Not for long though.
The jostling of the train going through a tunnel stirred Cadance from her impromptu nap, she lifted her head only to realize the train was submerged in darkness. In the quick panic of being unfamiliar to one's waking environment, she tried to get her hooves under her and began straining her eyes to pick out important details.
Only, in the next moment, the train exited the tunnel it was traveling through. The sudden light blinded Cadance, and her hasty attempt to stand ended with her half sliding off the couch cushion. Leaving her half standing half laying on the seat.
She swore she got an odd look from Fog Runner, but when she checked again, his face was a wall of professionalism. Cadance elected to stand for the moment.
"How long was I asleep for?" She said,
"About an hour or so" Came the response from the seat ahead of her, the voice of Crystal Brazier.
Still got a ways to go to get home.
"Excuse me you two." She slipped past them into the isle. Nopony was on their way that far north at this time of day... or really at this time of the week for that matter. The car was empty aside from one other stallion, napping the trip away in a pile made of a pillow and blanket.
Cadance turned down the isle and made her way towards the connecting door on the train, looking for the bathroom imbedded in the wall. After dealing with her business, Cadance exited to find Crystal Brazier had gotten up, and was standing guard less than a body lengths away from the door, with Fog Runner stood in the isle, blocking the way through.
Cadance once again, made the effort to slide past them, back into the isle. Except she stopped.
"Excuse me... Ms. Brazier yes?" Cadance turned to Runner as well, "And Mr. Runner? May I call you Fog?"
Mixed responses from them both. Crystal Brazier nodded and took a few steps forwards. Fog merely nodded and continued looking stock straight ahead.
Next time I pick my escort
"Are you two doing okay? I know the events were... extraordinary."
Fog was the first to respond, "I can assure you ma'am, both me and Ms. Brazier are doing perfectly fine."
Brazier on the other hoof chose not to respond at all. She instead straightened up. She was also not nearly as good at 'stoic guard'. At least, not nearly as good Fog was.
Oh dear
Cadance put on her softest smile and stepped towards Brazier, "Ms. Brazier, I do not want to pry. Honest, but you clearly have something to say."
Aaaaaaaand!
Cadance rested a hoof on Brazier's shoulder, just as she was tipping her head back to look Cadance in the eye, and that was it.
This is how I remember this usually being like. Encouragement and Connectivity, it's nice to know what's going on.
"I jus-" Brazier glanced at Fog. "I want to apologize Princess..." She said the second part, slowly. Here is where Cadance prospered; and this is where she could do some good.
Cadance chose to simply encourage Brazier to continue, all she had to do was make it clear she was giving Brazier her full attention and a real, warm smile graced Cadance's face.
"That stallion, Dusk..."
Indeed, that stallion
"I'm sorry, I'm not sure if this is really professional. I-"
"Hey, I'm not the Princess of Procedure, go ahead and get that off your withers" and that was it. With Cadance's last comment, Brazier was fully committed.
"He insulted you! He insulted us! and..." Brazier shook her head, "He was right!"
Cadance raised an eyebrow
"Erm, uh... Not about you Princess, but about us. He took us both down in an instant and then kidnapped you." Brazier took a moment to collect herself. "We should have done something differently, stood in-between you and him, maybe had special enchantments. I'm not an officer. I don't know exactly what we could've done, but it wasn't enough; and that was reason enough for us to be on an even higher guard, and we weren't."
"And I'm sorry"
Time to work your magic Cadance
"You're right Brazier."
Cadance took a deep breath, this, this right here was what 'Princessing' was all about. Of course, her lead in phrase made Brazier a little bit nervous, a classic move.
"And you are forgiven. You're definitely right that you were dropped into a situation with no hopes of having any real effectiveness should the worst happen. You were ill prepared, and ill outfitted." Another pause. "And so was I."
"Princess?" Brazier's facial expression betrayed her mood. She was convicted, but confused.
"I was promised the situation would be safe, and felt comfortable within it's bounds due to my own confidence and what I was promised."
She continued, "But I was wrong. Dusk took me by surprise too."
supposedly...
"Yes of course, but Princess, you shouldn't have to engage a hostile like that. You-"
"Do you think I am incapable of defending myself Ms. Brazier?" Cadance took on her 'teaching' tone
"I'd never imply that Princess. However, we, or any guard for that matter are the first and last line of defense for both the Princesses and the innocent. An enemy shouldn't've have thought they could get to you. You're to important for me to just get blindsided like that!"
"Then next time, Ms. Brazier, don't let it happen."
"Ma'am?"
"Next time you are in a situation where your charge is overconfident, and they're putting themselves in danger, stop them. Stop me. Say what you're saying to me now, then. As much as I wish we could just go backwards and do it all again differently, we can't. We're all safe, and that's a miracle in it of itself. So next time, make it so that we don't need to get lucky." Cadance dropped her 'teacher' tone, and gave Crystal Brazier a warm smile.
