The train journey from the Crystal Empire to Canterlot was long. Some of crystal ponies talked among themselves while others were just looking out the window. Princess Cadance herself was sitting on her haunch in her private compartment and decided to look out the window while leaning against it.
From the distance, she could see Canterlot Castle from her view. It has been a few days since she last saw her aunties with a disaster in their hooves, not to mention the last time she spent with her sister was when Twilight decided to invite her and Flurry Heart to watch one of Trixie's magic show.
As she watched the castle from the distance, her eyes started to slid down as she drifted to sleep. Before long, sleep had claimed her.
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Cadance woke up at the sound of a howling wind. She immediately jumped up onto her hooves and looked around in panic and shock.
"Where am I? Was I not on train a moment ago?" Cadance asked shakingly herself.
After a few minutes, she calmed herself down and surveyed the surrounding area.
The only thing she could see were snow covered ground, snow falling around her and her kingdom just barely seen from a distance. That's when she saw something from the distance on her left.
A pale blue light can be seen shining around what looked like another Crystal city with a smaller Crystal Castle, shielding it from the harsh blizzard.
While she looked at the city in confusion, she suddenly noticed somepony walking toward her from the direction of the city.
As the pony walked closer, Cadance was able to make up it's appearance.
The pony was a unicorn mare at the same size as Princess Celestia, with a very pale vermillion coat, her mane being in gradient of brilliant raspberry to moderate cobalt blue, her horn being a shiny light blue shaded from the tip to cyan, and a cutie mark of deep blue snowflake between blue laces on both flanks. And lastly, she was wearing blue garb around her body and a blue crown on her head.
Cadance stood dumbfound as the tall unicorn mare got closer and closer until the said mare was standing directly in front of her.
She could not stop herself from fidgeting and sweating as the unicorn's face was directed at her face with the mare's eyes closed.
Suddenly, the pale vermillion unicorn's eyes opened her brilliant amber eyes, and said a name that only Cadance's auntie, Princess Luna, would normally called her.
"Cadenza..."
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"Huh!?" Cadance jolted up from her sleep, looking around her compartment confused.
"Your highness, you say something?" One of the crystal guards asked through the opened door.
"Oh... Was I... It’s nothing. Just feeling a bit tired, Private Cloud Bolt. Nothing to be worried about." Cadance replied with a gentle smile.
Cloud Bolt saluted at her before closing the compartment door as he went back to his post with his fellow guard.
She stared at door, before stealing a glance through the window, reflecting her cutie mark. She could see the Canterlot getting closer in her view.
She sighed to herself as the crystal train continued it's journey toward it's destination.
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The crystal train finally came to a stop at Canterlot station, and all of the passengers including Cadance were greeted by a large number of ponies ranging from Ponyville, Appleloosa and Dodge Junction to Manehattan, Fillydelphia and Las Pegasus. She was escorted by her crystal guards all the way to castle.
On her arrival at Canterlot throne room, Cadance ordered her guards to wait for her outside. Standing near the door, she could hear the four familiar voices talking.
She took a breath and then released it with a hoof held to her chest before straightening herself.
And with a smile, she opened the doors via her pale blue magic.
The three ponies and a young purple and green dragon, who were discussing, all stopped and turned their head toward the door before smiling at the arrival of a pale pink alicorn.
"Cadance!"
Cadance smile widely at the excited lavender alicorn with mane and tail made of dark indigo with streaks of purple and pink as Twilight Sparkle galloped toward her.
Knowing what was going to happen, she readied herself.
"Sunshine sunshine ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake!” both mares sang while doing the dance to go with it, at the end they both broke down into a fit of giggles and hugged each other.
Celestia and Luna both looked at them while smiling.
After the sisters had hugged, they both looked at the elder princesses. Cadance began with a raised eyebrow. "So I read the scroll that said that Twilight required our magic for something at the festival?"
"Of course, Cadenza. Twilight, Let us continue where you left off." Luna replied.
