//------------------------------// // Cadance, Romance Writer // Story: Across the Boundary // by Forthwith //------------------------------// Dusk Shine, newly crowned a princess after marrying Princess Sunny Skies, was just beginning to realize what her new status meant. She had recently told off some of her more persistent admirers who were hoping for some less than honorable favors, and actually had the guard drag them away to wherever it was that guards drag ponies. Curiously, Dusk Shine rung a bell and a young earth pony maid entered her room. “You rang, Your Highness?” “Um…yes,” Dusk Shine said, realizing that she did not actually have a request, “I did.” Even as the silence grew longer, the maid simply waited for her princess’s orders. “Could– ah… Could I get a…a cookie?” “Of course, Your Highness. I shall fetch one immediately. Do you have a particular flavor in mind?” “Err… Something with chocolate?” “Very well, Your Highness. Your will be done.” The maid departed as quietly and gracefully as she had entered. “Huh. …I wonder if…” Dusk Shine grabbed a large bell in her magic and made to ring it, only to stop just short. This is a bad, bad, terrible, awful idea… With a blush and some guilt, Dusk Shine rang the bell anyway in small, shy movements. In an instant, a guard stepped inside. “Your Highness, is something wrong?” “No. Uh…I just need to t– Would you have my broth–your commander come here?” The guard silently nodded and slipped back out the room, leaving Dusk Shine to her own devices. Working quickly, she opened her dresser drawer and fished around for a quad of long, stripped socks while she, at the same time, fumbled around in her vanity for a scrunchie. Usually not paying any attention to her appearance, Dusk Shine tied her mane back clumsily into a tail knot which she had always been told she looked cute in; although, she never had figured out why anypony would think that. Then there were the socks. Princess Sunny Skies seemed to think that there was something unbearably attractive about them and she figured they would work just as well now. A knock came at the door and Dusk Shine quickly hid underneath the blankets of her bed, chickening out at the last moment. “…Enter.” The maid from earlier entered the room bearing a small pile of double chocolate chip cookies on a silver plate. “Oh,” Twi said with a breath of relief. “It’s just– I mean, thanks for your hard work. If you’d just set them on the table for now…” Obeying quickly, the maid asked, “Do you require anything else?” “No, that’s all. Thank you.” Dusk Shine hid fully under her covers as she waited for the maid to leave. Only once she was sure the door was closed by checking with her magic, did she emerge. Feeling terrible about her cowardice, she got out of bed and floated the largest cookie she could find into her mouth. Munching greedily on the sugary treat, she completely missed the door opening and her brother entering. “Ehem,” Rock Shine cleared his throat. “If– If you’re waiting for your wife, Dusky, I should come back later.” Dusk Shine bit clean through her cookie in surprise and it fell to the floor. If she had noticed him entering, she almost certainly would have hid herself again. “W-why d-d-didn’t y-you k-k-knock?” she stammered. “Um, sorry,” Rock Shine said, looking away with a huge blush on his face. “I didn’t think you’d be…indecent.” Dusk Shine’s blush inflamed to a red brighter than the sun. Putting up no small number of privacy spells, she packed away her shame into a corner of her mind and tried to bring out the same seductive looks that Princess Sunny Skies always managed to elicit from her. “A-As you know,” she began, “I’m a princess now. A proper one, unlike you, with all the authority that that comes with. Including o-over you. So, I order you not to say anything about what I’m going to do to anypony.” Rock Shine looked back to his sister with a confused look which somehow managed to seem hopeful. It only fueled Dusk Shine’s courage. She crossed the room and kissed– Inkwell sighed and riffled through the rest of the manuscript he had been reading. On a few occasions, he stopped to read a page or two in more detail but each time his frown grew more entrenched on his face. Finally, reading the last five pages, his frown was replaced by a mixture of disappointment and embarrassment. “I’m sorry Princess