The next morning, Celestia knocked on the door to Mi Amore Cadenza's room. “Mi Amore Cadenza?” she called.
There was no answer.
Celestia tried the door handle, and was pleasantly surprised to find it unlocked. She pushed the door open and stepped inside. She neared the bed, careful to not be too loud so as to not startle the filly awake.
She needn't have worried. Mid-step, thick black crystal spikes suddenly erupted from the circle that the filly had cast last night and had remained unseen until then. They shot up and embedded themselves into Celestia's barrel; had she been a pony of average height, they would have run her through and she would have never taken another step.
As it was, it had hurt. A lot. But Celestia was not about to show that to Mi Amore Cadenza.
As Mi Amore Cadenza sat up and looked on in mortified fascination, Celestia lit her horn and neatly removed the crystal spikes from her chest, and then disintegrated them, before methodically healing her wounds, calmly but solidly showing that she was no slouch in magic herself. “Your skills are impressive,” Celestia commented as she finished knitting muscle back together.
If anything, Mi Amore Cadenza looked disappointed that her defense had not been lethal. Even so, she straightened up proudly and ran a hoof through her mane, flicking it to get more of that Sombra-esque curl. “Told you I could protect myself.”
“Oh, I never questioned that. But I have been wondering something. What do princesses do in the Crystal Empire?”
Mi Amore Cadenza shrugged. “I train a lot. Daddy teaches me new spells and things. Wanna see?”
“If they're anything like that circle, I'll have to decline,” Celestia said airily. “As the only other princess in Canterlot, if something were to happen to me, you would be next in line to rule.”
She'd meant it as a joke, but a cold shiver ran up her spine at Mi Amore Cadenza's gleeful, almost predatory smile. Still, perhaps she could dissuade little Mi Amore Cadenza from attempting hospiticide. “As a visiting dignitary, perhaps you'd like to sit in on today's royal business?”
“What good is that?”
“Well, that's what I will be doing,” Celestia answered. She had meticulously reviewed this morning's schedule prior to arriving. Any
business that might have held any tactical advantage whatsoever had been rescheduled, leaving her schedule full of plenty of boring, nonsense business.
Mi Amore Cadenza considered this. “Fine. But when do we get to eat?”
“You know, I was hoping you'd ask,” Celestia said with a smile.
* * *
Celestia licked her lips as her attendant slid a tray of food in front of her. It was piled high with oat pancakes, applesauce, jam, and shredded hay hash browns, with a large pitcher of orange juice nearby. She thanked her attendant with a subtle, “perfect, as always”, and then looked over at Mi Amore Cadenza's plate. She raised an eyebrow. Her platter, in contrast, was piled high with chocolate chip cookies.
She glanced back at the departing chef, but she hadn't seemed to notice anything amiss. Celestia raised an eyebrow. Had Mi Amore Cadenza used mind magic on her chef? It was a possibility.
Or maybe her chef had just taken pity on the filly and gave her something she wanted. That wouldn't be unheard of, as well. Her own personal student had made a few… unique requests of food (for some reason, she really liked oat waffles with syrup and topped with only one strawberry), and they had always been granted.
She took a bite of her pancake and chewed slowly. This was something she'd have to keep a close eye on.
* * *
Celestia walked through the castle, Mi Amore Cadenza following closely behind. She scampered back and forth, examining the armor and pottery and suits of armor and paintings with a practiced eye, occasionally making a few quiet (and clearly grudging) grunts of approval.
Then she slowed to a stop, peering out the window. Celestia paused when she didn't catch up quickly, and then backtracked, wondering what had grabbed her attention.
It was a group of of guard recruits, running laps around the garden in their armor. It was endurance training, and some were panting hard and showing that they did not quite have the stamina that the job required. Celestia couldn’t suppress a frown. She’d made it a habit to personally attend every single orientation meeting for the new recruits. They’d all come with such sparkles in their eyes and such eagerness in their hearts, and it nearly broke hers every time one had to be sent home for not making the cut.
Mi Amore Cadenza watched in fascination as the parade of recruits went by, and then she suddenly spoke. “I like that one,” she said, pointing out one of the recruits near the front of the pack.
