Interrupted Cadance, Part Two
The first thing Cadance noticed when she came to was that she was still in her human form. The second thing she noticed was that she was laying on a couch, definitely not the one in her hotel room. She wasn’t sure where she was, to be honest – but the Aqua Maré it was not. She’d been gone for hours, without telling Twilight or Spike where she was, and that meant that Twilight was probably going to blow a fuse or two.
I know she’s worried about me, though, the mare thought to herself. At least I know she and Spike are there for me. My ‘real’ family couldn’t be bothered to do much more than come to the funeral, and despite all their knowledge, my aunts really don’t deal well when it comes to death in the family.
She sat up, hoping to get a better grasp on her situation, and as she did, she noticed she was in someone’s home. There were shelves and furniture, pictures and platters, and signs of someone’s well-lived life. The furniture was well-tended and weathered, showing the signs of times enjoyed and moments created. Part of her winced at the view; she’d wanted something like this with Shining Armor, along with all the other things that any couple wanted: foals, anniversaries, just the two of them moving on into eternity. But that never happened, and Cadance was left to suffer the slings and arrows of sorrow.
“Oooh, yeyayay! We gots a hottie here!” Cadance turned to see a young man standing there, not much older than his teenage years, if her shaky knowledge of human biology was anything to go by. Wiry and rail thin, he was dressed in a tank-top and baggy pants that were worn down past his waist, which from what she knew of human fashion, wasn’t exactly normal. He had a hairstyle somewhat reminiscent of Pinkie’s, and what looked to be facial fur, though not much of it.
Cadance looked at the teen with an odd glance. “Um…good…er, morning?”
“Yusyusyus!” the boy said, theatrically waving his hands. “Now, lookie what Santa brought me and it ain’t even Christmas yet. I gots me my very own hottie!” Leaning uncomfortably close to her, he said, “So, baby, what did I do right to get you in my life?”
Now Cadance was completely confused. “Huh?”
Before the boy could add anything further, a voice erupted from around the corner, its tone clear, firm and most of all, loud: “MACARTHUR THOMAS FARRELL, YOU LEAVE THAT POOR GIRL ALONE, YOU HEAR ME?”
Suddenly the young man’s bravado deflated and he looked more akin to a typical adolescent. “But Grandma—”
Striding from around the corner, wielding a cooking pan, was Tillie, dressed in a simple dress with a grand smile on her face. “Mackie, I won’t have you bothering my guests in my house, got that?” He nodded silently and she gave him a smile to indicate all was forgiven. “Go wash up, now, breakfast is going to be ready in just a little bit.”
Cadance looked at Tillie, completely confused.
Tillie shook her head, chuckling. “Sorry about that – grandchildren can be such a joy, but at the same time, when they reach their teenage years, well…I’m sure you know.”
Now it was Cadance’s turn to smile. “That I do….” Her mind drifted off to the day when she’d first met Shining Armor. He’d been just a high school student at the time, with plans to attend the Royal Guard Boot Camp and a precocious little sister whose destiny had yet to be realized. Cadance had shown a rare rebellious streak after arguing with Celestia and defied her aunt’s curfew, sneaking out of the castle and disguising herself as a normal unicorn named “Tinka-tinka-too” – where she’d gotten the name, to this day she wasn’t sure – but after accidentally bumping into Twilight, she’d turned to apologize to the small filly, instead setting her eyes on the most beautiful pair of blue orbs she’d seen in her life. At that point the budding young Avatar of Love fell head over heels, and spent the day with the two siblings.
She’d been discovered after the Guards had finally tracked her down, and while Celestia had been both worried about and furious with Cadance, the younger alicorn accepted her grounding with grace. The following week, she started to set on her new goal in life: getting herself a very specific coltfriend, a goal that was, Cadance later found out, well helped along by Celestia. Was it because even that early the sun alicorn saw the raw talent within the young filly at Shiny’s side, or was it because she was genuinely happy for Cadance’s choice? To this day, the Avatar of Love didn’t know, and she knew she’d never get a straight answer out of her aunt.
Sometimes it was just better to let the memories remain just that.
“Well, if you go wash up,” Tillie said, unaware of the other female’s trip down nostalgia way, “I’m making my special hazelnut pancakes recipe. I guarantee Mackie’ll eat about half of them before you even sit down – growing boys are like that.”
Cadance rose from the couch, feeling somewhat refreshed, but also at the same time, a bit embarrassed. “Tillie, I….”
