//------------------------------// // Telling All // Story: Cadance // by GJT_Productions //------------------------------// "Lieutenant, as soon as the door is locked, you and one of the three guards are to proceed to the end of the hallway and stay stationed there. The other pair of guards will do the same for the other end of the hallway. Do not let anypony pass for any reason whatsoever. If there is an emergency, tell them to stay where they are and have one of the pair knock loudly on the door. Explain the situation and wait for a reply from myself. Acknowledged?" "Yes sir." "Take your posts. As soon as the chamber door opens again, report for further instructions." "Yes, Lieutenant Captain." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor lets out a weary sigh as he enters the royal resting chamber. Already inside were Princesses Celestia and Cadance, as well as Kibitz, the old unicorn stallion responsible for managing Celestia's daily schedule. Kibitz was currently levitating a written schedule in front of a Cadance who didn't seem to be at all interested in reading it, or listening to the million words a minute he was speaking. Shining resisted an urge to roll his eyes at the presence of Kibitz - he couldn't just order him to leave the room, only Celestia or Cadance could do that. Like all of Princess Celestia's senior staff, Kibitz held a "warrant of operation" - essentially, a written and sealed pass issued by the Captain of the Guard that allowed the holder free movement within Canterlot and "reasonable authority" to refuse or ignore Royal Guard orders given by a Lieutenant or lower grade. These warrants were issued primarily so that the senior civilian staff could operate more freely than the Guard command structure would otherwise allow. As a Lieutenant Captain, Shining Armor now technically outranked the warrant holders, but in practice it was still generally a bad idea for a Lieutenant Captain to order warrant holders around - the warrant holders were usually there for a good reason after all. "Your Highnesses, the guards are in place. Shall we begin?" Shining says in the direction of Celestia and Cadance. "Yes, Lieutenant Captain. Kibitz, leave us please." Celestia replies, her expression and voice somber. "But Your Highness, I haven't finished explaining..." Kibitz begins to object, his voice carrying a smooth "Braytish" accent. "Leave us, Kibitz. I'm not going to say it again." Celestia interrupts, the irritation being all too obvious. "Yes, Your Highness." Kibitz responds after but a moment's hesitation, disappointment mixed into the tone of his voice. The parchment on which the schedule is printed is rolled up and stored in a pocket in Kibitz's clothes before the servant begins walking out of the room. He mutters something Shining can't hear as he exits, presumably headed to set up the schedule for tomorrow. Shining Armor telekinetically closes the door to the resting chamber and manipulates a lock that is secured with an audible clicking sound. "Sit down to my left Shining. I need you to hear this too." Celestia states in a quiet, weary tone. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Shining Armor moves to sit down on a cushion to Princess Celestia's left, he hears Celestia speaking: "In a way, I'm glad your carriage was delayed. It gave me more time to practice what I wanted to tell you. It still won't be easy, though, what I have to tell you." Shining Armor sits down as he hears Cadance's response: "Aunt Celly, I don't understand what all this is about! You sent me away from Canterlot before last Hearth Warming's Eve, going here, there and everywhere without giving me a reason why! And then something happening during the day of the Summer Sun Celebration, getting the recall order... I just want some answers, that's all." Celestia inhales deeply before replying: "Cadance dear, I know the past months have been very confusing and frustrating for you, and I'm sorry I couldn't make them any easier. There was a reason I sent you away from Canterlot that long, and I will tell it to you now. What have you heard about what happened at the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville?" "Just... scattered rumors. No hard facts. The fulfillment of thousand-year old prophecy, the threat of eternal night... beyond that, nothing solid." "Ah, so the dispatches never got to you. I suppose that's a good thing, since I wanted to tell you myself." "Tell me what, Aunt Celly? Tell me what?" Cadance asks with pleading confusion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Princess Celestia looks nervously over at Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor, now sitting directly to her left. He gives a sympathetic look as Princess Cadance, to Celestia's right, also looks over to Shining in confusion. Celestia then looks down, inhales and breathes out a loud sigh, her face a pained expression. "Aunt Celly?" Cadance asks in a concerned tone. "Cadance, what happened to you during the day of the Summer Sun Celebration?" Celestia asks in turn, her voice unusually low and uncertain. "It was... terrible. I was in a town doing their own celebration. The Mare in the Moon disappeared, and then the sun didn't rise for hours after it should've... everypony was scared. There was a stallion in the town square that had arranged the celebration, orange coat with a poofy brown mane and tail... he just stood on the stage and started playing his instrument solo - tune after tune, to comfort the scared ponies. I could tell he himself was scared, though. We were all scared. And there was absolutely nothing I could do about it." Celestia is on the verge of tears when she speaks again: "That's right, Cadance. There was nothing you could've done, either there or in Canterlot. I knew she was coming, and you weren't the one. That's why I had to keep you away until now." "'She'? 