“Will that be all, Princess Cadance?”
“Yes, just switch out with Brighthoof and his guards at midnight.”
“Yes, Princess,” the guard bowed before getting up, making a beeline towards his post in the castle.
Princess Cadance, after all these decades, hadn’t shown a single grey hair in her tri-colored mane. She watched as her guards bolted out of sight, before looking over her shoulder at the tall pink door. She sighed into the empty air, before turning around and walking towards the door. Every hoofstep echoed through the castle halls, as Cadance approached the door and pushed it open.
There, on the rosy pink bed in front of her, was her daughter Flurry Heart. The young mare was sprawled on the bed, reading a book before looking up at her mother.
“Mother?” Flurry whispered. “What’re you doing here?”
“It’s high time that I tell you a bedtime story, Flurry,” Cadance explained, stepping closer to the bed.
“Bedtime story?” Flurry smiled, tilting her head. “You haven’t told me one of those since I was a foal. Why tonight?”
“I talked with Twilight, you deserved to hear this one for a long time,” Cadance frowned. “Do you remember your father, Shining Armor?”
“I’ve heard the locals around the marketplace, calling him a monster,” Flurry admitted. “They’d say that they’d never treat you like he did.”
“That’s nice of them,” Cadance covered her blush with her hoof.
“Aunt Twilight mentioned that he’s her brother, but she wouldn’t say more than that,” Flurry added. “Wait, you’re going to tell me-”
“Yes,” Cadance nodded. “I’m going to tell you what happened to him, and why you’ve never heard from him. If you’re ready.”
“Of course,” Flurry felt her hooves shaking underneath her chest, but she stilled them as she closed her book and moved towards her pillows. “Join me?”
Cadance nodded, using her magic to close the door as she gently stepped onto the bed, resting one of her wings on her daughter’s back.
“Forgive me, Flurry,” Cadance whispered. “This story couldn’t come out of my lips if I tried any day, or any year, before. I’d freeze up, my eyes would-”
“Mother,” Flurry looked into her mother’s eyes. “There’s nothing to forgive, you’re ready now. And so am I.”
“Okay,” Cadance sighed, staring at the wall. “I met your father when I started foalsitting Twilight. He’d usually come back home from his frat-colt parties, stumbling over his hooves and his words. I’d levitate him to his bed, use whatever spells and teas I could to soothe him to sleep. Sometimes, I would fall asleep on the couch, and I would wake up to the smell of vegetables on the pan. They were always crispy black at the edges, but the gesture would give me butterflies.”
“It wasn’t until Twilight moved to Ponyville that we started seeing each other exclusively,” Cadance explained. “Then came a changeling attack, one we had conquered with the power of love. We got married, and several seasons later, we had you: the first alicorn-born foal.”
Flurry’s eyes widened as a hint of a smile graced her lips, Cadance smiled back as she continued.
“By then, the Crystal Empire was already in our rule. Years had passed, Equestria defeated the most terrifying trio of villains we had seen in ages. One of them, as you know, was released from her prison and properly reformed,” Cadance said. “Twilight and her wife at the time recommended us a place that enjoyed their company, a town called H-Hope Hollow. By then, me and your father had shared the same bed once every few nights if I was lucky. The guards were ordered to keep an eye on him. Even that in itself was a difficult task.”
“Anyways,” Cadance ceased her rambling, taking a deep breath. “Twilight regrets her decision deeply, although I tell her it would have made no difference. Once a stray cat, always a stray cat.”
Cadance scowled as she said the last sentence, her muzzle scrunching up as her ears flattened.
“Now, the real story begins in the heart of Hope Hollow…”