Brazier, looked lost in the eyes of the taller alicorn for a split second before taking a step back and snapping a hard and sharp salute. "Absolutely Ma'am" A wide smile adorned her face.
Cadance turned past Fog Runner, checked his face. Even Fog couldn't resist Brazier's conviction. She saw the hint of a smile, and when she locked eyes with him, he nodded once to her before returning to his stony demeanor.
Cadance, now feeling lighter, returned to her seat took a deep breath, and relaxed properly.
She looked out of the glass towards the hillsides of Equestria. She wasn't a geography buff, and while she figured it was probably important for a Princess to know the features of the land she was in charge of maintaining...
Well I guess I'm only really in charge of the Emipre
Eh, it's pretty
Which was the last complex thought Cadance had for the next while, electing instead to lightly meditate and enjoy the scenery.
"Aaaaaaah!" Cadance exclaimed with a wide smile upon exiting the Crystal Express.
There really isn't anything quite like home is there?
The air was warm, and a chill breeze was in the air, the shining dome around the empire showed off the clear sky above the cloud layer, and Cadance would never admit it, as she tended to be the 'down to earth' of the Princesses, but the opulence of being in charge of an empire made of solid crystal stirred that hindbrain portion of her mind and made her just a little giddy.
Cadance exited the train onto the platform being careful not to get her hoof stuck in the gap between the two, Brazier and Fog steps behind her. She turned and waved to a couple of other ponies standing on the platform. The perks of going out incognito; she could get off a train in public without being swarmed.
"Shall I call for an escort Princess?" Brazier asked
tempting
"Nah, I think I've had enough time today to relax, I'll teleport us to the heart."
"On your word Ma'am" said Fog.
Cadance leaned her head down a little, closed her eyes and stretched out her magical influence over the area. The heart was easy to find. It was covered in what the magically adept would refer to as a 'hilariously convenient spell anchor.' Cadance liked to refer to it as a love ball. She focused the location end of her teleport on the mass of churning magic from her namesake, and lifted her head, her horn now lit.
She turned towards her guards "Ready?"
They both simply nodded, as they had approached her while she was channeling, each pressed a hoof to her side.
Cadance loosed her spell, and in a loud-ish crack (she'd been practicing) they were stood fifty hoof lengths from the opening to the Palace. Not nearly as close as they should've been.
Guess I need more practice, I'll remind myself of that later
"Cadance!"
An involuntary smile came to her face, "Shining!"
Shining was wearing a military dress uniform, and there were what she assumed was new recruits out and about. Likely some sort of military get together, she didn't pay too much attention to those. She was far more focused on the approaching Stallion of her dreams, whom she hugged once he was in range.
Shining quickly pushed her back, "I heard so many rumors about what went down" He returned the hug "I'm glad your okay"
"I'm as okay as I can be."
...
...
"Cadance honey, you can let go of me now."
...
...
Shining went slack, accepting his fate. Cadance was beaming at passersby's, and the soldiers from the military function nearby.
"It's good to see you too Cadance. I'm glad your back."
Cadance took that as enough embarrassing her husband in front of his military staff and released him from her clutches. "I'm glad to be back, and we can talk about the details later, for now," she turned to her guards, "You two, you're dismissed for now, go get some rest" she looked at shining, and then back at them, "and probably file a report or two."
Shining saluted her guards, they saluted back. Cadance had the urge to salute as well and had to mentally reign herself in from being too silly.
"What's going on with this?" Cadance said, gesturing at the gathering of military suits.
Shining turned and started walking back towards the hub of activity, "It's a officers forum. After the months of running the empire, me and the operating staff decided to gather together all the bureaucrats for a chance for the Crystal Ponies to reconnect, and meet all of the additional staff from Equestria. There's a couple of new faces here too; and we're planning on having an open mic run by yours truly to try and organize hotfixes to any issues the staff here can work out."
Ah, so the hooves on approach, my favorite
"Can you send for someone to get Amber?" Cadance said.
Shining gave a short chuckle, "Boring you already?" but he did wave down an on duty guard who began approaching from the far wall.
"Of course not, I even intend to help." She bumped him in his flanks with her own. Even though he was built like a Crystal Pipe, her size plus her Earth Pony strength still bumped him to the side.
He laughed, "Oh no... That's much worse."
"Sir?" The guard aproached.
Shining looked towards Cadance, "Would you mind fetching Amber Stone for my wife?"
The guard saluted, and was off, Shining turned towards Cadance only to see that she had walked up to the nearest gaggle of ponies and was chatting up a storm already. He made his way over.
"Well you see Princess, while my colleague here thinks that additional funding for organization will allow for greater room to grow, I believe that our growth problem lies not in organization, but in our pony power and workforce behind our practice." Some stallion was going on. Cadance turned towards the other stallion who was apparently part of the conversation.
