The gathering of a council of lords was not a common occurrence. Managing to iron out their extreme dislike of one another long enough to have them seated civilly? Even less so. Especially when said lords presided over the regions under the flag of the recently freed Crystal Empire.
Princess Cadance sat in a chair that must have, at one point, served as one of Sombra’s torture devices. They’d had to remove far too many of those when they’d moved into the palace. As much as she wished to shift and get more comfortable, she dared not move an inch under the steely gazes of the present lords and ladies.
She wished again that Shining could have been present with her for this as well, but as Prince-Consort he technically had no place here and the nobles would have likely taken offense to his presence. He was forced into keeping the guard’s attention on protecting the arriving nobles and their carriages, and would no doubt be standing watch outside the room himself.
Repressing a sigh, she kept her eyes locked on the closed double doors across the room and waited. She couldn’t blame them for their cold attitudes, after all not even a year had passed since the emancipation of the crystal ponies from under the iron hoof of Sombra.
A few of the previous nobles had even been supporters of Sombra’s and had to be impeached with help from the crystal ponies in their jurisdiction. Their replacements, taken from their own family lines, had been more supportive of new rule but were hardly more trusting of their new rulers than their predecessors.
Among those ‘newer’ nobles were those of House Crux, whom just so happened to be the reason for calling this meeting in the first place. The previous heads of the household, Lord and Lady Crux, had passed away not two weeks ago, leaving behind their only son, a young stallion by the name of Jet, as the heir apparent to the Slate Ridge region of the Crystal Mountains. The young lord was also the reason Cadance was watching the doors; he was late.
She smothered another sigh.
The creaking of the old oaken doors and the stomping of iron-shod hooves shook her out of her inner thoughts as one of Shining’s palace guards stepped inside and bowed. “Presenting the new lord of Slateridge, Lord Jet Crux, Your Highness.”
Cadance caught herself before her eyes could widen in surprise. A stallion swept past the bowing guard and into the room. Dressed in a sharply cut black cloak that hid his cutie mark and with his mane tied back in a ponytail with black ribbon, he was obviously still in mourning; but that wasn’t what surprised her.
His horn was the first thing to catch her eye. It extended above his brow unfluted, unlike most unicorns, and about halfway up, natural bone ended and was replaced with a sharp, pointed cap of an opaque green stone. His coat and mane were slate gray and black respectively and he had piercing, restless emerald green eyes that lay deeply in sockets with dark circles underneath them, as though he had not slept in days.
Change the iris and horn color to red and he’d be a younger Sombra’s spitting image.
Cadance opened her mouth to speak before she was cut off by one of the waiting ladies. “Ah, young Crux, so good of you to finally join us. Taking time out of your schedule to humor our request for a gathering wasn’t too much of a bother, I hope?” The mare speaking,a fair, tan coated pony with a blond mane and eyes the color of honey named Amber Torc, Cadance remembered, gave a wry twist of her mouth as she finished.
Jet slowly trotted to his seat as he answered, not bothering to turn his head to face her as he did so. “ No more of a problem than such calls have always been, Lady Amber. I didn’t really expect the Lords and Ladies to allow me the customary month to grieve anyway.”
Cadance flinched slightly at the bitter tone of his voice as she watched him seat himself, clasping his hooves over the table before finally casting his gaze onto Amber. Amber’s brow furrowed and she leaned forward slightly, mouth open to retort.
“And we beg your forgiveness, young Crux,” a deep baritone voice interrupted Amber’s speech before it could begin. “We are merely concerned with the nature of your parents’ passing, and wished to clarify such things amongst ourselves before rumor could do as rumor is wont and spread like wildfire.”
Lord Godric’s brown eyes met the young stallion’s across the table with a sympathetic glint, the creases in the ruddy orange coat of his muzzle revealing his distress. His wife next to him offered an apologetic frown. Slowly, the hardness in Jet’s eyes softened and he gave a shallow nod.
Cadance cleared her throat to gain the attention of the group and looked down the table at Jet. “ If I may begin this meeting," she looked around the table at the agreeable nods “The lords and ladies gathered here expressed a concern that your parents did not...pass naturally. They all wish—”
“Did you do away with your parents for your own ascension, Crux?”
Cadance grimaced at the questioning words of the lord to her right, Jasper, a somewhat portly grey stallion with a silver mane and tail, froze the room in a quiet, nervous aura.
