> Affairs of State
>  by The6thMaster
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Help Wanted
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was a good thing that most aspects of everyday life for ponies could be handled largely on their own. Shining Armor wished that he could claim that the newest city, government and empire in Equestria was simply using a 'hoofs off' approach to stay out of the busy lives of their citizens. That would imply, though, that they could put their hooves in the business of others if they wanted. It also implied that they actually had a government.  At the moment the Crystal Empire had only two members; Shining Armor and Cadence.

Forming a new government after the rule of King Sombra wasn't easy. Shining Armor still wasn't sure what all the rooms in the massive capital buildings were even for. The former guard captain had spent his first free day in the palace wandering the expansive complex and had become hopelessly lost no less then three times. After two weeks he was confident that he'd nailed down where all of the important rooms and places were. 

The glamor of having an entire city practically worshiping you for saving them from an insane evil wizard had started to wear off after Cadence had nearly tripped over a pile of papers at their front door. She'd been so happy at what appeared to be an entire collection of 'thank you' notes and well wishing that they'd spent the afternoon looking through each and every one. One of the last papers wasn't a 'thank you' note at all though. Written neatly was an inquiry from a citizen who wanted to know how he was supposed to start a postal service up again.

Shining Armor could clearly remember the look of panic on his wife's face, matched by his own, as they hurriedly tried to make a list of all of the essential and non essential services that the Crystal Empire would need. It had turned out to be an almost staggering amount. They'd need sanitation workers, the aforementioned postal service, train conductors, and staff for the palace and countless others. Thus their new focus was to go about hiring all of the ponies they'd need. 

That was how Shining Armor found himself alone in a dining room with Cadence reviewing applications for employment from ponies over a thousand years behind the times. Not only were their ideas of resumes a little dated, but apparently Sombra did not think it necessary to keep or maintain records of his day to day functions as supreme pony overlord. He didn't have, or didn't record anyway, a list of who was working where for him. Shining Armor had a strange mental image of the evil unicorn poking his head out the window and demanding somepony make him a sandwich.

That was about the only slightly amusing thing about the situation. Shining Armor was starting to seriously dislike the evil bastard they'd sent packing not even a month ago. Princess Celestia had made this sound a lot more fun before they'd taken the train to the north. "Once you get the hang of administration you'll find it a very rewarding experience." She'd said. "Its akin to riding a bicycle. You never forget once you learn and its only through practice that you do."

Like learning to riding a bike. He thought, trying to decipher the flowery cursive hand writing of one application. Just like trying to learn to ride a bike while its on fire and about to plunge off a cliff...

Cadence had a letter in front of her as well, yawning before she spoke up.

“What do you think about a pony named Glimmer Dust? She'd like to be an assistant with the message service.”

Shining, gave his wife a deadpan look. “I think every crystal pony I’ve seen so far has a name like 'glimmer' or 'ruby' or-.”

“Or Shining?” Cadence added with a giggle.

“I've not seen any of those.” He admitted, putting down the paper he'd been looking at. “Cadence, if we don't actually interview these ponies we'll never know who might actually be capable of doing their jobs. For all we know Glimmer Dust might try and steal everything on her second day."

She nodded at that. “That makes sense, but what's the problem with that?" 

“Because I'm getting tired of taking cold showers and baths every morning. There’s nopony here who runs the hot water.” He groused, tapping the applications. “And I haven't even run across any applicants who want the maintenance mare job. Or janitors either.”

Cadence shrugged, still smiling and apparently not seeing the wider issue. “I suppose if we don't get any you could be the maintenance mare and janitor.”

Shining gave her a dirty look, narrowing his eyes and turning in his seat. “And why should I be the janitor?”

“Because I'm the Princess, honey, do you know how it would look if our loyal subjects saw me sweeping the floors?” She was messing with him. That much was obvious by the way she fluffed at her mane with a hoof in pantomime of 'high society ladies' who wouldn't be caught dead doing something so base as menial labor.

Shining Armor grumbled, turning back to the paperwork. “Nopony has any reason to become a janitor. They're so happy to be free from Sombra that they're still celebrating. Yesterday a baker offered me a pie he'd just made for free.”

Cadence raised her eyebrow at that. “You think its a problem that they're happy and being generous?”

He paused, trying to think of a better way to word his concern. “Well...no, just that it won't be long before somepony wants a chair or something and whoever makes chairs is going to want to get paid. Eventually its going to be the baker who's giving pies away for free. I have a feeling that the price of a pie would go up after that and I think it'd be best if we were ready with a staff and kingdom when everypony is done having a party.”

Sighing, Cadence leaned over and patted his hoof with hers. “We will be Shining. Its just going to take a little bit of work. Also, I've been just heating my baths when I need one with magic.”

He blinked, having not considered that. “Oh...you think I could join-.”

She'd already gone back to the applications. “Work first, dear.”

Shining Armor sighed, defeated, and returned back to reviewing for the ponies who had thought far ahead enough to at least ask for jobs.

________________________________________________________________________________________

“Cadence can you pass me the rag?” Shining asked, inspecting the dusty surface of a bookshelf which was devoid of literature. The pair were in a conference room not too far away from the front entrance of the palace. Like a number of rooms they'd come across this one had dust caked onto almost every surface. Cobwebs had been hung up in the corners of the room and mold was forming underneath the table and chairs.

A wet dirty washcloth wrapped in a aquamarine aura of magic floated in front of him. “I don't even understand how this room can be so dirty.” Cadence said, knelt down and dusting off  the underside of the table with her tail in the air.

“Well its been over a thousand years since anypony cleaned it.” He'd been looking at his wife for a long moment, then realized he'd been doing a bit more then just looking. While he felt he was certainly entitled to 'check her out on'  on occasion he went back to work quickly lest he get yelled at for not working. 

He'd jumped at the chance to dust, preferring it to cleaning a floor.

“Its been in stasis though.” Cadence insisted, her voice muffled from her position. "If it hadn't then all the books in the library would be dust. The buildings would be falling apart too, actually, without any pony to maintain them."

Shining Armor posted up on his hind legs to get at the top most shelves, happy that he had at least a little experience with meticulous cleaning while training in the guard. “Do you really think Sombra would need to use a conference room?” He asked, wishing he had a stool to stand up on.

“Maybe he had meetings with other bad guys?” was her reply, emerging from underneath the table and soaking her cleaning rag into a bucket of water. “Like a council of evil?” 

He laughed a little at that, finding the idea a little strange. It was moments like these where he really found he loved his wife quite dearly. They worked almost perfectly together, like a team, in and out of battles with strange monsters and villains that seemed to be constantly crossing their path. Shining Armor was hoping they'd get a reputation in the future so they could avoid altercations like the changeling invasion again. 

“I don't know if you noticed but Sombra didn't seem like the most eloquent speaker when we met him. If there were evil council meetings I bet he didn't get invited." Was Shining's speculation, finished with the bookcase enough to join her at the bucket and rinse their respective dust choked rags.

Cadence gave a hum of thought. “So maybe Sombra was just really shy and wanted friends? What a poor misunderstood pony.”

His response to that was to pick up some of the suds made by the cleaning agent they'd used in the bucket and dabbed it on her nose. “No, I think he was just a jerk.”

She went cross eyed trying to look at the bubbles before getting a mischievous look. Suddenly she was bringing up some of the water out of the bucket with magic and splashing Shining Armor on the chest with it.

“Hey!” He said, surprised before rising to the challenge and splashing her back.

Thus started a water fight. Cleaning was forgotten, the bucket very quickly exhausted of all its ammo. In a moment of ingenuity they used the water now puddling on the floor and continued to fling it at one another as best they could. They were eventually left utterly soaked, out of breath and giggling at the silliness of it all. 

“You have to go get us more water.” Cadence said.

Shining made a noise of protest. “You started it!”

“No, you did.”

“How do you figure I started?”

Cadence ambled forward and gave him a quick kiss and drew back. “Because you're really fun to mess with.”

“Yeah...well.” That was a pretty effective argument and he relented enough to agree that they should both go and get their own buckets.

_________________________________________________________________________________________


It had seemed like forever but actually they'd only taken about another week of cleaning and reviewing applications when they felt confident enough to conduct interviews. Shining Armor had wanted a divide and conquer approach, namely that he would set up their version of the royal guard and Cadence would hire the staff.

She'd vetoed the notion, accusing him of trying to take the 'cowards way out' and sticking to what he knew while she did the rest. 

“But Cadence how am I suppose to know what makes a good chef or not?” He asked, the two of them sitting down in the now very clean and nice smelling conference room. 

There were actually twelve conference rooms like this in the whole building but the two of them decided that this would be the one where they conducted all of their job interviews.

“I would just like for us to both know the staff. They're going to be like our family.” Cadence replied while sitting behind the resume of a pony named Chestnut who was scheduled to arrive shortly. 

Shining had delivered the message himself to the pony, which he thought sort of spoiled the point of an interview. He probably could have done it at the stallion's house but he cared more about his wife than for something as inconsequential as 'logic'.

“But what are we supposed to ask?”

“Well I guess we should ask if he can cook. That would probably be a good first step.”

“Do you really think a pony would apply to be a chef if they couldn't cook?” Shining asked, with a touch of incredulity. 

“Well unless we ask how do we know?” She countered, they'd been having discussions like this since they started dealing with the process of hiring.

They were saved from a repeat conversation by the door opening and a shiny crystal brown coated stallion with a chefs hat walking in. Evidently he was named after the color of his coat for his cutie mark was of a plate of food with a wineglass next to it.

Other than being particularly shiny and crystal-like, Shining Armor couldn't make out much of a difference between crystal and 'normal' ponies. Then again, he hadn't really asked so it was possible he was wrong. For all he knew they might have the ability to squirt acid out of their eyes and nopony had ever had the idea to ask them.

“Its nice to meet you, Mr. Chestnut.” Cadence said cheerfully, the crystal pony bowing low and then rising. He didn't look like he could shoot acid. Shining knew he was risking getting smacked if he tried to make that a part of the interview process.

“Its nice to meet both of you, your majesties, thank you again for saving us.” He said, the chef sounding very well educated at least.

“It wasn't a problem.” Shining assured the pony, waving him off with his hoof. They'd been also getting thanked continuously anytime they poked their heads out of the palace. “We were happy to help. Please sit down.”

After Chesnut did sit on the side opposite of them they got down to the interview. Things like what he'd done for a living before Sombra and what he hoped to accomplish in the future. All in all Shining Armor thought it had gone remarkably well; their first interview actually progressing and was hardly even being painful in the slightest.

“How would you rate your cooking ability?” He asked, taking down a few notes which were namely ideas he'd had for what they might get prepared for them. Neither Cadence or he knew the first thing about cooking beyond just 'heat thing up on stove, put in mouth' or variations of the same formula. They were getting a little better compared to the disasters of their first few nights in the palace but it was Shining's turn to cook this evening. If he was extraordinarily lucky perhaps Chestnut could start right away and make them something more decent to celebrate their first successful hire.

Chestnut smiled, giving a modest shrug. “I've been cooking almost all my life. I used to work for the royals who were in this palace before Sombra too. You won't have any problem with me making whatever you want. I could even move into my old quarters if they're still here.”

That sounded great, both he and Cadence were smiling now at what appeared to be a open and shut application. “That would be wonderful. How soon can you work?”

“Oh, I could start immediately.” He said, also looking rather pleased.

“That's excellent.” Shining Armor said, putting his hoof down onto the table. “You're hired.”

“I'm really glad to hear that Prince and Princess.” Chestnut said, rising up from the table. "Oh, how much are you going to pay me?”

Shining suddenly had a sinking feeling in his stomach as both he and his wife stared at the other pony who was staring at them back waiting for an answer. They'd evidently forgotten something, husband and wife trading nervous glances. “Well...” Shining began.

Later that evening they were both in the palace kitchen, Cadence sitting at a table while Shining tried to transform tomatoes into tomato soup. It was a lot harder then it sounded and Shining was pretty sure they were just going to be eating boiled up tomatoes instead of actual soup. “We're going to need money.” He began.

Cadence sighed, resting her head on the table. “How could we forget that we need to pay our staff? Weren’t you the one who said we needed to make the economy start up again?” 

“I forgot the pay part. I mean, its not like we don't work for free.” Shining admitted. “I don't think it would have mattered much if we thought about it though."

“You don't have any money?” Cadence said suddenly, raising her head up off of the table and giving him a curious look.

Shining was very intently trying to stir the mixture of tomato into soup until, on a whim, decided to throw in some carrots. Maybe they'd just have a general stew, not just tomato soup specifically. It couldn't hurt, could it? “I did, but I spent a lot of it on our wedding and honeymoon. I never made very much as a Captain. What about you?”  

“Just being a princess doesn't mean I'm fabulously wealthy.” Was her answer, looking a little depressed at the revelation that they were effectively bankrupt as a kingdom already.

“Well....Maybe Princess Celestia will lend us some?” Shining broached the subject with some hesitancy, deciding to change up the way he was stirring. He wondered if that had an impact on the taste at all.

Cadence winced at the idea, apparently not liking it all that well. “Won't she think we're irresponsible if we start asking for money right away?”

“She sort of just gave us this whole place to run, she has to know we'll need more help. The only other way would be to start taxing the crystal ponies and if you were concerned about them being happy before...I guarantee you that would stop in a hurry if we did.” Shining argued, bringing the spoon he'd been using up to punctuate his point.

“I know, I know. We'll probably have to do that eventually anyway. Money is complicated.” Cadence complained, still sitting while watching him attempt to prepare their meal.

Shining hummed slightly, deep in thought but mostly focused on the matter of the vegetable stew. It was bubbling but he couldn't be sure when it was technically suppose to be done. “You know, I bet Twilight would come up and help us if we asked. She's really good at organizing.”

Cadence gave him an unimpressed look. “You want to dump all of the work on your little sister?”

He shook his head quickly. “No, I was thinking that maybe we just make her the crystal princess. I bet she'd do a great job.”

It was fortunate that the soup he made was actually not half bad or he would have been in more trouble for that idea.
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Princess Celestia

We're very happy to be here in the Crystal Empire. It turns out we actually have a mail room and this is the only blank piece of paper we could find in the whole palace. Things are going well. We need money. As we begin normal day to day life in the Empire our attempts at hiring staff and create a functioning government have been met with financial limitation. Since we're both broke.... You once promised us that you would support our endeavors in any way that you could. Sending Twilight and the Elements of Harmony to stop King Sombra was very helpful but we feel it is best to have continued assistance.

Was there a reason both you and Princess Luna couldn't have came and helped with that? I went one on one with Sombra and only just barely lost. I bet all of us together could have blasted him into dust in five sec

While we wouldn't think to ask for continued donations our exploration of the palace revealed that King Sombra cleared out the majority of the royal treasury. It would be unfair to the crystal ponies to begin taxing them when they still possess very little. We also live up in the north pole, I'm not sure what you expect anypony to make besides ice sculptors. Any contribution that you can make in hard currency would likely go a long way towards allowing the Crystal Empire to return to complete normality within the end of the year.

Your faithful and good friends.
Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Captain of the Royal Guard (Ret.) Shining Armor

 PS: If you're not using Twily I think she'd make a great accountant and administrator. We were thinking of making her grand vizir and going off on a vacation.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

To my good friends Princess Cadence and Shining Armor.

You do not need to hesitate in asking for help from me. I have instructed that this letter is to be attached with five hundred thousand bits. This is not a loan, but a gift and I know you will use it well to manage the affairs of your citizens. I need not remind you the dangers of monetary inflation and suggest that you only gradually reintroduce currency into the local economy. Ponies are, as you've no doubt noticed by now, largely self sufficient and capable of managing their own affairs.

I also have every faith that the citizens of the Crystal Empire will become helpful and important members to the local Equestrian economy. Attached are maps of resources in the area that I recall from the time when the Empire was still around and I would remind you that ice sculptors are not an insignificant commodity. Many ponies have earned their cutie marks based on the art alone and they make excellent dinner center pieces.

Sincerely
Princess Celestia

PS: I have also had ten thousand sheets of blank paper sent with the money.


_________________________________________________________________________________________

"Ever since I was a little filly I've been interested in gardening. When I was nine I arranged a flower garden for my school and when I was eleven I-" A green crystal pony mare was speaking rather enthusiastically to the two royals managing the Crystal Empire.

That same enthusiasm was not matched on either Princess Cadence or Shining Armor's faces. They were on their five hundredth, sixty seventh interview after over a month. After checking the ancient laws of the Crystal Empire very carefully, on the advice of their second interview, (who'd been applying for position as the head lawyer of the Empire ironically enough) they found that they could legally not hire anypony during a 'hiring process' until after they'd interviewed everypony who applied regardless of the jobs being applied for.

This meant that even after the arrival of the money that they couldn't just give it out. If they tried they risked being accused of paying ponies under the table. Apparently the legal teams of the Crystal Empire were the first businesses to return to normal once the celebrations died down. Shining Armor had suggested that maybe King Sombra had the right idea of ruling as an absolute dictator this morning at breakfast and didn't even get a dirty look from Cadence for it which was a testament to their fatigue with the long process.

Emerald Twinkle, as the gardener pony they were interviewing was called, was actually only the second gardener they'd seen. Unfortunately the first had been interview one hundred and twenty eight and Shining Armor could barely remember the other ponies face. They'd started taking very careful notes of what they thought at the fiftieth interview. He was sure that they'd eventually break down and just hire both gardeners anyway.

The outside hedgerows and bushes were pretty expansive and was likely more than one tender could handle by their self. Helpful ponies had been tending the gardens for free to keep the weeds and overgrowth from looking to bad which raised the question of why they were even bothering to make it a job in the first place.

"And that's how I earned my cutiemark!" Emerald Twinkle said. Each and every applicant had told them the story of how they earned their cutiemark. At first it had been touching and endearing but now Shining felt like he was a hair trigger away from running out of the rooms screaming if he had to hear another one. 

Cadence recovered first, clearing her throat as she straightened up in her seat. "That was a wonderful story, Emerald. We'll pay you five bits an hour and send you a message when we're done with our interviews for when you can start your job."

"That might take awhile..." Shining murmured, finishing jotting down his notes for this interview.

Emerald smiled at first, but then seemed to remember something. "Oh, but don't you want to hear about my ideas for the fountain you have in the grounds out back?"

"Ah, I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to discuss that later." Shining covered for his wife, who had some difficulty saying no at completely reasonable sounding requests while speaking to a pony, even if she wanted to.

After rushing Emerald out of the door, Shining returned to his chair and sunk into the comfortable cushions. Cadence had her head back up against the back  of the seat with her eyes closed at the sheer tedium that these interviews had become.

"I have an idea..." Shining began, looking at his wife. 

"What's that?" She asked, not opening her eyes.

"Next time we should just hire a pony to do these interviews for us..." 

Cadence sighed and glanced at the clock. The next interview was coming up in five minutes. "Do you know there's a spell in the Canterlot library that lets you go back in time for short periods? We should use it and warn ourselves to do that first."

Shining had to admit that it sounded like a good idea but could see a flaw. "If we did, wouldn't we already have known it? I think we must have been stopped when we tried. Or caused a time paradox and ended the universe."

"It might still be worth the risk..." Cadence said, bringing out the next form and reading the name. "...Shining Light. Oh look, there is a crystal pony with the name Shining. How funny is that, Shining Armor?"

That was the point where Shining Armor decided to start banging his face on the table.
		


> Crystal Court
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So every week we trade off on personally meeting with ponies in the city." Shining Armor said, sitting up in their bed and scratching away at a note pad while Cadence did the same.

She nodded, moving the wine glass to her lips and sipping the ancient, perfectly preserved alcohol that had been spared the wrath of Sombra. On one of their explorations of the place they'd discovered an entire wine cellar and had put it to good use. "I'll do ribbon cutting ceremonies if you oversee sporting events."

"Deal." Shining nodded, evidently happy that they could agree on that.

The two were dividing up their mutual and separate duties. The fiasco of hiring was fading from her memory, the pair having navigated through it well enough to where they had a functioning palace staff. Only time would tell if those working were the best fit for their position. Cadence didn't have the heart to tell her husband that at a later date they'd have to go through the process again.

The Princess of the Crystal Empire just didn't feel comfortable with delegating the responsibility of who worked for her to another. Her new domain wasn't so vast and populated to justify that. "Oh. It looks like I'm to hold court every weekday for two hours in the afternoon and most of Saturday." She frowned in thought, wondering if that would have a serious impact on her day to day life.

Shining looked up for his notepad. "I can help you with that if you like. We could alternate the weekdays and swap on the Saturdays." He offered.

Normally she would be touched that her husband was still so quick to volunteer himself in helping her but this time she had a issue. "But you're conducting all of the guard's training a little after two on the weekday."

He looked nonplussed at that, apparently not seeing what she was getting at. "Yeah that's what would let me do it, you don't really know anything about the military anyway."

That had been the wrong thing to say, Cadence not liking the implication of that. "You don't know anything about running court either, I can run court just fine." Her slight buzz was getting in the way of her thinking or she wouldn't have become quite so passionate about it. Certainly Shining hadn't meant anything about her capabilities.

Shining scooted over in the bed to drape a hoof around her shoulder and nuzzle her ear affectionately. "Its not a problem if you want to handle court, Cadence, I was just asking if you thought you might need help. If you want to take part in training the guard that wouldn't be a problem with me." 

There was no way that she could stay mad at him, especially not with him tickling her like that. She squirmed as he nuzzled forward and kissed the side of her neck. "I know I kno- stop that." She swatted at him with a hoof and tried to wiggle out of his clutches. 

She actually didn't particularly want to have much to do with the guard. She could fight evil monsters and godlike enemies but that didn't mean she wasn't exceptionally girly. Cadence was a pink alicorn princess of love for a reason and it wasn't because she liked to run around and practice fighting in heavy armor.