"Adding more bodies both as guards and as officers won't matter if neither have any organizational procedures to function on, we need funding directed to a total breakdown of our management procedure."
"What have you started here Cadance?" Shining interjected
"Nothing get's a colt arguing for real better than a pretty mare" Cadance whispered to him sagely as the two stallions went at it.
"An operational overhaul is unnecessary for the amount of ponies we have at our disposal, you might as well throw out ranks too!"
"And you just the same can join troops in training! Without any sort of higher form of function for organization technique, you'll essentially have to function as a company officer!"
"We have Drill sergeants for that!"
"They won't matter if they have no way of organizing their troops!"
"Stallions!" Shining belted out. The couple of heads that had been eyeing up the discussion, or discussing the finer points of the stallions' arguments with each other, albeit, more calmly, stopped to observe whatever it was to happen next.
"It's true that our organizational systems need a revamp; not only do we need it to revitalize old systems, we also need it to take advantage of new technology, magics, and division practices." Shining turned to the other stallion, and let out a long drawn out, "However. It's true that the Crystal Guard has enough officers with enough experience that widescale organization would be a step backwards."
He pivoted his head around, "One of the ongoing discussion points for the open mic will be a 'logistics' division. Essentially a guard and officer branch dedicated to organization, followed by the consolidation of the Crystal Guard to an elite force, and the formation of a more modern Crystal Army with the backing of said logistics division."
Cadance turned her head at the Amber coloured limb that swung to get her attention. As the two stallions turned to berate Shining with questions Cadance interjected, "That's my que, see you two," she turned to shining, "I'll see you for dinner" and then made her way around the outside of the crowd to Amber Stone, her aid.
Amber was, suprise, an Amber coloured mare with a short cropped mane of a sandy colour. Her cutie mark was a picture of a tablet of stone and a carving pick.
"Evening Princess." Amber did a short kneel with her front hooves, the equivalent of a curtsy.
"Hello Amber, I know I'm back far earlier than expected, but I'm guessing you still have work for me?"
"Absolutely Princess, there's never an end to paperwork. Specifically there are a couple of bills for zoning the guild wants you to recognize as a go between for the noble houses." Amber turned off towards the entrance to the spire, and Cadance followed, trying to piece together what she'd say to Shining at dinner.
Cadance looked at the clock. Six in the evening. The sun was starting to colour the sky all of it's beautiful shades, and Cadance was starting to see things. She'd been up way to long, and all the paper work was blurring together. At least she only had an hour left before she could go to the dining hall. Amber was at another desk in her office, just outside of the open doorway that led to another room that was basically still just Cadance's office.
She shuffled the papers around
Paper about nobles wanting more taxbits
Paper about the Guild being annoyed at the nobles getting taxbits
Reports about the palace not receiving enough taxbits,
ugh, how does Aunty Luna understand all of this legalize so easily?
"Amber?" Cadance called out
"Yes Princess?" Amber leaned her head into the doorway. Cadance instead of responding just waved Amber into her office. Once she was close enough she continued.
"I may have prematurely tossed myself into this, do you think you can translate some of these for me?" Cadance tried to organize her workstation while making her request, trying not to sound exhausted already.
"Like what Princess?"
Cadance pulled a sheet from the stack, this one was clipped together at the top, with a duplicate paper for each of the noble houses.
"This one says, official recognition from the crown for exiled noble class in light of extenuating circumstance." Which is one Tartarus of a summary.
"Ah, a particularly strange one" Amber said, maneuvering around the desk to hold the papers, "This came request came in today from a pony from Equestria. Apparently some merchant mare has proof of lineage to a noble house that was exiled from the Empire just before Sombra's rule." She looked through the first pages, which were the details on their own, before skimming through the supplementaries for the other houses. "Citing that their house was exiled because of Sombra, the mare is requesting acknowledgement that they are an heir to the exiled house, and that they'd like not only officially bring said house from exile, but host their company here in the empire as the rekindling of the..." Amber trailed of and flipped back a couple of pages, "The Noble House of Silvers"
"So a mare wants a noble title and permission to start a company?"
"Essentially Princess."
Cadance thought for a moment. "Will the other nobles throw a fit?"
"No Princess." Amber said, and simply looked at Cadance patiently.
Cadance, expecting more said, "oh, how do you know?"
"Besides the fact that this wouldn't've made it to your or my desk had the nobles not wanted it to, it's likely that any of ours would look at this business mare as an opportunity" Amber cleared her throat, "They'll likely take the new noblemare under their wing so to speak, in order to add to their resources."
"Huh."
"Shall I send this out with your approval Princess?"
Cadance looked at the clock. "Yes," Cadance signed a couple of dotted lines" Thank you Amber.
Amber took the paper, and walked it back out to her own desk.
six whole minutes over and done with.... wooo