Crux’s emerald eyes seemed to burn with intensity in their sockets as he scowled at Jasper. “Are you accusing me of murder, Lord Jasper?” His voice was barely above a whisper. A soft cover for restrained anger and hostility.
Lord Godric rapped his hoof on the table and glared at Jasper. “Lord Jasper, this is not the place for accusation. We are here at this table to put such rumor and conjecture to rest where it belongs, not throw mud on the name of our newest peer.” His wife frowned at Jasper with disapproval.
Jasper turned his heavy-lidded, scarlet gaze on Godric. “I am not sure if we should consider it mere rumor, Lord Godric. After all, his mother passes away two weeks ago of unknown causes and his father follows in her hoofsteps not a week later. Anyone would be suspicious.” He ignored the piercing green gaze as he stared boredly at Godric.
“I agree,“ all eyes turned to Amber Torc as she frowned at Jasper. “Needlessly blunt though he may have been, I find he has a point Godric. It is most unusual for such a thing to occur, especially given how healthy they seemed when last we saw them at the winter summit.” She turned her eyes onto Jet as she finished her statement, their gazes locked in mutual dislike.
The room erupted into heated arguments. Godric and his wife lashing out at Jasper who kept his habitually bored expression throughout his responses. Other lords and ladies soon joined one side or the other when it came to supporting or disregarding the claim. Jet and Amber both said nothing, choosing instead to stare at each other with scowls on their faces.
Cadance’s horn lit up with a light blue glow as her magic compressed a ball of air to the size of a marble and released it just as quickly, resulting in a loud crack and gust of wind that echoed through the room, silencing the rabble and giving her their attention.
“I believe that is more than enough of that. We should all be proper about this and ask Lord Crux for his account of the deaths of his parents and make our decisions then. I should not have to remind you that the report from the morticians who examined the lord and lady Crux found no wounds, nor traces of chemicals or poisons in their systems.”
The Princess looked toward the stallion in question for his opinion and received a slow nod. “Then please, Lord Crux, tell us what you know.”
Every head turned to the young lord as he drew a deep breath. “The previous month my mother was struck with some sort of wasting illness. We called several doctors to the house, yet none of them found any physical signs of infirmity. They could only assume from her inability to use magic, that it was bleeding from her body faster than she could regain it.”
Jet sighed through his nose, his ear giving an irritated flick as he stared holes through the table. “She lasted almost a month before passing in her sleep two weeks ago. When she was discovered, father...was beside himself.”
He paused in his tale for a moment, as though thinking. Taking his silence as being overwhelmed by emotion, Lady Godric stretched a hoof across the table toward him, sympathy plain in her face “Take your time, Lord Crux, there is no rush.”
He looked up at her, smiling crookedly. “I appreciate the concern, madam, but I can assure you, I am in no hurry to ‘dig up’ my parents again, so to speak. After all, I just finished burying them.”
Lady Godric blinked in surprise at his black humor and retracted her hoof, stunned into silence.
Cadance’s ears turned back in distaste, he spoke so candidly about the death of his parents, he was acting as if he found it more of an annoyance than anything else.
Turning his eyes up to Cadance, he began again. “Father had already been neglecting himself in favour of caring for mother.”
“When she died it was as if he’d...given up. He devoted all of his time to being alone in his study, leaving most of the affairs of the house to me. Varnish, our head maid, had taken it upon herself to attempt to bring him meals when he began to be absent at the table for dinner.”
Cadance gave a small, sad smile at the thought. “He couldn’t go on without her.”
Jet nodded. “He’d been found about a week later, barricaded in his study. I had to have the groundskeeper assist me in breaking the door down to gain access to his room. A shame that… it was a nice door. Old hoof-carved oak and everything.” He shook his head sadly.
“Once we’d had the body taken, we found two letters on the table. The first was his will, claiming me as his heir to the house and leaving me with the affairs of the region.”
He tilted his head to the side curiously. “The second was a letter, sealed and addressed to you, your highness.”
Cadance’s ears turned forward and her eyes widened as a letter from underneath Jet’s cloak flew into the air wrapped in a smoky green aura. She took the letter in her own magic looking at her name scrawled on the parchment in shaky hornwriting.
“That is the second reason I am here today.”
Cadance look up from the letter and found Crux staring at it intently.
