Business as usual
Cadence woke up slowly. The blankets wrapped around her had created a toasty warm layer of air which made the proposition of rising out of bed particularly undesirable. She knew without opening an eye that she'd beat the alarm clock by about five minutes. Cadence knew this because she almost always woke up five minutes before the alarm clock. She'd made it a ritual before every day started to include about five peaceful minutes of languid nothingness. It made her far less grouchy at the prospect of a long day of managing the Crystal Empire.
As seconds of half sleep ticked away the five minutes appeared to be going perfectly. The fluffy satin pillows underneath her head felt perfectly formed, as did the mattress she was laying on. Shining preferred very firm mattresses while Cadence tended towards the ability to all but sink into them. They'd compromised by transfiguring, with magic, each side of the bed to the tolerance they preferred.
Just thinking about Shining Armor was enough to bring a smile to her face. Cadence groped around for her husband who should have been sleeping right next to her. While she wasn't thinking altogether clearly she was sure they were long overdue for some toasty warm cuddling.
Instead her hoof hit mattress and groaned softly in response. "Shining, why aren't you in bed?" she asked the empty air of their room.
Her drowsiness had betrayed her or she would already have known that she was by herself. It'd been like this in the morning for a few weeks. Shining Armor had taken to extensive morning work outs, often with his nearly ready guard, to get into the sort of peak physical condition he'd been in before coming all the way north to rule with her. He'd even asked if she wanted to wake up and go running, or whatever it was he did at completely unreasonable hours, with him. Naturally she refused, much preferring her beauty rest.
Now her morning was only almost perfect, having been denied her chance at snuggling up to her very special somepony. Then the alarm clock went off and she quickly revised her morning from 'almost perfect' to 'why do I exist?' and got out of bed with a grumble. If anyone besides her husband saw her now they would probably think she was about the furthest thing from a pretty pink pony princess imaginable. Shining's opinion didn't count, either, he tended to be a little biased.
Cadence was not much of a morning pony, her multicolored mane of yellow, purple and pink was hanging over her face in disheveled strands and could use a thorough brushing. She was fairly certain she had morning breath as well, not to mention bags under her eyes. All of this she could and would take care of in time but first she walked into the bathroom, shut the door, and slid into the shower. All without saying or even thinking much of anything but about the next task in front of her.
Princess and incredibly important pony that she was, Cadence knew better than to try and use magic while groggy. A string of early accidents in her life, while becoming familiar with magic, had educated her on the finer points of not transforming household appliances into animals. Fumbling with the knob of the shower she was rewarded with a rush of incredibly cold water. In her groggy state she had missed the hot water and instead opted for a less than pleasant wake-up.
She gave a very undignified shriek and, having nowhere to really go, pressed herself up against the nearest side of the shower. Cadence hurriedly swatted at the water temperature to make it something a little warmer and prayed it would quickly change. Thankfully the piping and hot water system in her palace was up to the task and the ice-cold shower became a far more soothing spray of warmth just at the moment that Cadence was going to blast it into fine dust.
Prying herself off of the side of the shower walls Cadence stumbled and pressed her forehead up against the front wall, allowing her horn to prop itself and her head up as the hot water returned her state of mood to a more wholesome and gentler level. With her eyes closed she bid her shampoo and scrubbing brush into the air and liberally doused herself in suds to complete the showering part of her morning ritual. It didn't help lull her back into that pleasant state of sleepiness though, the cold water had seen fit to force her mind to be completely alert and wakeful.
There came a sudden knock at the door to the bathroom. "Princess? Are you alright? I heard you yell..."
That sounded like Amicus Brief, who Cadence had decided made an excellent personal aide in addition to providing legal council. Now though she only wished death to the legal expert for making her have to think about more than crawling back into bed. It appeared she'd have to start her morning early and it was mostly her own own fault. "I'm fine. Just uh, cold water" Cadence raised her voice and tried not to wince at how lame that sounded even to her.
There was a pause, likely Amicus wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Well its good nothing is wrong..." there was a noise, over the sound of the shower, of shuffling papers. "Princess, after breakfast you have an all morning meeting with the Cabinet of Ministers. The topic set by the Prime Minister is budget appropriations."
Cadence groaned softly to herself, her hoof running shampoo through her mane while she thought. Her whole morning promised to be particularly unpleasant now. Very important, but still annoying. "I remember" she said, wondering if she could create some sort of copy of herself to sit through the meetings in her place. "I'll be down in a few minutes."