Cadance, but I can’t read any more of this.” “What!” Cadance exclaimed. “What could you possibly find wrong with it this time! I fixed all of the problems with my previous stories! This is a masterpiece!” Inkwell sighed again. “No, you really haven’t. You just swept them under the rug. And there are more…problems than usual with this manuscript.” “Like what?” Cadance was beginning to lose her patience with Inkwell as she always did when she brought in a romance novel to her editor. Sighing, yet again, Inkwell answered, “I think you should just give up trying to write romances in your spare time. Just stick to high fantasy. You are fantastic at high fantasy. But romance…there’s really no other word for your proficiency in it but abysmal.” Pouting, Cadance demanded, “Answer my question. What’s more wrong this time?” Face on hoof for a fourth sigh – a new record for frequency between the two ponies – Inkwell said, “Do you really need me to spell it out?” “Yes,” put Cadance in no unclear terms. “…Very well. This will ruin your marriage. I sincerely hope you haven’t given a copy to Prince Shining or the young archmage. Really, it would be disastrous for you if anypony read it.” “Why?” “Do– Do you really not realize?” Cadance shook her head. “…Please do not freak out on me. This is obviously a fanfic of your life.” “How so?” “Dusk Shine? Twilight Sparkle. Rock Shine? Shining Armor. Princess Sunny Skies? Princess Celestia. Princess Rhythm? Princess Cadance. Besides the superficial details, the parallels I saw from just reading the first third of the story are all over the place. And look here” – Inkwell hoofed the manuscript open to page ninety-eight over to Cadance – “on the bottom of this page, in the last paragraph, you even made the mistake of writing Twi instead of Dusk Shine.” Cadance blushed at her mistake. …Maybe he’s got a point… “Look, what goes on behind closed doors in the royal family is none of my, or anypony else’s, business. I would bet that this is all fiction in the strictest sense, but not from your perspective. On one of the pages I saw, you messed up even more than on ninety-eight. It was something to the effect of ‘Cadance realized how much she loved Twi as they kissed, almost as much as her husband.’” Inkwell held Cadance’s gaze until she looked away with an even bigger blush, biting her lip the whole time. “I truly think you need to work through whatever feelings you’re bottling up. Maybe talk to your husband and Archmage Twilight. Maybe even Princess Celestia herself. I made sure to read the ending in detail. That was perhaps the most troubling part of the whole story. And one of the biggest problems with it as a narrative. Four-way marriages don’t work out in real life, even if you are the one making the laws.” Leaning forward in her chair so that her head dropped down past Inkwell’s desktop, she heard him add, “At least, none that I’ve ever heard of. The royal harems of other countries tend to self-destruct into infighting and backstabbing. I suppose I don’t know any attempts by the common pony, but–” “Please,” Cadance interrupted, “just stop. I get it. I have problems. Now that you point it out, it’s obvious. I’m sure Twi hasn’t noticed, but Shining probably has…” Of course he has, he knows everything about me, even things I don’t notice. Like when he pointed out that I was pregnant with Star Charmer. Or when he told me about my nervous twitch. Or when gave me that zap apple jam. “So?” Inkwell waited for Cadance to look up. “What are you going to do about it?” “I…” What should I do? Shining hasn’t said anything to me about it. Could I just let it go? Cadance shook her head to herself. I can’t do that to Shining. I need to talk to him about it. He deserves my honesty, belated though it is. Hopefully, his silence means he doesn’t mind…too much. But not Twi. She’ll never notice on her own and I’d rather not have anypony tell her. Gasping, Cadance hurriedly continued her thoughts, But Aunt Celestia! She always knows things about the ponies around her she’s not supposed to know. But she’s a sedulous secret keeper. Maybe I can just say nothing to her. Relaxing her muscles for a moment, Cadance breathed deeply and then got to her hooves. “I think I need to go home, Inkwell.” With a faint, encouraging smile, Inkwell said, “Of course, princess. I wish you luck, whatever you’ve decided.” “Thank you.”