It had been a couple months since her birthday, and today she was sword training again; on the barrack’s training grounds. She had nicknamed her sword ‘Love's Pain’, and she cherished it. Leave it to aunty to make sure she gets a gift is of the finest quality.
“Your highness!” Cadance paused from her practice to see Roll Scroll at the edge of the mat.
“Yes, Roll?”
“Princess Celestia has requested your presence in the throne room.” She sheathed her sword, and replied.
“Very well.” Cadance cleared away her training gear, and the pair proceeded to the throne room.
Once they arrived, she saw that her aunt was going through several scrolls of parchment; either writing something or signing something. She also spotted Philomena, perched on a nearby stand. Suddenly, her aunt made a huffing noise, and threw the scroll towards the phoenix. Just before it hit her, Philomena flared her wings, and the scroll promptly burnt to ashes, falling into a bin below her.
“Aunty, you should just make a stamp, either with your seal or your signature, and just stamp the bottom when it needs your approval. You’d certainly go through all of this a lot faster.” Celestia put a hoof to her muzzle in thought.
“You may have a point there Cadance. I will definately look into it.”
“Trust me, it will be worth it. Now, what is thy bidding my master?” Yes she couldn't resist that one. Celestia just raised an eyebrow before chuckling.
“Well Gryphonia is celebrating their founding in a week, and as a way of furthering the bond between our nations, I would like to send an envoy, or important pony, as a sign of kinship. Now, my duties have wrapped up for the next two weeks, so I can't attend; and considering your actions while I was gone, I figure you to be the best pony for it.” Cadance rolled her eyes at her aunties poorly veiled rebuke.
“Just because I applied a little common sense?”
“You call sterilizing a stallion, and hospitalizing Lady Pretty Coin for a week common sense?”
“One: That stallion was harassing me. In all honesty, I believed he might have even tried to rape me. Two: That so called ‘Lady’ wanted our subjects to pay for her pool. A POOL!
I fear you have been too soft on them aunty. There is a time and place for mercy and there is a time and place for justice. Remember that pegasus from Sun's Peak? As it turns out’ a supervisor in charge of resource management had personal issues with many of the citizens that lived there; so he made sure they didn't get what they needed. He is now in jail, and they can finally grow their town. Ignoring an issue only makes it a more dangerous issue later. I would think you would know that by now.” Yes it was a low blow to aunty with that reference to Luna but, tough love.
“Regardless, your attitude and demeanour should fit better with gryphons, then anypony else I could send.”
“Well you have a point there. So when do I have to leave?”
“The carriage leaves tomorrow after breakfast. You and your guard should arrive a couple days before their founding day.”
“Guard?” Cadance eyed her aunt.
“Yes, besides the pegasi pulling your carriage, I've assigned a guard to you.”
“Why?”
“To send my only niece to a foreign nation without escort? I think not.”
“But..” aunty lifted her hoof up and with closed eyes and a stern look.
“No buts. You will have an escort.” Cadance pouted, and she thought she saw a gleam as her aunt opened her eyes.
“FINE.” Cadance shook her head and left to go pack. She was unaware that she had missed the twinkle in Celestia's eyes, who watched her niece leave the room. Even Philomena chuckled at the antics of her owner.
* * * * *
The next day, breakfast was followed by goodbyes to Twilight, Spike, and Aunty. She went to the carriage hanger and took in the sight of her personal carriage. When she had first seen it, she immediately had it repainted. Pink was so not her color. After resigning to the fact she had pink fur, and the truth that dyeing it every few days would be a hassle and a waste of time; Cadance vowed that the colour pink would suffer a genocide when it can to her belongings. It now was mainly purple, with a white gold trim.
She also noticed who was standing next to, which caused her to roll her eyes and facehoof. She should have known it would be Shining. He was out of his armor, and had would have likely extruded an air of confidence, had it been anypony but her. Unless they were training together, he always seemed to be distracted when she was around. He eyed her outfit, tilted his head and he asked.
“Wearing armor, Cadance?”
“We are visiting a kingdom with a strong warrior tradition. I will make a better impression in this armor, appearing as a warrior than a meek princess.”
“I can appreciate that, your highness, but what I meant was; why are you wearing it now? It’s a two-to-three day journey.”
“Oh…”
He snickered, and climbed onto the carriage. Cadance joined him. She nudged him bodily.
“Take your cheap shots while you can; personally I just think you're just still miffed that I owned you last time we sparred.” He just snorted in response, causing her to chuckle, as the four pegasi guards took to the skies, heading for Gryphonia.
