Cadance followed the trail of destruction and reached the room where only doctors, Copper, and two deer were standing. The group of 'arcaneomancers', as Stelimus would've called them, had disappeared in just the blink of an eye.
"What's going on here? What happened?" Cadance asked.
"Stelimus' sister's magic was going haywire while we tried to purge it from her system," one of the doctors explained.
"But we couldn't purge it completely, so we'll need her to return here every now and then to get it back under control until she can do so on her own," another added.
"I see." Cadance looked down and was surprised at what Stelimus was doing. "What's wrong with him?"
"I don't know!" Copper yelled. She kept pushing him, but he wouldn't change from his stiff position.
Yolumay laughed quite loudly then cleared her throat. "I told him he was betrothed to that ponysong, then he went stiff."
"He went...He didn't know?"
Yolumay shook her head. Cadance took the opportunity to observe the stag a bit closer and noticed that he seemed to have grown quite a bit since she last saw him. "Deer have strange growth spurts, it seems. Copper, my dear, please let go of him. I need to talk to him."
"But--" Copper immediately shut up when her mother widened her eyes and lowered her head slightly to make a creepy, overhead gaze that nobody likes.
The pink pony embraced the deer with her magic and took him out into the halls. Some of the branches that had grown along the hospital's interiors were still decaying and crumbling to dust while Cadance walked. Finding a nice place far enough away that the others wouldn't be able to overhear them wasn't actually very hard. Cadance cleared her throat and sternly looked at Stelimus.
"Did you really not know about the betrothal?" Stelimus did not respond. "Then why were you helping my daughter to get better after you met her?"
Stelimus gradually broke out of his trance and started to place his hooves on the ground.
"Because...it was the right thing to do."
"But you were barely a few years old. You couldn't have known to do something like that."
Stelimus had a guilty expression on his face and avoided looking Cadance in the eyes. "I would tell you, but it's a secret."
"Too much of a secret for your eventual mother-in-law?" Cadance raised an eyebrow.
Stelimus responded by looking at her with an apathetic gaze. "Yes. Your position within my life will not affect what I am doing and what I will be doing."
Cadance tilted her head slightly. She agreed. "This is true, but I must know; Do you love my daughter?"
"Yes."
"Love-love?"
"Ehhhhh...not 'love-'love'."
"Because she is a pony, I imagine?"
Stelimus looked baffled. "Wh...In a sense, but not the same way you think. I feel nothing for deer either, no matter the gender."
Cadance reared her head back. "You're--"
"No. Like I said, it involves my secret."
"I see..."
Stelimus tapped his hoof on the floor a few times then looked at Cadance directly in her eyes. "What would happen if I refused this marriage?"
Cadance whistled. "Well, you already know that the alliance would not happen."
"Yes."
"But we were already planning on calling on my aunts far south in Equestria."
"They have their own armies?"
"And they're the oldest alicorns still alive on the physical plane." Stelimus became curious at this mention. "They even have a rather large army at their disposal, so it would have bolstered our forces tremendously in combating the black snow."
"So, then, why would you bother with this alliance in the first place if you could fight them anyways?"
"Because only your father and his siblings know the black snow and how to combat it efficiently." Cadance turned around and walked a bit to keep her mind in shape. "Just because we can bring about a massive army does not mean we can fight this threat. Not only that, but regardless of what you may think, we've learned from your father's boasting that with every encounter they've had with the creature, one of them has died. As the alicorn of love, I have the greatest amount of empathy among most creatures in this world. I didn't want to see them break apart again--"
"But you would gladly sacrifice your own?" Stelimus interrupted.
Cadance turned around and glared at him. "-and see Deer kind eventually collapse from lack of guidance. They're so focused in every aspect around the 'god-kings' that, were the last three to disappear, they would likely collapse and disappear from the world."
Stelimus swiped a hoof. "Pshaw. You're just exaggerating."
"AM I? What do the reindeer do when they see you? What do they most complain about?"
"Uhh--"
"Who is the one that taught generation after generation what to think about ponies?"
"Not all of them--"
"Who is the one who would disown his own children because they don't meet their own standards and would corrupt the way their own people view them?"
"Now, Cadance. You know that's a loaded question. Many nobles do this as well. That's a problem you pulled out your ass at a magic parlor and called it the 'Giant pink hat trick."
Cadance cringed and looked at her rear, then covered it with her tail and blushed. "It's not that big..."
"Focus."
The pink alicorn shook her head. "I'm supposed to be the ruler of the Crystal Kingdom and Equestria's first line of information concerning relations with the people in the Tundra." She started pulling at her mane. "Yet I don't even know what to do with the deer! The only thing that can help me is the marriage with you!"
Stelimus became playful and shied away. "Oh, Cadance, I didn't think you cared." He looked above his foreleg and fluttered his eyes.
"Gah! I meant between you and my daughter! WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE THIS?!"
Stelimus blew some air. "To lighten the mood. You're obviously stressed but I'm helping you out by using humor."
Cadance lift a hoof then lowered it as she had nothing to say against that statement. "Thank you."
"I just need to know, what happens if I don't marry?"
"I already answered that question."
"N-n-n-no. I know that. I didn't mean the death and destruction that will be wreaked and the eventual war my father will declare on ponykind to raze the Crystal Kingdom to the ground, but--"
"WHAT?!"
"What 'what'? It's obvious he'd do that."
Cadance tapped her chin a few times. "...You're very clever for somepony who isn't even two decades old yet."
"Age does not bring wisdom. Experience does."
"I see. So, what was your question, exactly?"
"What happens if I don't marry Copper? I mean, what happens to her?"
"Oooohhh." Cadance looked worried. "Well, it's not too farfetched to say she's become obsessed with you."
Stelimus narrowed his eyes. "Obsessed to what point?"
"I think she daydreams about you when reading romantic novels?"
The deer prince relaxed. "Oh. So nothing out of the norm."
"What...Any pony your age would have been horrified."
"Pfff. I have much more experience with this sort of thing than you think."
"I see..."
"So, if I said no, then she would likely go into a depression sharp enough to probably warrant her own suicide regardless of how I say it and all the stuff we mentioned before; but if I say yes she'll be happy and all the good things that come with it happen but under the guise of a lie that could potentially destroy her in the future if she finds out." Cadance blinked several times in confusion at Stelimus' assessments.. "Well...if we have to, perhaps it would be best to become better acquainted after a while, maybe?"
More discussions happened between the two regarding the situation, with some information spoken by Cadance that more than relaxed Stelimus, allowing the two to calmly return to the room where Yolumay was held. Stelimus quietly pointed and laughed at his sister behind Cadance's back upon seeing Copper glomphing the deer princess in a huge hug.