“Merry Hearth’s Warming Eve, Cadance!” Twilight pounced on her foalsitter, hugging her. “I can’t believe you’re actually gonna stay with us for Hearth’s Warming!” Cadance nodded. She was happy that Twilight was so happy, though it’s not like she had anywhere else to go.
“Thank you very much for letting me stay with you.” If she was honest with herself, she didn’t have a clue what the holiday was, as they had never celebrated it back in her secluded little village.
“It’s no problem at all, Cadance. The kids love you, and you seem to be a very sweet young mare. Besides, from what the reports are saying, the weather is supposed to get pretty bad.”
A brief look of terror appeared on Cadance’s face as she noticed the wind howling outside the window, Twilight Velvet’s motherly instincts coming to soothe her immediately. “Well, no matter what the forecast says, I’m sure we’ll have a great time.”
During dinner, the family had told stories of holidays past, how they remembered making gingerbread and singing carols with one another. Cadence stayed silent; She didn’t have such joyous memories of the holiday season, as the only time her village came out of their houses in the winter was to go to church. She got out a little more, because, with no pony willing to truly raise someone as “different” as she had been, she had to find some source of food in the winter.
Along the way, somehow the topic had shifted to parents and families, and, ironically enough, that was the first time Cadence was included in the family’s conversation.
“What about your parents, Cadance?”
Cadance was abruptly snapped out of her daydream of carols and playing in the snow like her friends had. “What?”
“What are your parents like?”
Cadance remembered being raised in Altomarete, but she also remembered being raised by the whole village, so she never really grew up with any two parents. Sure, some ponies had been much more kind to her than others, but that didn’t really make them family, did it? She knew there was no way to lie about this and still have it sound convincing, so she simply told them what she knew about her birth parents. “I cannot remember.”
“That’s silly, Cadance! Everypony has parents!”
“Not everypony, Twily.” Night Light interrupted, causing his daughter to look up at him. “Some ponies can’t be with their parents for whatever reason, so they’re sent to live with other ponies who can take care of them better. Some ponies never get that chance, unfortunately.”
“But, if Cadance really is a princess, then her parents should’ve taken better care of her, right? I mean, who would give up a chance to live with a princess?”
“I was not always a princess. I received my horn quite recently, actually. I used to just be a pegasus.”
Cadance barely had time to finish her sentence before Twilight began to bombard her with questions. “Oh! Did you live in Cloudsdale? What’s the Weather Factory like? Do they really make rainbows there?”
Cadance shook her head. “I grew up in the woods, far away from here. I was the only pegasus in the village of earth ponies.”
Twilight listened intently, curious to hear Cadance’s tales of the hidden village in the woods. Cadance would've been willing to tell her, too, if she hadn’t heard the howling wind ride right over the rooftop. Normally, she wouldn’t be so afraid of the wind, and, being a pegasus she would usually be the first to embrace it, but now was different. She turned to glance out a nearby window and could see the snow piling up, ready to surround them and suffocate them at any given moment.
It was the perfect weather for Los diavoli de l'inverno to attack them. They were one of the very few and very faint memories that Cadance had of her so-called past life, and they scared her like nothing else could. She tried and tried to push back on the emerging memory, convincing herself that maybe this really was just a normal snowstorm. Nothing more, nothing less.
Of course, given the fact that everything else had gone smoothly up to this point, she was quickly proven wrong.
Night Light’s eyes went dark as he rasped from his seat. “Y’know what I think, Velvet? I really think you should be more proud of our son for his achievements.”
Though unexpected, Cadance wasn’t scared yet. Normally, they’d talk this out gently; Sure, from what she’d seen, they might raise their voices occasionally, but Cadance was sure it had never gotten blown into a full-on screaming match.
Clearly though, Night Light’s words had triggered a strong nerve in Velvet, and she began to yell at the top of her lungs, making sure that her husband could hear her side of the argument. “Why are you even bringing that up? You know it makes me uncomfortable to talk about that!”
“It’s not about how you feel! Our son wants to protect Equestria, and all you can do is worry about him like an Ursa Minor’s mother!”
“It’s my job to worry about him! After all, I have to pick up all the slack of you just willing to send him out into danger all willy-nilly!”
The argument continued, and Cadance quickly slipped away from the dining table and up the stairs, into the corner of the guest bedroom where she would be spending the next few nights. They hadn’t set up the cot yet, and she didn’t have the guts to remind them of something so trivial in a tense moment like this, especially when she came from circumstances where she was lucky if she got to spend the night sleeping on carpeted floors.
