"So let me get this straight."
Princess Celestia had already raised the moon for the night when Cadance got her head wrapped around things
"A thousand years ago, there was a magical empire in the north, but then a unicorn king took over and declared war on Equestria. Princess Celestia led her armies against him, so when he couldn't win, he instead cursed the whole land and everypony living inside away."
Sunset Shimmer yawned and nodded
"In essence, yes."
"But that doesn't make any sense!"
Cadance sat up and waved her hooves around as she tried to make a point
"If he was powerful enough to curse away an entire empire, shouldn't he have been strong enough to fight Auntie Celestia?"
"And that's where you're wrong."
Sunset Shimmer levitated a few books between them and opened them at the relevant passages
"Multiple sources state that Sombra used an ancient relic to boost his powers. This relic was the reason why he ventured to the Crystal Empire in the first place."
Cadance glanced at the books, but Sunset moved them faster than she could read
"This book states that the relic was in fact the heart of the Crystal Empire, and therefore deeply bound to the Empire. Meaning he couldn't move it away."
Another book floated into sight
"But it says here that any magic can be rebound to another source, but you would need a source of equal power or stronger to do so."
The next floated on top of the other
"And according to this theory, a magic artefact's power can be increased by combining it with another source of magic. Do you get it now?"
Cadance looked up from the books and her blank stare made Sunset Shimmer groan in frustration
"Oh, come on! This is not that hard! Sombra had a power source, but he couldn't leave the Empire until he used another source to bind it to him instead. And who is more powerful than Princess Celestia?"
Cadance' eyes opened wide
"So the war was just a trap."
"Exactly. He could only fight the princess in his own lair, so he tried to lure her in, use her power for himself and combine it with the magic he had already stolen. Which would make him the most powerful being in the whole world."
Cadance' gaze darted between the books and finally settled on Sunset Shimmer
"How did you figure all this out?"
"Because I'm smart and Princess Celestia's most talented student ever."
Cadance rolled her eyes, but her frown quickly returned. She had an unfamiliar thoughtful expression as she glanced between the books and Sunset Shimmer
“It still doesn’t make any sense. I mean, why would he do something like that?”
“So he would be more powerful.”
“Yes, but why?”
Cadance waved her hooves around again, Sunset Shimmer had not seen this from her before today. She had seen the pink pony get excited, but never as serious as this
“I mean, he had a whole empire for himself to rule. He had a powerful artefact to boost his abilities. He had and entire tribe of ponies at his beck and call. What more could he still want?”
More power, what else? Sunset Shimmer didn’t say what immediately ran through her head, something about Cadance’ agitation told her better not to interrupt her right now
“He was a leader to a whole nation, he had responsibilities for his ponies. He had to make sure that there was enough food and warm homes for everypony, schools for the foals, hospitals and all those things. He had to take care of his ponies, how did he even have time for starting a war?”
Sunset Shimmer let the young princess rant on for a while longer about trade routes and cultural growth of society. She didn’t interrupt her because, most of all, she was floored. She would have never expected Cadance to think about any of those things at all, but she did and with so much passion, about ponies she had never even heard of before today.
Sunset Shimmer had no doubt that Cadance was naïve and inexperienced, full of holdless ideals. But for the first time, she wondered if that was such a bad thing.
Sadly, Cadance needed to learn the truth and Sunset Shimmer was the one to tell her.
Sunset stood up and caught her gaze. Cadance fell silent when she saw Sunset’s hard eyes, lacking their usual fire.
“Cadance, he didn’t care. Not about the ponies and not about the empire.”
“But he was their ruler and…”
“And he didn’t give a flying feather about it.”
“You can’t know that.”
Sunset Shimmer sighed and sat back down, trying her most to not yell
“Crystal Note can’t read.”
“What?”
“In Sombra’s empire, there was no education for his ponies. Crystal Note can’t read or write at all.”
Cadance stared at Sunset with worry, but Sunset just went on
“Crystal Note had never seen an apple in her entire life.”
The pink eyes in front of her only opened wider
“She got a soldier’s breakfast and she treated it like a royal feast. In fact, she didn’t even dare to touch it even though she was starved, because she was afraid I’d punish her.”
Cadance’ right hoof flew up to cover her mouth and her eyes began to water
“When she woke up, the first thing she did was scream in fear. Then she begged for her life.”
Cadance tried to muffle her sob behind her hoof and shook her head
“When she hears Sombra’s name, she starts crying, even now.”
Cadance couldn’t take anymore and her own tears started running
“Why? What has he done to her? To his ponies?”
“We don’t know for sure.”
Sunset’s own voice filled with anger again as she pointed at the books
“There are some vague indications, but it all happened centuries before any of those books had been written. I clearly felt dark magic when I was there and Princess Celestia mentioned mind magic.”
Cadance nodded, tears still running. Sunset didn’t think she understand the whole range of things, but clearly something was on her mind. Cadance needed a minute before she dared to ask
“And Crystal Note? What does she know?”
Sunset shook her head and frowned
“She doesn’t know anything. Whatever this curse was, it wiped out her memory. She can’t remember anything except fear.”
Now Cadance started sobbing, her head sinking down on the pillows and her hooves covering her eyes
“Oh, that poor pony!”
Sunset Shimmer just watched, unsure how to react for once. Cadance hadn’t even met Crystal Note yet, but still here she was, bawling her eyes out from pure compassion. Just seeing this made Sunset feel weird in her guts.
She moved the books away with her magic and stood up. Only two steps before she was standing right in front of the sobbing alicorn.
Carefully, she placed her hoof on Cadance’s shoulder. She vaguely remembered how she did the same for Crystal Note when she was crying.