“You were in no shape to go back and face your loved ones, Cadance,” the older woman replied. “Sometimes it takes just talking to strangers – or rather, friends you haven’t met yet – to sort your issues out and find your way back to where you belong.”
“You sound as though you know a lot about that.”
“You don’t live a long life like I did without a little sadness and pain,” Tillie said with a soft smile, “but in the end, it all makes it worthwhile.” Pointing with the pan, she gestured down the hall. “Second door on the right’s the restroom. Once you’re done, through the doors over here—” she added, now pointing in the opposite direction, “—is the kitchen. We’ll be waiting for you there.”
Cody MacArthur Fett-Today at 7:16 PM
The Sterling conception now works, and that final scene with the two of them together is "aww" inducing.
“Mmmph!” a contented Spike said in-between bites of food. “This is really good, Trixie!”
“I love coming here,” the pony said, a slight smile on her face. At the moment, she was using an amniomorphic as well, that of a buxom blonde who looked more at home in Southern California than in Vegas – the disguise, Trixie said, was more for her friends’ sake than for her own, as “people in this part of town rarely get starstruck by the performers who eat here.”
Twilight looked at her friend and sighed almost theatrically between bites of a Belgian crepe dish Trixie had recommended. Truth was, she wasn’t really hungry, but instead worried sick about Cadance. In the past, the unicorn would have simply just gone into a blind panic; now, she was long-used to formulating plans and ideas on what to do about the situation. Unfortunately, nothing she could think of would solve the current situation at hand, and so she ironically found herself pining for the days where she could just go into a mindless spasm of chaos and paranoia. In some ways, it was comforting.
“No it’s not,” Trixie said aloud, taking another bite of her omelet without looking up from it. As a curious look crossed Twilight’s currently-human features, Trixie then looked up as she took a sip of her coffee and said, “I know how you think, Twilight. You’re a long ways away from the ‘Twilight Spazzle’ incident you told me about, but that doesn’t mean that you’re still not capable of slipping now and then. After all,” she said with a wink, “we’re only human.”
Spike chuckled at that. “Speak for yourself, Trixie. I’m not sure I’d ever make a good human – still trying to get used to the limited vision.”
Twilight ignored the conversation and instead looked at her friend. “So, what’s your plan?”
“Well, I figured we could start looking in the shopping areas. Sure, ponies don’t exactly wear what humans do, and they probably don’t have anything for the equine physique, but I’m sure there’s a lot of other things that Cadance would want for her home, right?”
“You mean the home she tried to burn down last month?” Spike asked. When Trixie looked at him oddly, he sighed and added, “She saw something in the house that reminded her of Shining and she just lost it. Thankfully Apple Bloom dropped by for an unexpected visit or it could have been much, much worse.”
“It’s part of the reason I moved her into my house two weeks ago,” Twilight responded. “In addition to the fact that her own needs to be fixed, she doesn’t need to be alone right now.”
“No,” Trixie answered, “what she doesn’t need right now is to be treated like a precious porcelain pony. She’ll turn up when she’s ready, Twilight. Like I said, I’m more worried about you. At least pretend like you came here to see an old friend.”
Twilight nodded at the chastisement. “I’m sorry, Trixie. I guess I haven’t been a very good friend since I’ve been here. It’s just….”
The stage magician nodded. “I know. And truthfully, if the situation was reversed, I’d be just as panicked myself.” The smile on Trixie’s face, however, was genuine as she added, “But you also have to think about how she feels: she probably thinks she’s a burden on you, or that she’s hurt your family terribly by letting her husband die, or any of a million thin—”
“But I would never think that!” Twilight verbally exploded at her friend, causing a commotion. As all eyes in the diner settled on her, she suddenly realized she was standing up, leaning forward and looking at Trixie with anger in her eyes. Chastened by her situation, the normally-lavender unicorn sighed. “Sorry,” she murmured.
“I’ve dealt with worse from you, Twilight; I can certainly deal with merely being yelled at,” the normally-powder-blue unicorn flashed her friend a wan smile. “But that’s not the point. The point is two-fold,” she said, holding up two fingers. “First, while I very much know how you and Spike feel about her, and she knows that as well, she’s not thinking in a very reasoned mindset right now, and so her mind could be anywhere. Secondly, you are wound up tighter than a drum kit, and that won’t do Cadance a bit of good. I keep saying this; I feel like I’m on constant repeat and you’re just not listening.”
Spike looked up from his plate. “Yeah, you know Twilight….” he replied.