A few minutes passed before she heard the clopping of strong hooves come down the hallway, and she immediately thought the worst; Was Night Light angry at her for suddenly disappearing like she had? She knew she couldn’t face him when he was that upset, a feverish headache already beginning to take hold of her.
Instead, it was Shining Armor, rounding the door with a concerned look on his face. “Are you alright, Cadance?”
She wanted to lie and say she was fine, but he’d still be able to see the pain and discomfort on her face. Still, it seemed like not even the word no was going to come out of her coherently, so she just gave in to her scrambled and frantic thoughts. “Los diavoli...Los est arrivent.” She wanted to get on herself for accidently slipping up in front of Shining Armor, but not one inch of her cared enough, and she decided on simply closing her eyes for a while until the headache went away.
Cadance did just that and, suddenly, couldn’t remember what was in front of her. All she could see was the devils circling outside of the window of the palace, a thick mist clouding the sky. A tall pink pegasus mare, with a sickly, tired look in her sky blue eyes...her mother. She always felt so small when she had this memory. They were both hot, and the around around them was bright, but she felt so very tired. Cadence could see her younger self, squirming and whining in a way only foals could. Her mother shushed her and attempted to rock her slightly, but a thundering cough stopped her from doing so. Afterwards, her mother slept. Cadance slept as well, her mother’s heartbeat lulling her into a nap. Sometime then, though, the heartbeat stopped.
She blinked rapidly, returning to the real world and seeing Shining Armor standing by her bedside. Somehow, somepony had set up the cot for her, which was good, because she was tired. She was hot, too. The pain she felt was no longer a dull ache in the back of her head, but it now felt like she was not in a blizzard but instead in the Saddle Arabian desert. The snow was bright again. The white aura already blinded her enough that she didn’t have to turn over to tell if it was still there.
“I’m glad to see you’re awake, Cadance. Do you feel like you can sit up? I brought you a glass of water.” She nodded, shakily levitating the glass over to herself with her cerulean magic, Shining Armor’s own magenta levitation helping to keep it steady. She drank it appreciatively, but knew that all the water in the world couldn’t stop the heat.
“Cadance, if I’m allowed to ask, what happened back there? Once my parents started fighting you kind of just ran out of the room. I know you’re really connected to other people’s emotions, but once I found you up here you were passed out with a fever!”
That’s right. She was sick again, wasn’t she? She hated being sick, because she felt so alone, and so desperate for comfort. She could feel the memories going hazy and retreating back into her mind, but she didn’t want him to leave, so she tried to explain herself the best she could. She shakily brought over the notepad off of a nearby counter, as well as it’s accompanying quill, and started to write.
Shining Armor’s mood quickly dropped as he read what she had written. There was no way he could’ve known, but he felt terrible about it. There was nothing he could say that could possibly make her feel better, was there?
“I’m sorry, Cadance. I know this hasn’t exactly been the most comfortable visit for you.” Shining Armor was just about to turn towards the door again when he heard more scratching coming from the notepad.
Please stay.
She looked back down at her notepad and found she didn’t have anymore space. But Cadance wanted to keep communicating, and so she slurred her words to him, her voice hoarse and her throat dry. “’S alright. ‘Grew up an orphan in the woods. ’m still not use ’ta not sleeping in real beds...or cots...usually slept on wooden floors as a filly. It they wanted ‘ta punish me, would’a slept outside.”
His mouth took on an “o” shape in surprise.
“Don’ worry ‘bout it though, kinda deserved it. ‘Wasn’t exactly the perfect role model as a kid.” She laughed punch-drunkenly.
“What could you have even…”
“‘Lotta thins’ that’re normal here ‘re sins in my village. Couldn’ fly, or go anywhere myself. Was usually kept inside ‘cause they thought I was a witch.”
“Wait, but you were born a pegasus, right? And didn’t Princess Celestia bring you right to Canterlot after you ascended?” A nod. “So you couldn’t really do magic, and they still thought you were a witch?”
Another nod. “Had somethin’ to do with my emotions. Said I came from somewhere special like that...” Cadance suddenly perked up, levitating her copy of The History of the Crystal Empire out of her saddle bag and by her bedside, showing it to Shining Armor. “They say I came from this place. Don’t know much about it, though.”
Shining smiled. He’d never heard of it, and he’d have something to show Twily in the morning. “Well, maybe, if you feel better in the morning, we can all learn more about the empire tomorrow. How does that sound?”
Cadance’s eyes had already drifted shut, a small smile planted on her lips. She was still in pain, but she felt at peace. The wind was still roaring over the rooftops, but she wasn’t afraid; After all, she had her Shining Armor with her. And he was more than enough.