'The one'? Aunt Celly, I don't understand who you're talking about." Cadance replies through a dismayed expression. Celestia looks back at her adoptive niece with guilt, and a single tear slips down a cheek as she asks another question: "Remember the first time you came here? Remember how you asked if you had any other aunts or uncles, and I just looked away without answering the question? I couldn't give you a straight answer to that question then, I just couldn't. I knew what was coming, and I didn't want it to hurt you. I hope you understand, Cadance, but I felt I didn't have a choice. The legends... the only thing I can say to you is 'I'm sorry'." Cadance's face is blank for a moment, then her eyes go wide in shock. "Then the thousand-year legend, 'Nightmare Moon'..." she gasps out. "All of it true, Cadance. You do have another aunt - that's Luna. I knew she would come back in your lifetime. I thought that you may have come in my life to save her, but that was only half-right. You didn't have 'the spark' to save her." Celestia says as she chokes back sobbing. "So you sent me away so that 'Nightmare Moon' wouldn't find out about me? So that she couldn't hurt me? Is that it?" Cadance asks. Celestia can only nod out an answer, so overwhelmed with emotion that the tears are starting to flow freely. "She also sent you away so that I wouldn't be constantly worrying about you. Trust me, I had plenty to worry about besides you that day!" Shining Armor interjects. He can see the tears silently flowing down Celestia's cheeks, and can feel his own beginning to well up in his eyes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "But I still don't understand things, Aunt Celly. Who was 'the one'? Who had 'the spark'? What happened to Luna... Aunt Luna?" Cadance asks in desperation, already recognizing what her adoptive aunt was saying was true. "You didn't have 'the spark', but you helped me find the one who did. It was from the foalsitting job you took up, after we lost Sunset Shimmer..." Celestia answers, an occasional tear flowing down the cheek. Back then, the name "Sunset Shimmer" was but a vague abstraction to Shining Armor - somepony rarely mentioned, and never positively when she was. Since Cadance rarely talked about her either, all Shining could guess at the time was that she was another promising unicorn student that had met a tragic fate - it would not be until much later that Celestia was forced to reveal the truth to Twilight Sparkle, with Shining himself learning quickly afterward. Cadance, on the other hoof, had as much reason to not speak the truth about Sunset Shimmer as Celestia. Sunset positively hated Cadance despite the latter's attempts to befriend her, apparently because Cadance already had what Sunset really wanted, and Sunset's abandonment hurt the "apprentice" princess almost as much as it did Celestia. The spectre of Sunset motivated Cadance to go into the foalsitting business, and was part of the reason she invested so much time and love into the young Twilight Sparkle, both before and after she became Celestia's apprentice in magic. It was also the ultimate reason why the mirror through which Sunset fled ended up in the Crystal Empire Palace - placed there by a haunted Cadance at her request, to spare Celestia further pain... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All that information, though, was but a bitter aside understood by both Cadance and Celestia that made the recent salvation of Luna that much sweeter. "The foalsitting job?" Cadance asked of Celestia. "Yes, Cadance, that job was how I found the one with the spark. Without you, my sister might still be trapped in darkness and all Equestria would be slowly withering under an eternal night as a result." Celestia explains. "But I still don't understand. What happened? Who was it that had the spark?" Cadance asks pleadingly. Celestia opens her mouth to speak, but Shining Armor cuts her off, perhaps the result of the high emotion coursing through the room: "It was Twily, Cadance. Your aunt sent Twily to Ponyville to supervise the Summer Sun Celebration preparations, and it was there that Luna returned from her moon exile, as 'Nightmare Moon'. Twily and five other fillies went into the Everfree Forest, the old castle, to find the Elements of Harmony. They found 'em and they defeated Nightmare Moon with them. Twily's one of the new Element Bearers, Cadance. She saved us. She saved us all! And she brought Luna back, back out of that monster." Cadance looks on with agape shock for a few moments - it seemed her old prophecy of Twilight Sparkle being "more than any ol' unicorn" was more true than she had ever dreamed of! The room is silent for a few more moments save a sniffle from Celestia still trying to gather herself back together. "Yes, Cadance, Twilight found the missing Element of Magic. She bears that now in my stead." Celestia quietly states. She did not seem irritated that Shining