“My father was most definitely a more social pony than myself or my mother, but he rarely spoke with you aside from these meetings, your highness. He acted, at times, like an idiot but he never did anything without reason. I would speak with you after this meeting about its contents.”
The princess nodded slowly as the other lords looked at the letter with either curiosity or suspicion.
“Of course, Lord Crux. I’ll be having dinner after this with my husband, and you’re welcome to join us.”
Jet nodded, satisfied and turned to answer Lord Godric as said lord asked after his health, which was just fine, thank you for asking. Cadance sat alternating between staring at the letter and stealing glances at Jet as he spoke with the other nobles.
Not only did he possess more than a passing resemblance to Sombra, but his father writes mysterious notes on what amounts to his deathbed for the princess herself.
She looked back down at the letter, chewing on the inside of her lip absentmindedly.
[ hr ]
Cadance poked at her food awkwardly, the silence at the table making it hard to enjoy her salad. Shining Armor barely paid attention to his food, eating mechanically while staring at Crux with a mixture of curiosity and shock.
Crux sipped calmly from a glass of water, leaving his bowl of soup untouched. He set the glass down and looked up at the princess. “Does the prince make a habit of staring down his dinner guests?”
Shining flinched in surprise as Cadance chuckled nervously. “No, he’s usually better trained than this.” She shot Shining a glare over the rim of her wine glass.
“Oh...uh, sorry Lord Crux, it’s just that you...surprised me. I wasn’t expecting—”
“Someone who looks remarkably like the late dictator King Sombra to waltz into the dining room and have dinner with you and your wife without hissing something about crystals and trying to vaporize you?” He smirked, a brow slowly inching upward.
The royal couple’s mouths hung slack for an instant before Shining Armor burst into laughter.
Cadance’s face slowly broke into a grin as she answered for her husband who was holding a hoof over his face and shaking with laughter. “ Um, yes. Something like that. I must admit Lord Crux, I’ve never seen you before today and I was more than a little surprised at your, um...appearance.”
The young lord nodded. “That’s not too surprising. I typically remained behind in Slateridge to run the estate while father and mother were the ones to come to these types of meetings, so this would be the first time we have had the pleasure of making one another's acquaintance. And, if I may be honest princess, don’t worry about your reactions. Maker knows you’re not the first to have them.” He gave a long-suffering sigh.
Shining, meanwhile, had recovered enough to voice his own concerns. “Why does your horn look like that? It’s not exactly common, is it.”
Crux chuckled as Cadance slugged her husband in the shoulder with a frown. “Shining Armor! Don’t be rude.” Shining shrugged at her and raised a brow at the stallion, seeking an answer.
Crux’s chuckles subsided, but a small smirk remained. “Believe me, Your Highness, it is no problem. It was an honest question. And to lay your curiosity to rest, Prince Armor, my horn is a genetic trait passed down among the stallions on my mother’s side of the family.”
Shining’s brow rose and he 'hmmed' contemplatively as he took a sip of his wine. Cadance’s ears flicked forward in curiosity. “So that means your family must carry the same horn trait as Sombra’s.”
“Well yes, they would be related.” Crux smirked.
Cadance tapped her chin in thought. “Perhaps a common ancestor’s line split off to become your mother’s house and Sombra’s.” She cocked her head to the side inquisitively.
“Actually they were the same. I’m Sombra’s nephew. My mother, Sable Crux, was his sister.”
The rest of Shining’s wine never reached its intended destination, doomed instead to the fate of a red mist sprayed across the table as Shining armor coughed and spluttered.
Cadance stared at him in shock while Shining pounded on his chest with a hoof, trying to clear his lungs of rich Canterlot merlot. Sombra’s nephew sat laughing loudly in his chair.
“Hah! Faust as my witness, it never gets any less amusing to watch a pony’s reaction whenever they learn that, no matter how many times I see it.”
Cadance performed an impressive mimicry of a fish while Shining struggled to get his breathing under control, coughing and wheezing. “Y-You’re—”
“Sombra’s nephew who, now that my parents have passed, is also the uncontested lord of Slateridge: one of the largest and most profitable regions in your empire? Yes.” He smiled evilly.
“B-but that’s impossible! Why would somepony marry into Sombra’s family?” Cadance stared at her empty hooves as though they should have held physical evidence to support her claim, but they remained devastatingly empty.
