At first, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza didn’t remember where she was. She felt tightening in her chest and her vision was blurred. Her head felt heavy and she almost just wanted to lean forward and rest some more. The way her limbs ached didn’t encourage her to stand up either.
But then she felt the silky bed sheets under her, finally remembering where she was and that there was nothing to worry about. How there could be? she was most likely in the safest place in all of Crystal Empire.
She turned her head to look around the royal bedchambers of the palace and smiled, finally relaxing.
Everything in the room was just like it was supposed to be. She was laying on a luxurious and large bed. Across the room were the night stand, full body mirror, numerous closets and everything else that belonged in any self-respecting bedroom.
Cadance blinked and shook her head, momentarily blinded by the bright light coming from the windows. Goodness, she must had slept late. It had to be at least noon already. And from the way her head still ached, she hadn’t slept well either. A nightmare, perhaps?
She tried to concentrate and remember what it had been about, but like dreams usually did, it was already fading away, leaving just a vague sense of nervousness and a sense of...loss? Perhaps it was just better to forget it. What was the point of trying to remember a bad dream, after all?
Cadance stretched her limbs and yawned, rising her hooves to straighten her mane. For a brief moment the alicorn’s limbs felt heavy in the same way her head had, but just when she was about to concentrate on it, the sensation was gone.
The alicorn blinked again when she heard metallic clattering at the edge of her hearing, the sound faint and gone just as fast as it had appeared. Servants doing some maintenance to the chandeliers most likely.
Was today some special occasion? Ever since she had started ruling the Crystal Empire with Shining Armor, things had been so hectic. Celestia hadn’t been kidding when she had said that being a ruler of a nation was hard work.
The thought of her adopted aunt working hard back in Canterlot made her feel tense all over again. How she longed to meet everyone back home, or at least have them visit the Crystal Empire! One of these days she would arrange it, when things would finally calm down.
“Cadance, are you alright?”
The alicorn turned her head to see Shining Armor standing in front of her with a worried look on his face. He must had been in the bathroom on the side. Cadance was about to assure her husband that everything was alright when suddenly she felt a pang of pain enough intense to make her clench her teeth and close her eyes.
“Cadance?” Shining Armor leaned closer, gently placing his hoof on her forehead almost like he wanted to test did she have a fever. And somehow, the headache actually faded, seemingly driven away by a simple affectionate gesture from her husband.
“Yes dear, I am alright. You don’t need to worry.” Cadance rose up to stand, ignoring the momentary feeling of weakness in her limbs, shaking her head to make the last vestiges of the headache go away. This wasn’t the way how the Crystal Princess should act.
Shining Armor looked her for a moment with a frown, clearly thinking that she was not as well as she was assuring. But she just rose up to stand straight and looked him in the eyes, daring her to argue the point further. She wasn’t about to let a badly slept night to get the best of her and prevent her from performing her duties.
Shining Armor raised an eyebrow, but then just chuckled and shook his head, apparently finding something amusing in the situation. And Cadance couldn’t help but to smile in response.
“If you say so.” Shining turned away and then gestured towards the door, saying with that same smile that still could make her feel fluttering in her stomach, despite the fact that they had been married for months already. ”How about a walk outside? You look like you could use some fresh air.”
He didn’t need to ask that twice, Cadance was already walking after him before he had even finished his sentence. The prospect of feeling the wind blow against her face seemed to hold special kind of charm for the alicorn at the moment. She added the slight difficulty in breathing, like someone had put a veil on her face to the growing list of strange sensations she ignored to the best of her ability.
They stepped out of the room and walked down the hallway. Shining Armor was walking at a brisk pace, barely looking back at her. For a moment Cadance struggled to keep up with him, but the thought of asking him to slow down didn’t even enter her mind.
The alicorn looked around them as they walked, and despite everything looking perfectly normal, couldn’t shake the feeling of unease and worry from her mind. The sunlight shone brightly from the high windows and the crystal pony guards saluted them when they walked past them, yet still Cadance felt like something was not right. At least the headache was gone.
Finally what felt like forever, they made it to the doors of the grand balcony that looked down at the city. Shining Armor didn’t need to do more than nod to the guards as they came closer, and the doors were pulled open before them.
They stepped to the balcony and Cadance took a deep breath of air, rising her head to look at the beautiful blue sky and the clouds gently moving across it. It was yet another beautiful day. The magic of the Crystal Heart kept the weather always pleasant.
“Isn’t our Empire beautiful, Cadance?” Shining Armor had walked right on the edge of the balcony and was looking down. Cadance smiled for a moment at the image of her handsome husband leaning against the balcony, looking every bit like the ruler he was, before walking to him and looking down at the city herself.
