Weeks later, Shining Armor resided in an abandoned farm house on the outskirts of the besieged city of Cotton Ridge. The siege itself was complete, only the presence of cannons and cleverly positioned war engines prevented him from saving time and storming the area. Instead he was currently reviewing plans for raids to hasten the surrender. Yet that was not his only focus.
Resting on a wooden rocking chair, Cadence was relieved that the house was far enough away from camp that she could realistically take a nap if she had the time.
The house itself had been a homely affair. The furniture was well crafted and it used to have electric lighting before the preceding battles had severed that luxury. The living room table was perfectly sized for Shining Armor’s maps which were held in place by candlesticks and a broken off wooden leg from a sofa.
Heavy knocking on the door got Cadence to bolt out of the chair and magically make sure her hair was presentable. Shining Armor smirked, “I doubt anypony here would deride you for a cowlick.”
“I have a cowlick?!” Cadence fussed as she fled to a washroom.
Once she was gone, Shining Armor called out to the door. “Enter.”
Three stallions marched, two of his adjuncts and a familiar officer that brought a relieved smile to the war-weary general. “Colonel Sandy Hills, glad to see that bullet wasn’t the end of you!”
Both unicorns came close and embraced each other with a laugh. “It’ll take more than some lucky nag to put me under. I’m here for an assignment and to see if the rumors were true about you and her holiness.”
At the mention of her title, Cadence made an appearance. With a wing, she waved off the bowing before the three of them could even begin the gesture. “I hope only respectable ones have reached your ears.” Nevertheless, Sandy Hill still silently requested to kiss a raised hoof to which she allowed.
With the greeting finished, the colonel nodded. “I hear you are with child.”
Giving a polite smile, and using a wing to rope her husband into a side-hug, Cadence nodded. “That I am. I’ll be leaving for Canterlot by the morrow.”
Shining Armor was beaming with pride. “With any luck my campaign will be complete before the birth, and I can visit while the rest of my army redeploys.”
Snapping a crisp salute, Sandy Hills stood straight with the devotion of a trusted commander. “Then let me help you get there, sir. Where am I needed?”
Magically grabbing paper and a pen, Shining Armor started scribbling fresh orders. “The fourth Mage Regiment is yours. Feign a push along the south end of town at seven tomorrow morning. When you see fires towards the west fall back to the line. Should you see an opening, don’t hesitate to call up the Tenth and Eighth to support a full attack.” He finished with the first paper and gave it over while he then wrote up matching orders for the other commanders so his aides could take them.
With his instructions in hand, Sandy saluted once more and bowed to Cadence. “Glad to be back, sir, your holiness.”
At the colonel’s exit, only one of the aides left with the other orders in tow. Arching an inquisitive eyebrow at the remaining stallion, Shining spoke up when the door shut. “Something to add, lieutenant?”
“Yes, sir!” He snapped uncomfortably under Shining’s perceived irritation. He produced a wax paper wrapped bundle. “A mare in an air corps sergeant uniform delivered this communiqué for your eyes only.”
“Probably Sky Marshal Frigid Wind asking for reinforcements.” Shining Armor magically claimed the offered package with a disgruntled huff. “Thank you, lieutenant, you may go.”
As the lieutenant also departed, Cadence slid around her husband to get a better look at the package. “A bit large to be a simple letter. A care package maybe?”
“It’d be a welcome change of pace from the usual fare I get.” Shining proceeded to open it to find an odd thing. “A newspaper?” He unfolded it. “From the Mechiburg Daily?”
“That’s a Lunarian coastal city isn’t it?”
“Yes… The primary naval base this side of the pond too.”
Flash! Magic Flying Machine Unveiled at Lunar Festival!
In a stunning display during the Lunar Festival in Tranquility, Equestrian born Lady Twilight Sparkle revealed to the world her invention of a mechanical suit of armor that is powered by pegacorn magic. It was during a dance in the famed Gear Hall, and a later display to the press that Lady Twilight demonstrated her invention’s astonishing immunity to magical and mechanical disruption. Lady Twilight proclaimed this is possible through pegacorn magic and innovations in the material sciences.