"I think I'll be fine handling the court myself, you don't have to worry about me running the court-ah, Shining, careful. I'm going to spill my wine."

___________________________________________________________________________________________


Never make important decisions when you're tipsy and in bed. She reminded herself for the fourth time today. She honestly didn't know how Celestia or Luna managed it. Cadence was sitting high up on a dais overlooking the throne room where her courtiers and the court petitioners waited for their turn to address her. The grace period after King Sombra's defeat was over and now the every day business of settling disputes had become one of her jobs as ruler.

“Princess. I have here the purchases made by Princess Coda the third for all the ice she ever bought from us with the address of our snow farm put right at the bottom.” A surly looking crystal pony with a wide brimmed straw hat on insisted. 

He was standing right next to an equally disgruntled earth pony chewing on a pipe. “And I have a signed letter from Prince Even Measure thanking me for the purchase made from the snow on that same piece of land. We've been in business with the royal palace supplying ice-cream for generations.”

“Gentlecolts...please. Mister Snow Globe, Mister Freezer Burn. You're not going to get anywhere fighting like this.” She pleaded, getting the sense that neither feuding stallion were really listening to her. 

At dispute were two families of crystal ponies who lived just outside of the crystal city in the snowy tundra. They had the bad fortune of having their entire families inside of the city for, of all things, a frozen treat competition when King Sombra had struck. They had apparently been fierce rivals even back then and time had not healed old wounds. 

And now she was hearing an argument about who should rightfully own a track of seemingly completely barren nothingness flanked on all sides by more nothingness. Cadence could only reason that she was being set up by Shining Armor as a prank or was going slowly insane.

“Can you explain again why this particular stretch of snow is important?” She asked, unable to even truly understand what the point of this all was.

Snow Globe cut in front, screwing up his face into a very serious expression. “This area of snow tastes better than regular snow. Been tasting better my whole life, my pappy and his pappies life. We do good business and we wanna keep doing good business.”

“You don't know how to do business to save your hide. You want to turn all that snow into  gee-latt-es. Whatever that is. It ain't even got milk in it! Whose gonna wanna eat that?” Freezer Burn spoke up, nudging himself so that he was right up next to his rival.

Snow Globe glared, clearing the distance to directly face the other earth pony. “Shows what you know about business. A gee-latt-e is some new fangled invention of the future. Its water ice with custard on it.”

“Gentlecolts-” She tried to raise her voice, instead she was drowned out by the two.

“Nopony is gonna wanna have that. You'll be wastin the snow.” Freezer Burn insisted, poking a hoof out.

“Gentle-”

Snow Globe wasn't going to accept that, stamping his hoof and taking a menacing step forward. “Ponies are done tired of just ice cream. You got to be thinkin of how to expand the menu. Though I know theres no pont in spending my time telling you good sense. You ain't had good sense once."

“Please-.” 

“I'll show you the best sense you can get by hitten you upside the head with my hoof!” Both ponies looked ready to have a go at one another right there in front of the entire crowd of aghast onlookers.

“That is enough. Order in the Crystal Court!” The booming voice of Rock Steady, one of her new guards, filled the audience chamber and effectively quieted both of the unruly stallions who had flinched at being reminded just where they were. “Princess Cadence is holding court, not beholding a brawl. If you do not watch your mouths and manners I will throw you both out.”

Cadence smiled at the guard in thanks, the pegasus nodding back to her that the situation was back in order. She took a deep breath and spoke up. “You both have effective claims on this land, which I think is none at all. Sale orders and letters of congratulation on the quality of your...snow, does not give you any particular rights to it.” She rubbed at her temple, realizing she was still talking about a field of frozen powdery water.

“But...” They both started and were cut off by the glare of Rock Steady.

“I wasn't finished. I would be willing to allow you the chance to purchase deeds splitting the land...How much land are we even talking about.”

“Its about two hundred acres...” They admitted after a moment.

Cadence couldn't help but stare at the pair. Two hundred acres of snow, and it always was snowing outside the wards that kept the city rather temperate and warm, that was not a small amount. That they were even arguing over it rather then sharing the land must have been born out of stubborn competition or mutual dislike, likely both.

Another thought struck her. “You were in business over a thousand years ago. How do you know that the 'quality' of the snow hasn't changed since then?”

That caught both of the earth ponies off guard. They looked at one another and then back up to Cadence who was growing more and more disbelieving by the second at where her life had managed to end up. 'Well?”

“Er...well no Princess. We'd went out and had a argument about it before we ever got a chance to inspect.” Snow Globe admitted sheepishly, taking his straw hat off his head to rub at his thinning mane.

Silence fell over the court beyond a few nervous coughs. Cadence was now rubbing at her eyes at what felt like a headache coming on. “Amicus Brief” She said suddenly, her legal expert who was standing not too far off to her right. “How much exactly is the land outside the city going for per acre?”

The lawyer pony tilted her head for a moment and pondered the question. “I'm not a real estate expert but I believe it goes for about ten bits each.”

“Wonderful.” That sounded like it wasn't particularly expensive. “If you wish to purchase public land then you can do so at our...” She honestly couldn't quite remember the name of the new department and tried to recall.

“Office of Natural Resources. Map Maker is the pony in charge.” Amicus Brief whispered to her.

“Our Office of Natural Resources. If you would please speak to 'Map Maker' she'll be able to help you.” Cadence finished and then gave a stern look at both stallions. “If I hear that one of you tries to hog all of the land or keep it all for yourself I'll declare the whole area a national park and draft you as the park rangers. Understood?”

Both stallions, now appropriately terrified of the idea of giving trivia about snow for the rest of their lives, fled the court quickly and presumably to buy up the land they wanted. Cadence would usually feel bad about being 'mean' to other ponies but the two of them had managed to test her patience badly.

There was a short pause and the next pony in line walked up the length of the throne room. Suddenly there was a light groan that she could hear from the collection of ponies throughout the court. Confused, she looked around at what had caused it and managed to see the wince on both Amicus Brief and Rock Steady. 

“Princess.” That was Rock Steady. “You should just tell this pony right away that you're not interested in his...particular complaint. He made a habit of coming to the previous court and making the same petition over and over.” He advised.

Now she was even more confused, the unicorn stallion  now approaching looked resolute, ignoring the rest of the crystal ponies who were rolling their eyes at him. Cadence didn't think he looked particularly unreasonable and she was willing to give any pony a chance.

“Go ahead, what is your name and what is your petition to the court?” She asked.

“Thank you Princess.” The gray slate coated crystal pony dipped his head in a quick bow. “My name is Tape Measure and I come about a grave injustice that has been done to myself and many other ponies in your Crystal Empire!”

While Cadence's eyes widened she could see the entire court collectively sigh and slap their hooves to their faces. “Go on...Tape Measure, what is the problem?”

“Well, your majesty. As you know any significantly tall object casts a shadow at the light of the sun. And the tower of your palace is by far the highest structure in the entire city. Would you be surprised to know that your palace makes for an incredibly long shadow?”

She could feel a sort of dread forming already, despite having no idea where this pony was going with the matter. “I...suppose it would have too.”

“And would you be further surprised to know that, consequently, the ponies underneath the shadow are left in a period of darkness which deprives them of the light of the sun for longer then other citizens? Costing money from candles alone and inconveniencing them if they happen to be working?” He sounded almost triumphant at this point, despite the rest of the court still looking exasperated.

“Um...” Cadence was again left without words but this time out of being struck without knowing what to say.

“This of course isn't your fault, Princess, no. Nor is it the fault of those who built this beautiful towering structure that enhances our city. No, Princess Cadence, there is only one culprit!” Tape Measure had apparently been practicing this speech quite a bit, or judging by Rock Steady's comment, got to say it a lot.

“Culprit?” She couldn't think of much else but single word answers at this point.

“The Sun of course. For too long Princess Celestia has been having the sun directly arc across our city in such a way that my home, and the rest of the length of the shadow, are shrouded in darkness longer then the rest. I think you can see the solution.”

There were certainly a lot of things that Cadence could see as a solution. Such as having herself committed to a mental institution.

“I live next to him, Princess. He's literally the only pony who has ever complained about this.” Rock Steady commented quietly. “If he didn't make amazing cookies and host great parties I'd have moved years ago."

“I..what?...solution?” This wasn't reality, it simply couldn't be. Surely Celestia didn't have to deal with these sort of things on a daily basis.

“Yes, a solution! Princess Cadence. I offer for you several possible courses of action. First, as Princess Celestia's niece I am sure you have her ear. If you were to direct her attention to this issue I’m sure she'd be willing to change the course of the Sun to better accommodate our cities situation.”

If he didn't look so completely serious about it Cadence was sure she was being set up. She almost welcomed a bucket falling on her head at this point actually. Sadly, nothing so merciful as that came.

“If she is unwilling to compromise on the matter I can think of some more options at your disposal.”

Cadence had become morbidly curious, despite thinking she should have known better than to ask “Such as?”

“A full economic embargo is likely to make her see the light, forgive me for the pun. I don't think anything as serious as declaring war is likely to occur but to show commitment we should be resolute in saying that all options are on the table.”

“I'm...not having this conversation right now. This is a bad dream.” Cadence finally gave in, placing her hooves over her face and shaking her head. Then she relaxed, dropping her hooves and staring down at Tape Measure with just enough seriousness to not insult the poor, clearly insane, stallion.

“I apologize, Tape Measure. But I cannot agree with any of those courses of action. Might I suggest you move to a more agreeable neighborhood?” She offered.

Tape Measure frowned, not happy he was being turned down. “But Princess, my house isn't the one that can move. The sun does. Surely it shouldn't be that big of a deal...”

Cadence had never asked Princess Celestia if moving the Sun was difficult or not. She thought it would be, especially if it was to change its direction, but there really was no way of knowing unless she asked. No, no way would she buy into this sort of insanity and try and broach the subject with her.

“I'm sorry, I'm...considering an important trade negotiation with Princess Celestia and cannot entertain your request at this time. Certain sacrifices must be made in the interest of the Crystal Empire.” She couldn't even begin to believe what she was saying but she hoped desperately that it was something Tape Measure would accept.

Tape Measure gave her a long, searching look and then brightened into a smile. “Alright Princess, I understand. Just remember to raise the issue the next time you see an opportunity” he then bowed, rose up and then trotted away.

Cadence, and most of the court, watched him leave from view with a various mix of stares and disbelieving looks. Clearing his throat, the pony in charge of deciding the order of petitioners began his duty once again. The moment had passed and only one alicorn princess was still off base as to the way the day had been going.

She rose up out of her seat suddenly, the next group had already been coming up to address their concern. “I'm taking a break. I'll be back in five minutes.” Cadence announced, and walked off to find something to drink and a place she might be able to rant about completely insane ponies without being overheard.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Cadence ended up taking fifteen minutes before she'd calmed down. The din of the collective court speaking together quieted when she returned and sat in her throne. She took a deep, centering breath and then nodded for the next petitioner to step up.

The next petitioner was actually a pegasus mare with a young foal who appeared to be a bright orange pegasus colt at her side. Cadence began to regret having stormed out for a breather, she saw the hesitancy written on the faces the mare. "Don't worry. It's alright. What are your names?" She said gently.

The mare, who appeared to be about middle aged, bowed low and began to spoke in a voice that had a slight quaver in it. "Thank you, your majesty. My name is Shimmer and this is Sun Stone." She lifted a hoof and patted the bright orange pegasus colt affectionately on the head as she spoke.

Something was definitely not 'right' to Cadence. Shimmer appeared to be hesitating on speaking further and the crowd had started to take notice with curious expressions. Making a split decision the Princess decided to forgo protocol and quickly descended from the dais to stand in front of the small family.

"Is that better?" Cadence said, keeping her voice down. The little colt had bright yellow eyes, a mixture of childlike wonder at being so close to royalty with some amount of trepidation on his face. What she could see of it anyway, he ducked so that his face was pressed all but into Shimmer's side.

Shimmer nodded, a small frown on her face. "I don't mean to be such a bother Princess because you've done so much already but. I've been staying with a friend at their house for a little while and, well I was hoping that you could help us now that everything is back to normal. My husband was...a outspoken opponent of King Sombra before we were cursed and..."

Cadence had a suspicion how the story was about to go and tried to hold back from the raw emotion of sorrow already threatening to come forth at what was unlikely to have a happy ending. "Go on..." She heard herself encourage Shimmer to tell her what had happened.

"My husband and a number of other ponies attempted to stop King Sombra before he completely took over the empire. After...Sombra did take over he destroyed our home and commanded no pony to take us in. If Princess Celestia and Luna didn't seal him away I'm sure he would have done worse. But we have nothing anymore." Shimmer was downcast, as wilted and without happiness as any of the crystal ponies while they had been under the curse before.

She had to do something, anything, to help this family. "I understand. If you like I can let you stay within the palace in one of the guest rooms while I have one of my staff arrange to purchase you a new house. I know that it can never bring your husband back but he sounds like he was a very brave pony."

"He was a guard." Sun Stone said quietly, peeking his yellow eyes out from where they'd been mostly hidden. "When I grow up I'm going to be like him."

Cadence smiled at that, kneeling down to be at eye level with the young colt. "I'm sure you will make an excellent guard. I know that your father would already be very proud of you." Sun Stone only nodded, appearing to be trying to keep up a brave face.

"Thank you very much Princess. You don't know how much this means to me. I wasn't sure where we could go..." Shimmer looked on the verge of tears, but only out of relief this time.

Cadence gave a shake of her head, bringing her head back up to look at Shimmer. "Its not a problem. Its the least we can do for your loss." 

Court progressed quickly for Cadence after that, flying by as her thoughts returned again and again back on the broken family whose story had touched her so deeply. She knew there were more stories just like that littered all through the city. The tragedy that had befallen the crystal ponies was a wound that each pony appeared to deal with in different ways. She could see the ones who pretended it had never happened and the others still stricken with grief written clearly on their faces. 

At least she had done something to help one family. She hoped that someday she might be able to almost completely heal the damage that had been done. She supposed Princess Celestia had been very wise to send her, a Princess of Love, here to make her mark. When the time had passed to end for the day she adjourned the assembled ponies and welcomed them back at the start of the next week for the next open court.

__________________________________________________________________________________________


It was late in the evening, Cadence and Shining were both brushing their teeth next to one another and preparing for bed. The memory of Shimmer and her two children were still in her thoughts, unable to quite shake or forget them. Shining stopped scrubbing with the brush, leaned into the sink and spit. While rinsing the brush and the sink he gave her a curious look.

"How was court today?" He asked.

As she had quite a bit of toothpaste in her mouth, as well as the brush, she didn't have to answer right away. It was fortunate that she did as she could consider her words with a bit of care. After also spitting, rinsing and placing her toothbrush down Shining was looking at her fully now and waiting patiently. He wasn't quite as adept at picking up on emotions as she was but he could always tell when something was bothering her.

"It went...alright." She finally said. "Nothing I couldn't handle."

Shining nodded, moving over to give her a affectionate nuzzle at what she'd left unsaid. She appreciated that, depending somewhat on feeling of support and love given without even having to know what in particular was bothering her.

Still, there was a question she wanted to know. "Shining would you..."

She stopped herself from speaking more, deciding she didn't want the answer after all.

"Would I?"

"Never mind, I'm going to bed." She said, moving over to their grand, queen sized bed and laying down. She was joined fairly quickly by Shining and immediately moved over to hold onto him tightly with her hooves wrapped around his body.. 

He hadn't said a word after she told him 'never mind' and she could all but feel the concern emanating from him. Cadence both wanted to know and didn't want confirmed the fear that Shimmer's story had brought up in her. She knew Shining Armor well enough to expect that he would lay his life down for both her and the people of the Crystal Empire. If there were a threat he wouldn't hesitate to put himself in between it even if it was a hopeless battle. 

That was perhaps her greatest fear. They'd faced down dangerous enemies in the past and she could still vividly recall the fear clutching at her heart when Shining Armor had went out to find his sister and her friends. All the while she stayed with a building sense of fatigue at the battering magic's of the dark presence trying to force its way back into the city. he'd returned unharmed except for the shards of dark magic that had sealed his abilities. But how close had it been? Shining had never told her what had happened other then that Sombra was more powerful then he'd thought a unicorn could possibly be.

Holding onto him in their warm bed, she pressed her face into the soft fur of his chest and tried to will the worry away. They were safe here and worrying about what might happen in the future was never going to do anything productive. "I love you Shining." She said suddenly, still holding onto him.

He was stroking her mane softly with a hoof, replying automatically. "I love you too Cadence. We're safe here and everything is going to be alright." He assured her. 

While it didn't make her feel entirely better, her active imagination still trying to get the better of her, it was nice to hear him say both of those things. She took a deep breath, still resting right up against him and began to relax enough so that she could fall asleep.

	

> State Dinner
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Okay, do you think the pink gown will blend too much with my coat? It would go well with your guard uniform, which I'm going to send to the cleaners tomorrow morning so don't forget to remind me." Cadence, speaking quickly and in clearly of something of a rush, darted her head out of the closet to look his way. "Are you paying attention?"

Truthfully he wasn't. Shining was going over the guard rotation schedules; he made a note to have a talk with Gemstone about requesting leave at the end of the month. "Whats that?" He asked, finished what he'd been writing down and looked up at his unamused wife.

"Shining Armor, how can you not be taking this seriously? This is our first visit from a foreign country. It would be different if Princess Celestia or Luna were coming to see us but they're from another continent entirely!" She was walking towards him with a 'you're in trouble' face. "As it is we have less than a week to get everything ready. They're already on their way!"

They'd gotten a letter from Celestia that morning which informed them, rather cheerful in its tone, that the President of Prance was on his way towards Canterlot from the other side of the eastern ocean. Apparently it had slipped her mind until that moment that she'd suggested that he head north after his stop to meet her as a formal introduction. He could still remember the way she phrased it.  

To my dearest friends Shining Armor and Princess Cadence.

I am very pleased to know that you are both doing very well in managing the Crystal Empire. I had every confidence that you could handle the responsibility and you have not proven me wrong yet. You may be interested to know that President Briedle of the Republic of Prance will be stopping by in Canterlot for a conference concerning free trade. He is a very charming pony and has even brought his wife, Reneigh.  The return of the Crystal Empire is well known internationally and I may have mentioned that this could be an excellent opportunity for him to make his introductions to you.

He is very enthusiastic to meet you both and, though it is not traditional to be the one who asks, was curious if you would be interested in hosting a state dinner upon his arrival. I am sure he would understand if you were too busy to receive him though. As always Luna and myself are available to provide any assistance you may need if you feel that the work of running an empire is too much. 

With all of my love
Princess Celestia.


Shining Armor had his suspicions about just how and why Celestia had maneuvered them into this situation. He'd never known her to just do things unexpectedly unless it fulfilled some ambition on her part. Of course she wasn't above having a little fun at their expense as well. He also noted that subtle way she implied that they might be foalsat if they tried to turn down the dinner. All in all it was clear that they were being shoved into the wider world of politics whether they wanted to or not.  He vowed to get revenge on Celestia at a later date for her 'help'.

The first thing to deal with, however, was his frazzled wife and avoiding getting yelled at. He put the book down and gave her his full and undivided attention. "Cadence, I don't think this is as big a deal as you're making it out to be. I'm sure the first family of Prance will be very cool and we'll have a great time. Or it'll be really boring. Its just dinner."

Apparently his first tactic wasn't going to work because the look went from 'you're in trouble to' an outright glare. "It is not just dinner. This is our first introduction into...into diplomacy! What if we don't give a good impression to President Briedle and his wife? What would they say to other world leaders about us?"

Shining tilted his head a little, surprised to hear how stressed Cadence was feeling about this. She was usually a bit more laid back. "Aren't we world leaders too? Its not like we talk about Celestia or Luna behind their back, do you really think they're all sharing gossip about one another?"

With an exasperated sigh she stalked off back to the closet. But Shining was now concerned, whatever was bothering her was clearly deeper than just getting ready for a dinner.  With a quick glow of his horn the closet doors swung shut, cutting Cadence off before she buried her head. "Cadence...whats the matter?" He asked while getting off of the bed and walking over to her.

"Its just...its stupid.." She paused, looking away. Shining decided that he'd need to use the 'big guns' and so placed a hoof across her back for comfort.

"If it's bothering you it isn't stupid. What's the matter?"

Sighing, Cadence turned and looked to be on the verge of tears. "Sometimes I still think we're just playing pretend...I mean, I know I'm a Princess but, compared to Celestia or Luna?....I want to be taken seriously."

Oh, that was the problem. "You are being taken serious. I don't think the leader of Prance would come out all this way after visiting Canterlot to see us if he thought we were a joke." 

Cadence looked a little better at that and nuzzled up against him. "You're right but I just want it to go well."

"And I'm sure it will. If you'd like we can get Proper Etiquette to run us through all the courtesies ahead of time." 

Even as he suggested it he knew their Master of Ceremonies was already fretting over all of the preparations which needed to be done. The fussy stallion was probably becoming a terror within both the ballroom and receiving wing of the palace. He'd seen some of the request lists and was sure they were struggling to keep up with his demands which ranged from decorations to the meals and seating arrangements.

Cadence nodded and pulled back.  "I always like it when you wear your dress uniform you know. You always look so handsome in it." She commented, still looking at his chest.

"Yeah, I am pretty studly like that." He boasted, Shining would wear it more often for her if it wasn't such a pain to get on and tight around the collar.

She gave him a playful nudge of her hoof. "You're something alright. Help me pick out what I should wear."

Shining winced, knowing that since he was in 'reassuring' mode he couldn't very well plead that he'd rather just lay in bed and finish up his work. "I don't know anything about dresses. Maybe we could set a fashion trend by just going as ourselves...like we usually do."

