//------------------------------//
// (3-3) The First Lesson 
// Story: The Ruler of Ponies and Men 
// by Boopy Doopy 
//------------------------------//

Princess Cadance, or rather, just Cadance now, growled and huffed angrily as she watched Starlight and Twilight come into her room. She didn’t see why they had to do this today, why they had to do this at all. Actually, she did know. It was for Sombra, or, rather, as the stallion preferred, Alex, to embarrass her. Having those two come in to teach her about friendship. As if she were a foal and didn’t know anything. She knew about friendship, even if she had to admit that she hadn’t been acting very friendly lately. Not that many of them were acting friendly toward her.
The room they were in was the room she’d been staying in since that day, the one where all of her hard work went spiraling downward. It wasn’t a particularly awful room. In fact, most ponies would say it was quite lovely, with a nice, soft bed situated right next to the window overlooking the royal garden, and a large private bathroom attached to it. Coincidentally, perhaps intentionally, it was the room Alex was made to stay in during his first several days in the castle. However, Cadance continued to think of it as the prison she knew it was. She’d been locked in, the windows sealed shut and reinforced with magic, making escape impossible, her meals being sent to her by Luna herself to make sure that any opportunity she could have to try and leave was shut down. And although she was allowed to leave now to explore the castle, something Alex wasn't granted during his time staying there, it was still a prison, one that she was still staying in, even if Alex had told her she’d been pardoned.
Starlight, however, didn’t see it the way she did, quickly commenting on its niceness as she walked in, saying how she wished she had a room as nice as it in Twilight’s castle, earning her a glance from her alicorn counterpart that entered with her, and an eye roll along with a flick of her mane from Cadance herself.
“So what now?” she asked frustratedly. “Do we start with you two telling me I just need to forgive those ponies who’ve committed the same crimes as me and got away with it?”
“Well, let's not get into the politics of Equestria just yet,” Starlight laughed a bit nervously. “For now, let’s just focus on our first lesson: acceptance. It was my first lesson, and I’m sure it’ll be a great place for you to start, too.”
“Oh, I see. I’m supposed to accept all those things, accept that my husband- my now ex husband, has full custody over our daughter and accept that everypony in Equestria hates me now because of that little stunt those three decided to pull. I get it.” 
“Uhhh… not quite that,” Starlight chuckled, getting more and more anxious. “Uh, um, Twilight, why don’t you start us off?”
“Oh, um, so, uhh…” Twilight trailed off nervously, feeling quite small in the face of her old foal sitter and friend. “Um… you should, um… I…”
Cadance sighed, her anger dissipating at seeing the mare who, in her eyes, was still a filly, saying to her, “Look, I get it. I already know what you’re going to say. You’re going to tell me that I need to accept that I messed up and try to move forward and mend fences, and then we’ll both pretend that I’m taking what you say to heart and changing when really, I won’t. I’m not going to accept this outcome, not that there’s anything I can do about it. You might as well just leave me alone and check off whatever checkboxes you're supposed to on the list I know you have.”
“I- I’m not- I didn’t-”
“It’s nothing personal to you, Twilight. I have absolutely nothing against you and don’t hold you responsible for anything. There are five ponies I blame for this, and I promise you’re not one of them, so don’t go thinking I hate you. It’s just that I know I won’t be changing my mind about any of this because I know I’m in the right. I know I’m being mistreated, and you won’t be able to change my mind.”
“I… I’m… I guess we’ll just go and try again later... if you... really feel like that...”
Cadance could see the sadness in Twilight’s eyes and truly felt bad. She could honestly say she didn’t mean to have Twilight feeling bad if she could help it. However, she knew that was just how things went. She was not going to change her mind no matter how many friendship lessons she was given, and that was a fact. Her former sister-in-law might as well have done something else instead of wasting her time. Even as much as she hated seeing the expression on her face, she figured it was better than sitting through whatever they had planned.
Starlight could see the same look on Twilight's face and hurriedly stepped in front of her before she could say anything else.
“What Twilight means is that we’ll go and try this lesson again later,” Starlight quickly announced. “I mean, what are we thinking, diving into all the icky stuff when we don’t even know each other?” With that, she held out her hoof and smiled widely, saying, “Hi, my name is Starlight Glimmer, and I’m a pony from Sire’s Hollow who’s studying friendship under Twilight Sparkle. What’s your name?”