“Not funny, Spike,” his sister huffed.
Trixie just shook her head and would have thought about ordering a mimosa if it wasn’t for the fact that this location didn’t serve alcohol, she was the one driving and they still had to go see Drake’s contact about the rumor from the previous night. Thankfully, Twilight was a friend now, and not a rival.
Though I might have to rescind that status temporarily if she doesn’t calm down, Trixie thought to herself.
“…and this is our wedding day,” Tillie said, showing an aged photo album to Cadance. “Emmett was the perfect man that day, and I had to admit – me in my wedding gown? – I must’ve broken a few hearts that didn’t chase me when they should’ve. I can just imagine the jealous stares my dear Emmett got after the honeymoon,” she said with a wide, nostalgic smile. “What about yourself?”
“It was….” Cadance paused at what to say: how could you explain to a human about the changeling invasion, her fiancé being compromised by that monster and all of Canterlot under the sway of parasitic creatures hellbent on domination and emotional vampirism? “It…didn’t go well at first….” was all she could say.
Tillie looked at the (seemingly-)younger woman and in those eyes there seemed to be nothing but pure sympathy. After a few seconds, she gave an understanding smile and said, “Let me guess: wedding crasher?” When the astonished look came onto Cadance’s face, as she wondered how the human woman had figured it out, Tillie nodded sagely and said, “My nephew Rodger…his fiancée’s ex-boyfriend showed up to ruin their big day. Almost would have, too, if it weren’t for the fact that Maria comes from a family of big, beefy bouncers. Had that poor boy running for his life in under a minute, I swear!”
“Something like that happened,” Cadance was finally able to admit. “Fortunately, we were able to deal with it.” She said nothing more, and Tillie didn’t pry any further. Instead, the two continued on, going over Tillie’s memories, occasionally drawing from Cadance’s own memories and letting the two women stroll down Nostalgia Road, sharing bygone times of their husbands and pasts.
“So, Mackie, that girl’s okay with Aunt Tillie?” Rodger asked his young cousin over the phone.
“Man, this sucks! Hottie in the hou—”
“Mackie….”
The teen huffed. “Fine. Grandma’s bonding with the girl just like she always does. As usual, she’s doing her thing and you don’t have to worry.”
“Of course we have to worry! She doesn’t have much longer and…well, you know.”
“Yeah, I know.” The boisterous teen was suddenly deathly quiet. “Just…let’s not talk about that right now, ‘kay?”
“Deal. I don’t have to work evening shift tonight, so you, me and Aunt Tillie can go see a movie tonight. I’m sure that girl’ll be back with her family by that point and things’ll be back to normal.”
Mackie laughed. “With Grandma? When have things ever been normal?”
“Look, unless you’re the cops, I ain’t sayin’ shit!” the voice on the other side of the door said.
Trixie stood there for a second and wondered if she could get away with producing a Las Vegas PD badge; she knew quite a few of them and performed at their charity benefit last year, so she was on good terms with them. But I think I’d like to stay that way, she realized, as she just let the woman slam the door in her face.
“Okay, looks like we’re done here,” she told Twilight.
“Trixie! You didn’t even try!”
The stage magician sighed. “What did you want me to do, Twilight? Break down the door and threaten the woman until she gives us what she wants? It doesn’t work like that here! Come to think of it…it doesn’t work like that in Equestria, either! What has gotten into you?” Twilight’s response was to scowl and walk down the steps to the car. Watching her storm off, Trixie muttered aloud, “Well that went well.”
“Sorry, Trixie,” Spike told her. “Twilight’s just really worried. Rainbow and Rarity told me she was the same way when I ran away from home one time to ‘find out about my dragon-ness.’ She was snappish towards her friends and then when I got home I didn’t hear the end of it and then she told Mom, Dad, Shiny and Cadance and I got those lectures, and then she told Celestia and….” He shrugged. “Needless to say that she’d be doing the same thing for you if you were missing – she’d do it for anypony.”
“I’m not sure that going one step short of tearing the town down brick by brick is the best solution,” Trixie replied, “and at this point, I have to wonder if Twilight’s seriously considering even that option.”
“Probably.”
“Well, let’s get back down to my car before she decides that she needs to drive to Primm just in case Cadance went there. If we don’t stop your sister, she might just expand the search range to Palm Springs.”
