As disappointed as Cadance could ever be, she still couldn't fathom the fact her spell couldn't find Sunburst's perfect partner. The spell sought to create and perfect wasn't enough to live up to its name. She laid there, moping in her failure with her head resting on her right foreleg.
"Even after conducting a few test runs on animals and pets, the results were flawless. Why didn't the spell work on him?" Pondered Cadance, "Is it true that I've made a mistake? Or...no, that he doesn't have a destined partner, to begin with?"
"Cadance, it's only the first customer," Shining comforted his wife, gently patting her head and a small rub, "I bet the next one will be a guaranteed success, you just have to believe in yourself."
"Mmm, thanks, honey..."
"Excuse me, your highness!" came a crystal guard pony trotting his way up the end of the carpet, "There are two ponies who wish your services upon them! Shall I bring them in?"
"TWO!?" She squealed the second the guard broke the wonderful news to her, "Yeas! Send them in now!"
The guard went to trot back to the main doors and gave clearance to let the two ponies in. She knew it was two pegasi by the looks of their wings, but stunned herself by one of them being...a foal? Looking to be somewhere in elementary grade, she and Shining Armor gave curious faces as the older stallion flew in front of him.
"Uh... it's an honor to be in your presence, Princess Cadance!" The older stallion gave her a formal getting with a bow and pestering the foal to follow, "Little bro! Greet the princess as I told you!"
But the colt wasn't so compliant as he put on a pouty face next to him, "Can we just get this over with!?"
"Oh, I know you two!" snapped Shining, "You're that Wonderbolt Thunderlane and his little brother Rumble. I guess the popularity has made you anxious to find your match?"
"I guess, but it's Rumble who wants it more than me." corrected Thunderlane, "Kid is bugging me about finding the perfect one for him."
"Oh, I get what you're getting at kid!" Chuckled Shining as he made a sophisticated look on his face, "I mean, when I was your age, Hoo Boy."
"Ugh!" Scoffed Cadance, shrugging off her husband to talk to Rumble, "So Rumble, what made you come to me to discover your destined partner? You got a whole eight years of your school life ahead of you, time to explore your options and see what your trail leads yo-"
"Boring!" He blurted out loud, "I don't want to wait that long! I want to know now so that I don't have to worry about it later. Most girls in my class are scardey cats or weak little-"
Rumble was cut off by his brother covering his mouth with his large wing as he changed the subject. "Okay! Let's get this over with shall we Princess?"
"Okay, you can do this Cadance!" pumping herself up was the only thing Cadance could ever do as she took a strong deep breath moving out of her seat, "Alright Rumble, stand there and I'll do the rest. Thunderlane, if you would be a gentle colt and step back?"
The Wonderbolt complied with her order and took a few steps back to give her some space to do her work. Shining Armor followed behind Cadance to brace himself for the second attempt at her spell. The magical circle in the shape of a heart and the rotating letters were all familiar to him. To Rumble, he was a bit spooked out by the glowing gro beneath his little hooves.
"Are you doing alright bro!?" asked Thunderlane with his voice raised.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine!" he panted, "Just get it over with Princess!"
Cadance, still focusing on the steady glow from her horn, was hesitant at first to proceed onto the next step of the spell. But Shining Armor came to his comfort giving her a warm smile to put her at ease.
"You can do it!"
"Thanks!" she blushed, "I may be compliant giving 20,000 bits to a full-grown stallion, but I won't to some foal!"
"Wait, but I gave him the-"
"So Rumble! Are you ready to see who you're destined to be with?" she ignored her husband and asked the colt.
"Yes, I'm ready!" he cried out, "Just do it now!"
*POOF*
The throne room was once again filled with the bright glow from the magic circle collapsing and going off in an explosion, causing everypony in the room to avert their eyes from the light. Princess Cadance especially was eager to figure out once and for all of her spells worked as intended. She quickly glanced over Rumble's general direction and spotted a small figure; a pink pegasus lying on the side of their face as Rumble adjusted his eyes to see who it is.
"It worked?! IT WORKED!" Cadance squealed like it was Hearth's Warming day, her hooves were bouncy each step, "Honey, I just did the impossible and successfully located a ponies destined partner!"
Taking a glance over at the pony that magically appeared in front of the colt, Shining was unsure whether to be happy for her or concerned when he poked at Cadance, "Umm...Cadance, I think the spell failed again, take a look!"
"Hmm? What's wrong now? You could see the pink filly pegasus with curly blue..." Cadance quickly broke off her victory dance and saw the pegasus filly slowly waking up, "Oh, that doesn't look good..."
The pink pegasus, rising from her slumber, looked dazed at first by the unexpected change in the environment she was in. Taking almost a few seconds to clear her vision from the bright light, she flicked her light-blue mane with her head and looked outward to the distance, "W-Where am I? I was just still for one second, and I just magically came here..."
"Cadance! Why is Cozy Glow out of her stone prison!?" whispered Shining, trying not to get the filly's attention from behind her.
"I don't know! The spell is for locating one's destined partner!" she shrugged with her answer, "I guess that Cozy Glow and Rumble are destined to be together?"
"Destined! But she worked with Lord Tirek to drain Equestria of its magic and went all crazy trying to use Grogar's bell!" continued Shining, "You need to turn her back to stone, now!"
"I don't know the spell that turns creatures to stone!" she muttered back to him.
"Well, contact your aunt or something! This is probably going to end sour!"
