//------------------------------// // Morning After // Story: Winter Storm // by Snake Staff //------------------------------// Shining Armor The rest of the night passes all too quickly to me. Princes Twilight and- no, Twily and I spend several hours out alone on the balcony. It’s rather embarrassing to have to be bailed out by my little sister again, but I’ll admit that it also feels nice to be reassured of my value to the ponies I love. We don’t talk too much, but that’s fine – she’s said all that needs to be said, and her presence reminds me of the truth of the matter: I’m Shining Armor, Prince of the Crystal Empire, and even my alicorn family needs me. Eventually, Twily and I start to play rather foalish games. I know, I know, it’s not exactly politic to have a pillow fight with your sibling on the upper balcony of the Imperial Palace. There’s no doubt that at least some patrolling pegasi can see us. But, buck it, I don’t care. Tackling Twily to the ground and exploiting my knowledge of her sensitive spots to tickle her silly seems even less appropriate, but the reaction from her… the sheer guile-less, innocent, foal-like adoration shining in her eyes… that makes me feel really good. Like with most things, our time together comes to an end all too soon. One minute I’ve engaged my LSBFF in a rousing round of couch fort, the next a letter magically appears over her head. It bears the seal of Princess Celestia, so unsurprisingly Twilight doesn’t waste any time opening it up and reading through the message. By the end, she looks both nervous and sad. I recognize my sister’s “bad news” expression, and urge her to go ahead. I don’t remember the exact details, but she tells me that apparently Celestia needs her. Something to do with the negotiations the solar princess is presiding over. She looks reluctant, but I remind her that Celestia wouldn’t call her so abruptly if it weren’t vital, so she should go to her old mentor. It’s pretty clear that Twily doesn’t want to leave Cadence and I, so I tell her that if lives are at stake and that it’s too important to waste her time here. It takes a little bit of brotherly charm, but I convince her that I can handle myself and my wife for a bit longer. When you’ve lived as long as I have, you learn a bit of patience. In the end, my LSBFF promises to return as soon as she can, and to keep helping me, even if we have to start from scratch. I wind up lending her one of our chariots – I’m sure Cadence won’t mind – and bidding her a fond farewell. With any luck, she’ll be back soon. The balcony is thoroughly messed up by now, and the air is cold, but I can’t think of a better place to lay my head for whatever remains of the night. Cadence… you have the bed for tonight. We can talk in the morning. But, when morning comes, and Celestia’s fiery orb again graces our skies, I’m awoken from my impromptu sleeping position not by my beautiful alicorn wife, but by a frantic-looking pegasus in the uniform of the Crystal Guard. Private Steady Hoof his name is, if I recall correctly. “Oh, thank the gods you’re alright, sir,” Steady says as I stir from the sofa. “We weren’t sure, what with…” he trails off, still looking anxious. “What with what?” I ask almost immediately, the transition from sleep to wakefulness made easier by lack of biological inertia. “What’s the matter?” “It’s Princess Cadence, sir,” he answers. “She’s…” I’m on my hooves in a split second. “She’s what?!” I demand, perhaps more roughly than I should, grabbing my unfortunate subordinate by the neck and shaking him. “What’s going on?!” My mind is already counting dozens of nightmare scenarios. Has she been kidnapped? Has she been hurt? Did somepony attack her? Was it an internal foe? The blackmailer, maybe? The work of some other nation? Is she in the hospital? Gods… is she dead?! What the buck has happened to my wife?! The private looks like he wishes for all the world that he knew how to teleport right now. In a shaky voice, he replies, “S-She’s m-m-missing… my p-p-prince… can’t f-find her… a-anywhere…” “WHAT?!” I let him go, reeling in shock. How could this have happened?! Here, in one of the safest places in one of the safest nations on the planet… No. No. NO! Not again! Please, please let this have been my insensitivity and ingratitude that drove her to hide! For the love of all the gods, don’t let her have been abducted again! Or hurt… or… or…. My discipline reasserts itself. “Assemble our officers,” I harshly command him. “All of them. Now.” Private Steady Hoof nods with an undue amount of eagerness. With a salute, he hurries off to do my will. Cadence… Please, be alright. Eighteen hours. For eighteen long, panic-stricken hours, my wife is nowhere to be found. I mobilize the entirety of the Crystal Guard, order a near-total lockdown of the Imperial City, and alert every border guard we have to be on high alert and inspect all outgoing shipping, but nothing seems to help. I don’t want to cause a mass panic or a riot, so I give instructions not to go public about what’s happened. Still, it isn’t exactly hard to guess something resembling the truth. The princess doesn’t show up to her court or to the meeting of the Grand Council, the prince is either running about or locked in his office, and the guard goes into a frenzy of activity and starts inspecting anypony deemed even vaguely suspicious? Yeah, not exactly hard to speculate what might have happened. Naturally, rumors start flying like a parasprite swarm. It’s disappointing but not exactly surprising to learn that some of them feature me as the power-hungry perpetrator of Cadence’s disappearance. Insults can be dealt with in time. As the hours tick by, more and more possibilities occur to me, each more horrible than the last. Is she being tortured? Is she imprisoned somewhere? Has she been banished to a celestial body? Will there be another creepy bug queen imposter coming soon to take over her role? I don’t know, and for once I’m thankful that I don’t have a organs, because otherwise I think I might have given myself a heart attack. Cadence is one of the only things I have left. If I lost her… I don’t think I could take it. I’m presently pacing rather franticly up and down my office floor with nopony but two guards for company, waiting for anything new to work with and debating what to do next. I don’t want to set off an international