"Yes your highness." Amicus Brief agreed, sounding impossibly cheery for so early in the day and probably bowed even to the closed door.
With the upcoming cabinet meeting on her mind Cadence couldn't even try and enjoy the hot shower. Wrapped up in towels she advanced over to where the large mirrors and sinks were and went to work drying off her mane. There were other things she needed to do quickly and each task she dawdled on meant less time for the others. If she was fast enough she might even get to relax for a few minutes.
She had to cheat a bit with magic to dry her hair in a hurry, which ended up leaving her hair in tangles. Amidst the annoying pain that tugging with a comb brought she was reminded of the members of her staff who had offered to do some of this grooming for her. Princess she might have been Cadence did not feel that much more important than anyone else and had resisted the offer. She usually enjoyed having time to herself but that was only when she wasn't sure she was running behind.
But by the time she was done and heading to breakfast she was indeed running late. Cadence hurried out, still a little damp, to the personal dining room and sat down in front of food that had started to go a little cold. She liked oatmeal with just a little cinnamon along with toast and orange juice but certainly not when the oatmeal had cooled down and was soggy. She was an adult though and it would be unfair to the cooks to ask for it to be reheated when she was the one who was late. Not to mention she'd waste more time doing so. She'd just have to make do with what she had.
Taking spoonfuls of cold oatmeal the Princess busied herself looking over the collection of letters that had been set next to the plates and glass. Amicus Brief did that as a way of sneaking in 'unimportant' aspects of business or just personal matters and never included anything particularly challenging. There was also a newspaper underneath the letters which Cadence might get to if she had enough time.
The first letter she levitated up was from Twilight. That at least was something to smile at and she eagerly opened it up to read what her sister-in-law had sent.
To The best foalsitter in the history of Equestria
Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake clap your hooves and do a little shake!
I hope that running the Crystal Empire hasn't been too much trouble. How are both you and Shining Armor doing? I'm very sorry I haven't been able to send very many letters up lately. I've had difficulty properly fitting in personal letter writing with the rest of my research into the magic of friendship. It seems like every moment I get for peace and quiet gets interrupted by a tornado of Pinkie Pies or old enemies seeking revenge on me and my friends. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, because I know how important all of that is, but I wouldn't want you to think I had forgotten.
Besides the occasional disaster or craziness I've been really enjoying my time in Ponyville. I use to think I was kind of an outsider, just on a research project for Princess Celestia, but now I think I really belong here. Just the other day the mayor wanted to know if I'd be organizing for Winter Wrap Up again this year and of course I said yes. You'd really like it here and I think we'd all love it if you came to visit. I even found some books on statecraft as well as some on organizational leadership and psychology which I think you might find very useful. I've read them all and I would love to know if your own experiences matched what was in the text.
I also wasn't quite sure I understood your last letter when you asked me what kind of tea and cakes Princess Celestia particularly liked. I think she likes Earl Grey and chocolate the most. Do you have some sort of special type of those in the Crystal Empire? I bet she'd find that a great surprise if you were planning on sending her some! Also I did ask the local zebra I mentioned, Zecora, about potions that might make a ponies coat grow out to be really fluffy. I've included recipe lists but I wasn't sure what that had to do with anything. Could fluffy crystal ponies even be a thing?
Anyway, I hope you're having a great time and I look forward to coming to see you soon if you can't make it down into Ponyville before then. Spike says hello...and so does Pinkie Pie (How did she even break into my library at this time of night and know I was writing you a letter?) Tell Shining Armor that mom and dad and I all send our love.
Love
Twilight Sparkle
PS: Remember to tell Shining Armor that he should write back to me more!
Cadence was in a much better mood by the time that she was done reading the letter. Sure, it had taken up most of the time she'd set aside for breakfast but she thought it worthwhile anyway. Hearing from Twilight always managed to cheer her up regardless of the circumstance. Cadence was even happier as she produced the other sheet of paper with ingredients listing out a potion on it. Hopefully Princess Celestia didn't notice an additional ingredient to her future gift.
"Princess Cadence?" Amicus Brief had entered into the room while she was still reading and now made her presence known. "The cabinet is ready for you to begin the meeting."