A death glare from his wife cut him off from that train of argument, the closet opening wide and the many outfits to try on and inspect looming. Shining Armor resisted a sigh, knowing it was going to be a long night.




"When the dignitaries arrive it is important to remember that they are to greet you first. Then you return the bow and accept their gift. On receiving and thanking them for it you will also give them a gift, though it must be a far less significant one, so do not go handing off the key to the city." Perhaps remembering that he was speaking to his bosses he added "But it is your discretion as to what gift you'd like to give, your majesties " Proper Etiquette had brought a hoof up to twirl at his thin Dali mustache that pointed out and up on either side.

Both Cadence and Shining Armor had made their way the formal ballroom and had asked for quick lessons on protocol for the evening. What they'd gotten was an in depth immersion into the world of etiquette and a touch of international protocol. It actually reminded Shining of being back in school, his depth of experience at state dinners was providing security and making sure there weren't any threats to Celestia.

The crystal pony dominating the room appeared to be very high strung. He was a bright yellow stallion with a clear perfectionist streak judging by the way he darted among the working ponies and made small corrections here and there.  Not even the appearance of the royal family seemed to unnerve him once he was in his particular element. They'd asked him for some pointers and he'd taken to instructing them with as much bossiness as they'd seen him give the ponies decorating the room.

He was actually walking up and down in front of them, much like a drill instructor might, which Shining Armor couldn't help but find entertaining. Cadence raised a hoof after that latest tidbit of information. "Why are we giving them a bad gift?"

Proper Etiquette paused in his pacing and turned to look at her. "Why? It is a custom of sorts. They have come and see you, not the other way around. If you were to visit Prance I would suggest any number of meaningful gifts but in this case something 'lame' will suffice." That made absolutely no sense to Shining but he supposed Proper Etiquette was the expert here.

"Now then. The seating arrangement will be yourselves and the Prance First Family at the center of the dinner area parallel to the ballroom. After a meal it is customary to lead the dance so do not eat too much. The President and his wife will follow in the next dance and you will be free to continue or return to your seat once the rest of the assembly joins you."

They both nodded, Shining wishing he'd remembered to bring something to take notes on. Apparently protocol was a little more complicated then he'd guessed. You learned new things every day, he glanced over to Cadence and was happy to see she looked a great deal less anxious now that they had something to go by.

"Now it will be also your decision how much you wish to talk to the press but I suggest that you do not leave the guests from Prance with them too long or-."

"Reporters will be at the dinner?" Shining asked suddenly, giving Etiquette a quizzical look.

The other unicorn stallion nodded quickly. "Absolutely. There will be many that wish to take a picture of both you and the Prance couple, especially while you dance. It is outside of my capacity as a Master of Ceremony but there has been a great increase of interest and speculation about you, the royal family."

Well that won't give us any reason to be nervous at all now. He thought sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"We shouldn't leave the President alone with the reporters?" Cadence spoke up once more, looking confused at the notion.

There was a moment of hesitation from Proper Etiquette. "You keep asking me about things that I am not entirely suited to give advice upon your highness. But I know that reporters, not bound by anything approaching decency-" The pony gave a disdainful sniff. "Can sometimes ask questions for which a head of state might not be prepared for. Your presence can not only deter embarrassing questions but keep the line of inquiries along a productive path." 

Shining Armor was starting to regret suggesting that they come speak to this pony. At least then they wouldn't have a whole new reason to be worried. It looked like Cadence was matching his new concerns.

"So we should stay next to them all evening?" He asked, resigning himself to a nerve wracking night.

Thinking for a second, the fussy stallion wirled at his mustache before answering. "I do not think that will be completely necessary. In the past I believe press conferences were given with the hope that journalists would sate their need to write stories and take photographs and avoid seeking them out another way. A sort of quid pro quo if you will. 

Well that sounded promising. "How do we-" Cadence started to ask but was cut off by Proper Etiquette.

"Princess Cadence, I am a pony who specializes in matters of ceremony, dinners and other events, I am not a pony who knows much of anything about matters of communications, press or anything of the sort. If you have questions regarding how to conduct yourself during the dinner itself I would be happy to answer but I simply refuse to risk giving improper advice about that particular subject." He insisted, looking slightly exasperated at the pair.

"Oh, well. Alright then." Cadence answered with a blink. Shining couldn't quite remember the last time that a pony, at least one that worked for them, had outright told them no. 

"Now where was I?" The Master of Ceremonies thought for a second then jumped back to his task. "Ah yes, now you must remember not to mix your silverware. A misused salad fork is very noticeable when it is being used with the non-salad entree let alone the rest of the meal."

Shining Armor was only listening with half a ear. He was wracking his brain for whether or not they had any ponies actually working for them that were specifically hired to do what Proper Etiquette had described; public affairs, communications and handling 'messages'. Glancing over to Cadence he saw a similar look of distraction and realized, with growing dread, that they might very well not have hired any pony for such a job.

Now I know what we're going to do next... He thought, even as the lesson on proper topics of conversation during dinner were discussed in depth.





"Now you may all be wondering why we've assembled you here." Shining Armor said while facing the nearly filled conference room which was now had any pony that Cadence and he thought even slightly qualified to deal with press. 

Cadence was sitting in her own chair, watching him as much as the rest. Shining was pretty sure that either one of them would have been completely overwhelmed at this point if it had been just them alone. They'd grabbed their legal council, Amicus Brief, Post Haste the mailmare who admitted during her interview that she liked to write almost as much as she liked to deliver letters, Rock Steady who had recently been appointed head of security and a half dozen others. All together the room was almost completely filled and now even seemed a bit cramped.

After the gathered collection of ponies nodded at his question he continued, taking a deep breath. "It has come to our attention that we should be holding a press conference for the arriving Prance leaders. "Since we only have a day or two to learn how we hoped some of you could help. While it is not any of your direct jobs we would find it incredibly helpful if you had any suggestions for how to hold a press conference."

Rock Steady leaned forward in his chair, frowning. "Sir, for the last few weeks I've been removing 'journalists' from the premises of the palace. They've been trying to gain entrance presumably to take unflattering pictures or statements from both of you or the staff. Whenever we've seen them out of the palace they have been generally rude and uncooperative.  You want to give access to them now?"

Amicus Brief tapped her hoof on the table, looking at the head of security with a frown. "Perhaps they've become so rude because of how you treat them. I've fielded dozens of complaints from the press, they do have some rights to report on matters of concern."

"You think that gaining access to the royal bedroom to take pictures of one of the royal family while he showered is a 'matter of concern'?" Rock Steady shot back.

"No but we're not going to let tabloid journalists into the press conference. They mean respectable reporters. You shouldn't paint them all with the same brush stroke." Amicus argued.

Shining Armor blinked as he processed what Rock Steady had said before. "They were trying to take pictures of me doing what?-"

Cadence interrupted him. "There is no need to be hostile about this." Both Amicus and Rock Steady quieted immediately. "Both of you have legitimate concerns but Amicus Brief is right that we have to admit a few. Rock Steady, you have discretion to refuse entrance to any journalists who have misbehaved in the past. But please do not be too harsh, we would like at least a few reporters."

Rock Steady nodded, a smile now on his face. Shining Armor had a feeling that more then a few of the recently returned Crystal Empire press corp was going to regret giving the stallion a hard time. Not that he was feeling particularly charitable now that he knew that one of them had tried to snoop in on him showering.

"Amicus Brief, would you be willing to help coordinate the preparation of one of our meeting rooms to hold the conference in?" Cadence had continued, turning to look at the lawyer who nodded in agreement to the request.

"Perfect. Now the only question is how to get the information to the press. Does anypony know-."

Post Haste had perked up suddenly, raising her hoof and giving an excited. "oh, oh!" to be called upon. "My cousin is a reporter, News Worthy, I could ask him for all the addresses write the invitations and rules too." Apparently Post Haste was rather excited to help.

Having her question effectively and quickly answered Cadence blinked at the mailmare. "Well, alright. You can check with Captain Steady for who isn't going to be allowed in. If there are no other questions we can adjourn. If any of you who haven't spoken want to help those in charge feel free, I'd greatly appreciate it." She smiled at all the others, who smiled back at her. Many of those who had merely attended the meeting were actually from the palace's postal staff or the legal council office. It was likely they'd help their fellow coworkers in their respective department.

When the room had emptied itself so that only Shining and Cadence were left he relaxed, letting out a deep breath. "I'm hungry, want to get some lunch?" 

_________________________________________________________________________________________


"It looks like they'll be arriving by train." Cadence remarked, looking over a letter that had just been delivered to them.  They were seated in the residence wing of the palace which was, unlike the expansive and ornate dining hall being decorated, a great deal more small. Cadence had called it 'cozy' and he had to agree it was nice to speak and not hear the echo of his voice resounding off of the walls.

He swallowed the mouthful of lettuce and celery sandwich he'd been chewing. "Is that good or bad?"

"I don't think its either...It just means they won't be flying themselves up to the gate. I suppose it would be hard to accommodate the whole staff they're bringing on flying chariots."

"Or to make it across the ocean with them either." He commented, the sandwich now down on his plate and left alone. He knew enough about being polite not to eat during a conversation.

"Right. Now we have to decide whether to meet them at the station or have a receiving party walk them up to the palace." Cadence explained.

Shining Armor couldn't help but frown a little in thought. Not so much about the issue of how they were going to physically get the Prance delegation to them but that they were still talking about business. Life had managed to get very busy for them these days it seemed. Shining Armor didn't regret for a moment taking on this very important position but he certainly wasn't happy at the way it was interfering with his relationship his wife.


"We should probably let them come to us. Otherwise we might set some sort of precedent that we should meet every important pony that comes to visit. The next visit we might not be able to and then run the risk of insulting them." Was his advice, remembering dozens of seemingly nonsensical things that he had taken part in back in Canterlot with Princess Celestia, her explanation being that it had been done as a tradition and even she couldn't change what she'd set in the past.

Thinking about it for a second, Cadence nodded slowly. "Alright. That makes sense. I'll have a couple of our staff at the station to escort them to the palace."

Shining nodded back but had nothing more to say, curious if she had more concerns about minutia about the upcoming event he waited for her to speak further.	Instead, Cadence went back to eating and he followed suit. A comfortable silence followed, the married couple sharing the relaxing moment mid-day together.

"They're going to be making a play about us." Shining broke the silence after a few minutes, remembering something of interest he'd heard and wanted to share. 

"About us? What?"

He nodded, already grinning at what he'd heard. "Yeah, apparently the city has a famous playwright who wants to write all about our wedding and coming here to defeat Sombra and freeing them."

"Huh..." Cadence said, lowering her own sandwich to think. "Do you want to go?"

Shining nodded. "I think that would be pretty fun. Everypony is probably expecting us too anyway but I kind of want to see who they can get to play me."

"I wonder how they'll cover the parts that nopony was there for. Like when I was stuck down underneath Canterlot..." Cadence mused thoughtfully. "I haven't had anypony ask me what happened."

"Maybe they asked Twily."

"Maybe. Alright, whenever they're ready to premier we'll go."

Shining Armor was certainly glad to hear that. "Oh, and maybe we could go and visit a fancy restaurant."

About to take another bite, Cadence paused and looked a little surprised. "So like a date?" She actually giggled a little at the notion.

He laughed at that. "Well I don't think we really need to date anymore but a night out together would be nice. We've both been a little busy running things here and I'd love to spend a evening off with you, no work stuff."

"Actually that does sound really nice. I remember seeing a Cantalonia Restaurant that just opened." Cadence reached for her drink of water. "That's actually a really great idea Shining."

Shining grinned now, glad he'd thought of it. To him it just seemed like the upcoming dinner, as did everything else, was causing quite a bit of stress on both of them. They'd been essentially working full time and they hadn't had much time together to really relax outside of their mornings and nights. "Hopefully we can avoid the paparazzi."

"Oh I think they'll be fine." She said, suddenly looking rather amused. "You won't be in the shower then."

He gave his wife a look of mock annoyance. "Hey now, what if they took a picture like that and posted it all over the city."

Cadence put her hooves in the air, apparently intending to tease him mercilessly. "I'd think it was nothing I haven't seen before. Maybe they'd catch a good angle of you."

"Yeah but...think of all the little old ladies who'd be looking at my flank!" Even he hadn't exactly been thinking about that, nor was he particularly concerned. They were both smiling for that matter and Shining always enjoyed these little discussions about the weirdness that would surround itself with running the Crystal Empire.

"Then they'd be jealous. Because its a flank that belongs to me. They only get to look." She declared, nodding with a grin. 

Their wait staff had came in and taken away the plates to leave them to relax for a few minutes after lunch. They essentially decided their own schedules but both Cadence and Shining Armor weren't the types to just be lazy and sit around. They took the position of running the Crystal Empire very seriously, even if they weren't always serious themselves.

"Well." Shining said, standing up and stretching. "This is a flank that has to go have a talk with his guards."

Cadence quickly got up as well and walked over to him. He'd been about to say something extra when she kissed him. It wasn't a quick one, either, but a kiss filled with unconstrained affection that had caught him by surprise. She'd even tilted her head a bit, her eyes closed as he blinked in surprise before closing his eyes and tilting his head down to return it.

When they broke apart Shining had to admit that lunch had suddenly become a lot more pleasant.

"I'm very lucky to have you Shining Armor." Cadence said, her voice low and pressing her face next to his. "In a lot of ways. I don't know if I could handle all of this without you. I know I wouldn't be as happy as I am."

He was used to being rather madly in love with his wife but it was always nice to get that sort of confirmation that she shared every bit of his feelings. "I don't think it was luck, I feel like we were meant for each other." Shining said, giving her another kiss which she returned.

It wasn't the same as the romantic night out that he'd suggested but heading back to work after that little moment definitely picked his entire day up. He'd been so happy that he ended up granting Gemstone's leave after all. 

________________________________________________________________________________________

The night of the dinner had arrived and there was a palpable sense of excitement and nervousness in the air. Shining did his best not to tug at the neck of his uniform. He hadn't had to wear it since the day of his wedding and he distantly hoped that the extra tightness he noticed was because the cleaners had shrunk the wool on accident. He hadn't had a particularly good work out routine lately and he realized that he might be going a bit soft.

I'll have to make a habit out of getting up early and having a run with the rest of the guard. He mused, glancing over at Cadence who had ended up going with the high quality pink gown after all. He knew she wouldn't like getting woken up before the sun rose by him waking up to go exercise. She liked to cuddle, especially when they were suppose to be waking up, and he would miss those pleasant starts to the day.

"President Briedle and his delegation have arrived at the station" one of their staff whispered into Cadence's ear, Shining overhearing it.

Shining Armor had somewhat optimistically hoped that this would all blow over and the foreign delegation would skip the whole thing. Of course, that would have wasted all of the hard work that had went into the evening. He glanced around and tried not to blink at the occasional flash of the cameras emanating from the cordoned off reporters. Both he and Cadence were standing up at the top of a series of steps which was the end of the palace's main foyer.

The flags of Prance and the Crystal Empire were displayed prominently on both sides of the couple. There were flowery crystal decorations displayed all along the walls from the foyer where they were waiting to and well into the ballroom that they'd be sitting down for dinner. The lead up to the evening had been a quick walk through all of the events and Shining thought things had been very well setup.

The string quartet they'd invited to play were ready as was the dinner. Shining and Cadence were to greet the delegation and share a few words and questions with the press before heading to dinner. Shining could only hope that all of the carefully scripted and prepared for eventualities of the evening would go as plan with a minimum of hardship. He hoped that, just once, the maxim that 'No plan survives contact with the enemy' didn't hold true.

After a seemingly endless span of time the main doors opened and in walked a well dressed unicorn. In a curious accent he raised his voice, the flash of cameras now practically bathing him in a glow that apparently didn't bother him all that much. "Now presenting President Briedle and First Lady Reneigh of the Republic of Prance!"

The band that had been sitting still until that moment broke out in a rendition of their national anthem as both President Briedle and his wife walked into the foyer and up the steps to greet them. What first struck Shining about the two was how relatively normal, for ponies anyway, they looked. Briedle was a blue earth pony in a styled black suit coat. His brown mane and tail were well styled and bobbed as he walked, not hiding his cutie mark that consisted of a circle of yellow stars. 

His wife Reneigh was simply stunning. She was a slim light pink pegasus mare wearing a fairly simple green one piece dress the colour complementing her long, straight lilac mane. Without staring too close at the wife of a foreign head of state Shining could make out what appeared to be a camera on her flank. Based on how she walked Shining was certain she must have had experience as a model and had the looks to support such a profession.

Shining got to meet Reneigh first, while Cadence greeted the President. Shining and Reneigh shared a respectful bow and hoofshake while the action was mirrored by the other pair. "When they told me how handsome you were, Shining Armor, I didn't realize how much they understated it." Reneigh said with a clear Prance accent. 

"Or How beautiful you are, Princess Cadence." President Briedle spoke up, turning and giving a warm smile.

"Yes, you make a most attractive couple. I am afraid we will look much less so, no?" Reneigh laughed. "I was less lucky when I found my colt here." Briedle put a hoof to his chest and made a hurt sound.

Then they both laughed together, which Shining Armor and Cadence returned with a shaky confusion as to what to make of it. Shining looked at Cadence and she looked at him, trading a glance that essentially said 'what?'. Shining had expected a lot of things from the leader of Prance and his wife. Had actually been war gaming the various ways they might act but he hadn't anticipated...well this.

"We are very happy to have you here in the Crystal Empire." Cadence said, recovering first. 

"And we are very happy to be here, madame Cadence." Briedle said, turning and motioning behind him.

A aide quickly walked up with a ornate box which he quickly handed to the president who in turn presented it to the two of them. "A gift, for the new and happy couple of the Crystal Empire." On opening the lid both Shining Armor and Cadence gasped at what was inside. 

Laying atop a set of cushions was an ornate inlaid crystal pony statue. The detail was almost lifelike in quality with every attention paid to give the surface of the statue a perfectly smooth quality. Somehow the artist had managed to make the crystal the different appropriate colors, rather then a single solid one. Along its base was a inscription written in a language Shining couldn't make out. 

"It's beautiful." Cadence said, still looking at it.

Briedle smiled. "It is a gift from Princess Sapphire to Queen Charlemane well over a thousand and three hundred years ago. As soon as I had heard the circumstances of the Empire's return I had a great desire to return it...as a, how do you say? A full circle. For though you are both very young you are the inheritors of a great legacy. I am certain that Princess Celestia knew very well what she was doing when she entrusted you with such a responsibility."

Proper Etiquette hadn't been kidding when he said that the gift would be impressive. "I don't think the words 'Thank you' do enough to show how meaningful that is to us." Shining said, Cadence nodded while she took her eyes away from the sculpture. The moment passed as one of their staff quickly approached, gingerly took the statue and departed to put it somewhere safe.

President Briedle turned to look in the direction of the press and gave a wave and smile. "Ah, no matter where we go the press always follows it seems. Shall we go say hello?" he said with a smooth, charming ease which Shining found impressive in how natural it sounded.

If nothing else it appeared that the practice of electing ones leaders resulted in skilled politicians. Cadence and he had stumbled repeatedly on how they were suppose to get to the press without it seeming forced and the notion that their guests would take care of it hadn't occurred to them. On the four's approach to the rope line the constant flash of photographs was mixed in with shouted questions which tried to make themselves over top one another.

Again the President of Prance showed his experience by motioning them to quiet with a hoof, which they did. "Good evening to you all, members of the press. I trust you will not speak too quickly, my Equestrian is rusty somewhat. Yes, you have a question?" He motioned to a crystal pony reporter with a notepad in hoof.

"President Briedle, what did you think of the protesters outside of the palace?" The reporter asked, a microphone being thrust out to take the quote.

Shining Armor was pretty sure his heart stopped. "Protesters?" He asked, preventing Briedle from speaking. "What protesters?"

Cadence looked worried too, and the eyes of the press swung onto him. "Yes, there are over two dozen ponies holding signs and picketing outside. They were here before and after the president arrived."

He could tell his mouth was hanging open now, horrified at the notion that a group of ponies were working to insult the head of state and his delegation before they had even stepped foot into the palace. This could be a disaster, a diplomatic blunder that would follow them for the rest of their rule...

The earth pony president actually chuckled. "Ah, a curious and heartwarming show of support for the Princess Celestia. Such a thing occurs on each of my visits and has for my predecessors. Since the days of our revolution those of Equestria fear such a cause will travel across the sea and befell your far more benevolent Princess. I did not see any crystal ponies and imagine that these protesters were the same which I saw when I arrived in New Yoke." 

The reporter, and many others, were writing furiously to take down the statement. "So you don't plan on starting a revolution in Equestria or the Crystal Empire?" She asked as a follow up.

"We did not have it on our itinerary, no." Reneigh spoke up with a chuckle which the reporters returned. Briedle shared the laugh and continued speaking. "If we poor ponies of Prance had been as lucky as Equestria to have the rule of Princess Celestia I do not imagine we would have thrown off the chains of oppression. Prance has always been long friends with Equestria, a relationship I hope is shared with the Crystal Empire."

Cadence apparently took that as a cue to speak and nodded. "Yes, we were very grateful to host both President Briedle and his wife for this dinner."

Another reporter suddenly spoke up, apparently waiting for the chance to ask his question in the brief pause. "Princess Cadence, there are sources inside the palace which suggested that you were largely unprepared for this event. Did it come as a surprise and has it impacted the running of the Crystal Empire at all?"

That was...a fairly difficult question. Cadence took a few seconds to think before shaking her head. "Of course not, we were happy to prepare for the dinner and event. Things have been fine here also. I'm not sure who told you that we were unprepared. You only have to look around to see how 'unprepared' we are." She smiled sweetly, though Shining was versed enough in her expressions to guess that she wasn't happy at the insinuation that they weren't entirely capable of their job.

