• Published 5th Aug 2014
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Together Forever - Snake Staff



Centuries in the future, Shining Armor lives on with his beloved wife. But what price does immortality demand?

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Family

Cadence

Shining and I are alone in our quarters. We have a little bit of time to ourselves between some of today’s events, which is always appreciated. But today’s time off is even better: one of our little foals is coming to visit. Diamond Eyes, our great-great-great-granddaughter, her husband Gallium, and their first filly, our great-great-great-great-granddaughter, Snowflake. It always warms my heart when our dear grandchildren come to visit, and I know it’s one of the things Shiny likes best as well.

While we patiently await our coming relations, I choose to take the chance to snuggle up to him, just like old times. I have to bend down a bit – stupid alicorn biology making me super-sized – but I get my head up against his neck and wrap my body around his. He looks down at me and smiles, and I can feel a bit of genuine happiness poking out of his usual emotional blend of stoic duty, tightly-wound pride, and repressed depression. It’s a simple thing, no more complicated than a little foal’s joy when running through a sunlit field, but that’s more than enough to make me happy. I nuzzle the side of his neck and face, planting a few light kisses. My long, flowing, ethereal mane makes itself useful and wraps around his neck like a scarf.

He chuckles, and I can feel the warmth coming from inside. He bends over to kiss me on the muzzle, then runs his hoof through my mane. Mmmmmm… I’ve always liked that. Our lips meet and then lock. My mane continues to wrap itself around his neck and face, and he keeps playing with it with that glassy hoof of his. Mmmmmmm… Ye gods, this feels wonderful. I can sense the warm, caring, protective feelings just oozing out of my stallion, and it makes me want to just lie down in his hooves and not move for hours.

This whole scene is making me feel great, and, if I’m honest, a little bit raunchy. For all that I’m a walking demigod, I’m still a mare, after all. But I’m not going to spoil this by reminding him of his body’s limits, and I’m certainly not going to try and get him to indulge me when I can’t reciprocate. I have plenty of practice repressing my hormones, and so I just keep planting kisses and nuzzling him fondly.

We’re on the carpeted floor now. I didn’t notice us getting down off our hooves, but I don’t give a flip. I’m flat on my stomach; he’s on his legs. That’s no accident – I’m like most mares in that I like to look up at my stallion during our intimate moments. Unfortunately, part of being an alicorn princess my age is that you look down on any stallion not afflicted with gigantism. Ah well, something to correct when I finally create that new body.

A soft knock on the door interrupts our reverie.

“Ahem… your majesties?” comes a light voice. I recognize one of our attendants, Gentle Breeze. “Your guests have arrived.”

I get to my hooves, thankful not for the first time for the pink color of my coat. That means only somepony exceptionally keen-eyed or very familiar with reading me would notice the warmth I can feel in my cheeks. From the emotions I’m picking up from Shiny as he hastily regains his own hooves, I get the feeling he’d be in the same boat if that accursed crystal prison had any blood with which to blush. He still has that adorable awkward streak to him every once in a while.

Still, Shiny recovers before I do. “See them in, please. Then you may do as you please until two o’clock this afternoon.”

“Yes, my Prince,” says Gentle Breeze as she scurries off to get our grandfoals.

I put a hoof around my husband’s shoulders and just relish the positive feelings coming out of his brain. He smiles up at me. I smile back. Nothing really needs to be said.

It takes about a minute and a half for Gentle Breeze to lead our relatives through the small maze of crystalline corridors that lead to our chambers, but eventually the door opens. In comes our unicorn granddaughter, her crystal pony husband, and their tiny filly in her little stroller. Gentle Breeze discretely closes the door behind them and vanishes, leaving us alone to catch up with our descendants.

Husband and wife look uneasily at each other, uncertain what protocol is when meeting ponies who are at the same time your rulers and your distant ancestors. I’m almost tempted to giggle a bit at their shyness. Didn’t we just have a lovely chat the other day? Honestly, just because Shiny and I are a golem and an alicorn, respectively, doesn’t mean we aren’t also their proud family.

“Well, what are you ponies waiting for?” I take the initiative, spreading my hooves wide. “Come give your old grandma Cadence a hug!”

That does it. Diamond Eyes, no doubt recalling all the hugs I gave her during foalhood, is first. She wraps her hooves around me, and I plant a kiss on her forehead. She giggles. Gallium joins us, finding ample room in my oversized legs for another pony to slip into my hug. At least they’re good for something. I pull Shiny in with telekinesis, and we have a big group hug. It really does make me smile.

Eventually, all things must end, and that includes family hugs. I reluctantly release my husband and grandfoals, though not before planting far more kisses than would be considered properly dignified on the latter pair.

“Grandma!” Diamond Eyes giggles, looking up at me with those beautiful blue orbs she was named for. “We’re not five! You don’t need to smother us.”