Breakfast and personal moment finished, Cadence rose up and strode towards where the meeting would be taking place. She yawned on reflex as if her body was already prepared for the onslaught that was about to befall her. She was about to have a small laugh at that before she wagged a proverbial hoof at herself. The meetings weren't really that bad, just not what she might have envisioned if one were to have asked her a year ago what she might be doing as Princess of a whole country.
When she trotted into the large meeting room she was greeted by a chorus of 'Good morning your majesty.' by a large collection of ponies. Seated along the rectangular table were various heads of the cabinet. The curious thing about each of the six cabinet heads was that Cadence had not directly chosen them for their positions. Unlike in Equestria, where Celestia (and now Luna) managed to make absolute rule include a capital 'A' in it, the Crystal Empire had some minor inclusion of self representation for government.
As Cadence understood it the governing style worked like this. During the reign of a fairly incompetent leader the many duties of the ruler were divided up into several sub departments; education, business, transportation, justice, natural resources and magical affairs. Because they were apparently somewhat lazy the ruler also asked the ponies of the city who they might want to run these departments. Deciding who would run what and from what part of the city had caused quite a bit of confusion but the citizens seemed to like the idea so much that the next ruler could not do away with the practice outright and instead only modified the rules.
Instead they had amended it into the current system that it now resembled. The city was separated into six regions which would each vote to elect a pony for the cabinet. They weren't elected specifically for any one job, that was for the ruler of the Crystal Empire to pick them for, but Cadence couldn't nullify an election unless she wanted to throw all six out. Certain districts tended towards certain positions, such as the district where the university was tended to vie for the education spot as well as magical affairs.
Furthermore Cadence was expected to pick, from among the six, a 'Prime' Minister who would put forth the general business of each meeting and help establish policy recommendations to her. The insanity came in that Cadence technically didn't have to listen to any of what they said. She was the final say and law maker but was essentially forced to have the elected ponies administer these very important departments for her.
The system was acceptable enough, Twilight's letter talking about statecraft sprung to mind for why it was still in place. The work truly more than any one pony could manage by themselves, despite the generally self-sufficient nature of ponies and the cabinet lessened the burden through delegation of authority. The six were all quite a bit older and more experienced than her and she'd found it more than a little intimidating to try and sound like she knew what she was talking about when there was a disagreement.
It was all a great balancing act and, while she was technically absolute ruler, Cadence was always mindful of her being there to help ponies not so that they could serve her. The threat of becoming like Sombra, who was actually a previous Prime Minister and head of the Department of Magical Affairs before his seizure of power, was always at the back of her mind when she had to caution herself from making sweeping decisions.
"Good morning mares and gentlecolts" she began, taking her seat which the rest followed suit with. "Acumen, you may begin" Cadence nodded towards the Prime Minister and head of the Department of Business.
The stallion, who had a pile of glittering coins as a cutiemark returned the nod and shuffled the paperwork he'd had in front of him. "Thank you your highness. The budgetary recommendation from the cabinet is almost ready to go. We're working out the agreements and the increase in allotments will likely come out to about fifteen percent from what the current budget is."
Cadence frowned at the figure, already having anticipated something like that. "Fifteen percent as an increase? The treasury isn't unlimited, you know that Acumen."
The stallion looked a little annoyed at being chided like that. "I'm aware, Princess, but many of the requests are from the Transportation Department and I think there is some merit to having them."
Taking his cue, it even looked a little rehearsed, Horsepower spoke up. "You have to understand, Princess, that the transportation system we had for incoming ponies is several hundred years out of date. Equestria is far, far more developed with many more ponies. Already our railroad is struggling to accommodate the sort of in and out flow of passengers. Not to mention the sort of physical goods we need to manage the cities needs. Food, raw resources which we can't find anywhere else, If we have more money I can start construction on another line and more infrastructure to support all of that."
That all sounded very persuasive and Cadence could see the logic in it. It was admirable that all of these ponies wanted to do more, to help more, but in the end it would take money. She paused to look over the sheets which held the pertinent details about the budget and state of affairs for the Crystal Empire. When she asked him, Shining Armor would suggest a push for some sort of personal tax on the citizens, that they would accept it for the sake of more services, but Cadence was very hesitant. They came out to almost even with duties collected on the incoming and outgoing traffic. There was even a small sales tax on transactions which all helped pay for the salaries of the palace and government staff.