* * * * *
Not three hours into the trip, Cadance was already bored, so she asked Shining. “Hey did you see Twilight before we left?”
“Yeah, last night when we had dinner with the family. You?”
“This morning. I had to knock a ink pot over to get her attention. I swear, a marching band could circle around her and she STILL wouldn’t have noticed.” That got them both laughing imagining that situation. As their laughter died down, Shining turned to Cadance;
“So, did you bring a book to read?”
“What, like 'My Secret Life As An Evil Insect Overlord'?”
He gave her that completely clueless look that got her laughing, having mentioned of one of her favorite fanfics from back in her old life.
“Where you come up with this stuff boggles my mind. Like that outfit you had last Nightmare Night.” Cadance smiled and looked up as she remember that night.
* * * * * *
(The previous Nightmare night)
Cadance clapped her hooves as she beheld her Nightmare Night costume. She had it custom made. It was mostly made out of plastic. It turns out Equestria did in fact have plastic, but as for why they still use quills, and other materials, she could not fathom. Lifting it in her magic, she started to remove her regalia, and slipped into the costume. When she finally had it all on, she went to the mirror to check herself out. She was in black armor, with a fearsome mask and helmet. Her entire body was covered in black cloth, with pieces of chrome and plastic. On her chest, where her torc normally sat, was a box with three red lines, and blinking in various sequences. She could almost hear the deep breathing. SHE. WAS. DARTH CADANCE!
After making some adjustments, she went over to check on Twilight. Heading over to the filly’s tower, she entered the ground level and asked.
“Twilight? Are you in here?”
“Up here Cadance!” She walked up the stairs and saw little Spike first. He was dressed up as a dog. -'No Spiky, too early for that.'-
“Hi Cadance.” The little dragon said.
“Hi Spike, where's Twilight.”
“In the bathroom.” Cadance decided to wait. She did value privacy after all. Twilight came out a few minutes later; she had dyed her fur white, and her mane and tale in rainbow colors. She had even managed to make a good copy of aunty's cutie mark. Only the ethereal mane was missing, which could be forgiven. She saw Cadance and looked confused.
“It's me Twilight.” She said thanking God she hadn't cast the voice filter yet. Twilight relaxed hearing her voice, then she got that grin on her face and ran over.
I think we all know what's next.
“Sunshine, sunshine Ladybug's awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake.” She hugged and laughed with the filly, and was honest about the fact she has fun doing that dance.
“What are you dressed as Cadance?” Twilight asked, as she looked over the costume.
“A character from a story my mom used to tell me. A dark figure with a tragic story who ended up being a bad guy. For tonight, I am not Cadance.” She cast her spell and with a deeper voice. “I AM DARTH CADANCE!” That got a giggle out of the filly.
With that they all left the tower, and Cadance led the filly with the dragon on her back. They had fun getting candy and checking out pranks. They even meant Shining, who was decked out as a Unicornian Knight. They even saw Celestia, who was slipping out of a noble’s party on a secret cake hunt. Though she paused her pursuit to check out her niece's and student's costumes. She daaawww’d at Twilight's outfit. They took a picture of the four of them before Celestia got this wicked grin and slunk away.
-'I guess she found her first cake victim.'-
* * * * * *
(Back in the present)
“That was a fun night, though you were a bit overprotective.”
“Hey, two of the three most important mares in my life were out. I had a duty to protect them.” Cadance poked him in the chest.
“Just remember bud, that I'm not the weak mare I was before the accident. Having a near death experience causes you to enjoy life to the fullest. Heck even ask aunty some time. She’ll agree with me. SO learn to loosen up a bit; enjoy life!”
“I do enjoy life!” He defended, which earned him an evil grin on Cadance's face. She put a wing around him, and pulled him close, watching him go pale. Quite a feat for somepony with white fur. She lifted her left hoof in the air and began.
“100 bottles of cider on the wall, 100 bottles of cider! Take one down, pass it around and you have 99 bottles of cider on the wall....”
She ignored the groans from the five guard ponies with her as she continued singing that annoying song, even if she sang it well. She had a great voice, but that song could get to anypony. She eventually finished, and pranked the group into thinking she would sing another annoying song. Instead tough, she sang some well like hits, and even pulled of a pony version of Johnny B. Good.
Shining even managed to relax and joy the trip. He looked at Cadance as she sang from her heart, and he concluded that he really did admire the mare. She may now act different than she did when they met in highschool, but still a mare worth knowing, if not more so now than ever.
But he couldn’t help thinking maybe it could be something more.