//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Knight in Smoking Armor 
// by Mocha Jon 
//------------------------------//

The scene changes to the museum, with Spike screaming at the top of his lungs in shock, “Oh my gosh! THAT is what they thought was beautiful!?” He said as he saw a bust of a mare wearing braided hair and the size of a native buffalo.

Twilight was happily writing in her notebook, “Of course! These ponies are from 1000 years ago! That was back when being as fat as possible was the best thing anypony could do!” She said as Spike fainted from shock, quickly getting back up, not remembering what he just saw.

“Oh my gosh! THAT is what they thought was beautiful?”

Cadence was looking over at the bust of the Royalty of the Crystal Empire before King Sombra, specifically the ones with married couples. There was a look of dispondance in her eyes, almost like she didn’t like seeing the King and Queen together. She quickly brushed it off when she saw the other two make their way to her.

“Cadence, check this out!” Twilight yelled as she held up a sketch that looked nearly identical to the bust Spike hated, “Oh my Celestia, is that King Ramsy and Queen Patra, and… Oh my! That’s King Luther and Queen Dido?” She asked in awe as she dropped her notebook.

“Wow, she’s really fat!” Spike said.

Twilight just rolled her eyes, “I remember how Ramsy lead the revolt against the invading empire of the Ramsy Empire and convinced the two to merge together into one empire, and how Dido founded the Crystal Empire by trading in her dead mother’s one last crystal for an investment and managed to keep trading and trading until the town was prospering!” She excitedly said as she quickly took her notebook back and started copying the pictures.

Cadence blushed lightly but still looked impressed with their accomplishments, “That’s true, Ramsy and Dido sure knew how to run things, I actually had to read all their books before I took the throne here.”

Spike looked bored and wanted to read the descriptions of both works, “Huh, it says Queen Patra was originally a Poet and Luther was a blacksmith before they got married to Royalty… Okay that’s it I’m bored, if anypony needs me, I’ll be in the gift shop waiting for whatever villain is gonna go after us.” Spike said as he walked away.

Twilight rolled her eyes again, “Don’t mind him, he’s probably just upset cause a commoner marrying Royalty is Rarity’s dream and he wants her to himself.” Twilight said as she noticed Cadence’s look on her face. “Is everything alright there?”

Cadence quickly snapped out of it when Twilight called her out, “Huh? Oh yes, I was just wondering… uh... how the perspective is working in this painting, is it one point to two point?”

“Oh, I’m not sure really… Hold on, I know how to figure it out…” She said as she conjured up a protractor and a second notebook and started analyzing the painting of Ramsy and Patra. “Alright, so first we need to measure all the lines on the paper and compare them to a 90 degree angle, then we need to measure parallel lines that…” As Twilight started explaining, she went further and further into detail.

However, Cadence couldn’t care less about the artistic designs of the works, she cared more about the fact that the Royalty were paired up with commoners. She could only see herself in the places of Ramsy and Dido, and Shining Armor in the place of Patra and Luther. She hated to admit this, but she didn’t think her husband was worthy of being a true Prince...As much as she loves him, she knew that ever sense their wedding, he has been defeated by the Changelings twice, King Sombra, Tirek, and the Storm King….

“...And so if all the angles on the edges line up to 180 degrees you know what the perspective is!” Twilight said as she revealed her page filled with ridiculous amounts of equations and problems, too much for Anypony to understand.

Cadence took a minute to process the fact that Twilight finished explaining. “Huh…? Oh! Right… It must be… uh… Two point right?”

“No… You must have accidentally put the lines on the top and the angles on the bottom of the fraction.” She said as she looked at the painting again. “It’s still beautiful though.”

Cadence walked closer to it to get a better look, “They were great rulers, that’s for sure. But I wonder if say Ramsy and Dido ruled together? Imagine how great they could have done.”

Twilight just chuckled at that, “Well I guess, but first of all Ramsy was a very Left Wing Pegasis and Dido was a very Right Wing Pegasis, they probably would fight. Plus then they wouldn’t be with their true loves, aren’t you for that?”

“Well yes of course!” She interjected, rather adamantly, “I mean, why does a spouse automatically get a royal title? Just because they are married doesn’t mean they both earned the same status.” Cadence said, with a hint of guilt.

Twilight winced an eye at that idea, “Well nopony really ‘tries’ to earn a spot at royalty, neither  of us did, we just happened to fall into it. Plus isn’t it nice that somepony who came from nothing can suddenly become Royal? Sounds like a dream… Mainly to Rarity but still.”

Cadence tried to think of a response without mentioning her husband, but was standing with a loss for words. “Well yes but… The pressure of the title can sometimes… Well, you know…” Cadence started stuttering. Twilight was looking suspicious, but before Cadence could finish, a security guard walked over and interrupted her.

“Miss Sparkle, I apologize for barging in, but your dragon friend was caught sneezing in the gift shop and activated all the candles, and he said you would pay for them.” He said as he looked down with Spike standing next to him, smiling awkwardly.

“I tried to tell him I’m the great hero of the Empire but he said a debt is a debt…” Spike said as he slowly walked back towards the gift shop.

Twilight sighed and looked annoyed, forgetting her conversation with Cadence right there, “Spike I told you to take your medicine, do you take Equestrian currency?” Twilight asked as she went with the guard to the shop.

Cadence sighed in relief, scratching the back of her mane, “Okay… That was close… Remember, you husband is a GOOD Prince, he deserves his title, he should be a Prince…” She said as she looked back at the Painting of King Luther and Queen Dido, seeing herself as the strong and empowered Dido (though much skinnier) and seeing her husband making horse shoes in Luther’s place...