But Sombra had imposed a virtual one hundred percent tax on all things, being something of an evil overlord, and had radically altered much of the day to day running of the Crystal Empire in his limited time before being defeated and banished. Again and again all of the problems coming up in running the empire appeared to spring up from him, like a shadow from the past that refused to go away, she'd reversed the taxes immediately on taking charge. But, in her haste, they now had almost no taxes or sources of income. They'd been running a minor deficit for awhile now and the bits that Celestia had generously provided were almost depleted.
"There is another option, your highness." Acumen spoke up from the silence that had descended from her internal dialogue.
Cadence looked up and prepared herself, she knew exactly what he was going to say and would have to once again refuse.
Before he spoke, the business pony, Acumen was very wealthy outside of his position on the cabinet, took a drink of water. "With your permission I would be happy to, with some of my fellow associates open up a bank."
"No, Acumen, we've been over this..." she tried to cut him off, knowing she sounded weary before he even began.
"Princess, we would be happy to provide a loan to the government for the transportation department as well as any other pony who might-."
"Acumen, you are welcome to give money to any pony that you want, along with the government. But the law still says that usury is illegal. Providing loans, with any interest, has not been allowed in Equestria for a very, very long time and for a good reason."
Apparently Acumen was committed to arguing the point. "Princess, we are not in Equestria. You are free to set the law as you wish. All of the scholarly and theoretical economic effort about the topic suggests that allowing us to open up banks would catapult us into rapid economic growth. Businesses would be able to open with loans. Without interest there is little incentive for anypony to give them-"
"If a pony doesn't wish to be generous that is their right. But money is a very dangerous thing in the hooves of any pony. While it is not wrong to be wealthy you and your business associates, Acumen, are in a much more advantageous position when giving out loans than the ponies that take them. I do not like the idea of codifying any sort of law that would make the repayment of loans enforceable. Nor do I want to see illegal enforcement of loan repayment should I not include them. Economic growth, even enormous growth, is not worth the breakdown of the peaceful society we ponies love.
There was a clear tightening of Acumen's jaw as he was clearly not enjoying being told this plan wasn't an option. "Princess, the Crystal Empire could become enormously wealthy if we were to embrace the use of loans and banking...All of the business world of Equestria would flock here. We're running a trade deficit paying for all of the basic essentials, if it wasn't for the demand of finished crafts by various artisans it would be even worse."
"Once we get more established and the farmers are able to begin planting on the outlaying areas of the dome we will see an improvement on that." Cadence countered, taking a sip of her own water. "While we are on very good terms with Equestria at the moment Princess Celestia would not be happy with us trying to become a capital of banking on the continent. There could be tariffs or whatever else she might think up such as decrees forbidding business with us outright. We'd become enemies in short order, even if she is my Aunt..."
"Princess, then the other option for making up the difference is to tax the citizens of the Crystal Empire. Without a bank we certainly can't operate at a deficit forever. If we run out of money we won't be able to pay anypony for anything, not for wages and not for services."
Apparently Acumen enjoyed, at some level, reminding her that the prohibitions regarding loans and interest reduced her options.Cadence couldn't help but be put in a worse mood because of it. There really didn't seem to be a great deal else to do.
Looking up the Princess surveyed the assembly of Ponies, both elected ministers and staff, and saw nothing in the way of support or alternatives forthcoming. Quiet hung after she hadn't made an immediate reply, eyes on her. Suddenly the weight of running a Empire seemed very heavy on her shoulders. It had seemed like such an easy task at the start, even back when they were hiring Ponies or answering silly problems.
She needed to give an answer, though, and sighed before nodding to herself. "Very well. We'll have to raise and begin certain taxes at the beginning of the next quarter. I would like to see a range of options from your department, Acumen, not just one package. No surpluses, either, I only want options that work within our means."
Apparently that didn't make Acumen very happy either, for he frowned and spoke up. "Princess, I understand the sentiment but there are likely to be some economic shocks as a result of raising taxes...our return on raised taxes is going to be hard to measure. We might want to raise taxes even higher, just enough, to account for the downturn in business. Otherwise we'll just have to raise taxes again when-"
"I don't want to hear that." She cut him off.
"But Princess." Now Acumen looked on the verge of raising his voice. The rest of the group looked uneasy as well at the continued argument and mounting tension.
Cadence pressed on anyway, feeling like shouting herself. "I don't want to presume anything. I don't want to burden the Crystal Empire with unnecessary taxes, either. Make sure they're fair and reasonable or we'll be doing this again and no taxes will get raised. I want this to be done right."
