She may have been born a pegasus, but right now, Cadenza -Princess Mi Amore Cadenza- was terrified of heights. The time it took for them to touch ground in Canterlot was one of those five minute periods that felt like a thousand years, and Cadenza could not have been more relieved to get out of the golden chariot.
The sun goddess -who she just learned was actually named Princess Celestia- spoke to her again, waving her hoof in front of her. “This is your new hometown, the city of Canterlot. I know it may be a big change from Altomarete, but I’m sure you’ll like it once you get used to the changes. Come with me, I’ve already have a room prepared for you.” She smiled one of her signature all-knowing smiles, and Cadenza, not sure whether to attempt responding or not, simply smiled back as they walked up the stairs.
You see, when you grew up in a village that mainly spoke the otherwise dead language of the ancient Crystal Empire, your English was bound to be less than perfect.
Celestia opened the door with her magic, revealing a bedroom on the other side. Cadenza’s smile grew five times wider at the sight of it. It was just like the ones from the fairy tales she’d read in the village, with it’s long purple curtains and plush canopy bed right in the center. Just last night she had been sleeping in a bed that was barely big enough to fit her, and, by some miracle, she’d be sleeping in an actual palace tonight. In the exact same palace that her village’s sun goddess slept in.
Now that she had the time to process the day’s earlier events, although it had been jam packed with important events and life milestones, the whole day was absolutely perfect, in its own kind of strange way; Never in her life would she have dreamed that she’d get her Cutie Mark by talking down a sorceress, and then become an alicorn princess who got sent off to go live with the sun goddess in the royal city on the hills. And apparently, the sun goddess had decided to adopt her as a niece, which only served to make her royalty feel ironically less real.
Cadenza mumbled and stuttered under her breath, trying in vain to hide her thick accent and replace it with the one she heard the princess and the guard pony using earlier when the chariot first arrived. “T-thank you.”
“Cadenza?” Upon hearing her name, the pink pegasus snapped back to reality. “These are your personal serving staff, Mirror Gleam and Chamomile. They can give you anything you might need.” Celestia smiled at her staff, who waved to Cadenza with clearly honeyed smiles until Celestia had left the room and walked down the hallway.
Cadenza looked at the two with wide eyes, one a silver unicorn stallion and the other a light green pegasus mare. She finally let out an actual grin. She had probably worked up the nerve to try speaking some English now; After all, since her only audience was her serving staff, and Princess Celestia herself said they were here to help her with anything she needed, how bad could it turn out to be, right?
The first lesson she’d learn in Canterlot was to never tempt fate.
“H-hola. Mi chamo es-” (H-hello, my name is-) Mirror Gleam stopped her then, reaching a hoof only a second away from her face.
“You mean to tell me that you’re going to be an actual princess someday? You mean, like, somepony who watches over an entire nation?” Cadenza didn’t nod nor did she shake her head, as not even she knew the answer to that question.
“She can’t even speak English! Heck, from the sounds of it, it’s like she can barely speak at all!”
Cadenza waited, hopeful that a friendly-looking mare like Chamomile would stand up for her. That was the second lesson Cadenza would learn here; You can’t trust somepony else based on looks alone.
Chamomile joked with Mirror Gleam, nudging him gently in the shoulder. “Hey, maybe her kingdom’s gonna be on the Marexican border!”
Cadenza had only been living in Canterlot for about an hour, and she already wanted to run back to her village and cry in her bedroom. It didn’t matter that she was a princess now, and that she probably had royal studies to attend to. Then, all of a sudden, something in her mind clicked; These were supposed to be her personal serving staff, so, technically, she could send them away whenever she wanted, right? Being ninety-nine percent sure that her theory was correct, she decided to test it, and she could do that with a simple motion of her hoof, no English required; She pointed towards the door, then nudged it open slightly with a push of her light blue magic.
“What’re you pointing at?” It was at this point her eyes focused into a glare, and she pointed her hoof towards the door again, this time making her movements sharper and more urgent-feeling.
“Oh, so you want us to leave?” She nodded, happy to have finally gotten her point across. “Alright, alright. You could’ve just said that, drama queen.” Chamomile rolled her eyes, but Cadenza didn’t care, now that she finally had the room to herself; Having the room to herself meant having some room to breathe and collect herself, which is exactly what she desperately needed right now.
Looking in the small saddlebag she had chosen to take with her to Canterlot, she took out a book; The History of the Crystal Empire. She still didn’t know why she’d decided to check out this book in the first place, and it was probably long overdue by this point, but the empire’s history had interested her; Nevermind the fact that it was all they learned about in school, but she still wanted to know more. The book had the same effect on her that fantasy novels had on the other fillies and colts in her village. She’d get lost in her visions of the kingdom of jewels, unable to pry herself away.
She took one final glance at the afternoon sun as she began reading the first chapter, this one being on the founding of the Crystal Empire, knowing that she probably wouldn’t be able to escape the pages of the book until sundown.
She was right on target with her prediction, as she had just reached chapter three by the time she noticed the lavender and coral shades outside her window. She trotted over to her window, got on her knees and said a prayer to the sun goddess, and was just about to continue reading when said sun goddess knocked on her door. She probably would’ve frozen in place if she hadn’t remembered her current situation. “Cadenza? Would you like to join me for dinner? It won’t be anything fancy, just the two of us.”
Instead of the dining hall, Cadenza was lead up to Celestia’s bedroom, where a small table sat in the corner. It was the perfect size for just the two of them, but she could tell that it hadn’t been used for a while. Still, she didn’t want to do anything rude, so she just sat down. Almost immediately, their dinner for that night, a plate of apple salad, appeared in front of them. “Are you liking it here so far, Cadenza?”
She faked a smile at first, but she also didn’t want to lie to the princess. After a brief second of silence, Cadenza spoke, not even bothering with trying to hide her mother tongue anymore. “Ti manca mi casa.” (I miss my home.)
Celestia looked at her niece sympathetically. She knew that she’d pretty much been left alone since they got here, so maybe making some friends would help her get more accustomed to Canterlot? She readied a basic illusion, conjuring an image of a schoolhouse and a question mark. “Cadenza, when do you think you’ll be ready to start school again?”
“À prima possibile.” (At the first possibility.)
Celestia was surprised at this; From the idea she’d gotten of most fillies and colts her age, they would rather delay it for as late as possible, if given the chance. Then again, as Celestia had noticed throughout the day, Cadenza wasn’t your average teenage mare. The image that Celestia conjured up changed to a calendar labeled with the number two. “It may take about two days or so, but you’ll be in school soon, okay?”
“Gracia.” (Thank you.)
After they had finished eating and Cadenza had gone back to her bedroom, all she could think of was school. Hopefully, the students of Canterlot would spare her some mercy, and her first impressions of the citizens were simply starting off on the wrong hoof and not a sign of things to come.