Making sure that nopon…er, no one was looking, Twilight cast another quick spell. Green fire briefly flickered around her hands, and a spell circle briefly appeared beneath her before fading away. Thankfully she’d taken the time to learn the dragon magic systems, as it was far easier using dragon magic while using the amniomorphic than her natural pony spells. She expanded the spell’s search radius to ten miles out, and she’d find Cadance this time.
Part of her knew that Cadance would find some way to let her, or the authorities, or somepony know if she was in trouble. But Twilight had lost too much lately, and even still, her family roiled from all the blows – one of the biggest examples of that lived just 275 miles southwest of where she was now. Cadance was falling apart from the death of her beloved husband, and as much as Twilight grieved for her older brother, she still needed to be there for Cadance.
Her fingers lit up again with green fire as the spell reported back: nothing. She thought about increasing the spell’s range, but even for her there was a limit to what she could do with magic, and as a car came into the parking lot, the chance for using spells undetected had just disappeared. She closed her eyes, frustrated about the lack of help on anything.
“Twilight….” Trixie began.
“I can’t give up,” one unicorn in disguise told the other as the second approached. “You don’t understand….”
“Twilight, I do. More than you can imagine.” Trixie reached into her shirt, pulling out a necklace; it was a simple silver chain upon which rested a small, iridescent chime made from mother-of-pearl. “I wear this, from time to time, to remind me of Pastel Chime. I would have done anything to save her, Twilight – she meant so much to me.” To get her point across, Trixie intentionally slipped into her old habit: “Trixie would have not become the mare you met if Pastel Chime was still alive.”
“That wasn’t your fault,” Twilight told her friend.
“Nor is what happened to your brother yours.”
“I know that.”
Trixie shook her head. “No, no you don’t. Twilight, you forget: I know you. I know you obsess about things, and you forget that as a stage performer, I have to know how to read my audience – I’ve even had to learn human body language cues, and believe me, that’s not easy. So I know when I have to be careful with an audience member. And right now? Everything in your body language – even the human ones you’re using now – is telling me that you’re blaming yourself for everything that’s happened in the last year.”
Twilight just stood there, agape, looking at her one-time annoyance and now longtime friend. The veil had been pierced.
Lunch was Cobb salads, courtesy of Tillie’s grandson, who suddenly had changed from his boisterous teen actions earlier and seemed now like a well-behaved young man, Cadance noticed. She also noticed that Tillie looked somewhat tired, though she still made an attempt to look lively. “Tell me about your husband, Cadance,” she asked. “I’ve told my stories; now it’s time to tell yours.”
Only Cadance’s long years of duty as a royal prevented her from panicking at that moment. How could she describe her beloved stallion? If Tillie were a native of Alter-Earth – or at the very least, aware that Cadance wasn’t really human – it would be so much easier. She wouldn’t have to find a way to dodge the truth, to hide th…
You’re acting as though you’re ashamed of him, her conscience chided herself, and with an inward sigh, she stopped. She loved her husband, gone or not, to ever treat him like that. He was the only stallion to ever see her as herself, not as the then-Crown Princess. He’d loved her because she was Cadance, not because she was Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, with the paragraph’s worth of titles behind her name. He’d loved her because she’d taken such care of Twilight and Spike when she’d foalsat the both of them. He’d loved her because she was everything to him, and he was everything to her. He deserved better than that.
“My husband,” she began, “was a soldier who fell in love with me despite my upper class birthright. No one had ever looked at me or spoke to me the way he did.” She grinned and said, “It probably also helped that my aunt, who raised me, knew his parents and I occasionally watched his younger siblings when they weren’t around. So it was natural that he and I fell in love. Even when he went off to the military academy and I started getting involved with my aunt’s, um, business, we never lost touch with one another, and we always held true in each other’s heart. And then, on one, er ‘memorable’ day, we got married.”
“Memorable?”
“Remember that you said there was a wedding crasher? Well, there was: a…slightly unhinged…‘admirer’ of his. She actually locked me in a closet and then dressed up as me to try to marry him and hope he wouldn’t notice.”
“Good thing he did, right?”
“Well…she also drugged him so he wouldn’t notice.” Cadance figured the little white lie was close enough to the truth that it would keep to the general flow of her story. “Fortunately, his little sister was very observant and was able to figure it out, rescued me and at the end of the day, we solved the problem and I had a very happy marriage.”
“Until he left you?”
“No.” Cadance’s voice was very quiet. “Until the day she murdered him.”
