia agreed, “she is not a bad pony. The details are hers to divulge or keep hidden, Twilight. I hope you can respect that.”
Twilight frowned but pushed the thick envelope away. “I know. I just really don’t want to hurt her feelings. I don’t want her to think ill of me for looking into this either. I wish I’d never heard her mumbling in the bathroom all those weeks ago.”
Celestia chose not to respond and took up her coffee again.
Cadance lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Shining breathed rhythmically next to her, already asleep. Infrequent insomnia was a side effect of her medication. She turned and watched him and traced the lines of his jaw with one hoof. She wasn’t sure how she felt at the moment. It was always like that when the medicine hit her system and her emotions rearranged themselves and her mind and nethers grew quiet.
Cadance was glad, in a way, for her sleeplessness. Her emotional state had become a growing concern as of late and she welcomed the opportunity to do some quiet introspection. She certainly seemed to be having a lot of flare ups. Ever since she had decided to visit Twilight and Discord had shown up and thrown them all for a loop with his sickness. She’d had the doctors go over her with a fine tooth comb after the first one.
They ruled out chaos magic being the cause...but Cadance had her doubts. It was possibly just time for an adjustment to her medication again. Maybe she was developing a resistance. Cadance gave herself a mental note to speak with her therapist about that in the morning. Shining would be worried again but she knew he’d see the wisdom in checking everything they could for a solution. Having an alicorn that can control love have a fit in the middle of a public forum would not be a PR challenge he would want.
That old familiar tingle didn’t start down low inside, but it let her know that it would be there if the medicine stopped working. It almost ached, like a ghost remembered, it’s whisper too quiet to hear unless the medicine stopped working. It rattled in it’s pony-made chemical cage. It would get out, if the medicine stopped working. Cadance really wasn’t sure what she was going to do.
If the medicine stopped working.