//------------------------------// // Everything calm // Story: Cadance's solstice // by Rainny Night //------------------------------// Recent events didn't let Cadance sleep, she was worried about what the future awaited and what her life would be like once she officially received some royal title. She tossed and turned in bed, but her sleep did not come and, when she felt that she could finally sleep, the first rays of sunlight illuminated her room, making the filly force herself to leave the comfort of the bed. Not long after she got up, knocking on the door caught her attention. "Miss Cadance?" The mysterious voice called to him from behind the door. Cadance opened it, revealing a paler-spotted caramel mare with a fluffy, curly brown mane. "Oh, hello! Good morning, actually." The filly greeted her. "Good morning, I'm Cinnamon Shortcake, I came to prepare your bath and introduce you to the palace properly during the princess absence." Cinnamon gave a short bow to the small alicorn in front of her. "Absence? But she-" Cadance is cut off by the older mare. "I'm aware that she had committed herself to your education and care, but there was an emergency in the Duchy of Maretonia that she unfortunately could not ignore, she left a few hours ago, so she must return before sundown." Cinnamon explained, she entered the room. "That's why she asked me to show you the palace, after all, you should be familiar with the place where you will live." "Oh, I see, actually, I want know how big this castle is. It must be quite easy to get lost here.", said Cadance. "You have no idea! In my first week here, I ended up getting lost countless times in the hallways. You'll get used to it over time, plus you won't be alone during your stay, you'll have a friend to spend time with." The caramelized mare entered the bathroom, preparing the bathtub with warm water and soap. Soon after, he left the bathroom, now heading towards the bedroom door. "Now come take a shower, we're going to have a long morning." Cinnamon left, closing the door behind him, leaving Cadance alone again. · · • • • ✤ • • • · · Cadance was stunned by the number of guards in the hallways and outside. What is so dangerous about Equestria that the princess needs so many guards? Cadance thought, although she tried to push those thoughts away. Only one of the guards there was familiar to her, it was Powder Bomb, seeing him again was comforting for the girl. She couldn't contain herself and ran towards the unicorn with a smile on her face. "Hi, Powder!" The filly hugged him on her front leg. The stallion, happy to see the filly he helped the day before, hugged the filly back. "Cadance! Don't run like that, you might end up hurting yourself." Cinnamon followed close behind with hurried trots, she didn't notice Powder in front of her. "Don't be tough on her, Cinna." Powder laughed, Cadance also couldn't help but giggle when she heard Cinnamon's nickname. "Not wanting her to get hurt is completely different from being tough, okay?!" The mare rolled her eyes. "It's not my fault you're irresponsible with kids." "To be clear, I was immensely offended by this!" Powder said cynically, it was clear he was enjoying Cinnamon's irritation. "I pretend to believe it. Come on Cadance." Cinnamon dodged Powder and, before he moved away completely, she hit his shoulder with her side. Cadance followed close behind the older mare, who glanced sideways to see Powder's wicked smile and a wink. Cinnamon huffed in response and slammed the door behind him. The filly didn't quite understand what had happened, but she felt she shouldn't ask. The two mares made their way to the west wing of the castle, where they have a library with a wide range of books. "Wow, I've never been to a library, but I learned to read from some newspapers my group picked up in the middle of a migration." Cadance admired the shelves filled with books. "Do you want to take a look at them? If you're interested in any, just pick them up." Cinnamon encouraged her. The filly spent a little more than an hour looking at the book shelves, in the end she decided to pick up some romantic book that seemed strangely attractive to her and put it under her wing. The pair then crossed a main hall, heading towards the east wing. They made a brief visit to Celestia's kitchen and office and then went to the palace courtyard. There were some guards, mares and stallions, either in training or just talking. "What are we here to do?" Cadance was surprised to see Cinnamon looking from one side to the other. "I want to introduce you to somepony, but I can't find them. Oh, forget it, they're there." The older mare pointed. A little further away from the other guards, there was a stallion