Twilight yelped at the sudden mention of her own name, but quickly composed herself and began speaking, "Well, you see, I was wondering if you could use your magic to reposition the sun and moon for the concert performance of Songbird Serenade?" She ended with a forced grin.
The solar princess looked at the other two princesses for a few second before turning her head and looked at her former student's eyes.
"Twilight." Celestia started, using her motherly tone. "As much as I want to help you, I'm afraid I have to reject your proposal." Twilight's face fell.
Celestia started. "As a Princess of the Sun, my magic is served to move the sun."
Luna continued off what her sister. "And as a Princess of the Moon, my magic is served to move the moon."
And finally, Cadance said: "And as a Princess of Love, my magic is served to help ponies overcome their problems."
After all the three princesses said their speeches, Twilight looked away in disappointment.
"And beside." Twilight looked at the solar princess.
"As a Princess of Friendship, you already have all the magic you need to make this festival a success." Celestia added with a gentle smile.
Twilight looked at her mentor's eyes for a while before saying: "Very well, Princess Celestia." After those words were said, Twilight turned and walked out of the throne room along with Spike who was an armful of scrolls.
The three princesses looked at each other in silence.
Cadance was the first to break the silence. "I will go and talk to her, auntie Celly and auntie Lulu." She trotted after her sister, leaving both the solar princess and the lunar princess alone with each other.
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After trotting for a few minutes, Cadance finally found Twilight sulking, walking with Spike.
"Twilight!" The name got rid the said mare's sulkiness and was replaced with a sad smile.
"Oh, hey Cadance." Twilight replied, looking at her sister direction. Cadance slowly walked beside and draped a comforting wing over her sister, giving her a little nuzzle.
"Twilight." Cadance started. "Why don't you start and tell me who is this Songbird Serenade pony?"
Twilight's eyes immediately sparkled and started talking. "Songbird Serenade is a biggest popstar singer in Equestria who resides in Manehattan. Not to mention, her fame and talent are so unmatched."
Cadance couldn't help but smiled sincerely as Twilight continued to ramble on about the popstar singer.
"Did you know, she has an angelic voice and uses her incredible music talents to sing to have a deep belief in the values? Hay, Songbird is even quick to donate her time and energy to any good cause and is always willing to give back to her adoring fans."
Twilight squealed loudly: "All of that makes Songbird the most beloved celebrity in the entire ponydom!!!"
After Twilight had said all of that in one go, she immediately started to blush in embarrassment and covered her face with both of her forelegs as all the ponies within the castle were all staring at her while Cadance and Spike were trying their hardest not to laugh.
After a while, the ponies were shrugged themselves and resumed their activities.
"Twilight." Cadance called out to snap her sister out of embarrassment, causing Twilight to look up at her.
"Listen, about the proposal." She started.
"While my aunties and I may have rejected your ideas, I think that with your own magic, you could still make the concert performance of Songbird better." Cadance paused to see Twilight nodding her head.
"Not to mention" She continued. "With your friends' ideas and help, it would make the performance even better."
Twilight's gears were turning in her head before she gasped.
"You're right, Cadance! Why didin't I think about that?!" Twilight said.
"Thank you so much for reminding me that I have friends I can rely on, Cady." Twilight finished by hugging Cadance with her forelegs, who in return hugged her back with one of her owns.
A few minutes of hugging later, both sisters released each other and parted way.
"You know, I can lend you and your friends a helping hoof if you need it." Cadance replied.
Twilight smiled and said: "That would be helpful, Cadance."
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At the Canterlot Square, Cadance, Twilight and her friends were busy getting the Friendship Festival up and running. Spike was ticking the checkboxes while Twilight was making sure that everything goes as planned. Applejack was handing out apple ciders to everypony. Rainbow Dash was using her Wonderbolt moves to clear the weather. Pinkie Pie was making various types of balloon animals. Fluttershy was rehearsing with her chorus of the songbirds. Both Cadance and Rarity were decorating the stages with various of ornaments and trinkets for the coming popstar singer.
