"Goodness, what's Spike doing here? And you look like you've just been through a war, Aunt Celly!"
"I'll explain on the way, Cadance, don't worry."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guards clear out of the way and give proper salutes as Princesses Celestia and Cadance traverse through the hallways of Canterlot Castle, Spike behind them running on his short legs trying to keep up with the much larger equines.
"The Finance Minister really said that?" Cadance was asking of her aunt, who nods slowly in response.
"He seems to have it in his head that anything I have to negotiate with him is a backdoor toward augmenting the 'sweets budget'." Celestia wearily replies, giving a vaguely irritated look as she speaks. "Now that Luna is becoming as bad with 'junk food' as I am, he's unhappier and more intransigent than ever."
"Even for something as important as Twilight learning friendship?" Cadance asks again.
"Even for something that important." Celestia answers with another slow nod.
Cadance shakes her head sadly in response, and there is a brief moment of silence before Cadance speaks again: "There's a lot of ponies that don't understand how important Twilight is, even now!"
"They are blinded by their own conceits, and I fear that they always will be. Do you remember the day she became my apprentice, the day Spike was hatched?" Celestia returns to Cadance's comment.
"Of course I do. But is it a good idea for him to hear it?" Cadance asks, pointing back toward the young purple dragon still struggling to keep up with the two alicorns in front of him.
"I've never told him about it. And I don't think Twilight has either. He's old enough now, and he has right to hear it eventually. Go ahead Cadance." Celestia affirms with a weak smile.
"Alright, Aunt Celly. Spike, you listening?" Cadance turns back to ask the struggling Spike.
"Sure, just... slow down a little bit, OK?" Spike replies through panting in his struggles to keep up, a gesture which prompts a brief chuckle in the two princesses before the story begins in earnest...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Butterflies were in Cadance's stomach as she was rushed back to the castle in her royal carriage. Her afternoon had been interrupted by the disturbance of the event that would later be referred to as a "Sonic Rainboom", and then she received reports of a further disturbance at the Canterlot castle. Immediately she cut her plans short and had the carriage hasten her back to the castle at the full gallop of the pullers.
Part of the butterflies were from the fact that Cadance knew that Twilight was at the castle taking her entrance exam to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns - even her influence could only go so far in trying to get her fillysitting subject into that prestigious school, and there was genuine worry Twilight would not be able to live up to the extraordinarily high standards set for entrance.
Cadance also felt it was partly her own fault for hyping Twilight up so much to her aunt. Although Twilight was far from her only fillysitting subject, it was the one she was most impressed with, although she feared that it was because his attraction to her older brother - who was currently in Guard Academy not far from the castle - was clouding her judgement.
There was also another factor - the spectre of Sunset Shimmer's abandonment that haunted both her and her aunt like ghosts. Twilight did not know and would not know for a long time about that previous failure, but it spurred Cadance into the fillysitting business in the first place, in hopes of finding a replacement. And just maybe, absolution for that failure...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the carriage traveled through the city streets of Canterlot, Cadance could see the event had agitated the entire city - many ponies were busy chattering away, some others looked around with nerves and confusion, some even were excited - more ponies than the future Element Bearers had gotten their cutie marks either directly or indirectly from the event. Cadance also noticed that some ponies were pointing in the direction of the castle - not a good sign in her mind.
It was only as they got closer that Cadance could see why ponies were pointing at the castle - there were several pegasi workers looking around a huge hole in one of the castle towers! Whatever made it, it was big, but apparently not there now judging from the pegasi trying to take notes and measurements around it for purposes of repair.
"There, that tower. Take me as close as you can to it." Cadance orders through a voice that shakes slightly, pointing a hoof toward the castle tower with the hole in it.
The carriage quickly changes its course, the lurch adding to the unease in Cadance's stomach. The butterflies feeling intensifies, and her heart leaps into her throat. The only explanation she can think of for all the events that have unfolded is an intense burst of magical energy, but who did it? And how? And why?
All Cadance has is questions without answers as the carriage continues speeding on toward the castle, and revelations that would shape the future course of Cadance's life...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once at the castle, Cadance abandons all pretense of princessly decorum - something that she generally only did during her fillysitting time - and speeds at full gallop to the tower where she saw the roof damage. Startled guards and servants, already agitated by the recent events, are further upset by Cadance speeding through, and Cadance has to profusely apologize for each pony she ends up running into, further frazzling her nerves.
By the time she arrives at the tower she saw damaged, her ability to process the events around her has been overwhelmed and all she can do is stare in lack of comprehension at the scene in front of her: Celestia talking with several other teachers in her school, a good number of other ponies (including Twilight Sparkle's parents) looking around and up to the damaged ceiling in stunned silence, and a very excited Twilight bouncing around her cadet-uniform-wearing big brother. The filly very quickly spots Cadance and goes galloping off to her while the junior alicorn princess is still trying to process the scene.
In her excitement, filly Twilight is talking rapidfire, bouncing up and down as she speaks: "CadanceCadanceCadanceI'msogladyoucame! It'ssoawesome! IgotinIgotincomeseecomeseecomesee!"
"Wait, Twilight, where are we going?! What's going on here?!" Cadance exclaims as she finds herself being pulled along by Twilight in her enthusiasm, and there are no more words as Cadance desperately tries to keep herself from tripping over her own hooves as she's pulled along by the eager young filly.
When the pulling finally stops, Cadance finds herself looking straight down into a hay-filled cart. Resting in the hay is a small purple creature that sucks on the end of its tail, looking back up at Cadance's confusion in much the same manner a newborn foal does.
Meanwhile, Twilight is going rapidfire in her speech again: "It'sababydragon! PrincessCelestiaisgoingtonamehimSpike! Isn'tthatagreatname?"
