“Princess?
“Princess! Can you hear me? What is … By the sun and moon! Commander, I need you over here! Princess down! I repeat, princess down!
“Hold on, princess. We’ll get you to safety.”
“Lieutenant, what—in all Equestria! Princess!”
“Commander, we have to get them back to the Empire now!”
“I hear you.”
“I have the foal, sir.”
“Take the rear. Straight up till you see the sky.”
“I hear you, sir. Hold on tight, princess, we’re getting you out of here.”
* * *
“I don’t like this.”
“You worry too much, dear.” A thick soup of mist coiled around her hooves as she stepped closer to the edge of the water and looked up at the ancient stone. The sky was clear; the dense fog that had filled the gorge months earlier had dissipated as mysteriously as it had appeared, leaving nothing more than a carpet of white mist on the ground near the lake.
Shining Armor followed her closely, his eyes constantly scanning the surroundings. “I nearly lost you and our daughter to this cursed place,” he said, his heart hurting at the mention of it. “And you still haven’t told me what happened.”
“Nothing will happen,” she reassured him. “This is something I must do.”
“You tell me that, but you won’t tell me why,” Shining said, looking at her with sad eyes.
Cadance kept looking at the stone and the sky behind it. The ancient markings of Clover the Clever were still there, faded beyond recognition by the wear and tear of ages. The stone glittered in the sun, awaiting her own mark.
Was it even possible for her to leave the job unfinished? What would happen if she turned around and just left now? With her knowledge, could she change the future? She knew Fenris would appear one day soon, and she knew the chain her daughter would forge for it would not hold. What would happen if she acted on her knowledge? Could she defeat Fenris before he won and spare everypony that future?
But if she did make a new future, how could she know it would be a better one, not worse? Maybe Fenris would still win, and no savior would come. Perhaps Silica and Silene would never even be born, or end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
One day, the great wolf would swallow her. If anypony should end that way to save others, it was her; she was already dead, and she could face the end a second time knowing what she knew. For all the death and suffering she knew would come, for all the ponies she loved who would die, a brighter future still awaited in the end.
How could she ever destroy that?
Cadance turned and looked at Shining Armor, at the guards and ponies gathered behind him, waiting anxiously for her. None of them knew what she knew or that she had died in the future and come back—not as alive as she seemed to them, a strange fact that she had attributed to Discord’s meddling magic. None of them knew that the fate of the future balanced on them all this day.
And that was all as it should be. Just as she couldn’t change the future, no one could never know besides her and Discord.
She smiled sadly at Shining and leaned forward, kissing him softly. “What will be, will be,” she said and held a hoof up to his cheek, looking into his eyes. She was crying, but she couldn’t keep from smiling. “No matter what comes … it will all be fine.
“Ponies,” she said and turned to the gathered herd, looking at them all. “Today we establish a new village, here in this place, in honor of two brave young fillies. You will not know them or their names, but they never stopped believing in a brighter world, and they taught me that no odds are ever too great as long as there is friendship and courage in our hearts.
“And enough glitter to go around,” she added with a smile.
She turned around again and looked up at the stone. “Silica and Silene, may you one day find your home here, and in all our hearts.” She spread her wings and drifted up towards the top of the stone. Her horn lit up as she began to carve a message, the words still clear as flames in her memory, and with those words she sealed the future.
“Glimmerville, established in the year 7AH in honor of two young fillies who made the world glitter. One day we shall meet here, and you shall make your own marks upon the future. Till then …
“— Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Princess Skylark of the Crystal Empire.”