"Though I have only been here for not too long." Briedle spoke up, taking the spotlight off Cadence for which Shining was fairly grateful. "I see only the signs of a well run city. The trains run on time, the streets are clean and a wonderful press is here to say hello. What more could a pony ask for?" That got another round of chuckles from the press.

As there was a sudden rush of questions said at the same time Shining Armor thought it was a good opportunity to excuse themselves. He was still just a little annoyed at the comparatively rude question towards Cadence to not give the press many more opportunities to have a repeat performance. "I think that's been enough questions. Would you like to have a tour of the palace before dinner, President Briedle?"

He nodded at Shining, smiling as the press tried to get in more questions. "A tour would be most excellent. I have heard much of this buildings natural beauty. I have already seen it has not been exaggerated." The four pulled themselves away from the press and advanced further into the royal palace.

Cadence let out a sigh of relief once they were out of sight from reporters. Shining completely shared that sentiment, one big hurdle had been cleared. Comparatively dinner seemed relatively easy now. The two sets of couples were walking through the expansive hallways of the palace, though saying nothing. Both sets of leaders also had their collection of aides and staff who kept themselves at a respectful distance.

Both Briedle and his wife were glancing around, giving faintly interested glances at various pieces of architecture and displayed art. "You have a wonderful home." Reneigh said, walking next to her husband. "So very grand. Our own palace is nice but I can't help but feel a touch of jealousy at such a place as this."

"You're very generous." Cadence said, sounding almost automatic in her reply. They paused, standing next to a painting of one of the previous leaders of the Crystal Empire. "I hope we don't seem a little..."

"Scared stiff? It is okay." Briedle laughed. "I know, how do you say...On the job training, when I see it. I was not simply covering for you at the press line, for I meant what I said. You both will make fine statesmares if you continue this way."

Shining Armor was starting to think he rather liked this pony, his assurances that they were doing a fine job were certainly helpful for his confidence. Cadence had expressed a similar sentiment before and would probably be very grateful as well. They were interrupted from speaking further by Proper Etiquette, dressed in a fancy outfit of his own, stepping forward.

"Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, President Briedle and lady Reneigh. Dinner is prepared and the guests await your entrance." He bowed low and departed towards the ballroom after being dismissed.

Reneigh smiled, nodding her head and motioning with a wing towards where Proper Ettiquette had departed. "That is our cue, I never like to keep a room full of ponies waiting for long. Too long and they might throw food at us for keeping them waiting."

That seemed like a good sense to Shining, the four walked able to quickly arrive at the doors leading into the ballroom which were shut until they were ready to make their entrance. The guards stationed were almost like statues, Shining had been very clear that discipline of the highest order was expected. It would be a few moments before Proper Etiquette could announce them as the room had to be quieted and those wanting to take pictures when they entered needed to make sure they were prepared.

"You look very familiar to me, Misses Reneigh." Cadence commented, looking towards the first lady of Prance.

She smiled, giving a easy wave of her hoof. "Simply Reneigh is fine. As to your question, I would hope so! Before I married my lovely husband here I was a model."

"Oh..." Cadence replied, blinking a little. 

Quite a few questions sprouted in his mind about how they might have gotten together. Now that he looked more closely he had to admit that Reneigh did look quite a bit younger than Briedel. His suspicions had been confirmed about what she had done before presumably getting married. It wasn't for him to speculate on of course and the questions went out of his mind as soon as the door swung open.

Shining Armor only half listened to Proper Etiquette introduce them as he walked into the packed ballroom. The sounds of hooves stamping onto the floor filled the room while Shining Armor recognized dozens of faces that had become very familiar with him since he'd helped take over control of the Crystal Empire. Important business ponies and recently appointed government officials lined the many tables around the center one that they'd be seated at for the evening.

Cadence moved away from the table, as had been planned, and moved over to a podium that faced towards the assembled guests and dignitaries. They'd both stayed up late the previous night finishing up on these brief remarks; almost as much as they had on the toast that he would give midway through the dinner. The next time, Shining swore to himself, they'd handle a formal occasion like this without any trouble. He just hoped that that time would come far, far later.

"I'm very glad to see so many wonderful ponies here tonight." Cadence began, the room now respectfully quiet. "I am also glad that we have had the opportunity to meet President Briedle and his wife as well. This is our very first dinner hosting a foreign leader and I can only hope that every visit can be as enjoyable and friendly as this one has been so far. Though Prance is very far from the Crystal Empire it is nice to know that friends can be found anywhere and that distance is not an obstacle." She finished, smiling to the crowd who gave a polite applause when she stepped away from the podium to return to the table.

Thus the dinner official began, waiters standing by wheeled out cart after cart of gourmet food from the Crystal Empire. What they'd be eating had been a interesting discussion in itself, the lids being pulled away to reveal the iceberg lettuce salad mixed with tomatoes and bits of cucumber. The main dish would follow after the first appetizers naturally. Ultimately it had been Chestnut, their head chef, who had decided on an Eggplant Parmesan. On tasting a sample Shining had agreed it would do well for all concerned. They hadn't wanted to feature a selection of dishes of Prance, reasoning that their guests would probably prefer something they didn't eat all the time.

"What a lovely introduction." Reneigh said when Cadence returned to the table. Briedle nodded in agreement as the food was set in front of them. The President chuckled as he appeared to inspect the crystal plates, wine glasses and cutlery, holding them up next to the candles that flickered on the table. They were high quality and sparkled when held up to the light and for a terrible moment Shining thought they might be chipped or even dirty to prompt Briedle looking at them so closely.

Apparently the president caught Shining's look and, turning to look at him answering the unspoken question Shining was hoping he didn't have to ask. "I see that the moniker of Crystal Empire is not undeserved. A great many things here are indeed made out crystals, the ponies even! It almost feels as if I am in a storybook of sorts." Shining let out the breath he'd been holding; there was nothing wrong, they were just curious about the city which was almost lost out of time.

A waiter arrived with a bottle of wine, pouring it for all of them. Cadence took up the glass and raised it in an unspoken toast which the the three of them returned. Shining had become rather familiar with the selection from the wine cellar, both of them had, though neither of them had much interest in the sub culture of wine tasting. Apparently Briedle however was an expert for his eyebrows jumped in surprise and obviously was impressed.. 

"This is an excellent Pinot noir." He remarked, taking another sip and clearly savoring it. "I have heard a winery expert say that it can make love hot and the soul wax poetic."

Reneigh nodded, also holding the glass a little longer than was usual. "A most romantic selection. Was this on purpose? It is said you are the Princess of love, madame Cadence."

Cadence flushed at that, and looked at Shining for support. He could only shrug, not being much of an authority on wines either. All he'd known was that the particular flavor of wine in front of them was something of a favorite for both of them. "Uh, no. I mean, I am the Princess of love but I didn't know that was what the wine was famous for."

"That is quite alright." Reneigh answered with a grin at the stumbled upon reply.

Shining Armor was quick to dig into the salad to avoid having to add anything. It was silly but he felt a little embarrassed to have been caught essentially unaware about the wine. They'd overlooked that the wine might be a matter of conversation and that important ponies from Prance might also know more then a little about the subject. Both Briedle and Reneigh were giving each other amused looks, presumably entertained at the reaction they'd gotten.

They ate in silence, the din of conversation washed itself over the ballroom from the rest of the assembled guests. Violins from a string quartet provided a light background noise that weaved itself through the air. Shining couldn't begin to guess at what sort of small talk might be best to make with their guests though. What did leaders of countries talk about?

Apparently Reneigh had an idea. "Ah, speaking of love. I am most curious. Not too long ago Princess Celestia visited after our wedding to make some well wishes. For such an attractive mare she is most...stilted in some capacities." She leaned forward, lowering her voice. "We kept her waiting, for a number of minutes, for a most personal type of exchange if you catch my meaning. I was curious if you had had similar experiences, running a nation can make times for privacy rare."

Shining certainly did catch her meaning. He was proud of himself for not letting his mouth fall open in shock at the extremely personal question and anecdote. "Well actually..." He began speaking before Cadence suddenly kicked him under the table. She was beat red, even with the pink hue of her fur. "Ahem, no. I don't believe we've ever had those...experiences." was her answer.

"Reneigh, you are embarrassing our hosts." Briedle chided his wife gently but did not look at all upset. 

The former model turned first lady affected to look innocent. "Ah, my apologies. I have heard that there is much hope and speculation as to a potential future new royal to your new family. My Brie and I had been discussing as much for ourselves, though there is doubtless to be more attention paid to yours. An unfortunate reality of the allure and celebrity afforded to nobility I'm afraid."

Now Shining Armor knew his mouth was left hanging. Both he and his wife were rather openly staring at Reneigh and President Briedle looked like he was about to start laughing out loud. Shining glanced over to his wife, finding her just as mortified, perhaps even more so, as he was. What could they possibly say by way of reply to all of that?

He was saved to his great relief, by Rock Steady coming up next to him. "Sir, there's a small situation developing that we'd like to inform you about." The guard nodded to the others, unaware of the trail of conversation. Shining did not hesitate to jump up and essentially flee thanks to the excuse. There was a moment of guilt at abandoning Cadence to the two guests but he dismissed it. She was on her own.

The next room over was empty save for Rock Steady and he. Shining took a deep breath to relax as his head of security turned. "There's been a break out of a fire in the city, sir." He said simply.

Well things had just gotten a little complicated. "Is it serious?" 

Rock Steady shook his head quickly. "No sir, otherwise we would have alerted you sooner. I was simply bringing it to your attention. The fire department has been mobilized and is containing the blaze now."

"This doesn't have anything to do with the protesters does it? I would hate to have a riot." Though maybe a riot would at least give him something to do. If the President of Prance and his wife kept asking embarrassing questions like they'd been fielding.

Again Rock Steady shook his head. "I don't think so. The protesters were very polite and just waving signs. The fire is many blocks away to the north from here. We don't believe anypony was hurt either."

"Well thank you for telling me. If there's any more updates don't hesitate to get me." Shining insisted, hoping he didn't sound desperate. Rock Steady saluted, which he returned, and then left him to go back into the ballroom. It wouldn't do to dawdle and he'd been in worse situations. Though at least it was straight forward when you were facing down enormously powerful monsters. Walking back in he couldn't help but notice a few eyes going his way for leaving, likely wondering what could have drawn him away and if it concerned them.

Speculation about what had taken him away from the dinner was likely to run rampant but he hadn't been stopped. Returning to the table he couldn't help but notice that Cadence was missing. Both Briedle and Reneigh had finished their meal and had been chatting between one another.

"Your wife was called away as well to attend to a call from Princess Celestia" President Briedle supplied helpfully.

Reneigh nodded in agreement. "Is it always so busy here?"

Shining rubbed at the back of his head. "No, not usually. It wasn't anything serious for me. I'm not sure what Princess Celestia would want."

"I hope we have not given the wrong impression about ourselves." Briedle changed the subject. "There is a time for business and a time for fun. To be always serious about things is a quick way to become, how you say, burned out. Other dinners and functions might have politics and intrigue but we only wished to say hello and warm wishes."

"Well thank you. It can be a bit difficult to run everything." Shining admitted.

He had an opportunity to eat quickly, the time for the toast coming up with Cadence nowhere in sight. It wasn't like he couldn't give it without her, other then some ponies likely to notice her absence. Clearing his throat he lifted his refilled glass into the air with a bit of magic.

The ball room was quickly hushed into silence. The words he'd went over many times were easy to recall. "As my wife said earlier, distance has no impact upon the bonds that we form with those closest to us. President Briedle and his lovely wife have been ideal visitors and already we have been greatly happy to have them with us. I can safely say that we look forward to a long and friendly relationship with the Republic of Prance in general and President Briedle in particular." He tipped his glass even higher. "To Prance and President Briedle."

The assembly answered with "To the President and Prance" and then had a drink.

Briedle smiled and stood himself. As they could hardly have planned it out with him it came as something of a surprise to Shining when he raised his own glass. "I would also like to present my own toast. To both Shining Armor and his lovely wife Princess Cadence I give warm welcome into the community of nations. You crystal ponies truly are blessed to have hard working ponies, your Princess even now attending to matters of state. Such diligence is commendable and a good indication that the future of your great nation will be bright indeed. To the Princess and her husband!" He said, offering the toast which the assembly echoed as "To the Princess!.

It was certainly a warm way to largely end the meal portion of the dinner. Sitting back down it was about five minutes following the toast that Cadence returned. Next to him she glanced around and leaned in against him to whisper. "Did you do the toast?" 

He nodded. "What did Princess Celestia want?"

"I'll tell you in a second. We should start the dance." She said, standing up and motioning for him to follow.

It was, of course, not entirely necessary to dance at the dinner itself. It wasn't always entirely clear when the dinner was over however and the start of dancing seemed to be about as good as anything else to mark it. All eyes were on them as Shining and Cadence made their way into the open ballroom. He didn't have much use for dancing himself but was decent enough at it not to step any any hooves.

They swayed together, dancing slowly. "So?" He couldn't help but ask out of curiosity. "What did she want?"

Cadence gave a little sigh. "She wanted to know how the dinner was going. Then she started to tell me about past times she had hosted dinner for foreign head of states with all of the things we should probably avoid doing. It wasn't like I could hang up on her and she was pretending to not know I was a little busy." She slightly puffed her cheeks out, making a clearly disgruntled face at having her aunt 'mess' with her like that.

"This is all her fault." Shining agreed. "When do we start planning revenge?"

"After our guests leave, Shining." She said, patting him on the shoulder.

It wasn't very long before they were joined by Briedle and his wife, who danced together at a respectful distance. With the evening essentially concluded as far as official events a number of couples made their way to dance as well while the greater portion remained seated and continued talking. All in all, outside of a few unexpected events, Shining thought things had gone very well.

They excused themselves after about twenty minutes of dancing to seat themselves at the table. Their guests joined them shortly thereafter and they chatted altogether until the room was mostly empty. Shining checked a clock and realized it was a little after one in the morning.

Evidently reading his mind Briedle stood up from the table. "The train back to manehattan is leaving rather early I recall. I think we shall depart to bed and see you in the morning for breakfast." Reneigh stood as well and they departed from the two.

Neither of them were interested in staying much longer after and quickly made the way back to the residence,  collapsing together on their bed, exhausted. They hadn't even made it all the way up to the head of their bed with all of its pillows either. 

"Oh." Shining said suddenly as he recalled something from earlier, not lifting his head from on the mattress. "The city caught on fire."

"What?" Cadence said with a start, more awake and staring at him now. "When?"

"Before, when Rock Steady called me out. There was a fire. It must not have been that bad because he didn't have any updates."

He heard her give a little annoyed huff and, with a sudden rush of magic, was hit on the head with a pillow Cadence had launched. "Don't scare me like that, I'm too tired."

"Sorry." Now armed with a pillow he shuffled to put it underneath his head and was completely content with it.

He couldn't tell but he was pretty sure Cadence rolled her eyes at him before moving up to lay properly on the bed. "We just have to see them off tomorrow after breakfast and then I want to take a day to relax." She said, yawning.

Shining gave in crawled up to join her. "That sounds good to me."

Cadence shifted a little, drawing the covers over both of them. "Mhmm." She gave a non-answer, nuzzling deeper into the pillows.

"So...Pinot Noir huh?" He remarked, a smile turning into a sleepy chuckle as he recalled that particular conversation.

Another thrown pillow landing on his face effectively quieted him and they went to sleep soon after that.

______________________________________________________________________________________


"President Briedle it is my great honor to present you with a token of thanks on the part of the Crystal Empire." Cadence was speaking while they stood on the train station which had ferried him and his delegation here and would send them off towards the coast.

He smiled, the flash of photography marking the occasion with the many journalists who'd woken up early in the morning to come see the foreign leader depart. Even they looked a bit fatigued, most of them having been at the dinner and had barely badgered them with any questions when they had arrived here.

"You have been wonderful hosts." Reneigh said, smiling brightly. With the formal occasion over none of them had worn anything, excepting Cadence and her ever present tiara and jewelry. 

Shining floated the gift to them and hoped desperately that the information Proper Etiquette had provided about giving a comparatively lame gift was true. "I present to you a...block of cheese from one of our local stores and a toy model of the Crystal Palace...."

Both Briedle and his wife stared at the gifts, which had been placed in a gift bag and then burst out laughing. "I think this beats the copy of popular songs from Prance that Princess Celestia gave us on our last visit.." Briedle remarked while covering his mouth to muffle some of her laughter.

"Or the model of the solar system we gave on hers." Reneigh said, wiping at his eyes. "It is nice to know that we have new entrants to that silly little tradition." 

"We had a little bit of help learning about it." Shining couldn't help but adding, relieved that they'd guessed right.

The pair traded embraces and hoof shakes between each other and then they boarded the train. Shining and Cadence waved them off and then excused themselves to their residence with a overwhelming sense of relief. 

They had a nice living room which they rarely had the opportunity to enjoy. It had the usual furniture of couches, bookshelves, coffee tables and various high quality decorations which marked any of the rooms in the palace. Shining hadn't actually taken much time to look at any of it but he supposed he'd notice if it was absent.

Shining Armor had laid down on the couch outstretched, eyes closed. He could hear Cadence relax gently into a chair. "Well, we're out of the clear."

"I think we can handle a little bit of business from here but I don't want to do too much." She agreed, he heard the twinkling sound of magic and the light crumple of paper. He distantly remembered he'd seen a newspaper laying on their coffee table but hadn't paid it any mind. If Cadence wanted to read the news to relax that was fine with him. He was already anticipating taking a nap.

He turned a little, eyes still closed and could feel the stress leaving his body. "You think maybe they'll deliver food up to us?"

Cadence didn't reply and he cracked open an eye to look at his wife. She was staring, wide eyed, at the newspaper. "Cadence?" He asked, worried and sitting up off the couch.

When she still didn't answer he moved over to look at what had caught her attention. Very quickly he saw exactly what had her attention.


Princess Celestia calls diplomatic summit!


Princess Celestia has issued a call to all world leaders to meet in Manehattan for a diplomatic summit over the summer. The Princess has admitted to being inspired by the recent visit of the president of Prance and claims that she hopes to start a diplomatic initiative for dialogue on a personal level with all world leaders. "It is my hope that all leaders who are concerned with the continuation of peace and the free flow of information and trade will join with me in Manehattan this summer. I personally know that, having been recently initiated into international diplomacy to great success, my niece and nephew Princess Cadence and Shining Armor of the Crystal Empire will be helpful in spearheading this effort." Princess Celestia was quoted as saying.

It was silent for a long time. If he'd been a little less fatigued after all of the trouble they'd went to in preparing for the dinner he'd have been more panic'd. They hadn't left the Crystal Empire since they'd arrived here. In order to travel outside of the borders to represent their country (for there was no way they could refuse an open invitation like, Celestia had effectively forced them with what she'd said to the paper) they would need to make arrangements for others to manage the empire in their stead. There was also the issue of studying foreign policy, laws and matters of trade. Shining Armor wasn't even sure they had a foreign policy beyond just a general idea of peace and cooperation.

All in all it promised to be a great deal more stressful. Perhaps even worse then something as seemingly benign as preparing for dinner and hosting a foreign head of state. But that all seemed rather distant. Shining Armor had something else on his mind.

"So..." He said with a great deal of calmness in his voice. "Revenge?"

Calmly folding the paper Cadence nodded. "Revenge sounds good." They had a whole evening with which they could lay the groundwork for some sort of revenge on Princess Celestia. Perhaps unbeknownst to her she had awakened a sleeping giant and filled it with a terrible resolve to prank.



	
	

	
> Business as usual
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Cadence woke up slowly. The blankets wrapped around her had created a toasty warm layer of air which made the proposition of rising out of bed particularly undesirable. She knew without opening an eye that she'd beat the alarm clock by about five minutes. Cadence knew this because she almost always woke up five minutes before the alarm clock. She'd made it a ritual before every day started to include about five peaceful minutes of languid nothingness. It made her far less grouchy at the prospect of a long day of managing the Crystal Empire.

As seconds of half sleep ticked away the five minutes appeared to be going perfectly. The fluffy satin pillows underneath her head felt perfectly formed, as did the mattress she was laying on. Shining preferred very firm mattresses while Cadence tended towards the ability to all but sink into them. They'd compromised by transfiguring, with magic, each side of the bed to the tolerance they preferred.

Just thinking about Shining Armor was enough to bring a smile to her face. Cadence groped around for her husband who should have been sleeping right next to her. While she wasn't thinking altogether clearly she was sure they were long overdue for some toasty warm cuddling.

Instead her hoof hit mattress and groaned softly in response. "Shining, why aren't you in bed?" she asked the empty air of their room.

Her drowsiness had betrayed her or she would already have known that she was by herself. It'd been like this in the morning for a few weeks. Shining Armor had taken to extensive morning work outs, often with his nearly ready guard, to get into the sort of peak physical condition he'd been in before coming all the way north to rule with her. He'd even asked if she wanted to wake up and go running, or whatever it was he did at completely unreasonable hours, with him. Naturally she refused, much preferring her beauty rest.

Now her morning was only almost perfect, having been denied her chance at snuggling up to her very special somepony. Then the alarm clock went off and she quickly revised her morning from 'almost perfect' to 'why do I exist?' and got out of bed with a grumble. If anyone besides her husband saw her now they would probably think she was about the furthest thing from a pretty pink pony princess imaginable. Shining's opinion didn't count, either, he tended to be a little biased.

Cadence was not much of a morning pony, her multicolored mane of yellow, purple and pink was hanging over her face in disheveled strands and could use a thorough brushing. She was fairly certain she had morning breath as well, not to mention bags under her eyes. All of this she could and would take care of in time but first she walked into the bathroom, shut the door, and slid into the shower. All without saying or even thinking much of anything but about the next task in front of her.

