//------------------------------//
// The Audience Grows 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

POWWW!

Twilight yowled, catapulting out of her bed and into the air following an immense, cushy blow. She was too asleep to focus her eyes or to process the sound of horn shimmering and giggling laughter... until two hooves caught her shoulders, holding her dangling in midair. Blinking and kicking, she slowly focused on a grinning pink face inches from her own, horn alight and a pillow hovering nearby.

"Unnngh..." Twilight groaned, rubbing her eyes. "Cadance, did you hit me with a pillow...?"

"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake!" Cadance was too busy holding Twilight to do the usual dance, wiggling the dangling alicorn from side to side instead. "Clap your hooves and do a little shake! Twilight, it's been foreverrr!"

"Give me one moment to wake up, please," Twilight requested, grogginess returning now that reality was setting in. Cadance obliged, setting her on the bed and then sitting back with a smile, wings and forelegs crossed in front of her.

For several seconds, Twilight trusted in her old foalsitter's patience, trying nothing and letting her mind do what it pleased. Then she yawned, forced her hooves beneath her, noticed her bed was plusher than usual, and finally reconstructed how her day had ended and where she had gone to sleep. "Canterlot Palace? What time is it...?"

"Ten o'clock at night," Cadance cheerfully replied, holding her odd posture and straightening a tangle in Twilight's mane with her aura. "You're a sleepyhead."

Twilight blinked, rolling and crawling out of bed before her ears suddenly spiked. "Oh no! There was a summit at sundown I was supposed to be here for, wasn't there!? That's why you came! Am I late?"

Cadance giggled again, patting Twilight's head with her aura and ruffling her ears. "We just finished. All of your friends are still out cold too. Aunt Celestia decided to let you sleep, since you sounded pretty tired last night and wouldn't have been familiar with any of what we were talking about anyway."

"But I should have been there!" Twilight protested. "I... Are you sure?"

"It's fine, Twilight," Cadance promised. "And I can fill you in on anything you're curious about anyway. It's not like the Crystal Empire can't survive without me for a while. Oooh, do you want to get midnight donuts?"

"Midnight donuts? I..." Twilight rubbed her eyes again, finally deciding she was awake enough and returning a sleepy smile. "I'd love to hang out with you. It feels like we should see each other way more often... Is my brother here?"

Cadance shook her head. "Somepony had to stay behind and manage the Empire's affairs, but he's a more capable organizer than I am. It clearly runs in the family." She grinned. "So he's got me time off when I want it. But first, can I show you a surprise?"

"A surprise?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Is it related to why you're sitting like that?"

Cadance's grin widened, and she folded her wings and uncrossed and spread her forelegs, revealing a belly bigger than intended for her slim form. "Guess whose niece it is? She wasn't showing last time we met!"

Twilight drew a breath, eyes widening as she crouched and drew closer. "Cadance...!"

"Come here!" Cadance urged, sitting on her haunches and tugging Twilight's hooves with her aura. "She's not much of a kicker yet, but let's see if she recognizes her auntie!"

Breath held, Twilight pressed her ear and her cheek against Cadance's belly, using her hooves to not unbalance her old foalsitter and feeling as long as she could. "Well, I can feel you breathing," she eventually said.

Cadance picked Twilight up, setting her back on her hooves and getting upright herself with a laugh. "Well, maybe she's sleeping. But first! Donuts?" She gave Twilight a serious eyebrow. "This little filly is demanding."

"Sure." Twilight stretched, pacing to the castle room's vanity. "Give me one moment to make sure I'm presentable, and should we invite my friends?"

Cadance's eyes glinted mischievously. "You have a new student, I hear?" She tapped her hooves eagerly. "I'd love to meet her."





A bell tinkled as the door to Pony Joe's swung open, stars in the sky as Twilight, Starlight and Rainbow Dash were herded inside by an eager Cadance. "Customerrrs!" Cadance sang, prancing up to the bar in the half-empty establishment.

"Well well." The titular owner stopped polishing a hot chocolate mug, looking up with eyes that knew good customers when they saw them. "A royal crew tonight, are we? What can I get you ladies?"

Twilight and her friends stepped up alongside Cadance, the bigger princess flaunting her new endowment. Cadance gave him a toothy grin. "Could we get the back room tonight? I think we'd like a little more privacy."

Pony Joe nodded, pointing them to a hallway past the counter leading away from the tables of studying students, off-duty guards, teenage lovebirds and lone, contemplative artists. Cadance led the way, donating a wink as she passed a high-school colt chatting furtively with his companion.

The back room was small, past the bathrooms and less ornate, with three tables and designed to hold overflow customers during peak hours as well as act as a storage area. Cadance forsook the floor and pony-sized chairs for a massive sack of powdered sugar, taking princessly care to ensure she was comfortable as Joe brought their order and the others joined her around a table.