The article went on, but Shining Armor had read enough. He let go of it, only for Cadence to catch it in her magic to read the rest of it. Shining sat down heavily into his seat, and ran his hooves through his mane. “What a waste…” His original energy was gone, and he sat there, covering his eyes.
“Apparently she is to be married,” Cadence announced, knowing her husband certainly had not read it all.
“You mean to say she hasn’t married already?” Shining Armor barely moved at first. He eventually waved a hoof dismissively. “Always playing with fire… If the papers are still calling her Equestrian all while announcing news like this, she’d have been smarter to marry as soon as possible… But I suppose there’s a logic to it.” It still hurt him. Not so much who the husband was, but that he felt like such a failure as a brother. “I never should have told the inquisition a damn thing.”
When the name of Twilight’s fiancé didn’t sound familiar to Cadence, she left the paper on the table and claimed her spot on the sofa next to her husband. She held him close, already missing his touch even though he was right there. “She’s a strong one. I can only hope she loves him, or can at least learn to.”
The couple were silent for a time, each brooding about the future. “Cadence, did Twilight ever tell you about the plan to change the world she and I came up with?” There was a hollow scoff to his words, as if he was grasping at a long lost dream.
Without leaving his side, Cadence shook her head as best she could. “Something about ending enstripement, but she didn’t go much beyond that. I gave her my endorsement, for what it was worth back then.”
Staring at a blank spot on the wall, Shining Armor daydreamed of Twilight gushing over the news of becoming an aunt. “Something like that…” He heaved a heavy sigh. “Whatever grievances started with the Sisters have been largely forgotten in lieu of enstripement. You’ve seen that first hoof.”
Depression threatened to overcome her, yet Cadence fought it back. “It’s the biggest counterpoint they always throw at me when I go to talk with them. It’s so deep, ending enstripement is not like snuffing a candle. I end enstripement today and so many things break, we’d have riots and famine within a month, and the church would have my head in two. Never mind the war effort.”
Nodding in sullen agreement, Shining Armor brooded in silence. Cadence’s power was slippery at best as word of her promises of amnesty to any Lunarian defectors reached the far corners of Equestria. “Twilight was supposed to lay the groundwork for moving the public against enstripement. Newspapers, business practices, sanctioned factories,” he grew angry and jumped to his hooves. “Hell, bribes and blackmail were even on the table. The inquisition couldn’t touch her so long as she never directly freed a servant!” Furious at himself as much as Rarity, he kicked a chair against the wall with enough force to dent the wall. “I thought sending that inquisitor to watch her would remind her to play it careful. Play it legal. But no! She had to go…” He choked up and turned to see the frightened concern from his wife. “I messed it all up.” He fell heavily against the table, knocking over the candlesticks. “I scared her away, and now she’ll be the death of us.”
Confusion wrinkled Cadence’s face as she closed in to hug him and lift him back over to the sofa. “You can’t predict everything, Shiny. We can only be glad she’s thriving.”
“Thriving,” he spat grimly. “And look what that thriving amongst our enemies is going to do!” he grabbed the newspaper in his magic to wave it about.
Not grasping the same issue, Cadence stood up to claim the item if only to keep him from shaking it to pieces. She looked at it to see an artistic rendition of her sister-in-law flying in amongst others. “You mean her magic machine? Doesn’t that just mean Equestria can start using machines now too?”
He stood up and faced a wall, unwilling to show his defeated face to her. “As if capturing one would be enough. The paper said it was powered by her magic. I don’t know about you, but the last time I saw an Equestrian pegacorn was my sister.” Shining Armor turned back towards the table, and slammed his hooves down on his maps, rattling the figurines symbolizing various formations. “Can you see it, Cadence?”