Acumen quirked an eyebrow at that and gave a none to friendly smile. "Am I to take it that you won't be having a hoof in working on the budget or how we will go about raising taxes?" He seemed to remember his position and then added in a afterthought of respect. "Your majesty."
"I believe that matters of budget and accounting would be your department, Prime Minister." She answered, looking around the room with what she hoped appeared to be determination. "The others will advise you, I will give the final approval and make any changes I deem after reviewing what you've proposed."
Tightening his jaw, Acumen also glanced around the room and then finally relented with a nod. "As you command, Princess."
She let out a little internal sigh of relief at dodging a proverbial bullet. Engaging in long budget negotiations were not something she felt prepared to do with any meaningful contribution. Cadence wasn't stupid by any stretch of the imagination but the whole conversation she'd just had was stepping into a very complex world that made her feel more than a little uncomfortable to speak with any authority on. Ever since the matter concerning budget had reared its ugly head she'd tried to take time out of her schedule to read up on it.
Despite her fancy words and arguments Cadence had quite literally run out of things she knew to say and would have had to repeat herself if it had gone on much further. She couldn't help but feel that ponies like Acumen were just a little smarter than her, and certainly more well read. Not for the first time Cadence wished she had the gift for administrative genius that ponies like Celestia or Twilight seemed to have in superabundance.
But she did have more than enough common sense to help guide her, and Shining Armor to encourage her as well. Obviously taxing her citizens was going to end up taking money out of their pockets. Ever since she'd been a little filly Cadence had loved to spread love, in a deep internal way she thought of love as something to be freely given and shared. The purest sort of generosity possible and so, being faced with taking something, anything, from ponies was painful to her. Even if the taxes would go to important services and help others it seemed wrong. She certainly didn't like that it would come down to arguing about the fine details, the percentages and math.
But it seemed that was what fate, or at least Princess Celestia, had in store for her here. "I'd like to see the proposals some time next month at the appropriate meeting. What is the next order of business?" She asked.
Map Maker, the soft spoken head of the Department of Natural Resources raised a timid hoof. "Your majesty. I wanted to...request some minor funding for a survey near the White Hills."
Cadence winced a little at the poor timing. After they had just got done talking about the necessity to avoid superfluous spending. Rather than shut Map Maker down though she gave a small nod. "Go on, what did you have in mind?"
"W-well." She seemed surprised to get a response at all that wasn't a negative one. "I've been looking at a lot of old maps." There were a few snickers at that, looking at old maps was something of Map Makers special talent. Cadence cut them off with a glare.
"And what did you find?" Cadence prompted again gently.
Map Maker swallowed and then unfurled a yellowed scroll of parchment. "The White Hills caught my attention because, well, they're not too far from where we..I sold some land to those two colts who wanted snow for their frozen treat businesses"
Cadence could hardly forget that but suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at that particular altercation that seemed like a distant memory now.
"Anyway. I thought I'd seen them before. I'd been looking at other maps that marked where Shetland ponies had gone before on expeditions. They'd been in the White Hills a lot but never seemed to have found anything to make them settle down permanently."
"The Shetland clan?" Acumen spoke up, giving Map Maker a look of confusion. "You think we should go looking in places that ponies, who had an affinity for mining, couldn't find anything of note?"
Cadence wanted to tell Acumen he was wrong, if for no other reason than because it was going to end up hurting Map Maker's feelings and that she was personally annoyed with him at the moment. But he did have a point.
Map Maker was ready to answer. "The maps of where the Shetland clan had been were very old. This was before we were cursed. I just thought that...m-maybe the surveying techniques we had were better. I just learned about this spell that lets you find-."
Acumen cut her off again. "I'm sorry but we don't have the sort of budget for this sort of thing even if we are a little better at looking at snow covered hills in the middle of nowhere."
Cadence sighed and nodded. "Map Maker, perhaps if you were to find a group of ponies who would go with you when you have some time off? We don't have the money for this sort of thing officially."
"I suppose I could...I don't want to cost you or anypony else anything if its a problem." Map Maker agreed sadly, looking downcast.
"Its okay." Cadence said, wishing she could lean over and give the usually soft spoken cartographer a hug or at least a pat on the hoof. "There was no harm in asking. I look forward to hearing about the result if you do get out there."