Unlike Crystal Note however, Cadance leapt up with a big sob and before Sunset could react, the taller pony had her wrapped up in her hooves and squeezed against her barrel, not unlike a foal would cling on a teddy bear for comfort.
Sunset Shimmer wiggled in the tight embrace but the crying Cadance didn’t seem to notice. Sunset groaned and closed her eyes, waiting for the alicorn to calm down again.
When she didn’t a minute later, Sunset called out annoyed
“Cadance! You’re hugging me.”
“Oh! Sorry.”
As soon as Cadance disentangled her hooves from her, Sunset retreated to her own pillow in a safe distance. She threw an annoyed glare across the room as she tried to get her mane back in shape
“Just this once, I’ll let it slide. But don’t push your luck again.”
Cadance blushed and nodded, but there was an indication of a smile between the tearstains. That smiled died away quickly and Cadance asked the inevitable question
“Can you tell me more about Crystal Note?”
Sunset sighed and briefly summed up the event in the north and some things that had happened here. She left out the breakdowns and flashbacks, as well as Crystal Note’s talent for music. They had bigger things to focus on first.
“I’d like to meet her.”
Sunset Shimmer frowned and shook her head
“I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“And why not, Sunset?”
Cadance didn’t sound annoyed so Sunset explained calmly
“She was terrified when she first saw Princess Celestia. Imagine what would happen if she met another alicorn. Also, there’s the princess.”
Cadance tilted her head but listened attentively as Sunset continued
“Princess Celestia doesn’t want you to meet her. If she finds out you’ve still went to visit her, the princess won’t like it.”
“That’s her problem then.”
“Just listen! Princess Celestia knows something we don’t. Something that might take me months to find in any of my books. But since you’re on her good side, maybe you can get the information we need faster.”
Sunset smirked at Cadance, clearly she was curious about Sunset’s plan as well as the chance to be useful for once
“You said it yourself, Princess Celestia doesn’t lie to you. When I ask her something she doesn’t want to answer, she simply deflects them. But if you asked the right questions, she might be willing to answer.”
Cadance frowned, but she nodded
“I see where you’re going at. I’m not spying on Auntie Celestia for you.”
“Oh, so you’d rather keep watching her worry all on her own?”
Cadance stood up and shook her head
“I say we go and talk to Auntie instead. You know what, that’s what I’m going to do right now, with or without you.”
Cadance stomped towards the door with an angry huff and her wings flared up.
Sunset’s voice stopped her before her hoof grabbed the doorknob
“So you don’t care what will happen to Crystal Note then?”
“What?”
Cadance turned her head back into the room, but Sunset Shimmer was looking at the floor, slumped on her pillow without any of her usual confidence
“Sunset Shimmer, what do you mean, I don’t care?”
“Crystal Note is a part of this. I can’t tell how big or where she fits in, but Princess Celestia is acting weird since she met her.”
Sunset looked up at Cadance who did a double take when she saw Sunset’s eyes
“Crystal Note doesn’t know anything. She has no idea that she’s even a part of Celestia’s plan. If you confront the princess now, she’ll speed up her plan and do whatever she thinks is necessary. She won’t consider a single pony’s happiness over the fate of Equestria.”
Sunset was overly dramatic and Cadance knew it as well. But that didn’t mean that she wasn’t getting at something.
“Princess Celestia won’t let her leave the palace, she instructed the guards to have an eye on her, she even tasked me to take care of her and teach her everyday things. She doesn’t want that anypony outside the palace even knows that Crystal Note exists. If I hadn’t mentioned her name, she wouldn’t even have told her own niece about her.”
Cadance closed her eyes and Sunset looked at the floor again. After a minute of silence, Cadance whispered as if she was afraid that somepony could hear her
“Do you really think Auntie Celestia would do anything to her?”
“No!”
Sunset jumped on her hooves and looked in Cadance’ eyes again
“Princess Celestia would never hurt anypony. But Crystal Note… she’s innocent. She doesn’t deserve being pulled into some kind of scheme, not after all everything she already had to go through.”
Cadance held her gaze, calm and collected for once while Sunset already simmered with anger. A few minutes passed before something unexpected happened.
Cadance lips twitched into a soft smile, almost like Princess Celestia always had
“And everypony tells me that Sunset Shimmer cares for nopony but herself.”
Sunset took Cadance’ smile as a challenge and made a step towards the alicorn, but Cadance turned around and reached for the door again
“I still think we should talk to Auntie Celestia, but I’ll follow your advice for now. I’ll tell you all I found out at our next ‘training session’.”
Sunset just nodded and fought back the smile she felt appearing on her face
“I still want to meet Crystal Note, though.”
This time, Sunset did smirk and she shrugged when Cadance looked back at her
“I don’t watch her every single minute of the day, if you just happen to run into her, that’s not my fault. Maybe you should just keep your ears open.”
Cadance tilted her head at the weird emphasis on the last words, but Sunset Shimmer just shrugged again and turned towards her bookshelf. Cadance walked out of Sunset’s room and closed the door behind her.
Now, Sunset Shimmer allowed for the big smirk she had held back before. With Cadance gathering information for her, she now had better chances to find the answer to all those questions than ever. She couldn’t send Cadance to ask about the mirror though, Princess Celestia would grow even more suspicious at that. Not yet, anyways.
Sunset Shimmer wondered if she should warn Crystal Note, but decided against it. For now, she had something more important to check.
With a glow of her horn, she summoned all the books on the Crystal Empire she had read before. While Cadance’ hug had been annoying, Sunset had noticed something that otherwise might have slipped past her.
Sunset sat down by the light of a candle and started reading. With how weird Princess Celestia was acting, could it really be a coincidence that Cadance’ cutie mark is a Crystal Heart?