Tillie looked at the other girl and knew there was a story to be told; Cadance, in turn, knew she had to say something but wasn’t sure what there was to voice. “I won’t push you,” the older woman said, “but there’s a story in there that has to get out. Something inside you that is eating you alive and you don’t want to admit to anyone. You feel it’s wrong, and yet you keep it in until it destroys you. I know secrets like that…I have secrets like that. Don’t let them tear you apart, young lady.”
“What did they do to you?” Cadance asked.
Tillie was very quiet as she set down the book and looked Cadance straight in the eye. “There was a time when Emmett was on the verge of being fired by his boss…it was the 70’s, and back then people didn’t care much about one another, no matter how much folks nowadays portray it on TV and the movies. Because it would have hurt us, and his boss knew it, he propositioned me: become his mistress, or Emmett would lose his job. Even then, in Vegas, not much call for a black man being a lawyer back then…that’s just the way things were.
“To save him, I….” Tillie was very quiet. “Emmett, my dearest love…he was a good man. He loved our two children with all his heart and soul, even though I think he knew he wasn’t really their father. I never told Aaron or Sally – what could I say? That their mother saved her husband’s job by sleeping with his boss whenever he wanted? That I lived up to the Vegas stereotype of being a whore? That I did what I did out of love, even though it probably wasn’t the right thing to do?”
A tear slid down her aged, leathery cheek. “Emmett…to his dying day, he never knew. And when his boss had a heart attack back in ’76, the company partners offered him the position, maybe to make up for what they knew was happening. And they’re all gone now and the kids Emmett and I raised are happy with their own lives. Aaron lives in Austin and works for a computer programmer, one of those video game studios Mackie’s always going on about. Sally works for the State Department and lives overseas in Germany with her family, though Mackie’s staying with me until he heads off to college next month. They’re both good kids…and they’ll never know how their mother was a little bit naughty in order to make things right. That’s a story that I will carry to my grave, and only one other soul alive knows it: you.”
“I see,” Cadance said, turning to look out the window at the clear sky and the desert in the distance. She gazed out the window for a long time, wondering if she could confide in the woman – Tillie obviously thought the reverse was true. Cadance’s, however, was the much larger secret. But it wasn’t the only one, she knew, and that one didn’t apply anyway.
“My husband…while we were married, she poisoned him and seduced him. He didn’t know and it would be unfair of me to hold it against him. And yet, even as he was dying, I…spurned him when he needed me most. Because all I could think of was him with her. And it wasn’t his fault. It was never his fault. And if I’d just cared enough, I could have saved him.”
“But you never stopped loving him, right?”
“No. Never. I could never stop that, even if I wanted to – which I didn’t. Even now, six months after he’s been gone…he’s still there for me.” She held her hands close to her heart, feeling her own heartbeat. As a human, it felt different than her normal form, but it was still there. And a memory came to mind:
“Cady,” Shining Armor said, as he watched her looking over the balcony at the Crystal Empire. The land, now that it had been rediscovered, was to be integrated back into Equestria, and Cadance was to serve as the governor-general and representative from the Crown. The ponies present were all too willing to become a part of society once again now they knew what they missed, and a side-effect of that was that their princess and prince consort had become even more popular than their princess regent hundreds of miles south in Canterlot.
She turned and looked at him, standing there in his guard armor. Even though as prince consort his duties were more political now that military, he still insisted on spending time with the guard, reassuring them that he was one of them. But today would be different. “Do you have to?”
“I’m the best one for the job, love,” he told her, walking over to the balcony. “I have to protect all of this that we’re building. I have to protect my family, and I have to protect the mare I love.” He leaned forward, giving her a gentle kiss. “I’ll find Chrysalis and put an end to her for once and for all – she won’t have a second chance.”
The look on Cadance’s face was one of near-heartbreak. “Please, be careful – I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you.”
He grinned. “Don’t worry. I’ll have Silversteel with me and some hoof-selected troops. Besides, if anything happens to Silver, Rarity would probably never let me hear the end of it.” As the romance alicorn chuckled from his slight joke, he continued. “And I don’t have to worry about anything ever happening to me, because I have your love, Cadance, and with that love I am invincible.”
As Cadance’s mind came back to the present day, she blamed herself for that lie. “I should have held him close to me. I should never have let him go and face her. I should have done something.”
“But that wasn’t the real problem, was it?” Tillie asked, leaning back in the chair. “Let it go, Cadance. You’re right on the verge of letting go.”
Cadance nodded.
And then she changed.