pony-hunt for nothing if this turns out to have been merely the result of my idiotic refusal to accept her apology last night. But still, the light of day has come and gone, and my wife, who never does things like this, is still nowhere in sight. I wonder if I should be contacting the other three princesses. Maybe they would know something. But… that would mean admitting failure. Confessing that I can achieve nothing without the aid of the alicorns. Again. Not yet, I decide. Not yet. If this takes too much longer I may have no choice. More anxiety fills me. Am I being stupid? Should I call my alicorn relations now, before anything else happens? Should I have done so hours ago? I don’t know… Aaaargh… I pull on my own mane, more for habit than any feeling. Focus Shining, focus. This is no time for running around in circles like some headless chicken. I just need to- “SHINY!” I think you can imagine my surprise when there’s a brilliant flash of blue and Cadence, the object of so much worry, appears in front of me. She’s filthy, covered in dust and soot and wearing dozens of multicolored stains on her rosy coat. Even her flowing main and tail aren’t free of the grime and grit coating her. But in spite of that, she’s wearing one of the biggest grins I’ve ever seen across her muzzle, and her eyes are sparkling. I take a step back, my mouth hanging open limply. I don’t know what to say, which doesn’t matter anyway because words won’t come out. Dammit Shining Armor, can’t you keep yourself together for ten seconds in front of your wife? It’s just like when we started dating, I never could manage a whole trip without doing something stupid or awkward or- One of my guards recovers before I do. Great, upstaged again, this time by a random grunt. “Princess?” he asks, hesitatingly at first, but he quickly grows a bit bolder, rushing to her side. “Your majesty? Are you alright? What’s happened?” She doesn’t even bother to look at him. “Yes yes, I’m quite fine,” she says with a wave of her hoof. “You can stop doing whatever it is you were doing to look for me. Now, please give us some private time.” The two stallions look confusedly at each other. “Your highness, you’ve had everypony on high alert looking for you. Are you hurt? Is there anything- Whoa!” Again, the alicorn won’t so much as glance at him. “Don’t care. Perfectly alright. Alone time. Now.” And with that my two guards are lifted off their hooves and unceremoniously tossed out the door, which seals itself shut behind them. “Cadence,” I finally manage. Took me bloody long enough. “What’s going on h-” I too am picked up in her aura in mid-sentence, but instead of tossing me out she yanks me right into an enormous hug. She locks her lips over mine, then showers my face with kisses and twirls us in circles like a ballet dancer. “Cady, what- mmph!” I try again, only to be silenced by yet another lip lock. “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HA!” she’s laughing in slightly maniacal manner that I confess to finding unnerving. While she continues to twirl our intertwining forms about, I cast a small spell. It’s a little something Twily and I came up with after the wedding disaster: a magic that reaches past the outer shell of being to look into its genetic code and identify it. A modification of a spell we already used in the guard way back then to identify murder victims, this one is just meant to tell the species of an individual. Cadence was replaced once before, and just in case… The spell rings out in my head. Alicorn, it tells me. So this is my actual wife, then. That’s a relief. “Cadence, I really need to-” Aaaaand she shuts me up again with another kiss. Ok, this is getting a little out of hoof. I like being kissed, and I like being loved, but I don’t like being carried about like some foal. And I definitely do not like working myself into a panic because I thought my wife had been hurt. I never enjoy going against her, but we need to talk, now. I disappear from her hooves in a burst of pink, and then reappear a few feet away with a stern expression on my face. Cadence adjusts to face me again. I hold up a hoof in a manner reminiscent of a school teacher before she can yank me back into her wild dance. “Cadence,” I state, calmly but firmly. “We need to talk.” “I…” the enormous smile on her faces fades slightly, and she breathes in and out a few times. “You’re right. I’m sorry, I was just… mmmm… so excited!” She actually dances on the spot at that, and for a moment I fear she’ll grab me again, but the moment passes and she regains her control of herself. “About what?!” I really hate to do this. It kills me to be harsh with a pony I love, but sometimes love requires a bit of toughness. So I stallion up and get to it. “Cadence, you just up and vanished! Do you have any idea how worried we all were?! Thousands of ponies were searching the Crystal Empire high and low for you! We had no idea what had happened, where you were, or whether you were even still alive!” I rant at my wife, whose beautiful smile is almost entirely gone. “You’re an alicorn princess! You have responsibilities! You can’t just up and disappear without notice like that! Your ponies need you too much!” Cadence hangs her head and meekly accepts my scolding. It makes me feel like I’m kicking a puppy. Did I go too far? Was I too harsh? Will she leave me?! Oh gods please don’t let me drive her away! “I’m sorry…” she says, head low and eyes to the floor. “I didn’t mean to worry anypony, I just… I just…” Suddenly, she explodes into motion again, grabbing me and holding me close. She nuzzles me, and then looks into my eyes with tears in hers and a smile on her face. “I’ve finally done it, Shining! I’m finally finished! Ha ha!” The alicorn kisses me again. “I love you so much.” She hugs me tight yet again. I, now very puzzled, opt to hug her back. At least I haven’t driven her away. After a moment, my brain churns out a response. “You’ve done what, Cadence? What’s this all about?” I genuinely have no idea why my wife is acting so oddly, but I’m sure she’ll be happy to explain it to me. Her eyes get even brighter, to the point where I could swear they’re actually glowing, and she smiles again. “Why tell you… when I can show you?” Her horn begins to light up. I pull back slightly. “Cadence, you’re starting to scare me. What's going-” And then we vanish.