//------------------------------//
// From the Life of a Princess 
// Story: As The Sun Sets 
// by Noobblue 
//------------------------------//

Cadance thought the dining hall was too opulent when she first moved into the castle. The crystal walls from the spire, plus all of the sconces and chandeliers and décor of which she could not name made the dining room seem more like a ballroom.

So about two months into her governance of the Crystal empire, she converted the royal dining hall into a mess hall of grand proportions, upgraded and expanded the kitchens, and hired more staff. With a little bit of guidance from Shining Armor, it had been turned into what amounted to a gourmet soup kitchen, of which mostly only palace staff frequented. (However it was open to the public)

However, Shining had another plan.

"Shining Armor is here with dinner for you princess." Amber called from outside.

Cadance, still neck deep in paperwork had yet to think about dining shook her head in surprise and smiled as Shining Armor pushed open the door and walked in, giving a similar smile. In his magic floated what looked like two bowls of spaghetti.

"Shining! I didn't realize you'd be coming" 

Shining full stepped into the room and placed the food down on a nearby surface, Cadance stood without realizing that she didn't really need to.

"Well we wrapped up in the plaza pretty quickly. There wasn't much to talk about, and more to do so I dismissed the crowd early to come talk with you."

Cadance turned her smile into a smirk and tipped her nose down, "And eat spaghetti"

"And eat spaghetti" He conceded.

Amber closed the doors to Cadance's office, and Shining Armor took a seat and pulled up a chair to Cadance's desk. Cadance shuffled the papers on her desk around with her magic, and stacked them up on a table to the side, then levitated their dinner over.

Hope I organized those correctly

"So." Armor said very matter-a-factly

Cadance took the opportunity to eat. The pasta had no sauce on it, just how she preferred. Shining waited. Cadance tried to think of what to say.

"It didn't go very well."

"I heard... I'm trying to not say 'I told you so'"

Cadance gave a mock frown, "And you were doing a great job of it until just now."

"I'm just saying, seems like every time we unearth some evil creature from thousands of years ago, it always ends the same way."

Cadance ended up going for the truth. When she actually gave herself a moment to think about it, obviously she was going to tell her husband what actually happened.

"He wasn't exactly... evil, per say." 

Shining raised and eyebrow but did not comment, waiting for Cadance to continue.

"He's smart, that's for sure. He could probably give some of those noble lawyers a run for their bits" Cadance paused to eat more, levitating something precisely like a fork required a little bit of focus.

"and he was definitely mean, but I wouldn't say evil."

Shining Armor waited, and then very slowly and carefully said, "So what am I missing here. He attacked you, and Canterlot, and princess Luna."

Cadance rubbed her hoof on her chest and looked away, "Well... That's not exactly what happened."

Shining looked anxious, at least to Cadance, and when Shining got anxious, it usually meant he would try to find something to do.

Something that may be detrimental to the current delicate situation

"Now before I explain, I want you to promise me you'll listen to the whole story first," Shining opened his mouth only to get cut off "And I want you to promise you'll listen to my reasoning before you make any hasty decisions."

"You're not exactly instilling me with great confidence here Cady, should I be genuinely worried right now?"

"No no, we're safe and everything's fine, just let me tell you what actually happened."

Which she did, about her original meeting and subsequent chase with Dusk, their short and failed conversation, followed by the sleepy guards and their trip to a hole in the wall bar. Shining Armor looked more and more concerned as the story went on.

"When I woke up, Luna and Celestia found me and my guards. The checked me for dark magic, and told me that Dusk had been... killed"

"That Luna had killed him."

"Yes."

Shining took a deep breath; and pressed a hoof against his snout, "You're talking about this like you didn't tell Celestia or Luna about the inconsistence in the stories"

"I didn't."

"Cadance" 

"You said you'd listen to why." She postured

"Cadance"

"I-" She tried, but Shining inturrupted.

"Are you telling me, " he stumbled over his words, "Just to be clear, there's a pony out there capable of, as you've described, anything. Wandering around? A villan! An actual convicted criminal is!" He stopped in the middle of his sentence and stood up.

"Shining wait" Cadance also stood up.

"This isn't something we can just ignore or keep to ourselves."

"I'm not asking you to do that, just let me explain first okay?" Cadance held a hoof out to shining, "Can you do that for me?"

Shining waited, but didn't sit back down.

That is until Cadance insisted, gesturing to her hoof and giving him a look.

"Right."

He took her hoof and sat back down, leaving Cadance to slightly awkwardly be leaning forwards over the desk and past their food.

He looked up at her. "Drinking?" a beat, "really?"

Cadance retracted over the table and sat back down herself.

"I uhh... yes? I mean, it didn't seem like a bad idea." At this time, Cadance hadn't told him about the spell Dusk had used on her drinks. She didn't need to worry him over nothing.