“I believe it was more her marrying into our family, but that’s a question that my father is no longer capable of answering. Needless to say, I’m certainly proof it happened.” Crux flashed his crooked grin.
“But, why tell us this? You do realize this puts us in a bad position if we let Sombra’s nephew run one of our regions.” Shining coughed quietly as he raised an incredulous brow.
Crux shrugged. “My parents told me that I should keep my mother’s family a secret that I shared with no one but my closest friends. They’re both gone now, so they can’t suffer the repercussions of this secret being known, and I felt that if I told anyone it should be my new rulers. I never did like keeping secrets that much anyway.”
The couple raised a brow in unison.
“Consider it an act of trust.” He smiled toothily.
Shining stared, stunned, with his mouth agape while Cadance rubbed her temples with her hooves. “This is...a bit much,” she muttered. “What am I supposed to do about this?”
“Well, if you want my opinion I’d say we finish dinner, you read that letter and we discover my father’s final words, you and Prince Armor relax with a nice cognac and I go home to sleep for the first time in four days.”
Cadance blinked incredulously.
“Just a suggestion.”
She let out an explosive half-sigh, half-groan and dropped her face into her hooves. “Does anypony else know about this?”
“You two, the Slateridge house servants, and Lord Godric and his wife. Family friends, you see. As far as anypony else knows, I just share a rather unsettling resemblance.” He frowned momentarily, staring off at some point behind her. "You wouldn't believe how often that fact has come back to bite me in recent weeks."
Cadance nodded in relief and rubbed her forehead.
“Alright, we won’t tell anypony and you can continue as you’ve been doing.”
Shining Armor’s neck snapped around as he turned to his wife. “What, seriously? We’re gonna drop this just like that?” Jet’s brow also creeped up in surprise.
“Well, I’m not sure what else we can do. We could tell the empire that Sombra’s nephew was the lord of Slateridge and have him removed but then we could be blamed for never looking into his family before now. We could not tell anypony the relation and have him removed but then we’d be put under questioning as to why we deposed a new lord for no reason.”
“We could have him beheaded or imprisoned,” she waved a hoof through the air. “But killing or incarcerating a pony that’s done nothing wrong doesn’t sit right with me.”
“I’m glad to know you have your reasons for not deposing or decapitating me.” Jet laughed.
Cadance nodded primly. “Also, that cognac idea sounds lovely and I’d like to hurry up and have one at this point.”
Shining nodded slowly as he absorbed her words. “Yeah...cognac.”
“I suppose that means we move on to reading that letter then, hmm?”
In answer, Cadance levitated the thick letter from the tray next to her dinner and took a small breath before cracking the black wax seal. Out tumbled a shakily hornwritten note and a much thicker sheaf of papers that looked like...forms.
Setting those aside for the moment she began reading…
Your Royal Highness, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,
By the time you receive this letter, I will have departed to join my lovely wife. I have left this letter in the hands of my only son, Jet Crux. No doubt, even as you read this he’s imposing on you to let him know what I’ve written—
Cadance glanced up from the letter to see Crux staring intently at the parchment. She gave a small smile as she looked back down.
but he means well. He always was so set on knowing everything I did, preferring to study everything there was to know about running this estate over socialising and making friends his own age.
I’ll be frank, Your Highness.
I don’t think he’s ready. Even as I write this, he’s barely been a fully grown stallion for two years, and he hasn’t gotten the chance to live a fulfilling life. He shouldn’t have to give up the prime of his youth for a boring, paperwork filled existence. I think on that, at least, we can both agree.
An unladylike snort distracted both stallions as Cadance’s lips curled into a smirk.
Unfortunately, he’s my only heir and it is his birthright and duty. There is no one else who can do what he can, though that is for reasons unknown to both him and yourself as of yet.
But just because he has to take my place doesn’t mean a father can’t meddle just a little, right?
Enclosed with this letter is a set of adoption papers. Before my wife came down with her illness, we were intent on adopting the foal of old friends of ours, they passed away shortly after the return of our empire from Sombra’s curse. It took us some time to track the little filly down, but we finally found her in an orphanage within your city walls.
All the paperwork has been filled out, copied, finalized, copied again and spritzed with just a hint of rose, as is standard procedure.
It is my sincerest hope that taking care of this filly will help him grow as a pony. After all, I know from personal experience that nothing can change who you are like a foal that depends on you.