Celestia recognized her target, and an eyebrow shot up. “Cadet Shining Armor?” she asked, identifying him before she could stop herself.
Mi Amore Cadenza nodded, a devious, almost predatory smile on her lips. “Yeah. Him.”
Odd, that she would select him… “And what do you like about him?” Celestia asked conversationally.
“He's strong,” Mi Amore Cadenza said simply. “Good build, wide shoulders, nice mane, looks like a natural leader.”
Celestia nodded, having had similar thoughts herself. All the reports from his superiors had said as much (though with more emphasis o his training than his physical physique). In fact, if he kept this up, he'd probably make top brass in-
“He'd definitely go on the front line as a forepony in the salt mines.”
Celestia choked. “What?” she stammered in a most un-princesslike manner.
“I've gotten good at picking out the strong ones,” she said with a shrug. “I’ve watched Daddy do it a lot.” She gestured at another colt, this one an orange pegasus with a blue mane, and scoffed. “That guy? He wouldn't last a day.”
Celestia nodded. “I… see…”
Mi Amore Cadenza continued blithely. “Sometimes daddy picks mares that aren't very strong, though. They get assigned to clean his bedroom. I guess it gets really dirty in there because lots of mares have to clean it.”
Celestia coughed at her unfortunate choice of words. “I see,” she said again.
“And it’s always new mares. I don’t ever see them again.” Mi Amore Cadenza shrugged. “They must be really bad at their jobs.”
Thankfully, the last of the recruits vanished around the corner, and Celestia was able to steer the conversation away from a topic like that. “Up first is morning court. You'll be sitting in, I presume?”
“Court?”
Celestia nodded.
“You sit in a court all morning?” Mi Amore Cadenza asked, tilting her head. “Like, outside?” She glanced up at the sky, as if trying to determine the weather.
“Court isn't exactly a place. Court is when you listen to your subjects and solve their problems.”
Mi Amore Cadenza squinted. “You let the commoners speak? Inside your castle?”
“Of course.”
Mi Amore Cadenza slowed to a stop, her mind completely blown. For a moment, her mouth just worked wordlessly. “But why?” she finally asked.
“Why not?” Celestia asked.
“Because they're commoners,” Mi Amore Cadenza said, as if it were obvious.
“And they have problems, much like our own,” Celestia said.
Mi Amore Cadenza frowned. “Their wings get crooked feathers, too?”
“That’s fairly common for those of us with wings,” Celestia conceded, “and I can teach you how to preen properly later. But even commoners, as you say, have problems and feelings, too.”
Mi Amore Cadenza considered this. “Well, I suppose. I mean, if they tell me their problems, I'll know their weaknesses.”
Celestia barely missed a step. “I suppose,” she said lightly. “Or you could help them overcome their weaknesses.”
“Their weakness, my strength,” Mi Amore Cadenza muttered. The words slid off her tongue, almost like a mantra.
Even in the warm morning light, Celestia felt a tiny shiver run up her spine.
* * *
Celestia hid a smile as Mi Amore Cadenza struggled to keep her eyes open. She hadn't even made it through the second item before starting to squirm, and by the fifth petition she had succumbed to the boredom. Even her desire to discover weaknesses had faded as the businesspony described for the fourth time how the taxes situation had completely ruined his business strategy and the horrifying 2% pay cut he was forced to take.
Suddenly, Celestia frowned, and closed her eyes. She was feeling something she hadn't felt in a long time: a foreign magical source. Somepony was attempting to mess with her mind, trying to influence her. This was a very, very dangerous situation.
For whoever had been so foolish, that is.
She waited until the tendril of magic came poking again, a bit more forcefully, and then she seized hold upon it. Before the pony could retract it, she sent a powerful jolt of energy down it. It wouldn't cause any permanent damage, of course; but the magical feedback would feel like a hammer to the forehead, and would definitely leave the caster with a pretty powerful hornache. She looked around, having given no external indication of what she had done, looking to see who had dared influence her.
To her shock, though, the pony that had collapsed and was rubbing painfully at her horn was none other than little Mi Amore Cadenza.