Cadance hummed a happy tune to herself as she dipped and swayed through the halls of the castle that lead to the royal suites. Her wedding was right around the corner and everything looked like it was going to be perfect. Between the gorgeous dresses, the mouth watering hors d’oeuvres, and the plans for the reception, it was shaping up to be the wedding of the century. Not to mention getting to see her favorite little friend after so many years.
‘Well, she’s really not so little anymore', The princess thought, a wistful smile finding its way to her lips. ‘Perhaps Shining Armor and I could take a few days during our honeymoon to visit Ponyville. I would love to catch up with Twilight and really get to know her new friends.’
Cadance gave a soft sigh as she leaned against one of the stone walls. She gave a slight shiver as her cheek came into contact with the cold stone, but did not pull away. The full moon was slowly making its way over the horizon and bathing the regal city in its ethereal glow. As the pink princess reveled in yet another of Princess Luna’s majestic evenings, she found it hard to keep her thoughts in the present as memories of a wide eyed purple unicorn filly came rushing back to her.
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“Cadance, why is there a mare in the moon?” A starry eyed unicorn filly asked the princess as they sat together beneath the stars, a blanket draped over them for warmth.
“Well, Twilight, most ponies say that the mare in the moon was once an alicorn like Princess Celestia.”
“And you!”
Cadance gave a soft chuckle at the filly’s exuberance and tousled Twilight’s mane. “Yes, Twilight, and me. They say that it was her duty to bring out the stars and moon at night, and to watch over all the little ponies while they slept. It’s rumored that when Princess Luna was in charge of the night, they were some of the most spectacular sights that a pony could ever hope to see. Stars twinkled and gleamed like diamonds, and the light of the moon could allow even the most wayward souls to find their way through the dark of night.”
“But, Cadance, if her nights were so pretty, then why did she go to the moon? Didn’t she know that everypony would miss her?”
The princess let out a sigh as she turned her sight on the ever inquisitive Twilight Sparkle, her mouth turning upwards into a light-hearted smirk. “You know, Twinkle, sometimes you’re too smart for your own good.”
Temporarily distracted from her quest for knowledge, Twilight blushed and gave her foal-sitter a pint-sized shove, which only served to elicit a laugh from Cadance. The princess didn’t give the filly a chance to strike again and quickly pulled her charge in for a hug. “Cadance! You promised you wouldn’t call me that anymore!”
“Only when we’re in public, little Twinkle. Here it’s just you, me, and the Mare in the Moon.”
Twilight giggled and settled back in next to Cadance, casting her eyes back up at the glowing orb once more. “So what did happen to Princess Luna, Cadance?”
She shouldn’t have expected the filly to be dissuaded that easily and gazed back up at the moon as well. “Well, Twinkle, as the story goes, the princess felt that her nights were going by unappreciated. She wanted everypony to see just how much love and dedication she poured from herself into her nights and into protecting the little ponies she loved so much. In her quest for recognition, she turned to a spirit that tricked her into believing that it was her friend and that it would help her.”
“Why didn’t she talk to her friends if she was feeling like that?” Twilight piped up, failing to stifle a yawn as she snuggled in closer to Cadance.
Cadance couldn’t help but smile at the filly’s innocence, draping a wing across Twilight’s back in a comforting embrace. “Since she worked so hard on her nights and keeping her little ponies safe from the night’s dangers, she didn’t have any close friends.”
Before the princess could elaborate, Twilight spoke up once more, exhaustion quickly laying claim to the filly’s consciousness. “Then I’ll be her friend, then she won’t be so lonely and everypony can enjoy her beautiful nights again.”
Cadance felt her heart swell at Twilight’s words, laying her head down to curl around the filly as sleep claimed the purple unicorn. “I’m sure you will, my little Twinkle.”
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As Cadance’s mind caught back up to the present, she brought a fetlock up to her eyes and wiped away the tears her memory had conjured. ‘Oh, my little Twinkle, I knew you would find your way one day.’
As the moon continued its trek across the sky and the noise from below died away, the princess decided that it was time to turn in and join her fiancée in their bed. Her smile continued to grow as she trotted down the hallways towards the suite Celestia had given them for their time in Canterlot. Thoughts and images sprang to mind in such rapid succession that, by the time she reached their room, Cadance was sure that she must be glowing. Taking a moment to collect herself, the princess reminded herself that Shining Armor had retired almost an hour earlier, claiming to be tired after tending to his troops and safeguarding Canterlot
Hoping that he wasn’t already asleep, Cadance pushed the door open as softly as she could and stepped inside, ready to treat her fiancée to a night he would never forget. What she saw caused her to freeze in her tracks and stare at the bed before her with a mixture of such shock and abject horror that even the guardians of Tartarus would fear for what she had seen. Shining Armor was indeed laying in their bed, and draped over him was the form of a white-furred, pink-maned pegasus engaging in acts that would not be appropriate to describe in the presence of foals.
“S-S-Shining Armor?!”
At the mention of his name, the stallion’s head shot up from it’s place on the bed and looked at his bride for a moment, trying to form his lust scrambled thoughts into a coherent sentence. The mare over him taking the briefest of pauses to take notice of the newcomer to the room before continuing with her previous actions.
“H-hey, Cadance, I’m sorry you had to find out like this. It was just so hard waiting for you while you were off running your kingdom. And after Discord...well, I just couldn’t wait anymore. Facing death on what seems like a weekly basis, I don’t want to face the end being known as the stallion who waited for a princess who might never come.”