that Cadance recognized as Ginger Pie and just in front of him was a unicorn colt, his fur was white and his mane was blonde. The colt was lying down, panting and with a poisoned gaze aimed at Ginger Pie. "Come on, boy, get up! That barrel hasn't even moved!" said Ginger Pie. "That's not fair! I'm a prince! My royal hooves should never stoop to the work of a commoner." The colt stood up and stamped his hoof in protest. "Oh, really? Because this 'commoner's job' was direct orders from YOUR AUNT." Ginger raised her voice. The colt did not retreat. "What an outrage! Aunt Celestia would never order me, her only and favorite nephew, to wear myself out like that!" The colt also raised his voice, making an ugly face. "Oh, she would definitely do that, especially for a stingy colt and-oh! Hello, Cinnamon and...Cadance? Correct?" Ginger Pie left her frown aside and smiled widely as she saw the pair approach. "Hello, Ginger, Cadance, this is Prince Blueblood." The older mare looked at the little prince, wishing that he would at least be polite to the newly arrived filly. "He is Celestia's distant nephew and was in her custody for some time..." "Pleasure to meet you." The filly noticed Blueblood's arrogant nature. She began to feel tense when she saw that, in addition to his arrogance, he had a contempt in his eyes. "Um, hello, Canance." The colt pouted, didn't even look at the filly, leaving her disconcerted by the situation. "Blueblood, you don't want me to write Celestia again about her behavior, do you?" Ginger gave the prince a motivational push to stop being a mean boy. Blueblood growled and stifled a grumble, he finally turned to look at Cadance. He noticed her colorful mane, her horn a little longer than normal and then he noticed that she also had wings. His gaze changed from contempt to curiosity, then, upon realizing that he was dealing with someone at the same level of position as Celestia, his stance completely changed. He changed from an arrogant scowl to a look softened by cynicism. "Forgive my rudeness, princess...Cadance?" Blueblood puffed out his chest to appear more confident. "Some ponies just don't understand that we royals must abstain from certain types of work." He sent his poisoned gaze towards Ginger again. "Ah, okay, those barrels look heavy anyway, want some help?" Cadance stood in front of the barrel. Blueblood was going to refuse the help so as not to feel his pride hurt, but before she said anything, he saw her push the barrel, he just didn't expect her to push it so easily. · · • • • ✤ • • • · · In the early afternoon, after exploring the entire castle (at least the parts known to the employees), Cinnamon, Cadance and Blueblood waited for Celestia's return, who could soon be seen in the distance in her carriage pulled by four pegasus stallions. Blueblood seemed completely uninterested in things that didn't concern him and his interests, ignoring the conversations and laughter of the pair of mares at his side. When the carriage landed, Celestia jumped to meet her charges, with a sweet smile. "I'm sorry I left so suddenly this morning, Cadance. Before I forget, the duchess found out about what happened in the village and my choice to adopt her as a student, and sent you a gift." Celestia levitated under her wing a small box, covered with blue velvety fabric. "I recommend you open the present when we start our classes." "Right." Cadance held the gift and placed it under her wing. "Oh, I see you met Blueblood." Celestia smiled at her youngest nephew, who returned a forced smile. She turned her gaze to Cinnamon, trying to hide good-natured concern. "He didn't do much work, did he?" She whispered to Cinnamon. "Not as much as he gave Ginger this morning." Cinnamon laughed. "Anyway, Cinnamon, you can go home. Kids! Let's go inside." Celestia walked through the gates of the main hall, followed by Cadance and Blueblood. Cadance looked around once again, trying to remember the tour he had taken with Cinnamon in the morning to memorize the route once again. "Hey! Cadance." The colt whispered. "What it was?" Cadance slowed her steps to get closer to the boy. "Are you really a princess? You don't even have a crown." The colt looked at the void in the crown, occupied by a high bun in the mare's mane. "Which kingdom are you from?" "I'm from Equestria and I'm not a princess yet." Cadance whispered to him. "I meant which kingdom will you rule." Before Cadance could respond, Celestia stopped abruptly, causing Cadance and Blueblood to bump into her. The princess turned her head from side to side and then opened the doors. Quickly, Cadance's eyes lit up when she noticed that she was in the library again. "Oh, Cinnamon brought me here in the morning! She let