"Ah, this week's friendship letter, right on schedule!"
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The ruler of Equestria was quite pleased from the distraction from her usual load of paperwork as a sealed scroll appeared in front of her in a flash of green flame. Having materialized in mid-air, the scroll dropped onto the desk where the sun princess was working, and she used her unicorn magic to levitate it up again and unroll it, the proud maternal smile of anticipation spreading across her face.
"Dear Princess Celestia..." the princess began reading, "This week I learned a lesson about the value of teamwork and careful coordination in the effort to accommodate your request to return the defeated Discord back to Canterlot's statue garden. Not even a scratch will be found on the statue once it is reinstalled in its proper place! My friends have asked me many questions about why the statue needed to be kept intact, but I have learned to trust you have your reasons for wanting things this way. If at all possible, please relay any reports of damage to me so that the durability of his reimprisonment can be measured and documented for posterity. Sincerely, Your Faithful Student Twilight Sparkle."
Celestia cracks a chuckle after finishing the letter, muttering comments to herself afterward: "I'll have to see if there's enough footage for an episode, it's hard to tell if there is or not..."
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Her train of thought is interrupted by the knock of hooves on the door leading into her office. "You may come in." she primly replies as the office chair swivels in the direction of the door under the influence of unicorn magic.
The door slowly swings open, and the solar princess observes the white unicorn stallion that is soon to be her next Captain of the Guard. Even now, his manner of approach is still as cautious as those of the freshly minted Upper Class guards, only swinging the door just enough to slip through before giving a slow bow of the head in Celestia's direction.
"Arise, Captain-to-be." Celestia states, cracking a smile at the modesty Shining Armor exhibited - a refreshing sight among the endless faces of those who brashly sought something from her.
"Thank you, Your Highness. The repetrified form of Discord has been reinstalled on the pedestal in the statue garden, just as you requested." Shining Armor answers.
"Splendid news. Of course, the tours won't be resuming any time soon - he left quite a mess behind, and I wouldn't blame anypony for not wanting to be anywhere near him for quite some time..." Princess Celestia affirms, levitating a cup full of tea from its place off to one side of the desk and taking a sip of the contents.
"Yes, Your Highness, in regards to that topic... I have heard from many in the lower ranks that it was a mistake to leave the statue intact, that surely it would be better to smash the statue to bits as quickly as possible..." the Acting Captain of the Guard awkwardly begins.
"Perchance do you share such beliefs, Captain?" Celestia asks with a raise of her eyebrow, a signal Shining Armor well understands that he needs to speak with complete honesty if he does not want to damage the trust of the princess in him.
"No Your Highness, I do not." Shining Armor confidently answers. "I know from the example of the rediscovery of the Elements of Harmony that you have your reasons for doing things in the way you do them, but I am struggling to provide an answer to their insistent statements that Your Highness is making a mistake. When they ask, what should be the answer I give to them?"
"The answer you should give is that you need to trust that I have other plans for the draconequus besides grinding the statue form of him to dust. Order and regularity are very good things to have, but in and of themselves they cannot provide permanent harmony." Celestia replies in turn, in the somewhat cryptic manner that Shining Armor had long since learned to not ask explanations for and just accept that she did have some kind of plan in mind for him (even if it would take quite some time to see what that plan was).
"... Yes, Your Highness." Shining Armor finally speaks out after an awkward pause of several seconds, not knowing what else to say at the moment.
"Very good. Now, while I have you here there's something else we need to go over." Celestia continues, pausing to take another sip of the tea in the levitating cup. "The vote for your confirmation as Captain of the Guard just passed through Congress this morning, which means the passing of the torch ceremony will happen a week and a day from today. This will be the day after your sister sends her friendship letter for next week, so there should be no problems with her being in attendance."
"And to be perfectly honest, Your Highness, I would very much like Twily to be in attendance for this." Shining Armor comments once the princess has finished speaking.
"As I expected you would, and as long as you remember to get that invite out promptly there should be no problem with her attending the ceremony. The confirmation vote was a closer margin than I expected it to be, and maybe even I have underestimated how much 'noise' will be raised against your appointment once it becomes public knowledge. I don't believe it will be anything that can't be dealt with, however."
"...Of course, Your Highness."
"Just keep a keen eye and a discerning ear on the tides of public opinion and everything should be fine, Captain. That is all I have for you at the moment, you are dismissed to your post."
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And just like that the meeting with Princess Celestia was over - almost as soon as it had begun, Shining felt. Nevertheless, he decided to quietly turn away, heading back out of Celestia's office and leaving her to the paperwork once again.
He had barely made it back into the antechamber of the royal suite, however, when he abruptly stopped in his tracks, this time upon seeing the face of another princess he was quite familiar with. Her presence here, especially coupled with the expression on her face, resulted in an irritated sigh.
"Cadance, I'm on duty right now. I can't do anything until my shift is over at sunset." Shining Armor replies to the "hurt puppy" expression Cadance was displaying at the moment.
"I just wanna talk, though!" the younger alicorn explains with almost a whimper behind her tone of voice.
"Alright, if it's just talking..." Shining Armor replies, giving a sidelong glance to see if anypony else was listening.
"Shining, I'm tired of waiting!" Cadance begins ranting. "I know Aunt Celly wanted to put things off until Aunt Lulu had recovered her powers, but it looks like that process is mostly done. And you're going to be Captain of the Guard soon, so why am I still waiting?! Why can't I have the day I've been dreaming of ever since I came to Canterlot?"
"Hey, I'm not exactly thrilled about having had to wait most of another year either." Shining begins answering, relaxing a little bit as he does so. "But I can feel it in my bones the timing is just about right. I've been long yearning for that day too, and I'm sure it'll be amazing and like no other one in Equestria's history, but we're still not quite there yet. We just need to trust in the timing."
"Yeah, I guess you're right..." Cadance affirms, her mood drooping down a bit further as she does so.
"Besides, I have plans of my own. You'll see during the passing of the torch ceremony. Love you lots, see you at the O&O group later!" Shining Armor adds on, giving a quick peck on Cadance's cheek and starting away before the princess can ask any more questions.
Yes, the soon-to-be Captain of the Guard could sight the long-awaited day of the Canterlot Wedding on the metaphorical far horizon. But it still wasn't quite the time for it to arrive yet. He was sure, however, it would be OK to start the process toward reaching it in motion...