“Oh, you’re all five to me,” I grin with faux menace. “And besides, princesses get to give their grandfoals however many kisses they want. That’s the law.”

“No it isn’t,” my granddaughter tries to defend herself. Too bad for her.

“It is now,” I laugh. “Shining, would you kindly instruct our scribes to draw up a law permitting an unlimited number of kisses from royalty?”

“As you command, your highness.” He mock salutes me. “Shall I run it by the council, or would you prefer not to bother?”

I grin and shake my head. “Of course not!”

He smirks back at me. “So the princess wills it, so it shall be!”

Gallium falls to his knees and looks up at me with pleading eyes. “Please spare this humble pony, your dread majesty!”

I cackle manically. “Never!” I pluck my grandson-in-law up with my magic and give him a long kiss on his forehead before setting him back on his hooves. We all share a chuckle, the mood now considerably lighter.

A small whimper from the stroller reminds us of the room’s final and youngest occupant.

Diamond Eyes and Gallium rush over to check on little Snowflake, the former reaching her head in to nuzzle the filly. Shiny and I, smiles on our faces, tiptoe softly across the carpeted floor to sneak a peek at the little one. I saw her the other day, but Shining hasn’t seen her since the day she was born, some seven months ago now.

Snowflake, despite her name, does not share her mother’s white coat (which I suspect comes from Shining’s genes), but instead her father’s silvery, almost metallic one. But she does have Diamond Eyes’ deep brown mane, and she is a unicorn. Twilight’s scientific studies of House Blueblood, our foals, and her own have shown that while the alicorn trait itself is totally recessive, its presence in a foal almost guarantees that they will be born a unicorn, no matter the pony subspecies of the other partner. The one exception is the mating of an alicorn stallion and alicorn mare, which invariably produces alicorn offspring; Auntie Celestia and Auntie Luna being the two most prominent examples thereof.

I wonder: when I get Shiny a new body and we… do it, does that mean all our new children will be alicorns? What will that mean for the rest of the family? Ah well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

“Shhh… Shhhh…” Diamond Eyes tries to calm her daughter. “Everything’s alright. You’re alright. We’re here to see Grandma Cadence and Grandpa Shining. You remember them, don’t you?” She gently lifts the little one from her stroller with magic, holding her up to me. “Say hi to Grandma Cadence, Snowflake.”

The filly babbles incomprehensibly as they are want to do. When I reach my muzzle in to give her a kiss, she grabs it in her tiny front hooves. She climbs on my face curiously and giggles in that adorable filly way. I let her scamper all over my head for just a minute before I snatch her up in my own magic.

“It’s time to go play with Grandpa Shining, ok?” I whisper to the filly, who just looks at me with a weird face.

I float her over to Shiny, who takes her from my grip with his own horn.

“Hey there, little one,” he says softly. “I’m Shining Armor. I’m your grandpa.”

Snowflake ignores my husband’s words, focusing on feeling up his face like she did to me. She runs her stubby little hooves over his muzzle, an odd look on her face. Suddenly, she breaks out crying.

“WWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” the filly’s piercing shrieks resound throughout our chambers. She flails, clearly trying to push away from Shining. “WWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

“Shhhh! SHHHHH!” I hurriedly yank the filly back to me before she can continue. Cradling her in my wings, I sing a soft lullaby I learned from dear Fluttershy such a long time ago:

Hush now, quiet now
It’s time to lay your sleepy head.
Hush now, quiet now
It’s time to go to bed.

Snowflakes sniffs as I rock her in my soft feathers and repeat the little verse twice more. By the fourth time, she’s quiet, and by the sixth, she’s asleep in my wings. I lay her softly back in her stroller.

“I’m so sorry, Grandpa,” Diamond Eyes hugging Shining with tears in her eyes. “She’s just a filly, she didn’t mean-”

“It’s alright,” says Shining with a resigned sigh. I can feel his disappointment and sadness, and I wince in sympathy.

“Uh, Shining,” Gallium cuts in. “Grandpa?”

Shining looks at his fellow stallion. “Yes?” he asks.

“Could we… talk for a minute? Stallion to stallion? There’s something I wanted to ask you about.”

“Of course,” Shining nods, a slight weary note added to his voice. “If you ladies don’t mind…”

“Certainly not,” I say, glad to give him any chance to get Snowflake’s reaction out of his mind.

“Not at all, Grandpa,” Diamond Eyes nods her agreement.

Shining nods. “Very well,” he looks at Gallium. “This way, please.” He leads the other stallion out another door, to a hallway leading to one of our balcony rooms. My great-great-great-granddaughter and I are left alone with a sleeping filly.

“So,” I ask, when the boys have gone. “How are things with you two?”