"A little more privacy, huh?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow as their host headed out, chewing a strip off a cinnamon twist. "Was that summit thingy big last night?"

Cadance giggled, halfway through fitting an entire jelly donut in her mouth at once. "Hours ago, Rainbow Dash," she said around it once she was able. "And not really. We decided some things I'm supposed to tell you, but they're boring." She leaned eagerly towards Twilight, poking at Starlight with her gaze, and dropped her voice to a whisper. "What I want to hear about is the new girl! And I don't mean mine." She patted herself and giggled again.

"What about me?" Starlight raised an eyebrow. "Because I've been telling Twilight my past, and it's taken a whole week. I think. Never mind how much I still have left to tell..."

"Oh, pfft, pasts." Cadance waved a hoof, eyes gleaming. "Luna filled us in on everything important after talking with you last night, anyway. I want to hear about now! How are you two getting along, little life details, student things!" She practically glowed with curiosity. "Surely you haven't been staying up only for storytelling."

Twilight gave her a hurt look. "What's wrong with storytelling?"

Starlight shrugged, blowing on her hot chocolate. "Actually, we pretty much have. We made friends fairly recently, and before this storytelling started I was mostly moving in and getting properly introduced to others in Ponyville. Readjusting to not living on my own."

Cadance looked disappointed but not discouraged. "Sudden bonds of friendship? So you didn't even know each other going in?" Her grin returned, and her voice took on a theatrical tone. "You one day happened upon each other, meeting out of the blue? Was the Princess of Friendship herself caught dramatically off-guard?"

"Uhhhmm." Twilight reddened, rubbing an ear with a hoof. "Well, not really..."

Starlight looked embarrassed, too. "We were kind of mortal enemies and I hunted her down, but we're friends now so please don't hurt me?"

Cadance's eyes widened until her pupils were almost too big to fit in their sockets. In a burst of teleportation, she crossed the table and grabbed Starlight, holding her by the shoulders just like she had held Twilight earlier, looking for all the world like she wished she could squish her cheeks. "You. Were. Mortal enemies? And in a single day, you went to friends and living together?"

"Maybe?" Starlight dangled, too intimidated to struggle against a princess of Equestria.

"Hmmhmm." Cadance's eyes thinned, and a smug smile replaced her earlier eager grin. Respectfully, she replaced Starlight, then stepped over to Twilight and breathed, "Sounds like you've got yourself a real find. I'm proud of you!"

"Cadance!" Twilight swatted at her, but was too slow, the older alicorn teleporting back to her sugar sack and whistling innocently. "We're doing nothing of the sort!"

Rainbow blinked, half of a cream-filled bar sticking out of her jaw. "Uhh, did I miss something?"

Starlight's brow creased. "What aren't we doing?" She glanced from Twilight to Cadance. "There's something between you two I don't know about."

"Sister-in-law." Cadance closed her eyes, resuming her sugary feast with complete self-satisfaction. "I have a duty to tease her." Muttering under her breath, leaning over so only Twilight could hear, she added, "And look out for your future."

"Cadance..." Twilight warned.

Cadance broke down laughing. "I'm sorry! Just the look on your face..." She wiped a loose strand of mane back with a wingtip. "This is a great family to be a part of."

Through monumental strength of will, Twilight chose not to read into that. "I consider all my friends to be family," she insisted.

"What's this about?" Starlight leaned closer to Twilight.

Twilight groaned, slumping lower in her seat. "Remember what she's the princess of..."

Starlight blinked. "Hey, sounds like a neat time to change the subject," Rainbow volunteered, trying unsubtly to come to her friends' rescue. "So what did you princesses wind up doing with that weird triangle thing? And is it showing up, like, bad news?"

Cadance sighed, reluctantly letting the topic drop. "I'll be taking it to the Empire for safekeeping. That power is dangerous, but having it where we can see it is definitely good news. My aunts were very relieved to see it safe and not in troublesome hooves." Her teasing smile once again showed signs of life. "But we did talk about it, and decided the three of you deserved a reward for getting it safely."

"A reward?" Rainbow's ears instantly perked.

"What kind of reward?" Twilight asked, embarrassment replaced entirely with curiosity.

"One relevant to your story." Cadance nodded, lit her horn... and into existence popped three scrolls, each bearing a rune that seemed to not quite be confined to one plane, though they didn't glow or move or do anything fancy. "Celestia in particular thought you'd appreciate these."

Twilight and Rainbow tipped their heads curiously... but Starlight froze mid-bite, suddenly folding her ears. "Y-You can give mine to someone else," she said with fake nonchalance. "I don't really want one."