In all her years, Tillie had seen a lot. She’d been through a lot and experienced so much. She’d even had a few brushes with greatness, like the time she got to shake President Carter’s hand the day she was invited to a special banquet the government held for the Equal Rights Amendment, or the day she’d met King Faisal ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia when he was just a prince spending money like no tomorrow in the casino she’d happened to be in. She’d lived a life few had expected.
But she hadn’t expected to see a live alicorn, one of the alien royalty of that other world discovered about a decade ago, sitting here in her living room. Seeing the forlorn creature standing there with pure heartbreak on her face was wrong somehow, and Tillie looked Cadance in the eyes as she said, “Girl, I knew there was something different about you, and there was a reason you were beating around the bush. I figured you being European royalty or something.”
“Well, I am royalty,” Cadance admitted, “though I don’t care to dwell on it. And my name is as I told you earlier: it’s my real name.”
“Well, as I live and breathe,” the human woman said, going to lock the door to her room as she figured Cadance would appreciate the privacy, “I never figured to meet such a figure of beauty…with a broken heart that wounded all.”
“Wounded all?” Cadance said, her brow arching. In response, Tillie sat back down on the couch and patted it, bidding the alicorn to come. Cadance returned to her human form and sat down, still curious.
“Now tell me the truth, Cadance – and you don’t have to hide any of it.”
Cadance nodded. “I loved Shining Armor – that was his name – more than any mare could ever love a stallion,” she began, “and considering I’m the Avatar of Love, that’s saying a lot. But…I feel as though I betrayed him by spurning him in those last months when he needed me most. And I let him die when I could have saved him. And I don’t feel I can ever forgive myself for that.” She buried her face in her hands, letting the tears come.
But she hadn’t expected to be drawn into an embrace by the older woman. “You can let the tears come, young lady. It’s okay to cry.”
“Young,” Cadance laughed bitterly. “I might not look it, but I’m sixty-three.”
“And I’m a spry eighty-six years old, so you’re just a spring chicken with so much to live for,” Tillie said with a wink. “And I’ve seen a lot in my years, enough so that I can say that no matter how bad things get, there’s always a silver lining on the next cloud. How did your husband die – really die?”
“He was poisoned by Chrysalis, a demonic creature who tried to take my place and seduce him…she did, I think. But in the process, she poisoned him and it slowly and surely killed him.”
“Could you have done anything for it?”
Cadance shook her head. “Our finest doctors and mages tried, but to no avail. My aunts, Celestia and Luna – avatars more powerful than I and virtually goddesses – tried and failed.” The look on Cadance’s face was bleak as she said, “And in the end, all I could do was just let him die.”
The smile on Tillie’s face was beatific as she folded her hands, looked straight at Cadance and said, “Then you did the right thing.”
Twilight woke up on a couch in an unfamiliar place. She also found, to her surprise, that she was back in her normal unicorn form. As she sat up, a cup, held fast in soft light-blue magic, floated before her as a soft voice said, “Here. This should help.”
Twilight took the tea and drank. “Thanks, Trixie. Where are we?”
“My place,” Trixie replied, as she sat down on the other side of the couch. No longer using the amniomorphic, she was dressed in the same shirt and jeans as before, just magically retailored for her native form. “Nice little two-bedroom cottage in Henderson, didn’t cost me much,” the stage magician continued. “Former member of the Blue Man Group sold it to me when he decided to leave the group and move to New York. I fell in love with it and…there ya go.” Trixie felt something rub against her; she looked down and felt an orange and gray cat rubbing against her, purring contentedly. “Ah, there you are!” Reaching down, she picked her pet up. “And this is the lone thing I’m responsible for around here: my pet cat, Tabby Kadabra. He’s a sweet little fuzzball.”
“What are we doing here?”
“Well,” Trixie said softly, “I sent your brother out to get us some lunch, since I didn’t feel like cooking. It was a good enough excuse to get him away so you can tell me all about why you blame yourself for what’s happened.”
“Oh, that,” Twilight said. “Um…could you forget about that?”
The look on Trixie’s face was one of hurt. “Twilight, when I was at my worst…I lashed out at you, hated you and tried to run you out of the town you’d settled in. Granted, I don’t expect you’ll be booting me out of Vegas anytime soon, but…I want to help. Let me help you like you helped me so long ago.”