"Yeah, great name, Twilight..." Cadance weakly replies as she looks across the cart to its minder - the then-Guard Upper Class Cherry Fizzy - who just shrugs back in response to the look she gives him.
Cadance looks down into the cart again at the baby dragon, hoping this would provide some insight she hadn't gotten yet. Instead, she got filly noises and a chuckle showing sharp baby dragon teeth from the newborn Spike, the latter of which causes her to be startled again and recoil back away.
Before Cadance can recover from this surprise, Twilight starts in on the rapidfire speech again, although this time there was at least a space between the words: "He hatched from the test egg! I put all my might into trying to hatch the egg and I thought I wasn't going to do it but then there was this big BOOM outside and I lost my focus and lots of weird stuff happened after that, that's where the hole in the roof came from! Princess Celestia was able to calm everything down and she said I had lotsa magic power and that I was going to be her personal apprentice from now on! I got my cutie mark too, you can see it right there, can't you? Aren't you so excited for me, cause B.B.B.F.F. is and my parents are and everypony else is..."
"Yeah, real excited for you..." Cadance replies in a flatness that surprised her - she was so confused at this point, looking up and down and all around, that she lost track of whatever else Twilight was saying to her and was focusing all her brainpower on trying to figure out what in Canterlot was going on here...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fortunately, the voice of Cadance's adoptive aunt sounds a clear call through the fog of confusion to Cadance's ears: "I'm so glad you could come so soon, Cadance. I need to talk to you in private for a minute."
"Hmm? Oh, yes, Aunt Celly, I'll be right over." Cadance slowly replies, hoping she would get help for her confusion-addled mind.
As soon as Cadance gets to beside the elder alicorn princess, the two travel side-by-side into a side room in order to converse more privately. Along the way, Cadance finds herself blushing for reasons she can't quite figure out - maybe it was because she hated Celestia having to explain things to her, and after all the unique challenges of her young alicornhood could she really be blamed for thinking that way?
When the two finally stop deep in the side room, door closed, Celestia chuckles at Cadance's continued puzzlement before speaking: "I'm not surprised you're confused. I still don't know yet what's fully going on, hopefully as more reports come in from the guards on patrol I can get a better picture myself of what's actually happened."
"Twilight was running off a mile a minute, something about her exam, a baby dragon... I can't remember the details..." Cadance replies, shaking her head vigorously as if it would help jar her brain into functioning properly.
"That filly hatched the dragon egg, Cadance. Her power is beyond any non-alicorn I've ever seen!" Celestia states in a tone mixing surprise and wonderment as a response to Cadance's confusion.
Celestia's statement cuts through the fog of confusion, but immediately she also suffers the intellectual equivalent of running into a brick wall, and the only response Cadance manages to get out is a very skeptical look back at her aunt.
"Cadance, I know you probably don't believe me, but I saw the explosion in the sky Twilight's talking about and how the hole in the ceiling was made. Your old fillysitting subject is telling the truth. Her raw power is greater than any unicorn I've ever seen before!" Celestia continues on with a gracious smile.
"Even more than Sunset Shimmer?" Cadance asks, and Celestia nods in response. Both of them had seen Sunset Shimmer try and fail multiple times to pass the test Twilight had just passed - in the last few months before her disappearance, it became an obsession point for Sunset, even though each attempt risked the life of the baby dragon inside.
"Your intuition was right, Cadance. She IS powerful, and her brother probably too. Today, I've found the replacement for the student that disappeared, but I still need your help with her." Celestia replies proudly, looking down at Cadance affectionate and putting a forehoof on one of Cadance's shoulders.
Cadance smiles back up at her aunt, and she finds her eyes misting up with pride and relief - relief unspoken over atoning for the failure of Sunset Shimmer, but relief nonetheless. Today would be a good day, indeed, but just the beginning of the journey.
"Twilight's going to stay here in the castle with me now, as my personal student. Your work with her is not done, Cadance. You must continue investing in her life as much as you can. You must also help with the newly-hatched dragon, even I do not properly know how to care for such a creature. Today is the start of a new phase in your journey, and you must be as strong and joyful as you have been before. You understand?" Celestia asks.
Cadance nods, although she does not fully understand what her aunt is speaking of. She generally assumes the "journey" is the one of growing up a princess, full of future promise and triumphs, but whenever Celestia used it in that context, she would drop unusually somber and serious...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BACK IN THE PRESENT...
"Geesh, all that fuss over my hatching day? Twilight never gave me any idea about that..." Spike says to interrupt the narrative, looking up confused. He is now beside Cadance, looking up at her and Celestia - during the storytelling, both of the alicorns maintained a slower pace to be sure Spike didn't fall out of earshot as they were speaking to him.
"No, she wouldn't have Spike. She didn't really know about it. I didn't know about it then either. Only Aunt Celly would've had a clue." Cadance gently explains to the young purple dragon beside her.
"Twilight's full understanding of the events will come in time." Celestia begins to explain to Spike. "At first, it was to replace the student that was lost to me. Then she was my hope - my hope that disaster could be averted, my hope that a thousand years of pain and loneliness could be ended, my hope that my sister could be restored to me. There is still work to do and plans for her yet, but already she has done immeasurable good to me, to my sister, and to this entire kingdom. And anypony that refuses to see it that way is blinded by their own conceits and vices - friendship will not sway them, so oblivion is their fate."
The last statement was meant more-or-less as a direct condemnation of any that did not fully appreciate what Twilight and her friends had done, as Lieutenant Captain Aten and his allies as well as the Agents of Chaos tended to do, and a warning that any who decided to continue on this path would be punished without mercy on the day of judgement for their crimes against Equestria...