Princess and incredibly important pony that she was, Cadence knew better than to try and use magic while groggy. A string of early accidents in her life, while becoming familiar with magic, had educated her on the finer points of not transforming household appliances into animals.  Fumbling with the knob of the shower she was rewarded with a rush of incredibly cold water. In her groggy state she had missed the hot water and instead  opted for a less than pleasant wake-up.

She gave a very undignified shriek and, having nowhere to really go, pressed herself up against the nearest side of the shower. Cadence hurriedly swatted at the water temperature to make it something a little warmer and prayed it would quickly change. Thankfully the piping and hot water system in her palace was up to the task and the ice-cold shower became a far more soothing spray of warmth just at the moment that Cadence was going to blast it into fine dust.

Prying herself off of the side of the shower walls Cadence stumbled and pressed her forehead up against the front wall, allowing her horn to prop itself and her head up as the hot water returned her state of mood to a more wholesome and gentler level. With her eyes closed she bid her shampoo and scrubbing brush into the air and liberally doused herself in suds to complete the showering part of her morning ritual. It didn't help lull her back into that pleasant state of sleepiness though, the cold water had seen fit to force her mind to be completely alert and wakeful.

There came a sudden knock at the door to the bathroom. "Princess? Are you alright? I heard you yell..." 

That sounded like Amicus Brief, who Cadence had decided made an excellent personal aide in addition to providing legal council. Now though she only wished death to the legal expert for making her have to think about more than crawling back into bed. It appeared she'd have to start her morning early and it was mostly her own own fault. "I'm fine. Just uh, cold water" Cadence raised her voice and tried not to wince at how lame that sounded even to her. 

There was a pause, likely Amicus wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Well its good nothing is wrong..." there was a noise, over the sound of the shower, of shuffling papers. "Princess, after breakfast you have an all morning meeting with the Cabinet of Ministers. The topic set by the Prime Minister is budget appropriations."

Cadence groaned softly to herself, her hoof running shampoo through her mane while she thought. Her whole morning promised to be particularly unpleasant now.  Very important, but still annoying. "I remember" she said, wondering if she could create some sort of copy of herself to sit through the meetings in her place. "I'll be down in a few minutes."

"Yes your highness." Amicus Brief agreed, sounding impossibly cheery for so early in the day and probably bowed even to the closed door.

With the upcoming cabinet meeting on her mind Cadence couldn't even try and enjoy the hot shower. Wrapped up in towels she advanced over to where the large mirrors and sinks were and went to work drying off her mane. There were other things she needed to do quickly and each task she dawdled on meant less time for the others. If she was fast enough she might even get to relax for a few minutes.

She had to cheat a bit with magic to dry her hair in a hurry, which ended up leaving her hair in tangles. Amidst the annoying pain that tugging with a comb brought she was reminded of the members of her staff who had offered to do some of this grooming for her. Princess she might have been Cadence did not feel that much more important than anyone else and had resisted the offer. She usually enjoyed having time to herself but that was only when she wasn't sure she was running behind.

But by the time she was done and heading to breakfast she was indeed running late.  Cadence hurried out, still a little damp, to the personal dining room and sat down in front of food that had started to go a little cold. She liked oatmeal with just a little cinnamon along with toast and orange juice but certainly not when the oatmeal had cooled down and was soggy. She was an adult though and it would be unfair to the cooks to ask for it to be reheated when she was the one who was late. Not to mention she'd waste more time doing so. She'd just have to make do with what she had.

Taking spoonfuls of cold oatmeal the Princess busied herself looking over the collection of letters that had been set next to the plates and glass. Amicus Brief did that as a way of sneaking in 'unimportant' aspects of business or just personal matters and never included anything particularly challenging. There was also a newspaper underneath the letters which Cadence might get to if she had enough time.

The first letter she levitated up was from Twilight. That at least was something to smile at and she eagerly opened it up to read what her sister-in-law had sent.

 To The best foalsitter in the history of Equestria

Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake clap your hooves and do a little shake!

I hope that running the Crystal Empire hasn't been too much trouble. How are both you and Shining Armor doing? I'm very sorry I haven't been able to send very many letters up lately. I've had difficulty properly fitting in personal letter writing with the rest of my research into the magic of friendship. It seems like every moment I get for peace and quiet gets interrupted by a tornado of Pinkie Pies or old enemies seeking revenge on me and my friends. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, because I know how important all of that is, but I wouldn't want you to think I had forgotten.

Besides the occasional disaster or craziness I've been really enjoying my time in Ponyville. I use to think I was kind of an outsider, just on a research project for Princess Celestia, but now I think I really belong here. Just the other day the mayor wanted to know if I'd be organizing for Winter Wrap Up again this year and of course I said yes. You'd really like it here and I think we'd all love it if you came to visit. I even found some books on statecraft as well as some on organizational leadership and psychology which I think you might find very useful. I've read them all and I would love to know if your own experiences matched what was in the text.

I also wasn't quite sure I understood your last letter when you asked me what kind of tea and cakes Princess Celestia particularly liked. I think she likes Earl Grey and chocolate the most. Do you have some sort of special type of those in the Crystal Empire? I bet she'd find that a great surprise if you were planning on sending her some! Also I did ask the local zebra I mentioned, Zecora, about potions that might make a ponies coat grow out to be really fluffy. I've included recipe lists but I wasn't sure what that had to do with anything. Could fluffy crystal ponies even be a thing?

Anyway, I hope you're having a great time and I look forward to coming to see you soon if you can't make it down into Ponyville before then. Spike says hello...and so does Pinkie Pie (How did she even break into my library at this time of night and know I was writing you a letter?) Tell Shining Armor that mom and dad and I all send our love.

Love
Twilight Sparkle
PS: Remember to tell Shining Armor that he should write back to me more!


Cadence was in a much better mood by the time that she was done reading the letter. Sure, it had taken up most of the time she'd set aside for breakfast but she thought it worthwhile anyway. Hearing from Twilight always managed to cheer her up regardless of the circumstance. Cadence was even happier as she produced the other sheet of paper with ingredients listing out a potion on it. Hopefully Princess Celestia didn't notice an additional ingredient to her future gift.

"Princess Cadence?" Amicus Brief had entered into the room while she was still reading and now made her presence known. "The cabinet is ready for you to begin the meeting."

Breakfast and personal moment finished, Cadence rose up and strode towards where the meeting would be taking place. She yawned on reflex as if her body was already prepared for the onslaught that was about to befall her. She was about to have a small laugh at that before she wagged a proverbial hoof at herself. The meetings weren't really that bad, just not what she might have envisioned if one were to have asked her a year ago what she might be doing as Princess of a whole country.

When she trotted into the large meeting room she was greeted by a chorus of 'Good morning your majesty.' by a large collection of ponies. Seated along the rectangular table were various heads of the cabinet. The curious thing about each  of the six cabinet heads was that Cadence had not directly chosen them for their positions. Unlike in Equestria, where Celestia (and now Luna) managed to make absolute rule include a capital 'A' in it, the Crystal Empire had some minor inclusion of self representation for government.

As Cadence understood it the governing style worked like this. During the reign of a fairly incompetent leader the many duties of the ruler were divided up into several sub departments; education, business, transportation, justice, natural resources and magical affairs. Because they were apparently somewhat lazy the ruler also asked the ponies of the city who they might want to run these departments. Deciding who would run what and from what part of the city had caused quite a bit of confusion but the citizens seemed to like the idea so much that the next ruler could not do away with the practice outright and instead only modified the rules.

Instead they had amended it into the current system that it now resembled. The city was separated into six regions which would each vote to elect a pony for the cabinet. They weren't elected specifically for any one job, that was for the ruler of the Crystal Empire to pick them for, but Cadence couldn't nullify an election unless she wanted to throw all six out. Certain districts tended towards certain positions, such as the district where the university was tended to vie for the education spot as well as magical affairs. 

Furthermore Cadence was expected to pick, from among the six, a 'Prime' Minister who would put forth the general business of each meeting and help establish policy recommendations to her. The insanity came in that Cadence technically didn't have to listen to any of what they said. She was the final say and law maker but was essentially forced to have the elected ponies administer these very important departments for her.

The system was acceptable enough, Twilight's letter talking about statecraft sprung to mind for why it was still in place.  The work truly more than any one pony could manage by themselves, despite the generally self-sufficient nature of ponies and the cabinet lessened the burden through delegation of authority. The six were all quite a bit older and more experienced than her and she'd found it more than a little intimidating to try and sound like she knew what she was talking about when there was a disagreement.

It was all a great balancing act and, while she was technically absolute ruler, Cadence was always mindful of her being there to help ponies not so that they could serve her. The threat of becoming like Sombra, who was actually a previous Prime Minister and head of the Department of Magical Affairs before his seizure of power, was always at the back of her mind when she had to caution herself from making sweeping decisions.

"Good morning mares and gentlecolts" she began, taking her seat which the rest followed suit with. "Acumen, you may begin" Cadence nodded towards the Prime Minister and head of the Department of Business. 

The stallion, who had a pile of glittering coins as a cutiemark returned the nod and shuffled the paperwork he'd had in front of him. "Thank you your highness. The budgetary recommendation from the cabinet is almost ready to go. We're working out the agreements and the increase in allotments will likely come out to about fifteen percent from what the current budget is."

Cadence frowned at the figure, already having anticipated something like that. "Fifteen percent as an increase? The treasury isn't unlimited, you know that Acumen."

The stallion looked a little annoyed at being chided like that. "I'm aware, Princess, but many of the requests are from the Transportation Department and I think there is some merit to having them."

Taking his cue, it even looked a little rehearsed, Horsepower spoke up. "You have to understand, Princess, that the transportation system we had for incoming ponies is several hundred years out of date. Equestria is far, far more developed with many more ponies. Already our railroad is struggling to accommodate the sort of in and out flow of passengers. Not to mention the sort of physical goods we need to manage the cities needs. Food, raw resources which we can't find anywhere else, If we have more money I can start construction on another line and more infrastructure to support all of that."

That all sounded very persuasive and Cadence could see the logic in it. It was admirable that all of these ponies wanted to do more, to help more, but in the end it would take money. She paused to look over the sheets which held the pertinent details about the budget and state of affairs for the Crystal Empire. When she asked him, Shining Armor would suggest a push for some sort of personal tax on the citizens, that they would accept it for the sake of more services, but Cadence was very hesitant. They came out to almost even with duties collected on the incoming and outgoing traffic. There was even a small sales tax on transactions which all helped pay for the salaries of the palace and government staff. 

But Sombra had imposed a virtual one hundred percent tax on all things, being something of an evil overlord, and had radically altered much of the day to day running of the Crystal Empire in his limited time before being defeated and banished. Again and again all of the problems coming up in running the empire appeared to spring up from him, like a shadow from the past that refused to go away, she'd reversed the taxes immediately on taking charge. But, in her haste, they now had almost no taxes or sources of income. They'd been running a minor deficit for awhile now and the bits that Celestia had generously provided were almost depleted.

"There is another option, your highness." Acumen spoke up from the silence that had descended from her internal dialogue.

Cadence looked up and prepared herself, she knew exactly what he was going to say and would have to once again refuse.

Before he spoke, the business pony, Acumen was very wealthy outside of his position on the cabinet, took a drink of water. "With your permission I would be happy to, with some of my fellow associates open up a bank."

"No, Acumen, we've been over this..." she tried to cut him off, knowing she sounded weary before he even began.

"Princess, we would be happy to provide a loan to the government for the transportation department as well as any other pony who might-."

"Acumen, you are welcome to give money to any pony that you want, along with the government. But the law still says that usury is illegal. Providing loans, with any interest, has not been allowed in Equestria for a very, very long time and for a good reason."

Apparently Acumen was committed to arguing the point. "Princess, we are not in Equestria. You are free to set the law as you wish. All of the scholarly and theoretical economic effort about the topic suggests that allowing us to open up banks would catapult us into rapid economic growth. Businesses would be able to open with loans. Without interest there is little incentive for anypony to give them-"

"If a pony doesn't wish to be generous that is their right. But money is a very dangerous thing in the hooves of any pony. While it is not wrong to be wealthy you and your business associates, Acumen, are in a much more advantageous position when giving out loans than the ponies that take them. I do not like the idea of codifying any sort of law that would make the repayment of loans enforceable. Nor do I want to see illegal enforcement of loan repayment should I not include them. Economic growth, even enormous growth, is not worth the breakdown of the peaceful society we ponies love.

There was a clear tightening of Acumen's jaw as he was clearly not enjoying being told this plan wasn't an option. "Princess, the Crystal Empire could become enormously wealthy if we were to embrace the use of loans and banking...All of the business world of Equestria would flock here. We're running a trade deficit paying for all of the basic essentials, if it wasn't for the demand of finished crafts by various artisans it would be even worse."

"Once we get more established and the farmers are able to begin planting on the outlaying areas of the dome we will see an improvement on that." Cadence countered, taking a sip of her own water. "While we are on very good terms with Equestria at the moment Princess Celestia would not be happy with us trying to become a capital of banking on the continent. There could be tariffs or whatever else she might think up such as decrees forbidding business with us outright. We'd become enemies in short order, even if she is my Aunt..."

"Princess, then the other option for making up the difference is to tax the citizens of the Crystal Empire. Without a bank we certainly can't operate at a deficit forever. If we run out of money we won't be able to pay anypony for anything, not for wages and not for services." 

Apparently Acumen enjoyed, at some level, reminding her that the prohibitions regarding loans and interest reduced her options.Cadence couldn't help but be put in a worse mood because of it. There really didn't seem to be a great deal else to do.

Looking up the Princess surveyed the assembly of Ponies, both elected ministers and staff, and saw nothing in the way of support or alternatives forthcoming. Quiet hung after she hadn't made an immediate reply, eyes on her. Suddenly the weight of running a Empire seemed very heavy on her shoulders. It had seemed like such an easy task at the start, even back when they were hiring Ponies or answering silly problems.

She needed to give an answer, though, and sighed before nodding to herself. "Very well. We'll have to raise and begin certain taxes at the beginning of the next quarter. I would like to see a range of options from your department, Acumen, not just one package. No surpluses, either, I only want options that work within our means."

Apparently that didn't make Acumen very happy either, for he frowned and spoke up. "Princess, I understand the sentiment but there are likely to be some economic shocks as a result of raising taxes...our return on raised taxes is going to be hard to measure. We might want to raise taxes even higher, just enough, to account for the downturn in business. Otherwise we'll just have to raise taxes again when-"

"I don't want to hear that." She cut him off. 

"But Princess." Now Acumen looked on the verge of raising his voice. The rest of the group looked uneasy as well at the continued argument and mounting tension.

Cadence pressed on anyway, feeling like shouting herself. "I don't want to presume anything. I don't want to burden the Crystal Empire with unnecessary taxes, either. Make sure they're fair and reasonable or we'll be doing this again and no taxes will get raised. I want this to be done right."

Acumen quirked an eyebrow at that and gave a none to friendly smile. "Am I to take it that you won't be having a hoof in working on the budget or how we will go about raising taxes?" He seemed to remember his position and then added in a afterthought of respect. "Your majesty." 

"I believe that matters of budget and accounting would be your department, Prime Minister." She answered, looking around the room with what she hoped appeared to be determination. "The others will advise you, I will give the final approval and make any changes I deem after reviewing what you've proposed."

Tightening his jaw, Acumen also glanced around the room and then finally relented with a nod. "As you command, Princess."

She let out a little internal sigh of relief at dodging a proverbial bullet. Engaging in long budget negotiations were not something she felt prepared to do with any meaningful contribution. Cadence wasn't stupid by any stretch of the imagination but the whole conversation she'd just had was stepping into a very complex world that made her feel more than a little uncomfortable to speak with any authority on. Ever since the matter concerning budget had reared its ugly head she'd tried to take time out of her schedule to read up on it.

Despite her fancy words and arguments Cadence had quite literally run out of things she knew to say and would have had to repeat herself if it had gone on much further.  She couldn't help but feel that ponies like Acumen were just a little smarter than her, and certainly more well read. Not for the first time Cadence wished she had the gift for administrative genius that ponies like Celestia or Twilight seemed to have in superabundance. 

But she did have more than enough common sense to help guide her, and Shining Armor to encourage her as well. Obviously taxing her citizens was going to end up taking money out of their pockets. Ever since she'd been a little filly Cadence had loved to spread love, in a deep internal way she thought of love as something to be freely given and shared. The purest sort of generosity possible and so, being faced with taking something, anything, from ponies was painful to her. Even if the taxes would go to important services and help others it seemed wrong.  She certainly didn't like that it would come down to arguing about the fine details, the percentages and math.

But it seemed that was what fate, or at least Princess Celestia, had in store for her here. "I'd like to see the proposals some time next month at the appropriate meeting. What is the next order of business?" She asked.

Map Maker, the soft spoken head of the Department of Natural Resources raised a timid hoof. "Your majesty. I wanted to...request some minor funding for a survey near the White Hills."

Cadence winced a little at the poor timing. After they had just got done talking about the necessity to avoid superfluous spending. Rather than shut Map Maker down though she gave a small nod. "Go on, what did you have in mind?"

"W-well." She seemed surprised to get a response at all that wasn't a negative one. "I've been looking at a lot of old maps." There were a few snickers at that, looking at old maps was something of Map Makers special talent. Cadence cut them off with a glare.

"And what did you find?" Cadence prompted again gently.

Map Maker swallowed and then unfurled a yellowed scroll of parchment. "The White Hills caught my attention because, well, they're not too far from where we..I sold some land to those two colts who wanted snow for their frozen treat businesses"

Cadence could hardly forget that but suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at that particular altercation that seemed like a distant memory now.

"Anyway. I thought I'd seen them before. I'd been looking at other maps that marked where Shetland ponies had gone before on expeditions. They'd been in the White Hills a lot but never seemed to have found anything to make them settle down permanently."

"The Shetland clan?" Acumen spoke up, giving Map Maker a look of confusion. "You think we should go looking in places that ponies, who had an affinity for mining, couldn't find anything of note?"

Cadence wanted to tell Acumen he was wrong, if for no other reason than because it was going to end up hurting Map Maker's feelings and that she was personally annoyed with him at the moment. But he did have a point.

Map Maker was ready to answer. "The maps of where the Shetland clan had been were very old. This was before we were cursed. I just thought that...m-maybe the surveying techniques we had were better. I just learned about this spell that lets you find-."

Acumen cut her off again. "I'm sorry but we don't have the sort of budget for this sort of thing even if we are a little better at looking at snow covered hills in the middle of nowhere." 

Cadence sighed and nodded. "Map Maker, perhaps if you were to find a group of ponies who would go with you when you have some time off? We don't have the money for this sort of thing officially."

"I suppose I could...I don't want to cost you or anypony else anything if its a problem." Map Maker agreed sadly, looking downcast.

"Its okay." Cadence said, wishing she could lean over and give the usually soft spoken cartographer a hug or at least a pat on the hoof. "There was no harm in asking. I look forward to hearing about the result if you do get out there." 

Quiet again descended when none of them had anything more to say, usually the sign that they were moving onto other business. "I believe Amicus Brief has her recommendations for judicial appointments ready." A pony from the Justice and Law department spoke up from the back.

Cadence was suddenly very weary, taking a moment from the shuffling of papers and preparation for discussing who might make up the currently non existent court system of the Crystal Empire to get a drink of water and stretch in her chair. Thankfully this topic was liable to be a short one, ponies of all sort were very much peaceful and not the type to commit crimes of any sort. But it was still yet another service and area that needed to be ready should something happen. More money, more time and more possibility for difficulty down the road it seemed.





The meeting had progressed like that for a number of hours. Cadence hadn't thought that sitting in a chair could become a form of torture but she'd taken to glancing at the clock over and over towards the end of the meeting, hoping that the time could somehow hurry along faster. The other members of the cabinet looked similarly tired, but nobody had suggested they end early.

Feeling strung out and weary, not to mention fairly hungry, Cadence wandered through the halls of the palace once the cabinet meeting was over. She hadn't gone to lunch just yet, and apparently Shining Armor hadn't come in at all since he'd left in the morning. While she didn't think there was anything amiss Cadence had the sudden urge to go see her husband. The idea of taking her lunch alone, and then returning to business, with how things had gone today without something to cheer her up was simply too much.

Through her wandering Cadence finally came to a large balcony at the front of the palace which overlooked much of the city. She didn't think it was possible that she'd see Shining Armor from where she was, mainly because she was in the heart of the city. Shining was most likely much further out at the practice fields he'd had set up for training. It looked like there was only one thing for Cadence to do if she wanted to see him.

Tilting her neck sharply to the side she was rewarded with the sound of popping cartilage and release of tension after many hours of sitting still. Like any pony with a pair of wings Cadence preened them quite regularly, if only so that they didn't look like a complete mess, but she wasn't much of a flier. It had actually been a while since she'd had the opportunity to fly, being too cooped up in the Palace working on the many things that needed to be done. It was thus very satisfying when she stretched out her pink wings, the darker leading edges brushing against the stone floor for a moment before flaring up in ready tension.

Then with a leap she was airborne, catching a thermal into the air and enjoying the easy sensation of weightlessness that flight brought. She thought she heard cheering from below and, glancing down, saw that many of the crystal ponies below were quite happy to see their princess and were waving as she sailed high overhead. The warm sunlight falling down on her almost seemed to soak into her tired body and made Cadence feel rejuvenated. She soared up, higher and higher, until the entire Crystal Empire was in view.

It was a majestic sight down below as well as very peaceful this high up. Like one large network of crystal, the city appeared to glimmer in the daylight. The air was balmy and warm, the regulated atmosphere and temperature biome maintained by the ancient magic were the safeguards of the normally harsh winter environment all around them. She'd once asked why they didn't expand it until the entire area was like the city and had learned that the sort of energy expenditure needed was far greater than any unicorn or even device could manage. How this shield had been made in the first place was something of a marvel in its own right.