Cadance tried to bring herself to say something, anything to respond to Shining Armor’s explanation. Unfortunately, her sanity seemed to have chosen to take that moment to go on vacation, leaving her standing there jaw agape and pupils the size of pinpricks. Her head began to swim as her fiancée went back to servicing his lover. Cadance’s legs shook for a moment before buckling completely, sending her plummeting to the floor. She only had a moment to notice it rushing at her before....
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A piercing shriek tore through the cabin that housed Cadance and filled the hallway beyond. The princess shot up like a bolt, sheets telekinetically thrown across the room as she sat there panting, cold sweat running down her forehead and the back of her neck. In the dark of the room, the black mist that had permeated the cabin dissipated into the floor, unseen by the horrified princess of love.
Moments later, the door to the cabin burst open, revealing the train car’s guards, ready for action. Razor Edge was in first, his wings spread wide with his body crouched low, ready to pounce. The metal of his wing blades glistened in the moonlight that now shone through the cabin’s window. Honor Bound stood close behind, horn glowing with a slate hue, matching that of the spear that hovered over his head, poised to strike.
“Princess, is everything alright?” Razor edge asked as his eyes scanned the room. Having seen the foreboding mist that had been conjured from Princess Luna’s room, the guards had been prepared for just about anything to come launching out of the darkness at them. In fact, the guards had even begun placing bets on just what horrors awaited them beyond the cabin’s door, should their assistance be needed.
As Cadance regained her bearings and realized what exactly had happened, a rather fierce blush rose to her cheeks as she turned to the guards. “O-oh, um, yes. I’m terribly sorry to have alarmed you, sirs. I just had a rather awful nightmare is all.” The princess’ horn lit as her magic reached for her blanket and pulled it back to her.
Razor Edge tossed a glance back to his partner, eyebrow cocked in a questioning manner, to which Honor Bound simply responded with an almost imperceptible shake of his head. Had the guards been trained in the art of telepathy, the conversation may have gone something like this.
“You think we should report this to someone?”
“Are you BUCKING kidding?! We are either A: Ridiculed for reporting that the princess had a nightmare, that was probably just pre-wedding jitters, or B: It gets back to Luna and she does the same thing to us! I don’t know about you, but I’d rather retain my job and my sanity, thank you very much!”
In lieu of that, Razor Edge carefully tucked away his wings while Honor Bound returned to his post in the hall, seeing no reason to further occupy the princess’ admittedly cramped cabin.
“Is there anything I can get for you, Princess?”
“S-some water would be lovely, umm...”
“Razor Edge, ma’am”
“Razor Edge, thank you.”
With a respectful nod, the pegasus guard backed out of the cabin and quickly made his way to the galley. As he made his way back towards the sleeping cabin, carafe of glacial ice water balanced on his wing, a door opened in front of him to reveal the ever regal Princess Celestia. “Sergeant Razor Edge, I thought I heard a scream a few moments ago, is everything alright?”
Without a moment’s hesitation, the pegasus saluted his regent and reported in. “Seems Princess Cadance just had a nightmare. Nothing to worry about Princess.”
So absorbed in the fact that the goddess incarnate knew his name, Razor Edge failed to notice the multiple cracks appearing in Princess Celestia’s ever composed demeanor. The sweat on her brow, the shrinking of her pupils, the twitch in her left eye, they all pointed to one indisputable fact: Princess Celestia was scared. True, she had faced off with Nightmare Moon before, but that mare was all about power. This was a pissed off Princess Luna; a mare that could enter your dreams, read your subconscious like a book, and conjure whatever she could imagine in the blink of an eye.
Celestia had known that her sister had not taken kindly to her little prank, but forcing a pony to live out their nightmares in such clarity that one would swear that everything they saw was real? True, she had been locked in the moon for a thousand years at her hoof, but surely the princess of the night couldn’t be that malicious, could she?
So lost in thought was the princess that she failed to realize that her guard had asked her a question. “I’m sorry, Razor Edge, what was that?”
“I asked if everything was alright, Princess. You seem a bit distracted.”
“Oh! Um, yes, thank you, Razor Edge, it’s just been a long week.”
“Well then try to get some rest, Princess. We should be in Canterlot sometime tomorrow morning.”
“I will, thank you.”
Once Princess Celestia had retreated back into her room, Razor Edge made his way back to the younger princess’ cabin, a newfound pep in his step. Upon delivering Cadance’s water to her room and resuming his post, the pegasus nudged his partner with a wing, his voice rising just above a hushed whisper.
“Hey, Honor Bound, guess what!”
While the unicorn guard barely moved, the deadpanned tone to his voice spoke volumes. “What?”
“Princess Celestia knows my name!” Razor Edge quietly exclaimed with a smug grin breaking the façade of the stone faced guards that they were supposed to be.
Honor Bound merely snorted at his friend’s assertion. “Oh yea? And just when did she talk to you?”
“When I was coming back with Princess Cadance’s water. She wanted to know what the screaming was, so I told her.”
Honor Bound felt the air catch in his throat as his former partner’s fateful words met his ears. “Y-you told her what exactly?”
Razor Edge cast a questioning glance at his friend’s odd change in demeanor. “Just that Princess Cadance had a nightmare. Then Princess Celestia got real quiet and...”
Silence reigned between the guards for a hoofful of moments before it was promptly shattered by Honor Bound’s hoof colliding rather forcefully with his forehead. At the same moment, Razor Edge’s jaw collided with the metal floor of the train with a resounding clang.
"Oh buck me!"