"Cadance, this is gonna have to be a darn good explanation."

"Well..." Cadance began, taking a moment to formulate her thoughts. "He isn't a bad stallion. I don't really have a way to explain it to somepony that wasn't there; but he wasn't like Tirek or Discord. He was reasonable, logical even."

"I've seen logical ponies commit crimes too"

"Which is fair, but there's more to it. I think his 'rampage' was just a trick, to get away."

"Get away?"

"Well yeah, if he just ran, we'd know he's out there."

Shining cut in, "But if we all thought he was dead, he could do whatever he wanted without any pushback. Which is worse"

"Except!" Cadance put up a hoof to extenuate her point. "If that were the case, then why was I left untouched?"

"If I'm remembering your story correctly, you weren't really."

"No, I mean, if he had the power to alter Luna's memory, or just flat out trick her, then why do I, somepony he had unrestricted access to, remember everything the way it was."

"Alter her memory, Cadance you're talking about this stallion as if he's not a complete threat. Memory spells are incredibly dangerous."

"I'm just saying that it's strange that I would remember, if he really wanted a clean getaway, he could have just faked a fight between me and him, where I won and then passed out."

"Except Luna would have known you couldn't've have fought him off, and would have suspected something was up." Shining began again. "So he engaged Luna, and tricked her somehow, then made an escape."

"Yes, that's how I think it happened."

"And this should be less concerning how?"

"Because I still remember what happened."

"Which means?"

"Which means that Dusk Swirl, wherever he is, wanted me to remember what happened. He wants me to know he's still out there, and the only reason he could want that was if I was getting through to him."

Shining sat a bit further back and really started thinking. After a moment he said, "I can't poke holes in that argument, except if you were just imagining most of this."

"I'd like to think that too, but there's too many inconsistencies for it to be coincidence."

"So what do we do?"

"For now, nothing." Cadance nodded her head.

Shining did not look pleased. "It would be better if we told Luna, maybe even Twilight."

"And what would they do? What would we do for that matter? If I'm right, then Dusk Swirl won't be found unless he wants to be. It also means that he'll find us."

"That's the part I'm worried about Cadance. I'm worried that this... stallion has some malicious plans in store for you."

"He pulled the wings off my back, he could have killed me if he wanted to." 

Shining shook his head and gave Cadance a frustrated look.

"He wasn't going to though. My point was just that he could have, I still don't think he would."

Shining just looked away and was silent. Cadance quieted too.

He needs a second to think about this, it was crazy for me, I bet it's even worse for him

After a bit of waiting, both ponies simply finished their food in silence. Cadance wasn't sure, but maybe ten minutes passed before Shining Armor spoke again.

"And you want to do nothing?"

Cadance, having had time to think about the conversation, had an immediate response, "I want to wait for him to show up again, and then do something"

"Do what?"

Cadance thought about it for a moment, "Continue trying to... connect with him, I guess. He doesn't really seem like he'll accept 'reformation' and really, that's not what Fluttershy did for Discord either."

"So just show him that you're his friend? Give him reason to not be a criminal anymore?"

"Yes."

"I hate that idea just as much now as when Celestia tried it." Shining made an annoyed face that Cadance found a little cute, even though she was trying to take the conversation seriously.

"Which is probably why she didn't tell you about it until after."

"Right." Shining struggled to think of more to say before, "I still think we tell Luna and Celestia; and Twilight, the guard."

"And I'm asking you to just trust me on this."

Shining looked like he had a lot to say to that. He opened his mouth and made several 'I don't know how to respond to that' faces before settling on leaning back sighing and, "Okay."

YES

"Wait really?" Cadance said, incredulous

"Yes, but I'm tasking someone to look for special enchantments, and sending a letter to Twilight for defense against dark magics."

"That's pretty fair." Cadance pretended to ponder, "More than I thought I'd get."

"You know I can't say no to you" Shining smiled, but quickly returned to a serious expression, "but that doesn't mean we won't take proper precaution, and the second any of this smells funny I'm pulling the plug on this whole 'operation.'"

"I know it's potentially dangerous, but there's nopony I'd want making contingencies to keep me safe more than you."

"I'll take that."

They lapsed into silence.

Cadance stacked up their bowls and broke said silence, "Do you have more work you need done today?"

"Not really. No"

Cadance stood up from her desk and walked around it towards Shining Armor, he gave her a look. Candace gave him a quick kiss and said, "Then you're coming with me" and scooped him over her head and onto her back.

He tried to protest, "Whoa, hey what about all your work?"

Cadance sauntered her way out of her office, and waved goodnight to Amber, "I was going to put it off for a week anyways, it can wait one more night."

Then Cadance carried Shining Armor back to their room, Shining swore up and down he'd never hear the end of it from the guards.