Eventually she spied a number of ant-looking shapes that were all moving about and positioned in squares on a lush green field. As much as Cadence was enjoying her flight she had something of a mission to see to, that and a building sense of hunger competing for her attention. Angling herself down she speedily made her descent with the wind rushing past and the ground yawning up, details were becoming far more sharp and clear while she lost altitude. At the last second she pulled back to slow down as well as avoid making a princess shaped hole in the ground.

"Up!.......Down!.......Up!.....Down!....Up!" Shining Armor was saying over and over before a large field of guards when Cadence touched down onto the grass. They were all exhausted looking, the many hundreds of guards doing push ups over and over. Manes were plastered to faces and there were a number who seemed like they might collapse. But none of them had so much as slowed the ceaseless exercise nor seemed to give Cadence any mind. Shining Armor looked as equally sweaty and tired, doing the push ups in time with the rest even as he called them out.

She'd tried to be unnoticeable in landing, somewhat behind and off to the right of her husband, but appeared to have failed. Shining glanced over to her, smiled and looked at the group. "Recover!" He shouted a few seconds after they'd made eye contact.

Rising up the guard let out a collective sigh of relief. "Water break, ten minutes. When that's up I want five laps around the field, then go to lunch!" There were a chorus of 'Yes Sirs!' and then they wearily went over to where they could get some drinks.

Shining Armor walked over to her with a wide grin and a cheery, upbeat attitude. "Hi Cadence!' He enthused, evidently very keyed up from all of the exercise. Before she could say anything in reply he'd come over to her and given her a big sweaty hug.

"Ew, ew! Shining!" She shouted, shutting her eyes at the very much gross feeling of his sweatiness getting into her coat and on her skin. "Stoooop." Cadence tried to pull away, making a face. Not only was it more than a little gross but he smelled pretty bad as well.

"What, you're not happy to see me?" Shining teased, favoring her with a big kiss on the cheek. Finally he let go after she was already thoroughly grossed out. He probably knew that she'd be getting payback on him eventually...just as soon as she stopped trying to wipe all of the sweat off.

Not that she was particularly upset, Shining was just messing with her, it was even endearing in a way and did a good job of distracting her from the general unpleasantness of her day. Still, she shot him a annoyed look and pointed a hoof at him. "Not nice, I came here to see you, not get sweated on."

He stuck a tongue out at her and started walking towards the water area for his own drink. "You missed a great workout. We started doing laps around the city but then I decided we would just stay out here until we were all completely smoked. They don't know it yet but I'm giving them the rest of the week off for doing a good job." 

The mysteries of how anyone would want to go run around a massive city, work themselves to the point of exhaustion and then still be as cheery and happy about it as Shining completely escaped Cadence, but she supposed it had good results in the end. "I'm glad you had such a good time." She said, rolling her eyes.

"It was great actually, finally feel like I'm back in decent shape. Oh...wait, the cabinet meeting was today wasn't it? I didn't mean to skip." Shining said while looking apologetic, apparently aware at what his actions might have looked like.

"Its alright, I hadn't really remembered until after I woke up either." She admitted, watching Shining take a couple of large mouthfuls of water.

Shining let out a satisfied sound after taking the drink and wiped at his face. "So what brought you out here?"

"Well....I didn't really want to eat lunch by myself." Cadence started to say, a frown now working itself on her face at being reminded about the general trend of how things had went and not sure how to even go about really talking about it.

Shining lowered the water bottle, frowning now himself in sympathy. "It went that bad?"

"Not terribly, but Acumen was really pushing for us to allow lending. We're probably going to have to start serious taxes." She began, going over some of the finer points of the meeting.

Looking conflicted for a moment, Shining took another drink and appeared to want to say something despite holding back. Cadence had a feeling she wouldn't like what he was going to say.

She was proven right when he started speaking. "Well why can't we just start lending?" He shrugged, nonplussed.

Cadence sighed, glad that there wasn't a pony around them to possibly overhear the conversation. The rest of the guard had started on their lap cool down and were out of earshot. "Because the only way a pony is going to lend money to another on a big scale like a bank would be if they offered interest on it and that causes problems."

"Well then what if we just didn't charge interest?" Shining still didn't appear to get it. Truthfully Cadence didn't see that much of a difference between two friends lending money to another and a big bank but Celestia, in her occasional lessons to Cadence, had been extremely firm on this. It made her argument almost more of a moral one but she wasn't going to disagree with her aunt on something seemingly so important.

"Because there's really no incentive for a group of business ponies to do it. Even if we opened up our own bank, with no interest, what would we do if a pony didn't want to or couldn't pay us back? It might seem like a good idea and get a lot of ponies very wealthy but everything Celestia ever told me says that its a bad idea. A uh...Pandora's box that we could never get closed again once it was open, she'd said."

Shining shrugged again, he'd never been even as detail oriented as Cadence in these matters. Normally she'd find that sort of happy go lucky attitude endearing but it only served to remind her of her own fears of not being quite up to task. Worry that they might not have been the right ponies for all of this had been in the back of her mind from the beginning. That sort of lack of self confidence wasn't exactly healthy or good for her, Cadence knew, but stemmed from her earliest failure. In the end she'd lost control of the barrier and all seemed on the verge of ruin with the power of Sombra closing in on the cities defense. Nopony else was at fault, even if Shining Armor said that she couldn't be blamed.

Unaware of her distress Shining rolled his back in a light stretch. "I'm starving, you said you wanted to get some lunch?"

Cadence nodded, pushing aside her worry. "You smell though. Get a shower first before you come back." She made herself smile despite not having much of a reason to besides not wanting to show she was upset.

"Yeah yeah." He gave a dismissive wave of a hoof before turning towards his guard who were finishing up on their laps. "Alright, when you're done you're free for the week! See you on Monday!" Happy that they'd have an extended weekend the pace of most of the runners picked up quickly and there was even a ragged cheer that their hard work had been rewarded.

"Save some food for me, I'll be back at the palace in probably an hour!" Shining called after her. Cadence had already gotten a bit of distance so that she could take off again.

Nodding in agreement, and not feeling particularly energetic in her persistently glum mood to call after him, Cadence took a deep breath and leapt up into the air. Even flight didn't do much to cheer her up, coasting high up along the air in minutes. Distracted somewhat in her thoughts, she realized she'd gone high enough to begin buzzing against the top of the dome. Subjecting herself to freezing air, especially at this height, wouldn't do much to improve her thoughts at all.

Back over her city she started to descend to a lower altitude to see the various ponies residing in it and going about their business. It was a bustling network of life and vibrancy and she could pick up on all of the emotional undercurrent present. Cadence was a natural empath, being something of an expert on love, and she was acquainted with all of the emotions that could be felt. Today was a good day for many it seemed because she felt awash in the positive feelings of those in the city with virtually none of the negative.

Perhaps she had been needlessly down on herself after all. The warmth and 'glow' of the city was like a balm to her soul. Smiling already she went further down, the buildings and street coming into view right in front of her. Surely a city this alive wouldn't crumble into ruin because of a few taxes or the relative experience of those appointed over them, right? 

When her hooves touched the cobblestone of the road many of the crystal ponies going about their business started at the appearance of their Princess. Instinctively they began to bow low to the ground, it was heartfelt enough as far as Cadence could tell but she couldn't help but feel a little guilty at disrupting what had seemed like such a nice day for all of these ponies.

"It's okay, my little ponies." Cadence said, hoping they could go back to their business and affecting the style of address that Princess Celestia used, it certainly had a very pleasant ring to it even if she thought it sounded a little silly for her to say. She refused to sink back into negativity, to think of herself as a pretender to the title of 'princess'. "Go uh, about your business?"

The ponies around her didn't have to be mind readers to pick up on her unease and, on rising back up, seemed to give her curious looks. But, eventually, they did start to resume their business. There was something of a wide circle though, matched with the occasional reverent look suggested that her status as their savior had left a lasting impact on their regard for her.

The stained glass windows marking the victory over Sombra was prominently displayed in more than just Celestia's palace. Any pony walking near the crystal palace were liable to see the dedication to their deliverance from the evil unicorn. Everywhere Cadence seemed to turn things as a ruler appeared to get more and more complicated. Would the ponies of the Crystal Empire ever regard her as a fellow, normal pony? Would she even want them to be? Princess Celestia didn't seem to think so, always treading that fine line of staying as a impressive and important pony while remaining relatable.

That sort of love, verging on worship, wasn't what Cadence thought she wanted though. Trotting her way through the winding streets she cast momentary glances to the various ponies both in the street and through various windows. Each time she turned down a different path they stopped, bowed or otherwise looked at her with a mixture of awe and apprehension as to why she was there.

Coming to a park; with lush green grass, a ornate stone fountain and blooming, colorful flowers, Cadence stopped at a bench and sat for a moment. Here, sitting instead of moving about, she could better see the city life ebb and flow about her without too much disrupting it. Glancing up at a nearby clocktower she was reminded that she'd have to be getting back to the palace soon. She had gone out of her way to ask Shining to eat lunch with her after all.

Then something unusual caught her eye. Two crystal ponies who looked to be in their teens, with their slightly disproportionate and longer legs, were walking next to one another and trying to look at anyone but each other. It was an amusing sight and had all the tell tale signs of a date that was not quite living up to their expectations if the downcast looks and radiating nervousness was anything to go by.

The young filly had a bouquet of roses she was holding in her mouth which were obviously making it difficult to speak. The colt and her were just out of earshot for the Princess but Cadence could figure details out without having to be directly privy to them. They'd stopped in front of a fairly nice looking restaurant which, at midday, was completely packed to the point of many ponies being lined up and out of the door. 

Clearly that was not something either of them had anticipated for the colt frowned and looked between his date and the long line. He said something to her and then very quickly darted directly inside the restaurant, presumably to speak about somehow getting ahead or that he perhaps had a reservation. Regardless of the reason his date was left standing, bouquet still in mouth, in the middle of the busy street by herself.

Time stretched while Cadence watched quietly, the filly looking more and more upset with each passing second. The colt hadn't reappeared, the Princess imagined it was likely he was having difficult getting a word in edgewise to get the attention of the pony providing seating. Cadence could all but read the emotions playing on the young mare's face, the mounting annoyance and disappointment at what was generally suppose to be a fairly important experience.

It looked as though, to Cadence, that the filly was just about to leave altogether when the Princess of Love decided to intervene. Clearing her throat loudly enough to draw attention, she waved the young pony over with a hoof. The filly's eyes had went wide in recognition and she hurried over very quickly, bowing low automatically once she was in front of the sitting Princess.

"Pwinfcess Cadfence." It sounded like she said, not quite able to enunciate properly with flowers in her mouth.

Cadence gave a amused little chuckle at that, her horn going aglow and taking the bouquet from the filly's mouth. "That's a little better. What is your name, my little pony?"

The filly still was a bit wide eyed, but stammered out. "I'm Blue Amber but everypony just calls me Amber...I mean, you can call me whatever you want your majesty." The sparklingly blue crystal pony filly hadn't moved up from her bow.

"Its quite alright, Amber. You can get up." Cadence soothed, finding herself fairly entertained at the nervousness. She gave a experimental sniff to the bouquet of roses, they actually were quite nice. 

"C-can I help you, Princess Cadence?" Amber asked, looking confused.

"Hm. I was hoping I could help you actually." She replied, now seeing why Princess Celestia enjoyed her position so much. It was nice to help ponies in need.

Of course the nervous young filly didn't understand even a little. "Princess?"

"Let me give you a little advice." Cadence said by way of reply. "Boys are stupid."	

Amber boggled at that. "What?"

Having a point to make, and enjoying playing up the 'mysterious sage advice of a princess' angle she continued. "We girls can be stupid too, but boys, especially young colts, make all sorts of silly mistakes when they want to impress a nice young filly and don't mean to look inconsiderate or dumb."

Slow to the uptake, but perhaps coming to understand what she meant, Amber turned to look back at the bustling restaurant where her date was still inside and then looked back at Cadence. "Sunrise and I aren't on a-."

"For instance, any mare knows that you probably shouldn't give roses on a first date. But how is a colt suppose to know all the sort of hidden meanings behind each flower? He probably just knows you're suppose to give flowers and he probably only knows about roses...its really the thought that counts." Cadence continued speaking, taking another sniff. She'd have to gently nudge Shining Armor into remembering to get her flowers like these. It was almost their anniversary after all.

Blue Amber gave a terrific blush at all of that. "Princess-."

Cadence held up a hoof, giving a small 'tsking' sound at Amber trying to interrupt. "Not to mention its a mistake to have your date carry the flowers in her mouth, if he'd been less nervous he'd have suggested you keep them at your house...or anywhere else. I'm glad you didn't jab yourself with all of the thorns though." She giggled at that a little, now very much in a good mood. If there was one thing Cadence knew it was about love and relationship advice.

"I guess, Princess. But-" Blue Amber was still trying to get a word in edgewise but Cadence was on something of a roll and stopped her again.

"Finally, the restaurant. With how young you both are I'd probably have suggested going on a more scenic tour. Perhaps a park or...well, somewhere not so busy. It would probably cost a lot less too. Though I think your first date is still going a lot better than the one myself and Prince Shining Armor went on. That was a disaster." Cadence laughed at the memory of that.

Amber got a little wide eyed at that personal detail, as if the thought was impossible to contemplate. "You had a bad first date, Princess? Oh, uh...Sunrise and I aren't on a date though." She covered, inching a bit closer to hear more.

Cadence nodded. "We weren't very much older than either you or Sunrise. The weather team in Canterlot had scheduled an enormous thunderstorm while Princess Celestia was out of town. We didn't know that until we were walking through one of the mountain paths together. Prince Shining Armor had to make us a shield while trees blew down around us or we might have been crushed. We were eventually rescued by a few members of the weather team and were soaked by the time they did."

Blue Amber's mouth had nearly fallen open at the story, eyes wide. "That sounds really awful!"

"It was pretty bad...but Shining Armor did protect me the whole time and looked very cute doing so. After we were rescued the weather ponies made us hot chocolate and we got warm under a blanket together until our parents could come get us after the storm. So it wasn't all so bad."

The filly nodded, looking considerate. "And you did get married eventually. You think that uh, Sunrise and I should go somewhere else instead of at a restaurant?"

Cadence tapped her chin thoughtfully, considering what to suggest. "I wouldn't advise going in the middle of a thunderstorm at least." She laughed a little at the idea, which Amber shared with her. "The important thing, if you really like him, is to have a sense of humor and know that not everything is always so storybook or goes according to plan. Where you go, what you do, it's about having a special somepony to share it with."

"Thanks Princess Cadence." Blue Amber smiled, turning and seeing Sunrise come back out of the restaurant. "That's him, I've got to go!" She'd said before darting off to run up to the colt.

Cadence was still left holding up the roses and started to call after her. "Actually you forgot..." She gave it up when Blue Amber was obviously explaining to Sunrise why she'd been speaking to the princess of their own country, Sunrise looking somewhat surprised himself. Then, on what appeared to be Amber's suggestion, began walking away from the restaurant and talking quite happily to one another.

Happy that she'd done at least one thing right today, Cadence smiled to herself and got up off of the bench. Then she realized she was running a bit behind on lunch and so hurriedly flew off towards the palace. Rather than a languid and scenic tour she got back very quickly and trotted into the personal dining hall just on the edge of being out of breath.

Shining Armor was already there, looking over some papers and studiously not eating despite having food in front of him. There were two sets of food, what appeared to be daisy and cucumber sandwiches with soup set out for both him and Cadence. He looked up when she'd opened the door and smiled. "I didn't think I'd beat you back here Cadence. I'd even taken the time to scrub behind my ears and everything."

Then he gave her a curious look, specifically a little off to her left. "Uh, are the roses for me? I thought giving flowers was like, a guy thing? Our anniversary isn't until next week either." Shining said in confusion.

Blinking, Cadence looked next to her and realized she'd continuously been levitating the bouquet of roses the whole time. "Oh no, I got...a little caught up giving advice." She explained, gesturing with the flowers as if that explained everything. She walked up to her husband, gave him a quick kiss and then hurried over to the food. She was fairly hungry, after all. It was only after she was chewing that she realized Shining apparently was aware of their upcoming anniversary. She'd have to find a way of rewarding him somehow.

Shining joined her, still looking a little confused. "You're in a better mood than before." He commented while she started to take large bites out of the sandwich.

Instead of speaking, because her mouth was full, she just nodded. After swallowing, and getting a drink, she did speak up. "I am, actually."

He smiled, having started to eat himself. "I'm glad, I was getting a little worried that maybe I shouldn't have skipped the meeting and left it all up to you."

Cadence shook her head, returning the smile. "It's alright, Shining. It doesn't matter what I do, or where I go. As long as I have a very special somepony."

"Aw, I love you too." Shining said, chuckling as they went back to eating.

It'd be a long day still, court would begin not to long from now and there were correspondence for the upcoming international summit to go over. But Cadence thought that the rest of her day was going to be a positive one over all. Whether Shining Armor and her really were up to the task or not didn't seem to matter as long as they working together as a team.

> Public Relations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"I am very pleased to present the grand opening of the..." Shining Armor had to pause in order to re-read the name of the building. "Dusty Page Public Library."

There were a few scattered hoof beats of applause. Shining looked up to survey the sparse crowd of ponies gathered in front of the sleek looking new library just behind him. He supposed the draw wasn't too surprising, there might have been a larger crowd if he was cutting the ribbon of an amusement park.

Once the applause was finished he cleared his throat, ready to start again. He really wasn't particularly skilled at these sort of speeches. "Literature and reading is very important to any city or nation. The Dusty Pages Library will serve for many years as a place for students and book lovers alike who wish to read. I know that if my own sister, Twilight, were here, she'd probably be the first in line." Shining looked up at what he had hoped would be laughter, or at least smiles, from the crowd but received none. Apparently crowds did not 'get' personal references.

He didn't think of himself as much of a speech writer and the small gathering of ponies watching evidently agreed. Not that it was entirely his fault, he'd written the speech this morning. Cadence was the one scheduled for the dedication but had begged off on him to do it. She'd been curiously withdrawn in general for the last day or two, actually.

Anyway, speeches needed to be read and contemplating why his wife was acting funny could wait.

"I've been told that this library has over ten thousand books already, with many generous donations on the part of ponies from all around the city. I'm sure over time that number will grow until the building is just about to explode." Shining had to flip the paper on his speech and winced a little at how little a response he was getting from the crowd. Usually ponies were willing to give encouragement out of pity if nothing else.

"Then I suppose we'll just have to build a new one when it does." He joked, going a bit off script. "So I look forward to seeing all of you again in a few ye-"

"Are you going to take more of our money to build that one too!?" Came a shout from far back in the crowd, cutting Shining off.

"I...What?" 'what' had been said under his breath, mostly in shock. Was he being heckled? In his entire life, including standing guard during many of Princess Celestia's speeches, he'd never seen a pony heckle another. Then again, perhaps they were more afraid of Princess Celestia than him. But really, this was taking rudeness to a new level.

The loudmouth in the back wasn't the only one with something to say either. A different one shouted "I wanted to buy a new pool next month but now I don't think I'll be able! We're not the ones out of money!"

Shining had stopped speaking altogether and was at least a little comforted by the disgruntled looks of the audience being shot towards the hecklers. There were even a few boos and attempts to shush them but the hecklers would not be dissuaded.

"Now hold on," trying to get some control back, Shining frowned. He wasn't exactly emotionally invested in the library, but instantly knew what the hecklers were making noise about: the budget. All of a sudden he was very much glad that Cadence wasn't here, she'd been torn up about raising taxes and being reminded like this would have probably hurt her feelings terribly. "We all have to pitch in a little. Maybe you don't like the library but I bet you like your roads maintained or having a post office."

"We had those before and we didn't have taxes! Things were going great. Why now?" Came the shouted reply from the back.

Shining Armor took in a deep breath. "Things were not going..." Then it struck him that these ponies shouldn't reasonably have known any of this. Also it was probably a bad idea to waste time arguing with ponies who were doing it more for the benefit of the crowd.

While the minutes of any cabinet meetings were recorded, kept in the archives and open to the public, it wasn't something most ponies concerned themselves about to any great degree. The new budget also wasn't finalized just yet. There were half a dozen different proposals which both Cadence and he were reviewing. All in all they hoped they'd be able to make the direct contribution from their subjects negligible while simply raising some of the costs of services.

Maybe there was one pony with an axe to grind, but two? They were both feeding off of each other, they had to be here for a reason. Shining sincerely doubted they'd both decided to start making noise spontaneously while listening to him talk about a library. While he had his suspicions about the why there wasn't anything he could do about them.

"This isn't the time or place for any of that." He began, the crowd had done a fairly decent job of hushing the hecklers but Shining  could see a few ponies with looks of concern directed his way. "But I can answer. It is very important for us to maintain an effective government. If you want a library you need to pay for a librarian. If you want a train you need a conductor. We don't all use a library, or the train station, but we collectively want these things. I shouldn't have to remind all of you about the importance of harmony, we all live as a community. Without a community we'd just be out in a field chewing on grass."

That at least had seemed to do the trick of shaming the hecklers, and those looking a bit disgruntled, into silence. Even the last part of what he'd said had managed to draw something of a chuckle from them. Better to wrap things up though, considering how far off the script and over time Shining had just managed to go. 

"But we don't have to live like ancient caveponies. Places like the Dusty Pages library show just how great a place the Crystal Empire is to live. I am proud to be here and to have helped, in my own way, contribute to the libraries construction. As I'm sure you're all proud of your own contributions. We all take part and we're all in this together."

