//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: The Return of the Heart 
// by keithsterling 
//------------------------------//

It’s a few weeks later, Princess Cadence had regained consciousness after being interrogated by the Black Opal internal Security unit. For several days they used every single interrogation technique at their disposal to get her to tell the truth. Listening to her horrendous version of events was Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Both are very relieved that they awoke in the friendly but jittery Royal Palace in Canterlot when they returned after disappearing.

Standing outside in the hallway trying to sort out her feelings about Princess Cadence was Princess Alysia. She was told by her grandmother that Princess Cadence was the mother to villainess Alicorn Princess Flurry Heart. Alysia’s willingness to welcome this new Alicorn mare to her family with open arms was severely shaken. Now Alysia searches her muddled emotions for the answers she seeks.

But Princess Alysia is not alone. Standing in her office, at the palace hospital, looking through a large bay window, towards the tall stone turrets of the Canterlot city prison was Grand Princess of Love Blueberry Swirl Silverlight.

“Damn you, Cadence! Why did you return now? It was hard enough to relive the death of that Crystal pony maid over and over that your daughter murdered to force me to renounce the Throne of Love and my title of the Princess of Love.” Blueberry said bitterly driving her fist into the wall of her office leaving a dent.

“Our civil war went on for five long years, before the combined forces join the war, thousand of my loyal troops died because of your daughter’s stubbornness to think only a natural born Alicorn shall rule. A hybrid like me was unworthy to be thought of as a Princess of anything even though my mother was the Princess of the Sun, she looked down on me because I was a normal looking unicorn Mare!” Blueberry said venomously as tears began to fall from her cobalt blue eyes that soaked the floor in front of her.

“With my troops declining in numbers. I was forced to involve my whole family in this Civil War, even after the tortuous Talon War my family pledged to help me regain the throne.” Blueberry said distressed looking at the family photo hanging on the wall of her office along with a photo of her mother and aunt.

~back in Princess Cadence’s hospital room~

Princess Cadence watches as her Aunt Princess Celestia, passes her hand a few times over a device she’s wearing on her forearm. A moment later, she stops and begins to press holographic buttons in front of her with her fingers in a recognizable pattern known to her. A ringing sound comes from outside in the hallway as a surprised look appears on Celestia’s face followed by giggles.

A moment later, very lovely looking lavender colored teenage unicorn mare enters the room wearing a dark plum short sleeve wrap dress and short white gladiator sandals. Celestia stands up and walks over to the mare. Celestia hugs the mare and the two ponies talk to each other for sometime as Cadence turns toward her other Aunt Princess Luna to ask her a question.

“Auntie, who is that mare that Celestia just hugged?” Cadence inquired as Luna chuckled while reading something on her MCV.

“Her name is Alysia and that is all I am going to tell you niece.” Luna answers mysteriously as she goes back to reading.

Soon Celestia is standing beside Cadence’s bed with the teenage unicorn mare standing beside her.

“Cadence dear, I would like to introduce you to Princess Alysia Ara Silverlight, this unicorn mare is my granddaughter.” Celestia said proudly as Cadence’s jaw drops.

“Your Granddaughter!” Cadence exclaimed as she looks over to Luna who had a smile on her face.

“So she’s your great-niece, Auntie?” Cadence comments as Luna shook her head.

As Cadence was about to put her hand out to shake Alysia’s hand, she shoved pass Celestia and ran off. Cadence looked at Luna and Celestia, who like her, was baffled with how Alysia was acting. Soon Luna’s face soften as she might have figure out why Alysia ran off and didn’t want to shake Cadence’s hand.

‘You were most likely hurt in that same Crystal War my dear great-niece, so that’s why you couldn’t bring yourself to shake the hand of the mother of Princess Flurry Heart this Crystal War has hurt so many members of mine and Celestia’s royal family.’ Luna thought as she sighs softly deactivating the link to Canterlot’s matrix on her MCV. She turns towards her sister Celestia.

“Sister, you should go talk to her, if you do, forget everything you might think of Alysia’s behavior. there’s a few things you don’t know about what happened in this time. I know some things because Somnus told me about them.” Luna explains as Celestia leaves the room to find her Granddaughter.

For the next few hours, Celestia searches the grounds of the palace hospital looking for her granddaughter. When she was about to give-up, she spotted Alysia sitting on a bench in a small courtyard at the center of the hospital. The moment Celestia set foot in the courtyard, Alysia spotted her and makes a dash to the exit. Not wanting her granddaughter to get away, Celestia takes to the air and lands to block the exit. Celestia braces herself as best she can. The collision sends the two ponies flipping head over heels backward till they finally come to a rest.