Within minutes, the Friendship Festival was up and running in a glamorous and prestigious way. The Mane 6 and Cadance all looked at the scene and could not stopped themselves from feeling pride from doing all their hard work.
"Hay Yeah! We did it!" Rainbow Dash cheered excitedly.
"I simply can't believed we managed to get this Festival up in a nick of time." Rarity said.
"Darn tootin we did, Rare!" Applejack replied.
"Yeah, I set up many parties fast and quick, but I never set up this party quicker!" Pinkie Pie squealed while bouncing up and down.
"Yay!" Fluttershy cheered softly.
"Thanks to your help, Cadance, the Friendship festival is ready for the arrival of Songbird Serenade." said Twilight, looking at her sister.
Cadance blushed from the compliment and brushed her mane. "Oh, it's nothing. I just feel like helping you."
"Well, we still have some time before Songbird arrives. I say we take a break. All this clearing the clouds has me all worn out." The rainbow-mane mare said, already lying down on a piece of cloud.
"Well, ah think Rainbow's right. Ah'm sore." The farm mare said.
The rest all agreed with the two mares.
"Well, I'm going to double check everything to see the festival is up to it's standard." Twilight proudly said before turning to ask her sister.
"How about you, Cadance?"
"Actually, I'm going back to the castle. I have some things I need to grab from the castle to bring back to the Crystal Empire. So, I will see you once I have put them in the train." Cadance replied with a smile.
Twilight nodded happily, and the two shared one more hug before parting ways, Twilight heading off to double check up on the festival preparations with her Number-One Assistant, and Cadance towards the castle.
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Cadance walked through the castle hallway, and climbed up the stairwell. At the end of the stairwell was her old tower room.
She had known she had been adopted, and she also knew that her biological parents had abandoned her near the entrance of the Canterlot Castle garden. Both her aunties had told her the truth, but had also told her that they don't care about that. Even though their relation isn't the same, she was still their niece. Her aunties has also told her that Princess Amore may be her distant relative to her since Cadance's full name has "Amore" in it.
But an incident, around three years ago, at the Crystal Empire had made her doubt herself. Now she had to wonder if there was more to her abandonment than she thought.
Cadance entered the room that belonged to her. It was still left untouched by the two elder princesses, despite her rarely using it anymore since she had moved to the Empire to rule.
She looked around the room to make sure she was all alone before locking the door behind her via her magic. Next to her old walk-in wardrobe sat a full size mirror.
Cadance slowly walked toward the mirror and stood in front of it, looking at a pale pink alicorn wearing golden regalia who stood there staring back, wearing a nervous expression on her face.
She stood there for a good solid minute, just staring at herself in the mirror.
Then, she closed her eyes and with a flick of her magic, a light blue aura glowed and shimmered around Cadance's body, before dying away.
She opened her eyes and stared back at the mirror.
While she still retained her pale pink coat and her stripped in colors of pale yellow, bright pink, and purple mane and tail, there were now two parts of her body that weren't the same.
Her horn, instead of pale pink, was now a shiny light blue shaded from the tip to cyan. Her wings were now white with trailing edges of the feathers being pale blue.
Cadance now stared at herself.
It felt good to be finally able to restore some of her magic after using it to disguise her horn and wings.
Every time she had time, Cadance would hide away and look at a mirror, staring at her wings and horn with curiosity. She had spent many months trying to find why she was like this in the Crystal Empire, before giving up after finding no references. The only pony who knew about this was her husband, Shining Armor. As for the rest, she hasn't told them as she was simply too scared of their reaction.
While the reasonable part of her mind knew they would accept her and still love her like her husband, the other part of her mind also knew that they would think that she was the changeling queen, Chrysalis, and would banish her or turned her into a statue.
Light blue aura glowed around Cadance's body once again as she used her magic again, replacing her horn and wings back to it's original colors. Though it doesn't eased her nervousness and curiousness.
"Who am I?" Cadance asked to herself.