Cadance let out a sigh at that and grumbled under her breath, rolling her eyes. This was going to be a long night.



The next two or three hours were spent with the three of them introducing themselves to each other, with Cadance trying her best to not doze off as Starlight seemingly talked on end. It was mostly her explaining her history and what she’d done while Cadance sat bored as she stared at her expressionlessly, occasionally commenting a simple ‘wow’ or an ‘I didn’t know that' every so often. Apparently, she’d been up to no good at one point, which the pink alicorn didn’t know about, although she largely lost the details as she sat thinking about how irritating and humiliating all of this was.
“Oh wow, look at the time,” Starlight said as she looked at the lone clock in the former princess’s room, finally finished telling her life's story. “We’ve been at this for quite a while. I hope I haven’t chatted you to death. Twilight and I will be back tomorrow for your next lesson. Might as well get the first few in a row off to get the train rolling, as they say!”
“I can’t wait,” the pink pony commented sarcastically, adding, “although I was wondering if I could talk to my sister alone?”
“Oh! Uh, sure!” Twilight got out, surprised by her request. “I mean, if that’s okay with you, Starlight.”
“I don’t have an issue with it,” Starlight responded. “I’ll just let you two be and head back to our room.”
“I’ll see you in a few minutes then,” Twilight smiled as she left, closing the door behind her. Cadance waited a few seconds to make sure she was completely gone before she started to speak again.
“Twilight, you know I’m sorry right?” she started after a few moments, catching her by surprise. “You know I really mean it when I say I have nothing against you, and still think of you as my friend, right?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, of course! And I still think of you as my friend, too!”
“Then you’ll trust me when I say that this isn’t all my fault?”
“...what? Why are you-”
“I know what you're going to say, and yes, I do take responsibility and admit that part of it is my fault, but I’m not guilty like they say. They’re not treating me right.”
“Cadance, you know I can’t-”
“I know you can’t say I’m not or do anything about it, but you believe me, right Twilight?” She stared the purple mare in the eyes, and didn’t like the sad, disbelieving look she got back from her.
“How long have you known me, Twilight?” she asked desperately. “When have I ever done anything openly malicious? I’m not like that, and you know that. I’m not the evil mastermind they’re making me out to be."
“Nopony said you were evil-” Twilight tried to say before she was interrupted
 “Yes, I went along with what he said, and yes, I was angry at Celestia for what she did to me, but I’m not how you’re all making me out to be. That was him, too. That was his plan, to set himself up to be ruler. I should’ve seen it beforehoof, but I didn’t, and now everypony hates me because of him. That whole trial was a stunt to deflect blame to me. You have to know that, right, Twilight?”
Twilight sighed sadly, not wanting to tell her sister, her now ex-sister, what she needed to hear.
“Cadance…” she trailed off, looking at her hooves for a moment before looking back up to her. “You know I can’t believe you right?”
“What?” she asked back with genuine confusion, as though Twilight were speaking to somepony else.
“You- you lied to me and hurt my brother. You have to know that I can’t trust what you’re telling me. And even if I could, what can I do? What’s done is done. There’s not…”
“Oh…” Cadance trailed off, not expecting that reaction from her. “Well… I guess you hate me, too.”
“That’s not true!” Twilight said defensively. “You’re still one of my best friends! But… I just… I want to help you get better, which is why I volunteered to help you with friendship. Alex was going to have Fluttershy help you with Starlight instead of me, but I volunteered because I care about you.”
“Yeah, well, as I said, I know I’m in the right, so I’m not going to change my mind. You’ll just be wasting your time.”
“I still want to try and help you. I believe in you, and know you can move past this. Besides, I know that everypony doesn’t hate you, even if it seems like that right now. Remember, Starlight was in the exact same position as you before, maybe even worse, and look at her now! She’s one of my best friends, too, and helping out students in my School of Friendship!”
“Whatever,” Cadance sighed as she turned away. “You can go now. If you see Flurry Heart, tell her mommy loves her very much despite whatever Shining Armor is saying about me to her.”
Twilight moved up to wrap her wing around her old foal sitter in a hug, telling her, “I believe in you Cadance. I know you can get better if you try, and before long, this will all be ancient history.”