cut her off - possibly because he explained things better than she could've at that point. "Then... where's Twilight? Where's Aunt Luna?" Cadance asks once she can find her tongue again. "Luna came back to Canterlot with me. She is very weak - the Elements ravaged her body to save her, and she's only now beginning to regain her old powers. I sent Twilight on field assignment to learn more about the magic of friendship. Just like I told Shining earlier, this is not to be a permanent thing." Celestia explains. Disappointment briefly flashes on Cadance's face, doubtless for not being able to congratulate Twilight on her accomplishments, then is replaced by curiosity. She asks if she is going to meet Luna now. "Yes, dear. She should be coming on-duty right now, so I will take you to meet her as soon as we are done here. But there's one more thing we need to talk about first." Celestia answers. "Is it about Shining?" Cadance asks again, making an educated guess based on his presence there. "Yes, Cadance, it is about him." Celestia answers. "I know for years you've wanted to marry Shining Armor. I've seen you and him go through thick and thin, and he has never treated you wrong or done anything to make me doubt my trust in him. But for years now I have withheld my royal blessing knowing what was to come. Now I have no more reason to withhold it." Cadance's face immediately brightens - the long-desired Canterlot wedding seems to finally become a possibility after years of being held back under various excuses. But she also senses that the Canterlot wedding is not something Celestia wants to happen immediately. Her intuition is confirmed by what Celestia says next: "Here and now, I do give you, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, my royal blessing to marry Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor should you both agree to it. I ask only one condition - help my sister. Shining is already helping pull Luna out of the thousand-year darkness she was trapped in. Now I ask you to join him in the work. If you two succeed, you will get your Canterlot wedding. I promise you that will happen, Cadance." "Oh Aunt Celly!" Cadance exclaims, throwing herself in a hug over her adoptive aunt. The two princesses share some more bittersweet tears, and Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor sitting next to them cannot help but cry out some "liquid empathy" himself. Shining Armor could see that now he was effectively considered part of Celestia's family, and that Celestia was laying the foundations for bringing both himself and his sister formally into the Equestrian royal family. He could already imagine walking down the aisle with Cadance beside him, "Twily" joyous at becoming the sister-in-law of the former fillysitter she adored so much, Luna seeing Twilight as actual family instead of just the filly that ended her thousand-year nightmare... Of course, all that was dependant on Luna. And, as Shining realized to his chagrin, that was the hard part. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It took about 20 minutes for Celestia and Cadance to expend the last of their bittersweet emotions and have a servant touch up the smears and smudges in their makeup jobs. During that period, Shining summoned a "representative guard" - one member of each pony species, including Lieutenant Vesper representing the bat ponies - to be the escort for the official meeting, then waited anxiously for the touch-up jobs to be finished. He knew that the upcoming meeting would be a critical one - what little he, or his little sister for that matter, knew about alicorns was that there were only supposed to be two - Celestia and Luna. If other alicorns ever had existed, their identities had long since been lost in the mists of time. Cadance, therefore, was a riddle wrapped in a mystery wrapped in an enigma. And the fact that she knew nothing about her lineage or any potential family relationships did nothing to help in the situation. The fact that Cadance could not properly explain where she came from would be cause enough to worry things would go seriously wrong, but adding in Luna's hair-trigger temper and suspicions seemed to be a recipe for disaster. All Shining Armor could do in this situation was follow protocol, hope for a little luck, and seriously wish his sister were the one doing this job instead. Shining had sent a guard ahead to Luna to inform that Celestia had somepony she wanted to meet, so he already knew Luna would be waiting for them when they arrived. Still, he couldn't completely hide his worry from a weary and tired Celestia and a concerned Cadance - and, for their part, the Princesses didn't hold it against him. Finally, the group arrived at Luna's chambers. Cadance, surrounded in a box formation by the representative guard, was kept out of sight of the doorway while Shining Armor and Celestia did the talking through the closed doors. Shining gives a cautious knock on the doors with a forehoof. "Pray tell, who is knocking?" Princess Luna's voice comes from the other side of the door after a moment's pause. "Sister, the pony I wanted you to meet is here." Celestia replies through the door. "Very well, send them in." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shining Armor telekinetically unlatches the doors and slowly open them, letting Princess Celestia go in first before following her into Luna's suite. Already the room showed the signs of an... interesting choice of redecoration, the normal pastel decorations covered over with items more appropriate for a Nightmare Night party than a gleaming castle on the side of a mountain. Fortunately, Celestia gave warning of Luna's tastes beforehand to Shining Armor and anypony else that would be regularly in contact with Princess Luna. Luna was alone in the suite. looking over curiously from her old-style covered canopy bed - the once-pink curtains having been taken down for recoloring more appropriate to Luna's tastes. As she looks, Shining opens the doors more fully and then both he and Celestia step aside to let the representative guard pass through the doors. Lieutenant Vesper, as the seniormost officer of the representative guard, had the privilege of making the announcement as the group entered Luna's suite: "Presenting Her Majesty Princess Mi Amore Cadenza!" The skepticism immediately appears on Luna's face as the representative guard parts to reveal Cadance standing there and giving her practiced gracious smile - she recognized staying silent was the best option in this case. It must've seemed odd that her new aunt was actually shorter and smaller than she was, Shining had to think. Shining could also feel the electric tension in the room growing rapidly. Princess Luna's skeptical eyebrow stays up as she gets up from the bed, walks over to in front of Cadance, and gives her an awkward once-over. Shining could see Cadance nervously trying to hold her practiced smile in the face of Luna's withering skepticism. Finally, Luna looks over at Celestia and Shining and says but one sentence: "She is an alicorn." "Yes, sister, she is." Celestia replies, the sun princess giving an awkward, sheepish grin Shining had never seen before on her. Usually Celestia was able to finesse or force her way out of these situations, but neither of those strategies would work here. "She is an alicorn." Luna repeats, both more forcefully and with a more hostile expression. "That's correct, sister. Your eyes are not deceiving you." Celestia tries again, sincerely hoping Luna would leave it at that. "Explain!" Luna continues, in a very loud voice and with an angry expression on her face. Celestia nervously looks over Shining Armor, who just looks back in response. "Explain!" Luna repeats, this time practically shouting in Cadance's face. Luna didn't have enough power to do the echoing amplified "Royal Canterlot Voice", but she was certainly loud enough at point blank range! Cadance was left confused, blinking excessively and frozen in place as a result of the blast. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few moments of electric and extremely awkward silence followed, with nopony speaking and nopony daring to in the face of the obvious conflict between the two alicorns. Finally, Luna broke the silence with a loud rant: "If nopony will give us an explanation, then this 'princess' we wish nothing to do with! Begone, impostor!" Everypony else in the room recoils from the shock, and one of the guards lets out an audible gasp. They knew Luna was wrong, but there seemed to be no way to convince her she was wrong. "Dear sister, Mi Amore Cadenza is not..." Celestia wearily responds. "WE SAID BEGONE WITH THE IMPOSTOR! We wish nothing to do with her! And this shall apply to all our staff as well!" Luna cuts off in a full shout. "But dear sister..." Celestia tries again. "And that is our last word on the matter! Good evening!" Luna cuts off again, giving a scowl at Cadance before turning and walking away to another room in the suite, telekinetically slamming the door shut behind her. Approximately 30 seconds of defeated silence follows, even Celestia letting slip a deflated expression. Finally, Shining discretely beckons Lieutenant Vesper over. Shining whispers something in Vesper's ear, and Vesper nods when Shining is done. Vesper in turn goes back over to Cadance and whispers in her ear, which shortly afterward causes her and the entire guard group to take their leave of the suite. "I gave the Lieutenant orders to have the guard escort Cadance to her suite. Everything ought to be set up in there by now." Shining quietly explains to a clearly deflated and frustrated Celestia. "I suppose that's the best thing to do. It's a good thing she was put on the opposite end of the castle from Luna." Celestia states, her voice a near whisper due to fatigue and frustration. "So, now what do we do, Your Highness?" Shining asks, about the only appropriate thing to say at the moment. "My sister needs time to cool down and get over the mental barriers. I want you and Cadance to not be seen together, at least for a few days. That would just set Luna off again, I would think." "But Your Highness...!" Shining objects in dismay, trying not to sound like a whining colt in the process. "Just... do it, Shining. I don't have the time or energy to argue about it right now." Celestia quietly states, the sun princess holding up a forehoof to block any further attempts at objection. A few moments later, Celestia silently takes her leave, glancing back a final cautionary look that seemed to be a warning for Shining not to do anything too rash. Shining Armor, now alone in the chamber, slumps with his back against a wall. A forehoof gently moves to cover his face, Shining wondering if his sister could've done any better in this precarious situation...