Speaking of foals. Tell mine I love him for me, would you?
I truly hate to leave him like this with no final words from me in person, but I believe he will understand. It’s only been five days since Sable passed but I can’t go on any longer. Being the alicorn of love, I’m sure you understand what I’m saying.
Thank you for humoring this crazy stallion with your time.
Sincerely,
Lord Aurol Crux
Cadance looked up from the letter with a sad smile on her face. “He seemed like a good father,” she said, glancing over at him. “Was he always trying to lighten up a conversation with jokes?”
Crux snorted, a crooked grin spreading across his features and brightening his eyes for just a second. “Always…”
She nodded and set the note down on the tray, picking up the forms for what she now knew were adoption papers. Rifling through the first few she gave them a quick scan.
Humming thoughtfully to herself, she tapped them on the table a few times to order them, set them back on the tray and passed the note to Crux.
Grasping the letter in his smokey green aura, the lord’s eyes scanned the letter slowly and methodically, top to bottom. His face flew the gamut of expressions from annoyed to incredulous, and finally to solemn.
He slowly lowered the letter, his eyes staring blankly into space before glancing again at the letter and then up to the adoption papers to Cadance’s right.
“May I see those, Your Highness?”
The forms were soon floating alongside his father’s final words in his aura as he read the name of the last recipient of his father’s goodwill. He sighed through his nose and placed the papers in front of him, leaning back in his seat and staring up at the ceiling.
“This is ridiculous. I’m only twenty, I’m not even old enough to drink legally yet, for Faust’s sake. How can he expect me to know how to take care of a foal? Damn him to the moon.”
Cadance and Shining jumped at the unexpected heat in the last statement.
“Well, if you really don’t think you can do this, you don’t have to adopt—,” Shining began hesitantly.
“No, no, I do...I do. If these friends of his are who I think they are, they’re the reason my parents were able to marry in the first place. I owe them not only a deeper debt than even my father, but my very existence, “ he sighed again. “And may Celestia smite me here and now before I allow the foal of such loyal friends to grow up alone in an orphanage.”
Cadance smiled warmly and nodded. “I think you’ll do wonderfully, Lord Crux. If I may,” she held out her hoof for the forms.
Raising a brow, the lord passed them back in his aura to her waiting hooves. She grasped them gently and rang a bell with her magic. A butler was suddenly behind her chair as if he’d teleported, though he was just an earth pony.
After a few quiet words were exchanged, the butler left and returned shortly with a gold stamp in his teeth. He passed it carefully to Cadance, who stamped the papers with her seal, leaving a bright pink symbol of her cutie mark overlaid against the Crystal Empire flag.
“There, adoption papers endorsed by the princess herself. That should smooth over any possible wrinkles.” She tapped the forms gently with her hoof.
“Yeah, that princess. She’s something isn’t she,” Shining drawled, drawing a giggle from his wife.
She passed the papers back to Crux who sat staring at them as if at a loss.
“Is something the matter, Lord Crux,” Cadance asked, a worried frown etched on her muzzle.
“Oh, nothing really,” he said, still staring at the papers. “I’ve just been spending all of my time recently planning, by myself mind you, and attending two funerals before rushing to ensure the house wouldn’t run itself into the ground while I was away.”
“I took a carriage all the way to the capitol of my nation, was verbally assaulted by two of the most prudish excuses of ponykind upon my arrival, had dinner with my princess, watched her husband spit wine halfway across the dining hall, and found out through a letter from my father that I wasn’t allowed to read until just now that I’m also going to be a father myself. And to top it all off, it has now been almost five days since I last slept.”
The royal couple blinked, looked at each other, blinked, and then looked back at the young lord, whose left eye was now starting to develop a noticeable twitch.
“Would you like to have a guest suite for the night before you meet her?“ Shining gestured vaguely to the empty stretch of hallway beyond the dining hall doors.
“That would be the kindest thing I have ever had the purest good fortune to experience, Prince Armor," Crux said, looking at him with eyes that expressed gratitude beyond words.
Cadance tapped her hooves together with finality, ringing the bell again which summoned the servants to gather up the dinnerware. “Well, then that settles that. Let’s sleep for the night and deal with this headache tomorrow after cognac, everypony.”
Something which sounded suspiciously like a sob of relief came from Crux’s direction.