For a moment Cadance wasn’t certain what she was seeing. But then she blinked and shook her head, looking down at the city again, the alicorn still unable to completely ignore the feeling of weight on her face. This time she saw what she knew was there.
The city was beautiful. The streets and ponies shone with their light that was every bit as brilliant and serene as she had always imagined it. Cadance just stared down at the city of her dreams for a minute or two, before remembering that she should probably respond to her husband’s comment.
Not that Shining Armor seemed to mind. He just stood there patiently on the side looking at her, almost like he was expecting something. The unicorn seemed pleased. Cadance couldn’t fathom why, but she felt happy that he did.
Finally Shining Armor spoke, a mischievous smile on his lips. It was all more cute for how rarely Cadance saw it.”Dear, could you do something for me?”
The unicorn looked almost embarrassed, which made Cadance only smile more as she turned towards him.”Of course. What is it?”
Shining Armor stepped closer, smiling to her.”I know this is going to sound really silly, but could you...kneel down?”
Cadance looked at him with a puzzled expression, even if she did feel amused at the strange request. That was the last thing she had expected him to ask for. Shining Armor had never been one to demand acts of worship or honor from others. Cadance could understand that some stallions would had maybe enjoyed the idea of having an alicorn princess kneel down in front of them, but her husband had never been that kind of pony.
“Why?” Cadance had to ask, if simply because she knew that there had to be a sensible explanation for why Shining Armour would ask for something like that.
Her husband’s smile did not falter, but somehow Cadance could sense his displeasure. ”Could you just do it?” He tapped the crystal floor of the balcony with the tip of his hoof in demanding manner, another gesture she would never had attributed to him.
For a moment Cadance was about to argue, but then something in the alicorn’s mind soothed her. It was just a silly request, did she really need to know the details? If she would had asked him to hop three times in place and then clap his hooves together while singing a song, he would have done it without question. She could humor him now and then ask for explanations afterwards.
Cadance shook her head to the silliness of it all and then did as she was told, kneeling down in front of Shining Armour, bowing down. She made sure to only look at the floor, just like she had seen ponies do in front of Celestia.
The alicorn could hear Shining starting to chuckle aloud, and again wondered why her husband found this so amusing. Cadance could practically see them both reflected on the surface of the crystal floor, which was why she did not even flinch when Shining slammed his hoof down on it less than a feet away from her face in a victorius gesture, accompanied by a faint metallic clink as he kept chuckling in good humour.
Wait.
A metallic clink?
She frowned, and again felt a pang of headache. But this time something in her made her concentrate on it despite the pain. Cadance didn’t allow herself to blink and just kept staring at the floor, slightly moving her head, hearing how something metallic scraped against the crystal floor just below her face. The sound disappeared almost before she had even heard it, but this time the alicorn knew it was real.
There was something on her face.
Cadance moved her hooves to feel her face and could feel something. Something cold and hard, even if she could not see it.
Shining Armor had stopped laughing, and was now just looking down at her. ”Cadance, stop that.” His smile was still just as kind and genuine as it had been before, but there was more authority in his voice now.
But something was wrong. That gentle smile did not match his tone. Cadance could feel another spike of pain in her head, but refused to let go of the thing on her face, somehow aware that if she would, she wouldn’t be able to grab it again and would soon forget that it was there in the first place.
Shining Armor stepped closer, but Cadance rose up and backed away, almost frantic in her need to get what felt like a plate of metal off from her face. The pain stabbed the alicorn again and again, making tears fall down her face as she felt like her skull would burst apart. It felt like it was going to take her fur and skin with it.
Finally it was too much and Cadance screamed, willing the thing to get off, her horn glowing as she put every bit of her willpower into that single desire.
The unicorn in front of her growled in annoyance, but then had to rise his metal clad hoof to cover his face as the balcony was covered in a burst of magic strong enough to make his cape flutter like it was caught in a strong wind, accompanied by the sound of metal being violently torn apart as the mask on Cadance’s face was blown to pieces.
As the light faded away, the alicorn collapsed on the floor, feeling like she had just ripped off her own mane, her vision dizzy and mind reeling from the shock. But when Cadance looked up, it all came back to her now when she could finally see the truth as what felt like smoke vanished from her vision.
The sky wasn’t blue, nor was the sun shining. There was no brilliant light of crystals from her dreams. It wasn't weeks since they had been sent to the Crystal Empire, but months.
And most importantly, the unicorn in front of her wasn’t Shining Armor, her husband.
Cadance couldn’t gather enough willpower to stand, but still snarled in defiance the name of the monster who was looking down at her with what seemed like annoyance and even some frustration, absent-mindedly kicking away a piece of the broken mask as he stepped towards her.
“King Sombra...!”