me get a book." Cadance flew into the library, excited. "Argh, what are we doing here again?" Blueblood rolled his eyes in disgust. He walked close to one of the bookshelves and leaned against them, accidentally pushing a fake book that served as a lever, and thus opening a passage between the shelves. Due to being caught off guard, Blueblood had no time to react and balance himself, falling down the stairs in the process. Cadance and Celestia, worried, ran to see his situation and try to help him in some way, however, he was already on the floor of the last step. The two mares then carefully went down the stairs and lifted him up. He was awake, just a little disoriented due to the fall and his wounded pride at being seen in such an embarrassing situation. · · • • • ✤ • • • · · Celestia showed them a part of the library that was closed to the rest of the staff and any other ponies who visited the palace library. There were books hundreds of years old, documents from millennia past, items of priceless historical value in the history of Equestria. The library was underground, its walls had roots attached to it, some strangely forming branches. The tables looked like they had been taken from a local park, they were made of oak wood and were slightly dusty from lack of use. Cadance and Blueblood sat side by side at the table, while Celestia sat across from them. "Cadance, could you put the gift box on the table? Your first lesson will be to try to open the box with magic." Celestia said. "Okay, but... How do I activate it?" Cadance poked her horn, not sure what she expected to happen. "Just focus, tell me, can you feel an energy around you?" Cadance wasn't sure what to answer, she pondered for a few seconds and tried to focus on feeling that energy. It was something soft, almost velvety, an energy that embraced and warmed her, pulsing like a heart. "Hm, yes, it's weird..." Cadance closed her eyes, trying to maintain her concentration. She felt this energy concentrate in her horn to the point where it became a bluish aura, it was weak, almost going out, but with a little more effort, Cadance was able to keep her horn lit. "What should I do now?" The filly asked, with difficulty keeping her horn lit, her head was starting to hurt. "Now focus your energy on the lid of the box and think about which direction it wants to go." Cadance tried to do as Celestia said, but it was harder than it looked. Instead of her aura only involving the lid of the box, it reflected on some books, on Celestia's crown and on Blueblood, who fell to the ground as soon as she lost the strength to continue concentrating energy on her horn. She dropped the items (and the pony) sharply, becoming breathless in the process. She continued with her eyes closed, trying to calm the discomfort she felt in her head. "Ow! Damn!" Blueblood got up from the floor and sat on the table again, this time a little further away from the mare. "Don't tell me you did it on purpose." "I didn't, I'm sorry about that actually." Cadance caught her breath. "It seemed so easy to watch unicorns do this, how can you make it look so easy?" "I just think about what I want to get and taa-daa, I get it." Blueblood acted out his explanation as he took Celestia's crown. "It really seems to be just that, but sometimes not even unicorns themselves can find it easier to concentrate their magic. As babies, unicorns are not fully aware of their magic and that is why they have a large magical percentage compared to adult unicorns , of course there are exceptions, but even so, when they reach childhood, unicorns lose this magical percentage and begin to have greater difficulty controlling magic." Celestia explained. "In the same way it happens with a pegasus, when they are babies, they are capable of flying for kilometers on end and with greater resistance than that of a pony even in childhood, but as they become older they lose this ability, having to train and readapt their flight. You, Cadance, have a greater facility with flying compared to me. As for me and Blueblood, we have a greater facility with wielding magic compared to you. And look on the bright side, for a first attempt at wielding magic, you It came out really well." Celestia subtly pushed the gift box open, revealing a pair of dark blue satin ribbon bows. "How beautiful!" Cadance grabbed the bonds with her hooves. "Are they the satin made by Maretonia? You never brought me one of those." Blueblood crossed the... Hooves? "You have a closet full of ties made from the same satin." For Celestia, sometimes dealing with Blueblood was almost the same as dealing with Luna. Both were petty at times, although Blueblood was most of the time as petty as his younger aunt herself.