Quiet again descended when none of them had anything more to say, usually the sign that they were moving onto other business. "I believe Amicus Brief has her recommendations for judicial appointments ready." A pony from the Justice and Law department spoke up from the back.
Cadence was suddenly very weary, taking a moment from the shuffling of papers and preparation for discussing who might make up the currently non existent court system of the Crystal Empire to get a drink of water and stretch in her chair. Thankfully this topic was liable to be a short one, ponies of all sort were very much peaceful and not the type to commit crimes of any sort. But it was still yet another service and area that needed to be ready should something happen. More money, more time and more possibility for difficulty down the road it seemed.
The meeting had progressed like that for a number of hours. Cadence hadn't thought that sitting in a chair could become a form of torture but she'd taken to glancing at the clock over and over towards the end of the meeting, hoping that the time could somehow hurry along faster. The other members of the cabinet looked similarly tired, but nobody had suggested they end early.
Feeling strung out and weary, not to mention fairly hungry, Cadence wandered through the halls of the palace once the cabinet meeting was over. She hadn't gone to lunch just yet, and apparently Shining Armor hadn't come in at all since he'd left in the morning. While she didn't think there was anything amiss Cadence had the sudden urge to go see her husband. The idea of taking her lunch alone, and then returning to business, with how things had gone today without something to cheer her up was simply too much.
Through her wandering Cadence finally came to a large balcony at the front of the palace which overlooked much of the city. She didn't think it was possible that she'd see Shining Armor from where she was, mainly because she was in the heart of the city. Shining was most likely much further out at the practice fields he'd had set up for training. It looked like there was only one thing for Cadence to do if she wanted to see him.
Tilting her neck sharply to the side she was rewarded with the sound of popping cartilage and release of tension after many hours of sitting still. Like any pony with a pair of wings Cadence preened them quite regularly, if only so that they didn't look like a complete mess, but she wasn't much of a flier. It had actually been a while since she'd had the opportunity to fly, being too cooped up in the Palace working on the many things that needed to be done. It was thus very satisfying when she stretched out her pink wings, the darker leading edges brushing against the stone floor for a moment before flaring up in ready tension.
Then with a leap she was airborne, catching a thermal into the air and enjoying the easy sensation of weightlessness that flight brought. She thought she heard cheering from below and, glancing down, saw that many of the crystal ponies below were quite happy to see their princess and were waving as she sailed high overhead. The warm sunlight falling down on her almost seemed to soak into her tired body and made Cadence feel rejuvenated. She soared up, higher and higher, until the entire Crystal Empire was in view.
It was a majestic sight down below as well as very peaceful this high up. Like one large network of crystal, the city appeared to glimmer in the daylight. The air was balmy and warm, the regulated atmosphere and temperature biome maintained by the ancient magic were the safeguards of the normally harsh winter environment all around them. She'd once asked why they didn't expand it until the entire area was like the city and had learned that the sort of energy expenditure needed was far greater than any unicorn or even device could manage. How this shield had been made in the first place was something of a marvel in its own right.
Eventually she spied a number of ant-looking shapes that were all moving about and positioned in squares on a lush green field. As much as Cadence was enjoying her flight she had something of a mission to see to, that and a building sense of hunger competing for her attention. Angling herself down she speedily made her descent with the wind rushing past and the ground yawning up, details were becoming far more sharp and clear while she lost altitude. At the last second she pulled back to slow down as well as avoid making a princess shaped hole in the ground.
"Up!.......Down!.......Up!.....Down!....Up!" Shining Armor was saying over and over before a large field of guards when Cadence touched down onto the grass. They were all exhausted looking, the many hundreds of guards doing push ups over and over. Manes were plastered to faces and there were a number who seemed like they might collapse. But none of them had so much as slowed the ceaseless exercise nor seemed to give Cadence any mind. Shining Armor looked as equally sweaty and tired, doing the push ups in time with the rest even as he called them out.
She'd tried to be unnoticeable in landing, somewhat behind and off to the right of her husband, but appeared to have failed. Shining glanced over to her, smiled and looked at the group. "Recover!" He shouted a few seconds after they'd made eye contact.
Rising up the guard let out a collective sigh of relief. "Water break, ten minutes. When that's up I want five laps around the field, then go to lunch!" There were a chorus of 'Yes Sirs!' and then they wearily went over to where they could get some drinks.