He'd surprised even himself with how nice that had all sounded. The gathered crystal ponies had broken out in genuine applause and Shining Armor smiled down at them from his podium. Then came the ribbon cutting, which wasn't all too difficult. The large scissors did the trick and then the ceremony was concluded. Not in the mood to make small talk with anyone, Shining instead excused himself towards the exit where his detail of personal guards stood.

Rock Steady was probably the most paranoid pony that Shining Armor had ever met. Being a former guard captain himself, Shining Armor had thought he'd be ready being on the receiving end of protection. Instead he found himself in awe of the lengths his head of security was willing to go. Neither Cadence or he were to go anywhere unaccompanied if the taciturn stallion could help it.

Which was why Rock Steady had given both of them an earful at Cadence's impromptu flight and solo tour of the city. That had been actually fairly amusing, the two leaders of the Crystal Empire being yelled at like naughty children by one of their employees. But now the consequence was that their head of security was on a protection binge and insisted on personally accompanying Shining out for his speech.

Said grey, sparkling, crystal stallion gave Shining a nod of respect and then motioned for the other two guards he'd brought along to fan out while they walked back towards the palace. It had been far too nice a day to justify going in a carriage, which had been Rock Steady's suggestion, but Shining Armor had overruled him. 

"I thought that went well." Shining commented, seeing as how none of his security detail appeared very interested in speaking up.

Rock Steady had been looking around, apparently for assassins, and only turned to look his way when it became obvious he was being spoken to. "Yes sir,  though I didn't like the surprise."

Apparently he really hadn't liked the hecklers by the way he frowned at speaking about it. Shining had had his moments of anger on behalf of those he protected, not that anyone had ever tried to heckle Princess Celestia. But he had been forced to summarily eject a few ponies who had tried to crash a party or two. It was fairly easy to take things that happened to your charges personally.

"Did you know who they were?" Shining asked, remembering the suspicious circumstances of what they'd been yelling out. 

The crystal guard considered that for a long moment and then gave a nod. "Yes sir, I remember them from the state dinner awhile ago. They were...." He paused. "guests of the Prime Minister, I believe, and sat at his table."

That certainly caught Shining's attention and raised some very serious questions in his mind. Not questions for Rock Steady of course, it wasn't his job. Cadence would want to hear about it though. More than a few journalists had been present for the unveiling and had started to write furiously after the first shouted heckles. Evidently Acumen was not intending to let the matter over the budget drop.

This could be a problem and the day had only really begun.





"Princess Cadence hasn't emerged from your bedroom, your highness." Amicus Brief was shuffling paperwork in a rather bored fashion at her desk. All around was the bustling energy of bureaucracy. Paperwork, discussions and ponies moving all around trying to do their jobs were on the order of the day.

It was actually quite noisy, but for all of the apparent chaos they hadn't had any problems so there wasn't any hurry to instill a sense of decorum. They weren't soldiers, after all, and Shining couldn't very well bark commands as he might have done on the parade field. A more 'subtle touch' was needed was what he would remind himself on occasion.

But concerns about Cadence were always paramount and politeness could burn if something was wrong. Shining Armor couldn't help but feel some level of worry, something that Amicus obviously didn't share. Staying inside the residence all day wasn't like Cadence at all. "You're sure? Is she sick?"

The lawyer-aide paused at that, she'd been scribbling on some arcane looking legal paperwork and appeared more thoughtful. "I don't believe so. She told me not to worry and that nothing was wrong. Just that she wouldn't be working today."

Sighing, he rubbed at his face.  "We're still scheduled to see the play tonight, right?"

At that she nodded. "Yes your highness. I've arranged for a carriage to take both you and the Princess to the theater. They'll be expecting you but it shouldn't be anything overly fancy. The flowers and chocolate you requested will also be there."

At least one thing was going well. His anniversary surprise would hopefully help cheer Cadence up out of whatever it was that was bothering her. "Well I'll be checking up on Cadence if you need me" he said, turning and walking off to the sounds of 'of course your highness.' from his wife's aide.

The trip up to the residence was a quick one. Before too long Shining was standing in front of the very much closed door leading into his, their, personal bedroom. When he turned the knob he was surprised to find it locked. "Cadence?" he raised his voice as he spoke to the door. "Honey?"

There was a shuffling sound, followed by hoofsteps, towards him. "Oh uh...hi Shining. Did the speech go well?" Cadence's muffled voice sounded through the door. She sounded strained, even through the door Shining Armor could tell something was off.

"It went okay...Cadence are you alright? Why is the door locked? Can I come in?"

"I'd love for you too" there was a clear pause and what sounded to him like a strained cough. "Come in, I mean. But you can't. I look terrible."

Well that wasn't suspicious at all. "You know it doesn't bother me if you don't exactly look your best. I still think you look beautiful, even without your mane all brushed or makeup on."

She wasn't mad at him, it seemed, because he heard her laugh softly. "I know you do. But what I mean is that the...room looks terrible. Its really messy. I started to reorganize it and decided to move a dresser in front of the door."

"Then why is the door locked?"

There was a long pause at that. Shining was more confused than anything else; mostly about why Cadence was doing such a poor job at lying as well as why she was lying in the first place. She must be hiding something. He didn't think he had to be a genius to figure that much out. Exactly what she might be hiding was more difficult to say.

"Shining," Cadence said at last, still not having opened the door. "Don't be worried. I just can't come out and work today. Its best if at least one of us does, though, so that things keep going smoothly."

"Well okay," he said slowly. "It's our anniversary though. We were going to go see that play I had told you about before, remember?"

Shining was actually a little taken aback by the clearly surprised, and annoyed, groan from the other side of the door.

"Are you sure we can't maybe just skip that? I'd be fine spending our anniversary in private. You know, just us." Cadence said, now sounding like she was practically on the other side of the door, yet not opening it even a crack.

He actually wasn't quite sure how to take that. Most of the time he'd have jumped at the chance, since it was usually her dragging him to things. But it was so unusual to hear her asking to skip that made him pause. For the life of him he couldn't figure it out. "Well we have spots reserved and they're expecting us..." not to mention the chocolates and flowers that were suppose to show how much he cared. Cadence couldn't get mad that they didn't do anything if she was the one who didn't want to go, or at least he didn't think so. You never could tell with some mares and no length of time as a husband would give him complete certainty.

"Grr." There was an actual growl in response to that from Cadence. "You're right, you're right. Okay, I'll get ready by then."

By now Shining Armor was mostly staring at the door in disbelief. This was very much not like Cadence and, in a more paranoid moment, worried that Chrysalis might have returned in some way. "Cadence are you sure everything is okay?"

This had been the second time he'd asked if she was okay and now Cadence sounded outright exasperated. "Yes, Shining Armor, I am absolutely fine. I'd just prefer if one of us was seen doing things and it can't be me. The speech was important but you've got other things to do. I'll tell you what's the matter after we go out and see the play or whatever it is you've set up."

"If you could just tell me what the matter is, I wouldn't worry..." Shining knew he sounded put out, mainly because he felt put out. 

There didn't seem to be a lot of give from Cadence on the matter, though. "Sorry...but I can't. There's nothing to worry about, just trust me. "She did sound less annoyed and more apologetic when she next spoke at least.

With a sigh he gave up trying to figure it out for the moment. "Alright then, have a good day? Love you."

Now it sounded like Cadence had her face pressed onto the door from the muffled. "I will, love you too."





With that he was away and off to go find something else to do. He'd deliberately set his schedule to be light today for the purpose of essentially 'hanging out' with Cadence but that plan had gone up in smoke. Shining Armor was left standing in the halls of the Crystal Empire's humming bureaucracy. With nothing to do he stood and watched ponies scurrying about completing their work. Busy ponies moved past him, sparing him various degrees of confused looks at his idle presence.

The only thing he could think of to pass the time, besides wander around the palace and get even more strange looks, was a formal troop inspection being conducted on the Second Crystal Guard Regiment. The First under his careful auspices had finally managed to shape up to his high standards. Of course nobody was expecting a need for the guards beyond ceremonial roles, but it was far better to be safe than sorry in his mind.

Being the only (in his opinion) decently trained soldier in the entire empire meant that the First had needed intense supervision. However he'd also wanted to see what his officers were made of. After training in the First was finished he'd promoted the highest performers and stand outs. They were now commanding the training of the Second and doing a fairly good job of it. Trying to micromanage every little thing, as his sister was prone to doing on occasion, was a surefire method towards burning out.

But it was also important to conduct check ups, how else could he make corrections? Nodding to himself, Shining began to trot towards the proper exit. But before he made a dozen paces he suddenly stopped short. Shining tensed, eyes narrowed, and growled at seeing Prime Minister Acumen conversing with two other members of the cabinet. The circumstances surrounding his morning speech came back in stark detail and successfully changed his mind about what he wanted to do.

A number of regular government workers got out of Shining's way in a hurry when he began to march over to the Prime Minister. Evidently he was letting his anger show enough to make them want to be anywhere but in his way. That suited him just fine, standing now behind Acumen. He towered over the other male and waited until he was noticed, glowering all the while at the businesspony turned politician.

The two other members of the cabinet, transportation and education if Shining remembered correctly, had been facing his way and so saw him first. Their eyes widened and stooped in a deferential bow. This was more than enough to catch Acumen's attention, but only enough for him to turn and look evenly at Shining.

Seconds passed, with more than a few stopping to look at the rising tension. Normally Shining didn't care much if a pony bowed or not. He wasn't entirely sure of his own position in royalty, whether he should be correctly called 'prince', but here Acumen's obvious lack of respect was grating.

That he hadn't just been startled and possibly had forgotten his manners was shown clearly by the arch of an eyebrow and a sarcastic "Yes?"

If this had been a private or other lower ranking guard they'd have been in for the chewing out of their life. Shining liked to think of himself as fairly mild mannered but could yell with the best of them when needed. Any self respecting military commander needed to know how. But again things weren't so easy. subtle touch he reminded himself again and let out a exhale.

"Prime Minister" he began with barely masked anger. "Perhaps you'd like to have a word with me in private?" His meaning couldn't be any more clear that what he'd said wasn't so much a question as a order. 

Things had gotten deathly quiet now and Shining was acutely aware that all eyes were on them. Acumen had the gall to chuckle, evidently not intimidated by the show of anger and nodded easily. 

"Of course, your highness" which was said in affected amusement. "We'll continue our conversation at a later date." he nodded to his fellow ministers and the two were off.

Just looking at the bystanders was enough to kick them back into work. Both Shining and Acumen found a quiet alcove where they were unlikely to be overheard. Acumen was the first to speak while Shining restrained himself from yelling outright.

"As far as making scenes go I'd give you an eight. Office gossip is going to be talking about that little stunt for weeks," Acumen couldn't help smirking with his glib remark..

If the Prime Minister was trying to goad him into getting angry it was working. "Cut the shit" Shining swore, pointing a hoof at the crystal pony. "Cadence was meant to give the speech today and your little toadies weren't meant for me."

Acumen glanced down at his hoof and didn't flinch at the vulgar language. "Oh yes, I heard about that little incident. A pair of concerned citizens expressing their grievances within the earshot of the press. Now the papers will carry it and the issue they've raised will go out to many others."

"I. Don't. Care" Shining said, his anger causing his voice to rise above what he'd intended. "The idea of asking more from the Crystal Empire has been hard on Cadence. Your dirty trick was intended to hurt her." That was the crux of his fury, he took threats to his wife very seriously.

Apparently he'd succeeded in provoking a bit of emotion from Acumen as well, his reply was far more heated than the bland inoffensive passivity it had been. "Hard or not, its what she ended up picking. If you don't like politics then get out of the business."

"That was not politics" Shining countered. "That was dirty, she is the Princess and she made her dec-"

Acumen cut him off with a point of his own hoof, anger showing clearly on his own face. "And I am the Prime Minister. A lot more ponies than some foreign head of state thought I was deserving of a say in how they live their lives. Princess Cadence" there was quite a bit of venom dripping from when he'd said her name "made her decision and so I am using my only recourse."

"You don't get a recourse." Shining shot back, surprised at how quickly things had escalated. Acumen had always seemed to think himself important but had been more mild mannered in his approach before. "Your role is to advise and help run things, not make decisions."

"I suppose you would be the expert on that, Shining Armor. I imagine you decided to speak with me all alone, intimidate the Prime Minister, very impressive. Have you figured out something you're officially suppose to do besides keep the Princess' bed warm and play with toy soldiers?" the business pony countered, looking smug.

Lets not cause an incident by decking the Prime Minister right in his prick face. Shining cautioned himself, steadying his anger. Acumen was probably just trying to rile him up to do just that, able to play the victim. That the royals officially and physically 'oppressing' him.

It still struck closer to some of his private thoughts; but he would never show it, especially to the crystal pony in front of him. "If you'd like to see just how much 'advising' I do all it would take is for me to say the word and you're gone" Shining slapped his hoof on the polished marble floor to make the necessary quick, sharp sound. "Just like that."

The threat failed, or at least failed to show, that it had any effect on Acumen. "I own my district and they would reelect me in a heartbeat. All you'd do is raise the issue even more. The ponies of the Crystal Empire deserve to know why their taxes will go up and ways that it can be avoided. I know budgets and this wouldn't be the last time, not if you want to see improvements in the Empire keep happening. Besides, you're both far too nice to throw out the other oh so competent and nice ponies on the cabinet who have done nothing wrong, which you'd have to do for an election."

Unfortunately Acumen was right on at least two points. Shining Armor may not have had a cutiemark in politics but having to continuously throw a reelected Acumen out and grinding government to a stop would be an embarrassment at the very least. It also wouldn't be a guarantee that the cabinet would look the same, minus Acumen, if they did throw the 'government' out. It might even end up being worse, Acumen might try and fill the cabinet with his friends and allies.

"You won't be Prime Minister after a new election, that's our choice and we can do our best to get the rest of the cabinet reelected." was his answer. "Sooner or later the ponies will see that you're the one causing problems." Shining only wished that he could be more sure when he said that.

"You're welcome to try,"  the Prime Minister glanced at his hoof casually, though he didn't all too pleased by the chance of a fight. "But you really should leave politics to those who know what they're doing." 

Then Acumen took a long, deep breath and shook his head slightly. His next words were said with far more control, lacking in their earlier anger. " I am doing nothing illegal, my method may be unorthodox but are perfectly allowable. You believe strongly in what you believe and so do I. I intend to convince the greater part of the Crystal Empire to my way of seeing things. You are both wrong about there being a severe reaction from Celestia."

Not using Celestia's formal title as Princess was another source of ire for Shining. Princess Celestia may have been a foreign leader now but Shining Armor, like any native Equestrian, loved her with a deep abiding respect.

Acumen continued on regardless. "If she were to do the awful things you both believe her capable in response to a new banking haven, she would bring great suffering on the Crystal Empire. Even if she would I'm now ready for that possibility. I've formed contacts throughout Equestria in these last few months; major newspaper outlets from Los Pegasus to Manehatten. Let her cut us off from food, trade and fuel and they'll do feature pages every day of the sort of economic hardship inflicted on a struggling city-state in the frozen north."

Apparently the revelation of his plan was more than Acumen could hold back, cantering off a step or two and getting worked up enough to monologue. That he was talking to Shining, who he had just been insulting moments ago, didn't impact his desire to reveal his intended masterstroke. Shining Armor didn't stop him as he was now morbidly interested in what sounded very much like a villain speech.

"Its a long term game, a little discomfort for amazing gain. We can make an exception in the Crystal Empire from lending if it really bothers your delicate sensibilities that much. Think of the size of Equestria, business ponies far and wide will wish to deposit or seek loans they could not get elsewhere. We'll become an economic powerhouse when Celestia relents. She wouldn't dare starve us to death, let alone invade over this. Her own good nature will work against her and, without a desire to introduce banking in response, we'll have a monopoly."

There was a pause, Acumen turned around and straightened his tie. He even looked to be starting to sweat, having become quite excited about his plan. "If you could only get behind this the Crystal Empire would benefit greatly" he said, sounding earnest. "Princess Cadence won't listen to me but...if you were to suggest it."

Shining Armor frowned for a moment before actually starting to laugh, he just couldn't hold back any longer. "I was waiting for the part where you talked about building a doomsday device to take over the planet. As far as evil speeches go I'll give that a two. I've heard better." 

There was a moment of honest disbelief written on Acumen's face at hearing his own words shot back at him. He recovered quickly, though. "You can't seriously believe I'm 'evil' I'm-"

"You want to use the Crystal Empire as a massive pawn in your scheme to get rich and powerful. As long as Cadence and I are in charge that isn't going to happen."

Shining Armor narrowed his eyes, getting serious, and stepped forward. Thankfully a pony like Acumen wore a suit jacket complete with tie so Shining had something to grab when he reached up and held tightly onto the knot just below his neck. Acumen gave a startled sound, a moment of surprise and fear as Shining tugged him just a bit off balance. Now they were almost touching their noses, Shining Armor tall enough to tower over the Prime Minister.

"You can keep your little power grabbing fantasies to yourself. The real reason I wanted to talk to you is to let you know that you will not mess with my wife. The next time you try and pull a stunt like this morning the Crystal Empire is going have a new prime minister one way or the other. Understood?"

Unfortunately threatening gestures like this only seemed to work in stories because, after a few seconds of traded glares, Acumen did not look overly intimidated anymore. He was frowning heavily, though, and finally said "Let go of me, your highness," then swiped at the hoof holding tightly to his tie.

Shining Armor was far, far stronger than the businesspony; to the point where the swipe did little more than display that difference. Just to make the point he held on a little longer until he finally released Acumen. The Prime Minister's suit was now rather wrinkled and his tie would need to be straightened. His message given though, Shining didn't wait for him to get a last word and instead deliberately walked off.

He had a military inspection that he still wanted to go to, even if he was going to be a little late now. It seemed a great deal more important; though that was probably just a sense of cautiousness born out of experience with tense situations. It was difficult to imagine but he had to admit that the Crystal Guard might find themselves needed for more than just ceremonial work. Best that they were as ready as Shining Armor could possibly make them.





"Regiment! Attention!" Was the command as Shining Armor walked onto the parade field.

The parade field was the cities stadium at the moment. The training fields were far enough away to make it impractical for something as mundane as an inspection. The one thousand ponies assembled in their sparkling armor quite literally glittered in the sunlight. It was impressive in its own way and Shining couldn't help but grin at the clear discipline demonstrated by the ponies all standing completely still and waiting for orders.

Initially Shining Armor had been very skeptical of the value of crystal ponies as potential soldiers; they lacked the magic of unicorns, strength of earth ponies or flight of the pegasi but did have their own particular skill. What set crystal ponies apart was their amazing talent with metals and minerals. The armor that the entire regiment wore, along with being very sparkly, was also of incredible quality. Though seen only in dire emergency; the weaponry they possessed was also very good, enough to earn Shining Armor's respect. He had every confidence that if push came to shove they'd be able to do their jobs as well as any guard unit in Equestria.

The commander of the Second Crystal Regiment saluted when Shining was directly in front of him. "Thank you for joining us this afternoon, Sir."

Shining Armor returned the salute, nodding seriously. "Iron Cross, how are they?"

"As good as the first and probably even better" Iron Cross responded with his usual gravitas.

That was certainly a bold statement, and Shining readily approved of. He wanted his commanders confident in their soldiers abilities and taking their work seriously. There was always the possibility of dangerous monsters, threats and catastrophe that might threaten the general sense of peace that the majority of all ponies everywhere felt. In the Equestrian Royal Guard it was regarded as something of a sacred duty to secure that peace. Shining Armor was happy to learn that a similar regard was in the Crystal Empire Royal Guard.

Looking over the assembled regiment in front of him Shining Armor gave a nod, mostly to himself. "Alright, begin the inspection. I want to look over the first battalion myself."

Just those few words were all that it took to get a great many ponies moving, nearly in unison, on their specific tasks. 

Shining Armor briskly started towards the first battalion. Like the first regiment the one thousand pony guards were divided down in the usual military manner. From a regiment to two battalions to four companies and then the platoons and squads. There were a lot of ponies here, now half of the current Crystal Empire guard. It was liable to be the extent of their military for the foreseeable future. Shining couldn't see them needing another regiment, or even managing to make another one outside of an emergency. It was already a bit of a task to recruit this many. Volunteers tended to have special talents already related to the military. Getting ponies with regular cutie marks resulted in less effective soldiers and general dissension at being drafted in the first place.

The First Battalion commander saluted much like Iron Cross, who had followed Shining when he'd moved. The silvery mare in charge of the battalion might as well have been carved out of stone for all of her seriousness. "Sir, First Battalion ready for inspection."

Shining returned the salute while giving her uniform a once over and then grinned. "What's your name, major?"

"Silver Star, Sir" still very much serious, the major barely seemed to blink at alll. Her eyes straight ahead and looking past Shining Armor at some distant point.

Shining Armor didn't say anything further right away. The entire guard was somewhat new and with that came a certain stiffness. Once the command got to know one another, and him, there would be a bit more ease with how they interacted. 

"We're going to start doing training in a few weeks, are your ponies ready Silver Star?" he asked finally, noting that Silver Star was immaculate in her appearance.

Silver Star didn't so much as hesitate before answering. "Absolutely sir, we'll be ready for anything you can throw at us. We've got the cold weather equipment prepared for when it begins."

Shining Armor nodded in approval, glancing behind Silver Star to those she commanded. While they were holding discipline well he could read them easily enough. A few were now frowning, the idea of trampling around out in the cold wasn't any of their ideas of fun. Not that it was meant to be fun.

It was time to get moving though. Chit-chat with just the battalion commander would cause the inspection to drag on for quite awhile. Shining Armor didn't mind if these ponies particularly disliked their upcoming training but he did mind if they particularly disliked him for making them stand still for hours. He drew his face into a professional grimace, nodded quickly and moved on towards the first group of ponies far on his right.

