//------------------------------// // Prologue: The Puppet Master // Story: There's Magic in the Air // by Clopficsinthecomments //------------------------------// There’s Magic in the Air Prologue Cadance Cadance had always found the lilting jingle of her magical laptop’s boot-up sound enjoyable. The melody was a lovely little opening tune for her daily royal duties, which she loved to perform. Unlike Celestia, who had to raise the sun... Luna, who had to raise the moon… and Twilight, who had to ensure that the magic of friendship was alive and flourishing, but Cadance’s domain was love. Over the years, she’d grown more and more potent as she became familiar with her abilities. She could still fondly remember her early days as a novice when she could only create new relationships and love-lives for ponies within eyesight. But it hadn’t been long before her confidence in her skill began to grow, and she found herself stretching out with her newfound abilities into the ether. It came like a sixth sense to her, sensing the potentials of love swirling around her, a vast and complex network of ponies’ affection for one another. It wasn’t easy. She’d once described it to her husband as trying to track bubbles in a raging white-water river: it was not dissimilar from the sea of quantum foam and probabilities that the Empire’s leading physicists were exploring. Every sapient creature in the world fizzed and tumbled in the rapids of circumstance, sometimes colliding and forming a new, greater whole. It had been intimidating at first, trying to navigate the chaos, to choose tiny bubbles from the cacophony and bestow upon them a gift of potent love-magic, ensuring that a new relationship would bloom. Soon, she found herself mastering the demands of the swirl, able to twist and weave the red strings of fate connecting millions of ponies… but the responsibility that came with that power was crushing. It drove Cadence to isolate herself for increasing periods to gather the concentration needed to handle so significant a burden as managing the romantic interactions of an entire planet. It might have become a dangerous obsession, if not for her sister-in-law’s incredible invention. Twilight’s magic laptop had applied boolean logic and brilliant programming to sort through the vast array of potentials, distilling Cadence’s task to a far simpler one: instead of surfing a thaumic dimension of bubbling possibility, she now had a convenient and straightforward desktop program that displayed all pending decisions that required her additional level of scrutiny, and a basic set of commands that would allow her to decide how to proceed. In other words, Cadance had the world’s ultimate dating simulator app. She pulled up the day’s pending decisions, scrolling through and quickly clicking the ‘approve’ / ‘green-light’ button on nearly all of the possible relationships. More love was always a good thing - and it was only those relationships that were illegal, unsavory, or could politically harm the kingdom that she would defer or delay. Except for one pony. She frowned as her mouse scrolled over the name… Trixie Lulamoon. ‘Her again.’ The permanently perky pink princess couldn’t prevent the grimace from crossing her face. It was the fourth time this year the magician’s name had popped up. It was like fate herself was angry at Cadance for constantly denying Trixie any romantic satisfaction. The laptop was creating chance after chance for Trixie to become entangled with another pony. She clicked through the history of denied opportunities that she’d already canceled for the magician. Starlight Glimmer. Sunburst. Snips and Snails. Maud Pie. Twilight Sparkle (as if Cadance would ever let that ship sail). Cadence growled and shook her head before checking the newest possible connection. Twilight and Ponyville may have forgiven the stage-magician for her misdeeds, but Cadance was not merciful. She made no qualms about being a vindictive and protective mare. Mess with her family... or even worse, a family member and her favorite former babysittee, and you got the horns. ‘Huh, looks like the new romantic opportunity is… a fan?’ She didn’t know the name, unlike the previously denied options. From the quick background, her program provided, it looked like he was a reporter. Further clicks revealed that he’d started skeptical of the showmare’s obnoxious ways, like most who’d crossed paths with Trixie… before slowly being won over as he covered the show-tour. He was a lonely bachelor, with the beginnings of a crush. And now, a small window was opening over the next week when the two would cross paths in Manehatten. Not that it mattered. She grinned evilly, sliding her mouse cursor over the approve button… then continued on to hover over the red deny, prompt. ‘Mess with Twily, you end up forever alone you blue bi-’ “Mom! Are you in here?” The door to her room burst open. Her teenage daughter, Princess Flurry Heart, kicked open the solid crystal barrier, sending it rebounding off the wall with a noisy slam. “We’re gonna be late for dad’s birthday brunch! Come on!” “Honey! You spooked me!” “Hurry up already, mom… I’ve been ready for like… ten minutes already! I don’t want to make dad wait!” Cadance sighed, Flurry always got so anxious when it came to her father. She was such a daddy’s girl. It was cute, really. ‘Wait. What button did I click?’ Cadance gulped as she stared at the screen. ‘Was it approve? Or decline?’