Diamond Eyes looks at her hooves. “They’ve been alright, but lately there’s been…” She looks back up at me. “Grandma? Can I ask you a question? About marriage relationships?”

“Of course you can,” I answer with a faint smile. I point to myself. “Princess of Love, remember? I’ve maintained a marriage for nearly five hundred years now; I’d like to think that I know something about them.”

“Thanks Grandma.” She gives me a quick hug, which I return. “Lately, it feels like there’s been a bit of a… rift between us. He’s been more distant, spending more time out with his stallion friends or in his office. He doesn’t talk to me as much anymore. What’s going on? What should I do?”

Some ponies might suspect an affair, but I have the advantage of being able to rule that out. I’ve a powerful emotional sense, especially for love, and I could tell immediately that Gallium is still powerfully attached to his wife and cares very much for her. I rule that out pretty easily.

“When did this start?” I ask in a gentle voice.

“A few months ago, I think.”

“Around when Snowflake was born?” I’m already starting to form hypotheses.

She nods. “I think so, yeah.”

“Was there any sort of fight between you at the time? Any issues with the baby?”

She shakes her head. “Not that I can remember. He always seemed to like Snowflake, and he’s never failed to take care of her.”

“Do you know if there were any issues with his work?” Gallium is a tax accountant for a law firm, while Diamond Eyes quit her previous job as a teacher to stay at home and care for their foal.

“If there were, he didn’t tell me.” Hmmm…

“Are you sure you didn’t have any kind of fight? Nothing came up at all?”

“Well…” she looks thoughtful.

“Go on. You can tell your Grandma.”

“I do remember we had a bit of row over his office. I thought it was too messy, so I took a few hours while he was out working and reorganized the whole thing.”

“Did you ask his permission before you did so?”

“Uh…” she looks a little embarrassed. “No?”

Ah, I think I’m starting to get it.


Shining Armor

“And she babies me,” says Gallium in a frustrated tone. The two of us are parked comfortably on sofas under a small gazebo mounted on our palace balcony. Today, I’ve been called on to be an impromptu relationship councilor for my granddaughter’s husband. Ah, the many duties of a prince’s life. “She never used to mind, but ever since Snowflake was born she’s just been this… condescending neat freak. Always “tidying up” someplace or another of mine, or rearranging my files without bothering to ask. It’s irritating.”

“Have you considered that she means well by it. I know my own flesh and blood, and I’m sure she’s not intending to make you mad.”

His expression softens a bit. “I know that…” he hangs his head slightly, before looking back up into my eyes. “But a stallion has his pride, you know?”

Do I ever.

“Sometimes a pony has to decide some things for himself, you get what I’m saying?” he continues with a sigh, looking down at a pillow.

Preach it, brother.

“I work better with a little bit of organized chaos. And ever since we’ve been living on just my income and our savings, I’ve had to… put in some extra hours.” He looks at me again. “It’s been a bit hard, and the last thing I need is to come home to find half my stuff placed where I can’t find it and to get my mane fiddled with and my diet criticized and all that other stuff.”

I nod sympathetically. “So, what have you done about it?”

“Well…” he hesitates. “I know she works hard to take care of Snowflake, and of our house, and I don’t want to hurt her feelings… I may have taken to hanging out with the lads a bit more.”

“How much is “a bit more”?” I ask.

“Ummm… Maybe twice as often as I used to?” he winces a bit. Yeah, that doesn’t sound so good to me, either.

“I see. Have you tried, you know, just talking to her about it?”

“Well, I don’t want to make her feel like I don’t appreciate her efforts, but…”

“Gallium, let me let you in on a little secret.” I motion for him to come closer, and he does. “As a centuries-old veteran of a single marriage, I can tell you that the key to working out your problems with each other is to be honest about them.”

“But-”

I shush him with a hoof. “I know that it doesn’t always seem easy, but trust me on this. You two love each other, I can tell. Talking out your problems like reasonable adults is much better than saying nothing and building a wall of frustration and resentment between you two. It’s things like that that can ruin a marriage, long term.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive. When we’re done here, go and talk to your wife. Tell her what you’ve told me, and ask her for her view of the situation. Then work it out between the two of you like the smart, capable ponies you are.”

Gallium takes a moment to mull it over, before apparently coming to some decision. “… You’re right. I’ve put this off too much already. Today, when we get home, we’ll talk about it.”


Cadence

“You really think talking to him will work?” Diamond Eyes asks.

“I think that you’re both smart, reasonable ponies that I love dearly. And I think you love each other, and are willing to make some sacrifices to make your relationship work. So I think that when you’ve left Shiny and I behind, you should explain your problem to your husband clearly and calmly. Honest communication is the foundation of a healthy relationship.”