“Ow!” Celestia groans as the front of her wing hits a steel pole holding up the bench leaving her quite a bruise.

“Grandma!” Alysia shrieks as she checks her grandmother’s wing to make sure she didn’t break it.

“Alysia, I’ll be fine, I just bruise it, It’s not broken, dear.” Celestia said reassuring as she folded her bruise wing onto her back. She slowly stands up and helps her granddaughter to her feet, before walking with her to a bench.

“I am not angry at you, Alysia, Just very confused. Before I told you that Cadence was the mother of Princess Flurry Heart, you wanted to meet her. but now you  seemed to have lost the drive to meet your cousin. Please explain to me why the change. I just wanted to understand why.” Celestia said reassuring and sounding motherly as Alysia shook her head.

“Early on, when the combined forces joined the Crystal War, my first squad was sent to an unexplored region of the Crystal Empire for a reconnaissance operation. The operation went as hoped for, no enemy contacts with the Crystal Empire forces for the whole of the operation. But during extraction, my squad comes under attack by a Zealot platoon from the Crystal Empire. During that battle, one of my squad members drugged me and loaded me on the Evac helicopter and they stayed behind to hold off the platoon to allow me to escape. I came to, a day later, and found out that my squad sacrificed themselves for me, how can I shake the hand of the mare that gave birth to that villainess.” Alysia said hotly as Celestia looked into the blue sky and sighed softly.

“Listen to me, my dear grandchild. If you died during that operation who would have been at the Royal Palace to take a leap of faith that your great aunt and I were real Alicorns. As twisted as fate can be, it happens for a reason. I believe if you were not there, this outcome would have never happened and me and your great aunt would be locked in a psychiatric hospital. So because of that, I am very happy you were there to trust your heart.” Celestia said thankful as she hugged her granddaughter.

Sometime later, Celestia and Alysia returned to Cadence’s room only to find a despondent Cadence on all fours on the ground. Her light purple eyes were filled with tears in front of a panel in the wall of her room that was hidden by a folding screen. Alysia makes her way over to the panel and looks it over a few times, before pulling a wireless access node out of a small compartment on her MCV and plugs it into the panel.

“What is it, Alysia?” Celestia inquiry as Luna returns carrying two glasses of water.

“Sister what is going on?” Luna inquiries as she finally noticed Cadence on the ground on all fours crying her eyes out.

“I am hoping that Alysia can explain it to me, when she gets done.” Celestia comments as Alysia finishes downloading the history from the panel and pulls the wireless access node.

“Ok Grandma and Great Auntie (pointing at the panel in the wall) a lot of these old structures in Canterlot still have these old public access points to gain access to the Canterlot Matrix and many are turned off. But in this case, somehow, Cadence was able to access the Canterlot Matrix. From the history on the panel, she found a news story that says the ex-princess of the Crystal Empire, Flurry Heart, is now sitting in Canterlot city prison awaiting trial for war crimes against Equestria.” Alysia explains as Cadence leaps to her feet and grabs Alysia by the collar of her dress with both her hands.

“You are lying! my daughter would never do something like that to Equestria!. What is your game your highness!” Cadence said defensively as Alysia brought her arms up between Cadence’s arms and swung them out breaking the hold on her as she pulls her punch knocking Cadence to the ground.

“I don’t care if you are my cousin! I will not allow anyone to call me a liar! I am the daughter of Grand Prince of the Moon Somnus Silverlight! the most honest and noble ruler of the Night! .you have no right to say that!” Alysia said gruffly as Celestia stood shocked from the display of Alysia. Luna was not surprised that Alysia knew how to fight.

Later that same day at the palace, Alysia was sitting on a chair in the sitting room, adjacent to the throne room. Standing at the window, with her arms crossed, looking outside, wearing an emerald green ¾ length sleeve fit and flare dress with gold heeled sandals and her Princess’s regalia was Alysia’s Aunt, Grand Princess of the Sun Aurora Silverlight. Her wings fold and unfold on her back as she sighs a few times. Sitting on a sofa beside Alysia, wearing a light maize dress shirt and khaki flat-front pants with black dress boots and his royal regalia was Alysia’s father, Grand Prince of the Moon Somnus Silverlight.

“Alysia, when your father interrupted my royal court to ask me to see you, I was upset with him. but what you had to tell me was more immediate, so please forgive this aunt.” Aurora said sincerely as she walks slowly over and sits down on a sofa on the other side of Alysia before crossing her legs and resting her hands over her snout.

“So our cousin Cadence discovers that her daughter Princess Flurry Heart was in jail for war crimes against Equestria. this is very regretful but we knew we could not keep it a secret for too long is that right brother?” Aurora comments looking over her hands at her brother on the sofa across from her in the room.

