Shining Armor couldn’t ask for a more peaceful day. The real wedding had been beautiful, and their honeymoon was all they could ask for after going through so much. He was on a stroll with his wife through the park and their surroundings were so calm and serene that he almost thought that there was no way anything could go wrong.
What he had forgotten while on his honeymoon, however, is that when you’re in Canterlot, you should never tempt fate.
“Your majesties! Princess Celestia has an urgent message for the both of you: She wanted us to tell you that the Crystal Empire of the frozen north has returned.”
Cadance gasped and, without wasting a single moment, had used her quickest teleportation spell. When Shining opened his eyes again, they were standing in the middle of a large city, each and every structure being constructed entirely from crystal.
In a flash of light, Princess Celestia arrived with her signature warm smile on her face and a twinkle in her violet eyes. Out of instinct, Shining Armor bowed to his boss. “Your majesty, if I may ask, what is this place?”
“I believe that Princess Cadance would know more than I would, Captain. After all, this kingdom is rightfully hers.” Celestia glanced over to Cadence with a knowing look and a small smile.
Cadance’s eyes lit up like a filly’s on Hearth’s Warming’s Morning as she stared in amazement what her aunt had just said. “Auntie, are you serious? Is this actually the place? I just can’t believe that this is happening-”
“Yes. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, you are next in line for the throne of the Crystal Empire and as such, this is now your rightful fiefdom. Shining Armor, this now makes you the empire’s prince-consort. But be warned; The empire has returned, but that means King Sombra has certainly returned with it. I’ll be sending Twilight and the others as soon as I can to help you, but King Sombra is coming for the empire as quickly as he can. You don’t have much time.” With that, Celestia disappeared in a large flash of light, leaving behind a long lost crystal empress and her prince-consort.
“Cadance, where are we?”
“This is the Crystal Empire. If Princess Celestia was right, and if all those dreams I had as a filly were true, then this is my home. I’m sorry for hiding this from you for so long. I just didn’t know how you would feel. Please don’t be upset…”
Shining Armor nuzzled his wife affectionately. “I’m not upset, I promise. Now, Princess Celestia mentioned that a threat is targeting the empire from an unknown direction and coming towards us at an unknown speed. If I were to use my wide-range shield spell, maybe that could-”
“Shining, your shield wouldn’t be able to keep King Sombra out of the empire. He uses very powerful and forbidden dark magic, so your shield would immediately collapse if King Sombra got close enough.” For a moment, Cadance’s eyes were drained of their color, and a large cyan bubble began to form over the empire, shimmering when it had grown to its full size. By the time Cadance had finished casting the spell and the color had returned to her eyes, she felt a sharp pain spread like wildfire across her head, which only got worse as she winced in distress.
“Cadance, are you alright?”
Cadence let out a small choked laugh, rubbing her temple with a shaky hoof. “I am fine, Shining Armor. There is no need to worry.”
Shining Armor hadn’t failed to notice that she was lying; Her smile was forced, and her accent had come back thicker than it ever had before. “Come on, we’re going to find you some place to rest.” The two trotted towards the large castle, which was somehow even more imposing from the inside than the outside. With its large empty walls made entirely from gemstones, it felt more like they were walking through a dungeon than a castle.
Shining was surprised to learn that there was someone else within the walls of the palace, a small voice coming from the other end of the hallway, which was probably only reaching him due to the remainders of the echoes. “Dete! Qui-qui est vous?”
Upon seeing that the mystery stallion who was standing at the other end of the hallway was not, in fact King Sombra, the mare gained a large boost of confidence, trotting up to Shining Armor. “What are you doing here, sir?”
“My wife is sick and-” He stopped when he noticed the mare clamp a hoof to her mouth, her cobalt blue eyes widening in surprise.
“Mi Princessa Amore Cadenza...est realmente vous, votre cristalla altessa?”
Cadence hesitated for a moment, then spoke, not even bothering to use her broken English when she already felt this miserable, hoping Shining Armor could handle being kept in the dark for just a few more moments. All she needed to do was rest, and then she could tell him everything. “Si. Sebbenne, Qui est-tu?”
The mare’s ears suddenly flopped as she whispered under her breath. “Ti comprende. Tu as fuera con el tiempo pour un melennio, mi dama.”
Cadance couldn’t decide whether it was out of shock or exhaustion when she let her body crash down onto the floor. It had hurt, yes, and would probably leave some sort of bruise, but at least she was cold now, and that was much needed when she had been burning hotter than her aunt’s sun a few seconds prior.
She felt herself being levitated somewhere else, and when she opened her eyes again they had found a place of respite on the cold crystal balconies of the castle, which provided some sort of relief to Cadance’s feverish skin and the aches and pains that had spread through the rest of her body.
The two had also found some assistance -very limited assistance due to the obvious trauma, but assistance nonetheless- in Cadance’s former crystaller, Star Sapphire. Unlike most of the other ponies in the Crystal Empire, she actually had some training in the English language, due to working so closely with the royal family.
“Alright. Tell me more about King Sombra then.”
“He was a unicorn tyrant that enslaved most of the empire when it was last seen 1000 years ago. He and his soldiers were seemingly invulnerable, and they didn’t spare anyone who they saw as their opposition...including Princess Mi Amore Cadenza’s stepfather.”
Both pairs of eyes went wide at this new discovery, Cadance’s soon growing glossy and wet with tears. A moment earlier, she didn’t even remember that she had a stepfather, or barely even a father at all, aside from logic. Now, here she was, piecing all of it together in a single moment.
Information came rushing into her head, although it even felt like they weren’t real memories instead of passages she’d read from her book once upon a time.
Mi Amore Cadenza’s original father, Ruby Crown, was a member of the Crystal Empire’s noble court who had only married her mother for the status. He got the empire’s queen pregnant, then fled the empire to escape the responsibility of raising a foal.
Mi Amore Cadenza stepfather, on the other hoof, had been nothing like that. Goldstone was a member of the Crystal Empire’s Royal Guard who had swiftly found himself more than taken with the Crystal Empress. The two of them got married after a while of closeness, and the rest, as they say, is history.
That was, until Sombra came along. When he had first risen to power, the darkness and hatred in his heart was so powerful that it had even caused a herd of Windigoes to swarm the outskirts of the empire, causing a wave of plague and other illness so strong that it even ended up killing the queen herself. With mass chaos ensuing through the empire, King Sombra was easily able to overtake the throne.
Plunged into grief and despair, Goldstone vowed to defeat King Sombra to avenge his late wife and protect his daughter, although an encounter with Sombra in the frozen tundra proved to be too much for even a great warrior like Goldstone to handle by himself.
Before he had left for his battle, however, he had a spell cast on his daughter to protect her and keep her hidden from King Sombra using the power of her parents’ love for her.
Unfortunately, the spell was broken early, causing her to both lose her memories and be taken to a village away from the empire, where she had been found and raised.
Upon realizing that, her mind stopped, letting silence grow. That hadn’t been in the book, and she had read it cover to cover countless times, to the point where she could quote it word for word if she was given the chance.
“Do you remember everything, votre altessa?”
“Si...yes, I do.”