"What? Why, what are they?" Twilight gave her a quizzical look.

Cadance also gave Starlight a strange look. "Writs of Harmonic Sanction. But why don't you want one?"

Starlight waved a hoof. "Oh, this and that, it's complicated."

Rainbow Dash wasn't paying her any attention. "Wait, seriously? Aren't these really impossible to get?" She left her seat, leaning closer to Cadance to inspect them. "And you're just giving them away? We're not supposed to, like, go there, or anything?"

"Not for my sake," Cadance chuckled, ignoring Starlight in favor of the pony who was actually interested. She held Rainbow's closer. "But they last for a lifetime, and either way would make a good souvenir. Maybe you'll want them someday?"

Twilight accepted hers curiously, squinting over it. "These are definitely magical, but what do you mean they last for a lifetime? How do they work?" She glanced at Starlight. "And really? After all you went through to get these..."

Starlight averted her gaze. "I'm never going back, so one would be wasted on me. And they don't have the best memories attached. Just give it to someone who could use it. They are rare, after all."

"They're rare because my aunts make them," Cadance consoled, giving Starlight a watery smile. "But that's fair. I'll just give two to Twilight, instead." She floated Starlight's away. "You use them by holding them against your cutie mark for a moment. They're single-use, and make a small change that makes you invisible to the magic in the Aldenfold, allowing you to pass above them. The border security stations at the passes check for them too. Nothing to keep track of or remember!"

Rainbow turned hers over. "So they make my cutie mark cooler, huh? Do I get like a star or extra lightning bolts, or some cool effect to go with it?"

"You'd have to talk to Luna about that," Cadance chuckled. "She knows more about cutie marks. The effect is completely unnoticeable unless you're trying to cross the mountains!"

Twilight tilted her head. "Have you ever been across the mountains, Cadance?"

"Of course!" Cadance beamed. "The Crystal Empire is part of them. You don't think I wouldn't visit my... Starlight?" She tilted her head at the unicorn, who was shaking her head urgently.

"I'm still telling Twilight about my travels," Starlight apologized, looking slightly sheepish for having shushed a princess. "I don't actually know what the north is like now, but she appreciates anything that could keep us away from spoilers."

Cadance nodded very solemnly at Twilight. "We all know how our Twilight feels about spoilers."

Twilight batted at her mane. "Are you teasing me again?"

"Hmm..." Cadance put a hoof on her sugar-crusted chin, chewing thoughtfully, then suddenly brightened. "Spur of the moment idea! How would you girls like to catch a midnight train back to the Empire with me, right now, and we can stay up all night and I listen in on the next bit? Twilight, it's been ages since we shared a story together! If Starlight wouldn't mind, that is." She looked beseechingly at Starlight.

Starlight blinked. "A royal invite to the Crystal Empire? I mean..."

"Starlight, please," Twilight giggled. "It's a day trip. My friends and I do it for fun sometimes!" She glanced at Cadance. "But a midnight train? Are you sure?"

"Of course!" Cadance shrugged. "You three just woke up, and we'd have it all to ourselves! And I have an artifact to bring back safely, so I have a perfect excuse to not wait around. Why not?"

Twilight glanced at her friends and shrugged as well. "A pleasure outing sounds fun."

Starlight nodded, draining the last of her cocoa. "I could do that. Just a warning, you might get a little left behind, where the story is now..."

Cadance stood and stretched, arching her back and wiping away sugar from her lips. "Oh, Luna told us the important parts, and I knew plenty about northern history already. See if I can't follow along."

"You talked to Luna last night?" Twilight pushed in her chair, giving Starlight a glance.

"I did. In my dreams," Starlight replied. "Dreams make covering things much quicker. She was very interested, and told me some things I didn't know, but I think I should save them for after the story, if you're still curious. Not that they matter."

Nearby, Rainbow Dash had spent the last few minutes pressing her paper to her flank, and finally peeled it away expectantly, eyes widening. "Hey, the thing vanished! Does that mean it worked?"

Cadance lit her horn, scanning Rainbow with her aura. "It worked! Now let's go catch a train."

The walk to the train station was uneventful, teams of diligent unicorns having cleared the streets of snow since it last came down. They passed through broad streets teeming with night life, and Twilight even spotted a batpony or two now that they were in her mind and she was looking for them. Her mane felt crisp with the winter mountain air running between it and her fur, and as they reached the edge of the city, the train platform drew into view, bathed in orange floodlights. Cadance exchanged words with the conductor, barely breaking stride from telling Twilight about all the amenities she would provide and how they didn't have to pack, and with a hiss of steam the train began to move, running down the mountain and away from the city.