Twilight was silent for the longest time. “Have you ever felt that you’ve failed your family?” When she got a deadpan stare from the conflower-hued unicorn, she added, “Worse than normal? For years, I’ve tried to be the backbone of my family, both natural and extended. And yet one instance after another, it’s blown up in my face: DJ’s disappearance and her arrival here on human-Earth. Bloomie’s and Fluttershy’s still births. My parents’ deaths, and then my brother’s. Making Rarity lose DJ a second time. Watching Lyra and Bon-Bon fall apart. And I felt like at some point or another, I could have done something to stop that, to heal the wound and stem the tide.”
“I see. And when did you decide that you were responsible for everything on Earth?” When the look on Twilight’s face was one of utter bafflement, Trixie knew she’d hit her mark. “Twi, you might be the Element of Harmony and the most powerful unicorn on our world, but you are still just pony at the end of the day. You are her majesty’s protégé and a member of her family – but you’re not an alicorn, and unless somepony has some secret plan that I’m not aware of, you never will be.”
Trixie reached out and took her friend’s hoof in her own. “Don’t do this to yourself. I know what it’s like to walk down that dark path, to think that you have to bring everything to your halter and that the weight of the world and everypony on it sits on your withers. You’re meant to be the bright and shining hope for our world, not the mare cursed with a Phaethonean task.”
“Trixie…you don’t understand. I made a promise to Celestia that I would do my best to look out for our family. I cannot shirk that duty.”
“Twilight…you made a vow to your Princess that you would not. And you’ve kept that vow. But let your family look after you, as well.” The look of confusion went on the lavender unicorn’s face and Trixie met her friend’s gaze. “The truth is…this vacation wasn’t just for your sister-in-law, Twilight. The fact is that your sisters intentionally bowed out because they wanted you to have a vacation.” Trixie got up from the sofa, went over to the coffee table by the front door, then returned with a letter. “Here.”
Twilight took the letter in her telekinetic grasp. “It’s from Fluttershy.” Opening the letter, Twilight read, and the look on her face went from confused, to one of hurt. “Why didn’t…. Why didn’t she…why didn’t they...?”
“Because they love you, Twilight,” Trixie answered. “Because Fluttershy asked me to watch over you while Spike was supposed to watch Cadance. You can blame your brother for being lax in that – and I don’t think you should, for the record – but don’t blame your family for being worried about you. You have sisters that would do anything for you, Twilight, and this is what they did.”
Twilight read the letter from Fluttershy once more:
FROM THE DESK OF
DUCHESS ANDALUSIA
MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY SERVICES
KNIGHT ELEMENTAL, KINDNESSDear Trixie,
I know I am not as close to you as Rarity, Sweetie Belle or Apple Bloom, but it’s with my sisters in mind that I’m asking for your help. Twilight has been through a number of personal crises lately, and with the anniversary of Shining Armor’s death, I’m afraid both she and Cadance won’t take it that well. We have tried to do everything we can, but there’s a limit to what a pony can do and…well, even as the Element of Kindness, I can’t remove her pain.Spike knows that Twilight’s arranged to take Cadance on a vacation near where you live on Human-Earth. I don’t know if there’s any way you can help, but you are one of the closest ponies to her outside of our family, and maybe a friend can do what family cannot. Please do what you can.
If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.
Sincerely,
- Fluttershy
Twilight read the letter once more, then let it go as she looked at Trixie again, the look of confusion giving way to an expression of horrific sorrow and with that, Twilight finally broke down and cried. Within seconds, Trixie took her grieving friend in her arms, holding her tight and letting the unicorn release her pain.
Outside, a young man reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone and dialed a long-distance number. The moment the other side connected, he said, “She’s taking care of it.”
Thank our stars, a familiar voice said. “We were all worried, Spike. Are you sure there’s nothing we can do to help?”
“I don’t think so,” the dragon-in-human-form answered. “This is something that both Twilight and Cadance need to work out for themselves – separately. Trixie’s taking care of Twilight and that means that I still have to find Cadance and hope I can be of help. I mean, yeah, I’m not Twi, but I am still family.”
“I’m proud of you, Spike. You’re a stallion of your word.”
He laughed. “C’mon, Celestia. You’re going to make me blush – that doesn’t really look good on the human form, I’m told. Let the others know that as soon as everything’s okay, I’ll give another call. In the meanwhile, I’ve got other things to take care of.”
“I’ll leave it in your capable hooves, Spike. Bye.” As Celestia hung up, Spike put the phone back in his pocket and walked to the rental car. Best thing to do now was to go back to the hotel and wait for Cadance. She’d probably be back in due time and needed a shoulder to cry on. Best if it were someone who cared.