Diamond Eyes nods, slowly at first but with increasing conviction. “Thanks Grandma.” She hugs me warmly. “You always have good advice.”

I hug her back. “You can always come to Grandma Cadence if you need help, my little filly.”

I plant another kiss on her forhead. She giggles.


Celestia

I hate to do this.

What? Do you think I enjoy it? Do you think Princess Celestia, Diarch of Equestria, Sol Invictus herself, enjoys arranging for the death of her family members? Even if they should have been dead centuries ago, only kept alive by unhallowed magecraft of a sort that should have been forgotten, all so a single pony doesn’t have to acknowledge a basic fact of life: all mortal things must pass, in time.

It’s not easy for me. I remember when Shining Armor was just a thin recruit barely out of colthood with an adoring little sister and not-so-hidden crush on my niece. When it became clear that she reciprocated, I encouraged them to date. When Shining earned his promotion to Captain, I remember feeling a great sense of pride in his achievements. Even then, I thought of him as a sort of family. When he finally proposed marriage to Cadence, I could not have been happier to perform their marriage myself. The look on my niece’s face when I pronounced them husband and wife reminded me of my own face on my wedding day, thousands of years ago now.

Between the two of them, they defeated Queen Chrysalis where even I failed, and then helped to defend the Crystal Empire from King Sombra. They went on to rule with justice, honor, and mercy, showing themselves worthy of all the trust placed in them. My niece and nephew were attentive rulers, loving parents, and a wonderful influence on my dear student Twilight. They were everything I could have asked for in my adoptive family and more.

And then… it happened.

I thought I had prepared her for that day. I still cannot fathom what I did wrong. I told her of the hard truth that comes with being an alicorn when she was ready: the inevitable deaths of all those mortals we love. Even our dear children, who we bear inside of us and lovingly raise from tiny foals, eventually age and perish before our eyes while we endure, eternal and undying. Such is the fate of the alicorns, and even we must bow in the face of it. I thought Cadence understood when I took her to her parents’ funerals after their tragic accident. I thought she would have the strength to bear the loss of her husband, as Luna and I have both done.

But I was wrong.

I admit it: I miscalculated the strength of her attachment to Shining Armor. It sounds foolish, but I didn’t think she would abandon her royal duties to stay with him on his deathbed, and I certainly didn’t expect what followed. Twilight… dear Twilight… that was perhaps the one time I hadn’t an inkling of what you were going to do before you did. I knew you loved your brother dearly, but I never suspected you would go so far as to embrace the use of dark magic to keep his soul from its eternal rest. Didn’t I teach you better?

What? You’re surprised I know what she did? Please, do you think that I would ever teach, or allow to be taught, a spell to rip the soul of a pony from its still-living body and implant it in a monstrosity of stone? Only dark magic contains that lore, and only one dark mage in that corner of the world would have had access to such high-level sorcery. My niece and apprentice used King Sombra’s magic to preserve Shining Armor as he is now, and then lied to me about it.

Nothing good can ever come from dark magic. Still, out of respect for my fellow alicorns, and for Shining’s long history of service, I bit my tongue. Nopony can claim I have not been reasonable. Nopony can claim I have not given them ample time to see sense. For three hundred ninety-two years, seven months, two weeks, and four days I have waited. I have pleaded, I have reasoned, I have threatened, I have explained the truth at length, I have bargained. I have done everything I can think of for centuries to convince Cadence and Shining Armor to let one another go, lest the continuing ooze of dark magic from Shining summon something horrible to the Crystal Empire.

The spell’s strength grows year by year. We have been lucky so far, in that the dark magic beacon has drawn nothing more serious than hooful of wendigoes. They have been dealt with easily enough. But I fear that such luck must run out, sooner rather than later. But Cadence will not heed my words. Though in every other matter she has long been wise enough to listen to my council, in this alone she denies me. She knows full well the danger that her husband's continued existence poses - I have told them both myself on more than one occasion, after all. But that mare is convinced that the Crystal Heart's strength, along with the combined magic of herself and Shining Armor, is enough to guarantee the Crystal Empire's safety against whatever might come. The power was potent enough to slay even Sombra, she reasons, and so denies that the beacon is a problem. And my dear nephew isn't willing to "abandon her", as he puts it, for anything.

For centuries this has gone on. I attempt to convince them to let him die, for their own good and the good of the Crystal Empire, and for their own selfish, short-sighted reasons they deny me. I have been more than tolerant these many years, but I will not permit my niece’s foalish refusal to let go of a mortal loved one to endanger these ponies any longer. The dark beacon will be dispelled, and the Crystal Empire will be secure.

I am truly sorry, Shining Armor. But very soon, you must die.

Author's Note:

Shining Armor and Cadence: Relationship Councilers.

And we get our first look into Celestia's head. What plans has she concocted for our duo?