“That’s very true sister, the plan was to ease Cadence slowly until she was comfortable. we were going to tell her about her daughter. as her trial was not scheduled to begin until the trials of the rest of her officers concluded. Her trial would be the last one of this tangled history. but that plan went out the stable door when Cadence learned about her daughter.” Somnus comments as he stretches his arms out on top of the sofa and rests his head on top of it.

“So now what, Auntie?” Alysia inquiries as Aurora forgot her niece was still in the room with her and her father.

“Oh, I am sorry Alysia I completely forgot you were still here, well niece, I thank you for bringing me this news. so your job is done, why not go see if your grandmother has returned to the palace yet. I want you to spend as much time with our mother as you can, she is a very wise Alicorn and one of the best teachers to teach you about ruling all of Equestria one day.” Aurora suggested as Alysia stood up and left the room after bowing to her aunt and her father.

As Alysia disappeared through the door, Aurora reached down and unbuckled her sandals as she had no other plans with her court cut short. She drew her legs onto the sofa and sat down on top of them. As her brother sat up and rested his elbows on his lap. The two Alicorns begin to discuss how to proceed with the first plan no longer in effect for their cousin Cadence.

As the day becomes night, three bells ring in the clock tower signaling the beginning of evening court at the Canterlot Royal Palace. Taking his position on the Throne of the Moon was Grand Prince of the Moon Somnus Silverlight. Silently observing this evening session from the shadows of a column in the room was the original ruler of the Moon Princess Luna Silverlight and Somnus’ aunt.

For most of the evening court session, it proceeds unimpeded, till close to the end of the session when a commotion in the vestibule draws the attention of both Somnus and Luna. With her nephew busy with court business, Luna stands up and walks towards the vestibule to investigate the commotion for her nephew.

In the vestibule, two unicorn royal guards wearing the purple standard light combat body armor with a fin shaped helmet of Somnus’ troops argues loudly with Princess Cadence Sparkle. She is demanding an audience with the Princess; the guards have already informed her that the Princess’ court session had ended. If she wants to meet the Princess she’ll have to return in the morning. But Cadence has refused to leave till she speaks to the Princess, holding court now on a personal matter and it can’t wait till morning.

Before the argument could begin anew with the royal guards, Princess Luna Silverlight steps out of the throne room into the vestibule. She quickly calms the situation with the guards and Cadence. She asks Cadence to stay put why she speaks with the guards and learns why they were arguing with her. After hearing the reason for the fight, she dismisses the two guards and rejoins Cadence in the vestibule.

“I can’t believe those guards wouldn’t let me see you, Auntie.” Cadence said hotly as she crosses her arms in front of herself angrily.

“The truth of the matter is, Cadence. I am not the sitting ruler of the Moon and this not my court anymore. When you asked to see the Princess the guards thought you were asking for Grand Princess Aurora. It’s her court in the morning.” Luna explains as Cadence’s face glazes with shock.

“What?” Cadence exclaimed shockingly

“Th..Then who am I going to ask for permission to visit my daughter in prison? I went down to the Canterlot city prison earlier and was told by the warden that I must get special permission to visit my daughter from one of the rulers of Canterlot, because she is a high value detainee and he can’t allow even her mother to see her without permission.” Cadence explains as her light purple eyes begin to fill with tears.

“As I can’t give you the special permission to visit your daughter in the prison, Cadence. I know who can.” Luna comments as Cadence dries her tears.

“You do Auntie? Who?” Cadence inquiries as Luna shook her head.

“The current ruler of the Moon Throne.” Luna comment as Cadence gaps in stunned silence.

“But, Auntie.  I don’t know the current ruler of the Moon Throne and why would that ruler want to grant the special permission to a mare like me. From what I learned on the Canterlot matrix the Princess of Love Cadence Sparkle doesn’t exist in this time. the only princess of love is Grand Princess of Love Blueberry Swirl Silverlight and my pupil has refused to see me.” Cadence dispirited as she closes her fist into a tight ball.

“What makes it so much more upsetting is that I don’t know what my daughter did to make Blueberry hate her old teacher like this. I was hoping to ask her?” Cadence’s voice wooden and distant as her chest becomes heavy with sorrow.

“I suggest Cadence you don’t ask your daughter what she did if you get the special permission from the ruler of the Moon Throne go talk to Celestia, she is the go between and ask her to set up a personal appointment with the Grand Princess Aurora and ask her what your daughter did to hurt Blueberry and don’t be surprise what the answer is going to be.” Luna explains as she reenters the throne room to see if Somnus will give his cousin Cadence the special permission to visit her daughter Flurry Heart in jail.