“I did the right thing?” Cadance asked the old woman. “How could you even suggest that?”
The smile never left Tillie’s face as she said, “You spared him from a world of pain, and that is one of the greatest duties a wife could ever have for her husband – or vice versa, if things had been different.”
“You don’t understand!” Cadance gasped. “I could have given him immortality! I wanted to spend forever with him, and I could have!” When the look in Tillie’s eyes made it clear she didn’t understand, the romance alicorn clarified: “There is a special spell that only alicorns can do and only once in their lives: if we find someone who is our heart’s desire, we can live with that soul forever. Our souls intertwine, and they receive our immortality just as we have it. They get no other powers and they don’t become alicorns, but….” Cadance blushed. “Well, that’s what Aunt Celestia says, and even she’s not sure of the spell herself. Apparently her mother knew for sure, but....” The alicorn shrugged.
“But you also said that the disease he was affected with you couldn’t find any way to stop.”
“That’s right, but I still fa—”
“What life is there living forever in pain? Even if he spent forever with you, what good would it have been to have him in eternal and everlasting agony?” Tillie asked. “I’m not going to get into religious beliefs or that he’ll always look down at you from Heaven or whatever it is your people believe, but you spared him a life of pain.”
The old woman patted Cadance on the cheek tenderly. “It’s always hard making the decision to let go. You want just one more moment with them, to relive the happiest moments and see their smile just once more. But if you keep them through the pain just for your own happiness…it’s not joy, it’s not bliss. It’s using the one you love the most just for your own selfish ends. But you didn’t do that. Of course, right now you don’t see it that way, and it’s sometimes hard to even admit it to yourself. But, in the end, I’m sure you would have rather let him pass on instead of living forever in the grip of torture. It’s what makes us stronger as true loves, because we have to endure that.”
Cadance sat there, quiet as a mouse, as if digesting the words. She then said the thing that was foremost on her mind. “You’re…taking all this rather easily, Tillie.”
The old woman nodded sagely. “I’m an old woman, Cadance, and when you get to be my age, the surprises and shocks just don’t rock you like they used to because there’s less and less to wonder and magic in life – if you’ll excuse the expression.” But the woman looked at the alicorn and added, “In any case, you’re bypassing my point, young lady.”
“No, I was getting to that,” Cadance answered. “But I still don’t understand why—”
“Because sometimes you have to let the past go and live in the present, Cadance. You are a woman – mare? – whose life has been on hold since your husband died, because you didn’t know how to let go. But those around you are still alive and still in need of you in their lives, I’m sure – especially since you’re a princess from another land. Me? Well, I’m just an old biddy who gives her grandnephews more grief than they probably deserve. But in the end, even I matter, and Emmett, bless his soul, wouldn’t want me to give up on them just because I miss him so. I suspect your gent wouldn’t want the same either.”
“I…see.”
“No, no you don’t, but you will,” Tillie assured her. “And the first step to that is making up with the family you have here – you did mention that you had your brother- and sister-in-law here, right?” When Cadance nodded yes, then Tillie said, “You have to make things…think…thi….” Without warning, Tillie’s eyes rolled into the back of her head and she hit the ground, shuddering.
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For the record, I hope Tille doesn't die and further compound Cadance's guilty conscience.
uh oh.
I hope Tillie gets to finish that sentence...
"conflower-hued unicorn"
That's not a cornflower! It's a fake!
She's taking a quick nap right? Right?
Stroke, most likely. I'm familiar with the word confusion that happens when one hits. Happened to me more than once.
I hope that the grandson was listening in. The alternative would be awkward.
HEART ATTACK! SOMEONE CALL THE EQUESTRIAN VERSION OF 911!
For some reason I can't help but think this song (the first part) would be an awesome background music for this chapter towards the end.
3322780
1. This happened in Vegas, so calling 911 in Equestria would be overkill.
2. Equestria is tied into the NANP, so the 911 number there? 911.
3. As Ed pointed out, it's a stroke, not a heart attack. Proper diagnosis counts.
3321555
Not really. Cadance probably took a big chance making her admission as is. The kid might not be the most reliable on keeping secrets.
3323589
... not when it's a joke...
I wasn't expecting anyone to take that seriously...
3323593
Your deadpan sarcasm detector's broken.
Mine was meant as a joke reply as well. 
3323599
img.buzznet.com/assets/imgx/1/1/2/8/8/9/4/1/orig-11288941.jpg
I'm sorry, I accidentally made your grandmother immortal.