"Wait, I want to see where this goes..." She stopped Shining from proceeding on, "Let's just listen,"
"Hey! Where the hay am I?" Cozy Glow quickly came through as she examined the whole room, "Is this the Crystal Empire? And who are you?!"
She looked over at Rumble, standing only a few feet away from him as the colt was seemingly gawking at her. While Thunderlane in the distance simply watched over them to not intervene at their first meet.
"How," Rumble was left speechless at the sight of her, trembling from his hind legs.
"Listen, Rumble!" behind Rumble was Shining Armor reassuring him, "I know you're afraid of her, just back away and..."
"HOW ARE YOU SO CUTE!?"
He was worked up to come up to her and got a good look at her face, it was the first time Rumble showed a bright smile on his face from his time here. Cadance, Shining, and Thunderlane all looked dumbfounded by Rumble's sudden change in attitude.
"Umm...excuse me?" cringed Cozy, "You're that Rumble I've seen occasionally in Cloudsdale. Why are you here with me!"
"Of course, It all makes sense!" an epiphany broke out in Rumble's mind, as he continued, "I'm destined to be with the most badass filly in Equestria, EVER! I always thought you were just another filly like the rest, but the way you manipulated ponies at the school of friendship was amazing! And your feat to drain Equestria's magic and fight with two other baddies against the Princess of Friendship and her friends!"
"T-Thank you?" Cozy doesn't know what to make of this at first, but quickly spotting what he said in the beginning, "Hold up! Did you say, destined to be with?"
But Rumble ignored her and glanced over at Cadance from the distance, "I doubted you when I saw the papers about finding perfect matches but now I'm a believer! You're a miracle worker, Princess!"
"No, wait! What's going on here!?" Cozy wasn't sure what the whole deal is, she tried another attempt to get answers, "Is he talking about ME being his true love?"
"Umm...correct!" Cadance forcefully smiled, "It seems that my magic spell worked a bit too well this time and freed you...your welcome?"
Rumble was eyeing Cozy Glow, causing her to blush a bit as he started to open up to her, "Hey, since we're destined to be together, how about we get to know eachother? How about a date!?"
"What the?" she couldn't stand what was going on, as Cozy gritted her teeth, "You expect me to believe that a Princess used a spell to find perfect pairs? You expect me to accept a date from some colt I've met right now? And you expect me that I'll be spending the rest of my life with you!?"
"Yes?"
"Okay!"
"Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I guess..." but when Rumble went back in his mind to hear her answer, he gasped, "Wait!? You said yes!?"
"Yeah..." she quickly turned her fierce look into a sheepish glare as her blush grew tremendously, "I kinda had a thing for you when I always see you in town or Cloudsdale, but I never really tried anything because of my plans. I don't want anypony to find out I had a plan to become the Queen of Friendship."
"Hang on their young lady!" Shining Armor quickly rushed in front of them to give her a stern look, "This better not be some ploy to get out of your stone prison and hatch a revenge scheme!"
"No, it isn't!" she shook her head.
"I know what's up with you and you're manipulative nature!" Shining Armor went for another attempt to berate her, "You're a sociopath that takes control of ponies' emotions and treats them like your pawns! You're just going to use Rumble to take control of his feelings and use him to form your new empire!"
Cozy was sighing longingly, tired from Shining Armor's conspiracy about her, "Look here buddy, I've used friendship to destroy a friendship, even tried to get two rotten baddies to get along as friends and make use of the most unstoppable trio in Equestria. When that failed, I gave up that dream of mine and accepted my fate. Even if I did plan out something a few minutes after I broke free, I would just be stopped by Twilight, her friends, Sandbar, or his friends."
"But...but..."
"I don't believe you understand, but my malicious days are over!" Cozy walked over next to Rumble as he offered his foreleg for her to hold onto, "Now, I want to spend as much time with Rumble and potentially form something stronger than friendship."
"Aw yeah! Come on Thunderlane! I want to get ice cream together!" said Rumble, before realizing something he forget, "Or you want a turn at this?"
"No thanks, I want to surprise myself along the way," the stallion shook his head, turning to the Princess and Shining Armor to wave goodbye with his foreleg, "Well, see ya! I'll make sure to check on her in case she does something bad."
Thunderlane, alongside Cozy and Rumble, turned back to exit the palace throne room as they left Shining Armor in a stagnant state leaving nothing but a slow blinking of his eyes. Cadance rushed to his side as he broke off of his silent state.
"H-Honey...what do you make of this situation?" he went to ask Cadance next to him.
Candace slowly nodded, "Wow, Rumble did better with the ladies than you!"
Somewhere in the castle friendship...
"Good grief Sunburst!" Spike gasped, as he was sitting at one end of the library with Sunburst and a huge source of bits resting on the table next to him, "Did you win the lottery?"
"No, it was from Cadance's ad on the papers." He answered with a lack of expression in his voice, "She couldn't find my destined lover, so I got paid the compensation."
"Oh, that spell Twilight was working her butt off?" The dragon scratched his chin, vaguely remembering, "Man, sorry that it didn't work for you. What are you going to do with the money?"
"Maybe buy a few books, magical relics for collection, or pay taxes," he threw out a few ideas in mind, "I just don't know what to do with this much?"
"Oh! Try your hooves on investing! You could get like ten times back if you follow the right trends and buy the appropriate stocks!" Suggested Spike, "Hmm, maybe I should give Cadance a visit too, not that it matters because I sort of know my destined creature to be with."
"Alright, I'll look into it." Sunburst was imagining the idea Spike came up with letting the idea float in his mind. "Just don't know if I'll get any profit from it..."