Truly worried now, she joined him at the table as he was fixing a toppled tiny wood train engine. Copies of the engine were spaced out across the front lines beyond the town where the rest of his army was keeping a relief force at bay. He spoke as he corrected the figure, placing it in town square. “Each of these engines represent at least seven in number, and which tribe do we see as the most common conductor?”
“Oh my.”
“Exactly,” he growled scornfully. “It won’t happen for this war. But the next? The one after that!? We’d be lucky if one of her inventions isn’t the thing that smashes into Canterlot.”
Shaking her head to stay positive, Cadence leaned down to meet her husband’s eye. “You'll come up with something. You showed the other marshals how to combat these war engines, not that they listened at first. You’re the only reason our opening months were not a complete rout, and now we stand four hundred miles from Mechiburg. You did it once, you can do it again.”
The pep talk did little to help lift his spirits. “Even if you’re right, war has changed Cadence. I defeat regiments, corps, whole armies, and what do the Lunarians do? They send in fresh troops by rail and pull the weakened soldiers out to rest far faster and safer than our portal teams could ever hope to match. If I was fighting the last war, I’d be in Mechiburg by now!”
Far from joining him in his despair, Cadence gasped and pulled her husband’s jaw and directed his gaze to her own. “I have an idea. What if we arranged for Twilight to be smuggled back to us? A written amnesty for all ills should be enough.”
Shining Armor was unmoved for a few seconds and pulled away from her before smacking an icon symbolizing an inquisitor backed platoon. “And who would we send? One of them?! It wouldn’t matter if they carried some kind of recording of our voices declaring her crimes annulled, she’d never believe it.”
“She would if we made it a personal message,” Cadence countered. “A ladybug on a letter should be enough.”
“Oh that’d work brilliantly,” Shining countered with forlorn amusement. “Scare her with the inquisitor, then terrify her with the ladybug.”
“At least she’d know it was genuine.” Cadence was already having second thoughts, but cast her doubts away to help him.
“Even if she thought the message was real, why would she leave now?” Shining Armor shook his head, already defeated. “Lunaria granted her the freedom to fly. To literally fly! You know as well as I do how much it pained her to look up at the skies denied to her by birth. And even then…” He rubbed his face, the fatigue of war catching up to him. “You said it yourself. She is to be married, and this paper was dated weeks ago. You know how this works. If my sister isn’t with foal already she definitely would be by the time some inquisitor managed to retrieve her. Celestia forbid she birth a thestral! She’d never be able to show it in public if she returned to us!”
“Then what if we made a deal with the Throne when this war is over?” Cadence put some fire in her conviction. Her family had been broken by enstripement, and she would stand for it no longer.
“What deal?” Shining asked, curious where this unrepressable energy was coming from.
“We can negotiate the end of enstripement and the return of Lunarian territory and prisoners for Twilight’s return.”
“We’d have a civil war if we did that!” Shining Armor whisper-shouted, suddenly worried there might be evesdroppers. “The aristocracy, the church, hell, not even the public could accept that! Not unless we lost the war!”
“We need not make it the public part of the treaty,” Cadence rebutted. “With Twilight’s civic insights, the clout you gain from success on the battlefield, and my authority to back it all up, we can phase out stripe usage in a matter of decades. To sell it better to the nobles and the church, we can claim her magic machines are the real goal. The advantages of mechanical power without the magical disruption. They don’t need to know about abolishment.”
“And what of a thestral foal?” I can’t ask her to abandon the child, nor to hide it away like a shameful secret.”
“On the contrary,” Cadence countered with a smug wave of a wing. “Why hide it when I can claim the child is the first step to genuine unification. Twilight keeps her foal, and we get to play the ones more faithful to Celestia’s message.”
A firm humorless grin found its way on his face. “I think you’re onto something.” He reclaimed the newspaper in his magic and stared at the picture of his sister. “Magic machines and an Equestrian bat pony…” He placed a hoof on the map on top of Cotton Ridge and dragged it all the way to Mechiburg. “Looks like I have work to do.”