Like Iron Cross, who continued to follow behind Shining Armor, Silver Star in turn followed dutifully next to her commanders for the ongoing inspection. Each pony on down the line he was inspecting proved to be as well kept and presentable as the last. Names and faces began to blur in the haze of quick words, compliments or comments and then a shuffling to his left for the next guard.

Finally, finally, Shining realized he was on the second to last pony. It was a good thing as he had to admit he was getting more than a little hungry. Unfortunately he'd likely be having his lunch alone if Cadence was still holed up inside her room. Once she got out of whatever it was that was bothering her he'd make sure to ask had been the issue.

First things first, though, he looked at the pony in front of him's chest. Curiously the guard in question looked  new, judging by how young he was and the lack of any decorations.

"How long have you been in the guard?" Shining asked, curious.

The colt looked terrified that his commander-in-chief was directly speaking to him. It was actually pretty funny but Shining Armor was nice enough not to laugh at the poor guy.

"Er, I've been in the guard for...three months now, sir. I mean, three months after my training...so I guess almost a year?" he stammered by way of reply.

There were snickers behind them further up in the ranks. Shining was pretty sure Silver Star was going to facehoof at any moment; but held on to her own personal composure and stared fixedly at the pony Shining had inspected two ponies previously. Iron Cross looked more amused than anything.

Shining nodded sagely, ignoring the other reactions. "So you must have heard we're going to have our first real training exercise in a few weeks. How ready do you feel?"

The young crystal guard in question swallowed nervously and glanced towards Silver Star for support. Thankfully (for the guard) he hadn't done it enough that Shining Armor could call him out for it. 

"Yes sir, absolutely" was the firm reply after a few seconds hesitation.

But with the snickers, and the inspection nearly over, Shining wasn't inclined to let things rest. There had been too much build up to not indulge in a bit of gentle ribbing. "Its going to be out in the tundra. Make sure to pay attention to your training about taking care of yourself. We don't want any injuries from frostbite. You don't want your legs hacked off do you?"

Somewhere a few rows behind was a particularly loud snicker which was quickly mastered before the culprit could be yelled at. Shining could see out of the corner of his eyes that the last pony at the end of the formation, who appeared to be veteran, was trying not to grin at his younger peer's questioning.

The young guard's eyes had gone fairly wide. "That can happen?" he'd said quickly, then seemed to remember proper courtesy "Sir?"

Shining Armor nodded with all of the seriousness that he could muster. "There's always one or two who don't pay attention. I suppose the medics need practice, so really it all works out in the end. I'm not sure if the guard covers injuries received during training under pensions. Do they?" Shining turned to look at Iron Cross, mostly to hide his grin.

Iron Cross answered first with a shrug. "I think we do Sir, though we'd find out for sure when we do the paperwork."

"There, you see?" Shining said, having straightened his smile out and looking back at the nameless guard who looked appropriately mortified. "Better take the training seriously or we'll be talking about you to the next newbie right before training."

The hapless recruit could only nod in complete agreement. As much fun as it was to mess with him Shining's words had carried a modicum of truth. Outside of extreme cases of rampant stupidity, training accidents were very unlikely to occur. But good training habits would help avoid problems if the guard ever actually needed to go out into the cold for extended periods.

The minor hazing mixed with a valuable lesson over, Shining moved on to the final guard of the inspection. Everything checked out well enough and Shining excused himself from the inspection not long after. Satisfied that the guard was well on its way to being a perfect fighting force, if only for the sake of tradition, he made his way back to the palace.





He couldn't help but be a little disappointed, and more worried, when he learned that Cadence was still hold up in their room and refused to leave. It was lunchtime and, looking into her office, she had a small mountain of paperwork piled up onto her desk which was completely untouched. The office itself was kept neat and tidy besides the paperwork, some of it had drifted its way onto the floor.

Cadence's personal office wasn't nearly as grand as the throne room, and she'd went out of her way to decorate it with her own touches. Previously the theme had been based around crystals, just like everything else in this place. Cadence had seen fit to change it into something a little more warm when she'd had the chance. There was a great deal more pink now and decorative hearts were set here and there. She also had a number of photographs of the two of them in various places and at different times. All of them were from happy memories in their long relationship together. The most prominent one was their wedding photo.

Shining levitated that particular photo, having walked behind Cadence's desk and looked around, and thought back to the general craziness of that day. He'd been brainwashed at the time and so had very little recollection up until Cadence had broken the spell over him. After the battle things had been a great deal more pleasant. 

There was a knock at the frame of the door, jerking Shining Armor out of his thoughts.

"Princess Cadence, its good to see you out of your ro- Oh I'm sorry your highness." Amicus Brief had been carrying another stack of papers when she'd walked into the office. The crystal pony was struggling to balance them with one hoof while still walking. Shining quickly helped take some of the papers and stacked them onto the desk.

"Its alright. All of this is for Cadence?" he asked, rubbing the side of his head as he looked it all over. Glancing at it he could tell that most of it was 'fan mail' and well wishes for their anniversary from the various subjects of the Crystal Empire. Though, he saw a fair bit concerning aspects of government which needed to be addressed. Without some help Cadence was liable to be grumpy when she had to go through it all.

Amicus was straightening the towering papers into neat piles and then scooped to pick up the pieces on the floor. "Most of it, she could detail some of this to the other departments but her highness likes to have a look at everything important that comes through first."

"Huh" Shining replied, looking at the papers he could see without touching them.

His wife's aide had nearly walked out the door when she stopped. Turning back around Amicus gave Shining Armor a look of consideration for a second. "Do you need anything?"

Looking up, Shining was about to tell her that he was fine and then head off to lunch himself when he had another idea. 

"Actually, would you mind bringing me something to eat? I'm going to stay here and see if I can't get some of this paperwork done."

For the first time that he could recall, Amicus Brief smiled. "Of course, your highness, I'm sure the Princess will appreciate that."

Shining grinned at his own moment of brilliance. If the night out ended up being a bust, possible with whatever was bothering Cadence, this little gesture could easily be a backup. Not that Shining usually found himself in the doghouse but he was a fan of having insurance. It also had the added benefit of needing to be done.

Glancing at the clock he cracked his neck, stretched, and then took the first piece of paper on the highest stack. Would it be the first outbreak of a deadly infectious disease at Crystal Medical? Were outposts along the northern tundra reporting the return of the dreaded Wendigos? A critical shortage of food? Surely he, Shining Armor, former Captain of the Royal Guard and number two in the Crystal Empire could handle any and all of these things.

It was a letter congratulating the royal couple on their anniversary.

Shining Armor sighed and put it to the side, Cadence would want to write thank you notes herself. It was silly to imagine that anything of such seriousness would be put on a single piece of paper and left on a desk. But if this entire stack was made up of well wishers his thoughtful gesture wasn't going to work out as well as he'd hoped.

It turned out that the entire stack was not made up of well wishers, only half. The work demanding attention was mostly performance evaluations of the various government departments. Shining was thankful that the evaluations were almost universally good ones, it meant they didn't have to go about hiring more ponies. Shuddering at the very prospect of that he flipped over to a report which dealt with the current and future state of the empire.

His jaw tightened at seeing the signature of the Prime Minister. More frustrating was just how detailed the report was, with suggestions in dozens of areas for how the Crystal Empire might best grow. From investments into businesses, to farming expansion; it was clear that the Empire would be doing a great deal more than merely exist. Most ambitious was a plan to create new magical temperate zones, the type that housed the city. The arctic north was vast and barren; but Acumen wanted to create a network of towns. The Prime Minister may have been cutthroat and ambitious but he was a very capable bureaucrat, and apparently something of a visionary.

"If he had magical powers we'd probably have more trouble than we already do..." Shining said aloud, breaking the silence that had hung for likely over half an hour or more.

Having lost his focus, he suddenly realized that a sandwich had mysteriously appeared on the desk. Shining blinked at it and then looked towards the door to the office, which was still closed. He'd been so involved in the paperwork that he'd failed to even notice or register that a pony had come in, deposited his lunch, and then closed the door.

It wasn't the first time something like that had happened. Shining tended to lose himself completely when working with paperwork, otherwise he'd dawdle or goof off and get nothing done. A multitasker he wasn't.

However he did have the ability to eat his lunch and work at the same time. He'd signed off that he'd read the report from the Prime Minister and then took up a much different sort of report. It was from a pony named Map Maker, which sounded vaguely familiar to him. 

Shining started to look around the desk for some sort of possible 'cheat sheet' for who did what in the government. Apparently Cadence had already memorized such a list, or at least knew who everyone was. Usually a important report carried the seal of whichever department the pony was from, but not this one. This letter was, along with looking like it'd been dropped in water or snow, addressed personally.

Giving up trying to figure out who Map Maker was for the moment, he started to read. Curiously enough Map Maker didn't seem to think it necessary to give any background information other than that the 'expedition' was going well. Whatever expedition it was had made it out to the White Hills, wherever that was, and had started to prospect. 

Prospecting probably meant that they were connected to the natural resources department but Shining knew that they hadn't signed off on any. If they had Shining would have detailed at least a squad of his best guard to accompany them. Map Maker proved exactly why that was a good idea when she mentioned how the team was growing nervous at the occasional sightings of large, strange, upright creatures far in the distance of their camp.

Shining sighed in annoyance at the revelation, not liking the idea of ponies being in potential danger if it could be helped. The letter was sent two days ago so there was no telling what might have happened in the meantime. Why Cadence was getting updates for an unofficial expedition off into the tundra Shining had no idea. Something must have happened that his wife had neglected to mention.

Had she deliberately hidden something like this from him? There wasn't a lot of background information to go on and Shining did not want to think the worse of her on simple suspicion. If she had approved something like this there must have been a good reason. He had to tell himself that, anyway, as he continued to read. Map Maker was at least very enthusiastic about what they were finding, though she wouldn't say it outright. They'd uncovered an ancient mine or some structure that was making their work easier.

This was probably something Cadence would want to see herself and Shining made a point of putting it in a place he was sure she'd find it whenever she returned to work. He made a mental note to ask her about it this evening if he got the chance, they did have all evening together after all.

Work continued in a much more tedious manner after lunch, not every bit of information to arrive at the Crystal Princess' desk was going to be interesting. There were memos, reports and even a summary of the training the guard was about to undertake that Shining had written himself. He chuckled at the idea of approving something he'd written but held off. Cadence and he were suppose to share power and the surest way to have a fight was to overstep his bounds and act like the guard was solely his domain.





The stack of paper was noticeably smaller when Shining next checked the time. He might even have been able to have finished it outright if he'd wanted to spend another hour on it, but then he'd have effectively skipped his anniversary present. Hopefully Cadence was feeling better by now, or else he might have to cancel the evening regardless.

Sitting still for so long made walking out of the office a little more difficult, his legs felt stiff. He'd been given a new appreciation for how much work Cadence had taken on if that was her usual workload. Maybe it wasn't so crazy that she'd locked herself in her room for a day after all.

The door to the bedroom was still closed when he got to the royal residence but this time Cadence was on the other side of it. She was wearing a rather ornate dress adorned with a large number of glittering gemstones. Despite her outfit she actually looked a little frazzled. Not in her hair or posture so much, but the focus of her eyes seemed a little too...intense when she saw him.

Shining was still very happy to see her, walking up and smiling. "You're looking good," He complimented, leaning in for a quick peck on the cheek and a hug.

What he got instead was a full on kiss, Cadence moving her head and embracing him rather fiercely. Then she seemed to think better of it, just when it was getting good, and pulled back.

"Uh..." he said intelligently. "Hello to you too."

On taking a full breath he realized that his wife was wearing an almost obscene amount of fragrant perfume. Enough that he coughed and took a step back. Cadence simply returned the smile, though a strained one, and acted like nothing was the matter.

"How was the rest of your day?" she asked.

Shining gave an experimental sniff, trying to fight off a building sneeze. "It went alright, I took care of some of the paperwork that was building up on your desk."

"Aw, that's very sweet of you Shining."

"I try, uhm..." Shining wasn't sure if he should comment on the perfume, or anything else concerning how weird she'd been today.

While she'd said she would tell him later –and it was later by a number of hours– it didn't feel quite appropriate to demand an answer out of her. He'd already asked rather insistently, and if Cadence felt confident she could handle it on her own he should probably respect it. 

"Actually, I suppose I should go get ready" He said finally, instead of addressing the issue.

Cadence smiled, nodded and gestured towards the door. "I'll just wait here then until you're ready. I laid your uniform out on the bed."

Shining waited until he was inside the room by himself to shake his head. They may have been soul mates, best friends and perhaps even star crossed lovers; but this was likely to be something he'd never understand. He wasn't surprised at this point that their bedroom was as neat and organized as it'd ever been instead of the mess Cadence had claimed it was before. Walking up to the bed, complete with his perfectly displayed uniform laid out, he noted that the sheets might have actually been freshly cleaned.

He busied himself with putting the red wool jacket on rather than think about it too hard. It was getting dark outside, the sun nearly down over the horizon at this point. Shining finished buttoning up, straightening everything out and was ready to go within a minute. He fitfully tugged at the tight collar for a few seconds. No tailor in the world had ever gotten it quite right and that tightness always made him feel like he was being slowly choked to death. But it looked nice and he resigned himself to being on the edge of feeling truly uncomfortable. 

"Well, lets go get this over with," Shining said aloud with a shrug. Certainly not the best attitude to take for an outing with your wife on your anniversary, but all of the strangeness and avoidance had managed to put him off his usually cheery self. Hopefully things would pick up when they got there.





Surprisingly, things did pick up as soon as they'd made it into the carriage. This was accomplished mainly by Cadence snuggling up next to him the moment the door was closed. He could have done without the smell of her perfume, but he wasn't about to start complaining. Nuzzled up together, Shining could have sworn the cabin felt just a touch warmer.

Cadence was idly poking at a brass button on his uniform. "I really missed you today Shiny, I hope that didn't ruin our anniversary." 

"Of course not," Shining was sure he sounded a touch strained at the moment. "I think its going pretty well, don't you?"

Cadence didn't answer so much as attack his neck with a kiss. "Mhm."

This was putting Shining in a precarious position. He'd never have imagined that there would be a time that he wouldn't enthusiastically take an opportunity to get a little randy but, looking up, he remembered just where they were. With a great deal of regret he placed hooves on Cadence's shoulders and pressed lightly to get her attention. "Er, honey, the carriage has windows and we're in the middle of the city. Also what happens when we get there and the driver opens the door for us?"

"Nopony is looking right now though, a little danger is fun. " A very persuasive argument, but Shining wasn't entirely convinced it was a good idea.

I must be getting old. Responsibility sucks. He groused internally as he shook his head. "Down, girl. There'll be plenty of time for that tonight. Don't you want to see the play?"

The look on Cadence's face very clearly said 'not even a little bit', but she did end up pulling back and gave a huff of annoyance. "You're right, you're right. Sorry, just got a little carried away." She retreated to the other side of the carriage and busied herself with straightening her dress. 

Shining sunk into the seat and took a deep breath to steady himself. "So...the play itself is suppose to be really good," he said, trying to change the topic.

"I'm sure it is." Cadence appeared to be pouting just a little, with her lower lip out and scowling at nothing.

Shining found that hilariously adorable and ended up snickering, which caught her attention.

"Whats so funny?" her eyes had narrowed dangerously, not quite as amused as he was.

"You," Shining knew he shouldn't be laughing at her but it was still pretty funny. "I think we secretly switched places last night."

He was getting the death glare now which would normally have him cowering and apologizing profusely, regardless of his guilt. On this occasion he knew it was harmless though. It wasn't like he was going to end up on the couch tonight.

"Its not funny. I've spent all day being miserable because I thought it was better for some work to get done and you're laughing at me."

"And why have you been miserable and couldn't work today?" The reason had to be pretty good if it was being built up this much.

Cadence had been just about to answer when she suddenly shut her mouth. "Not telling."

Shining couldn't help but stare at her in utter disbelief. "Still?  I've been wondering about this all day, you've got to tell me."

She shook her head. "Not if you actually want to go to the play. If you haven't figured it out by now I'll be a good girl and wait patiently."

"Yeah well now I'm going to have trouble being patient." He stuck his tongue at her for good measure which made Cadence smile and stick her tongue back at him.

Shining felt more relaxed now, a comfortable silence falling over them while the carriage jostled along the cobblestone road. It was clear they were getting near the theater by the increased volume of ponies in fancy dress. The sun gone, over horizon and the buildings made out of crystal –which was pretty much all of them– were still glittering in the darkening night. Shining thought the city now rather resembled the starry night sky itself actually, as close as he usually got to being poetic. 

The carriage slowed to a halt and the side door was opened for them. Shining didn't get much of a chance to see what was out there because of the sudden blinding flash of near continuous photography. The paparazzi were rather excited at the appearance of their rulers; Shining could even hear shouted questions directed their way. While the play was suppose to be fairly popular on its own he was sure the theater was happy for the extra attention.

A thought struck him as he exited the carriage, turned around, and helped Cadence step down onto the red carpet. If there were going to be any more 'surprises' involving hecklers then the journalists were going to have more than the play to write about. There was a better than average chance that Cadence would end up pardoning him, and murder was certainly an effective way to replace a Prime Minister.





"Oh my beloved, I do not know how much longer I can maintain this barrier that holds our foe at bay," 'Cadence' said, a glittering crystal pony, pink coated with a horn and wings attached, who was pantomiming a swoon. 

Of course right at the moment that 'Cadence' was about to fall over she was caught by 'Shining Armor', who was grey instead of white. "You must be strong, my dear wife. Soon the Elements of Harmony shall save us all and restore the Crystal Empire to what it once was. They must, or else we will all be cast in shadows."

Shining Armor was bored, very bored. The box seats were so high that he could only barely make out what was happening on stage. That was probably a good thing judging by the lines. Even the 'action' had been terrible in his opinion. 'His' big moment, the battle with Sombra, had lacked the sort of dazzling pyrotechnics he'd hoped for. Clearly the playwright had other ideas about what made for exciting drama.

"Curses that my magic is sealed away. If I could but help you for one second, my love, it would be a balm on my soul that might stretch throughout the ages." 'Shining Armor' had wandered off a few paces and put a hoof over his eyes while proclaiming his grief.

Shining Armor leaned towards Cadence, exasperated at the dialogue. "It might also help with the crisis. Though I'm pretty sure I could have helped for a little longer than a second."

Cadence was staring down at the stage, looking engrossed in the action. "Uhuh..."

That wasn't quite the reaction he was expecting. Surely she wasn't fooled by the melodramatic lines and declarations of love? "Er, do you actually think this is good?" His question didn't even get a response this time. Slowly he reached out a hoof and gently prodded his wife in the side.

That got a reaction, Cadence gave a loud squeak and physically jolted at his touch. She quickly covered her mouth up, a bright blush on her face while looking his way finally. "What was that for?!" she had her voice lowered in an angry sounding whisper. Some of the heads down in the audience had turned at the squeak, but were settled back by no further distractions while the play continued on uninterrupted.

"Sorry," Shining apologized quickly, though still confused. "I was just curious what you thought about the play."

Cadence blinked, her cheeks still scarlet. "Oh, uh. I wasn't really paying attention."

It was more of that 'thing she wouldn't tell him about', no doubt. Forgetting the play, Shining turned in his seat and made ready for a long conversation. "You know, Cadence, if you just wanted to skip the play I wouldn't mind."

Obviously she was going to answer with something amounting to 'But ponies will see us leave early, the theater might be offended.' To which his counter was going to be that they could easily just excuse themselves with the needs of official business. Or they could say that their Princess wasn't feeling well, which might actually be true.

But, Cadence paused and appeared to think on what he'd said for a few seconds and then nodded. "Hmm. You're right. Okay, lets get out of here."

"Well we've already been seen, spoken to a few reporters. I'm sure they won't mind if we leave and say th-. What was that?" Shining boggled, only processing what she'd actually said at a delayed rate.

"I said...lets skip and go back home." Cadence was actually up and out of her chair now. She beckoned for a guard to come over and requested they get their carriage ready. "Though I may just go to the palace by myself if you take too long."

Still playing catch up, Shining remained seated. "I thought you really wanted to come out tonight to see this."

Cadence was back over next to him, looking a little impatient. "And I thought you wanted to leave early."

"W-well I do, I'm just not sure why you changed your mind so quickly."

His wife rolled her eyes, quickly turning towards the door. She'd done it so quickly, as a matter of fact, that her tail ended up smacking him along the muzzle. Surprised at that, he'd jerked back and took a breath. On the inhale Shining paused, blinking as he suddenly figured everything out. Now he needed no more encouragement, he all but vaulted out of his seat and towards the door.

"You should have told me," he said to Cadence while they increasingly picked up their walking pace down the many steps out towards the door.

At this point Cadence had her wings out, though she wasn't using them just yet to propel herself forward. "And I would be absolutely right that nothing would have gotten done. Patience is a virtue."

Shining couldn't help but snort at that. "I don't feel like being very virtuous right now." 

"I don't either. Do you really want to wait for a carriage?" By now they were in the cool, crisp nighttime air. The only ponies present were their honor guard, now hurrying around and trying to bring their ride around. It looked like they needed some work on unexpected changes. Shining would deal with it later, way later.

Cadence shook her head, now giving an experimental flap of her wings. Her dress had been fortunately designed to give them air, like most outfits made for a pegasus. "No way, but I don't want to have to wait for your slow behind either."

Now that challenge was on, Shining loosened his collar with a burst of magic. "Says the mare whose lucky her wings work at all at the moment. Don't worry, I'll make sure to leave the window open for you."

As it turned out they both reached the palace only seconds apart. The same could not be said for their security detail, who had great difficulty keeping up with their rulers. The chewing out they both received the next day by Rock Steady had left even the staff wincing. All in all it was still one of the best anniversaries Shining could remember.