Shining Armor walked over to her with a wide grin and a cheery, upbeat attitude. "Hi Cadence!' He enthused, evidently very keyed up from all of the exercise. Before she could say anything in reply he'd come over to her and given her a big sweaty hug.
"Ew, ew! Shining!" She shouted, shutting her eyes at the very much gross feeling of his sweatiness getting into her coat and on her skin. "Stoooop." Cadence tried to pull away, making a face. Not only was it more than a little gross but he smelled pretty bad as well.
"What, you're not happy to see me?" Shining teased, favoring her with a big kiss on the cheek. Finally he let go after she was already thoroughly grossed out. He probably knew that she'd be getting payback on him eventually...just as soon as she stopped trying to wipe all of the sweat off.
Not that she was particularly upset, Shining was just messing with her, it was even endearing in a way and did a good job of distracting her from the general unpleasantness of her day. Still, she shot him a annoyed look and pointed a hoof at him. "Not nice, I came here to see you, not get sweated on."
He stuck a tongue out at her and started walking towards the water area for his own drink. "You missed a great workout. We started doing laps around the city but then I decided we would just stay out here until we were all completely smoked. They don't know it yet but I'm giving them the rest of the week off for doing a good job."
The mysteries of how anyone would want to go run around a massive city, work themselves to the point of exhaustion and then still be as cheery and happy about it as Shining completely escaped Cadence, but she supposed it had good results in the end. "I'm glad you had such a good time." She said, rolling her eyes.
"It was great actually, finally feel like I'm back in decent shape. Oh...wait, the cabinet meeting was today wasn't it? I didn't mean to skip." Shining said while looking apologetic, apparently aware at what his actions might have looked like.
"Its alright, I hadn't really remembered until after I woke up either." She admitted, watching Shining take a couple of large mouthfuls of water.
Shining let out a satisfied sound after taking the drink and wiped at his face. "So what brought you out here?"
"Well....I didn't really want to eat lunch by myself." Cadence started to say, a frown now working itself on her face at being reminded about the general trend of how things had went and not sure how to even go about really talking about it.
Shining lowered the water bottle, frowning now himself in sympathy. "It went that bad?"
"Not terribly, but Acumen was really pushing for us to allow lending. We're probably going to have to start serious taxes." She began, going over some of the finer points of the meeting.
Looking conflicted for a moment, Shining took another drink and appeared to want to say something despite holding back. Cadence had a feeling she wouldn't like what he was going to say.
She was proven right when he started speaking. "Well why can't we just start lending?" He shrugged, nonplussed.
Cadence sighed, glad that there wasn't a pony around them to possibly overhear the conversation. The rest of the guard had started on their lap cool down and were out of earshot. "Because the only way a pony is going to lend money to another on a big scale like a bank would be if they offered interest on it and that causes problems."
"Well then what if we just didn't charge interest?" Shining still didn't appear to get it. Truthfully Cadence didn't see that much of a difference between two friends lending money to another and a big bank but Celestia, in her occasional lessons to Cadence, had been extremely firm on this. It made her argument almost more of a moral one but she wasn't going to disagree with her aunt on something seemingly so important.
"Because there's really no incentive for a group of business ponies to do it. Even if we opened up our own bank, with no interest, what would we do if a pony didn't want to or couldn't pay us back? It might seem like a good idea and get a lot of ponies very wealthy but everything Celestia ever told me says that its a bad idea. A uh...Pandora's box that we could never get closed again once it was open, she'd said."
Shining shrugged again, he'd never been even as detail oriented as Cadence in these matters. Normally she'd find that sort of happy go lucky attitude endearing but it only served to remind her of her own fears of not being quite up to task. Worry that they might not have been the right ponies for all of this had been in the back of her mind from the beginning. That sort of lack of self confidence wasn't exactly healthy or good for her, Cadence knew, but stemmed from her earliest failure. In the end she'd lost control of the barrier and all seemed on the verge of ruin with the power of Sombra closing in on the cities defense. Nopony else was at fault, even if Shining Armor said that she couldn't be blamed.
Unaware of her distress Shining rolled his back in a light stretch. "I'm starving, you said you wanted to get some lunch?"
Cadence nodded, pushing aside her worry. "You smell though. Get a shower first before you come back." She made herself smile despite not having much of a reason to besides not wanting to show she was upset.
"Yeah yeah." He gave a dismissive wave of a hoof before turning towards his guard who were finishing up on their laps. "Alright, when you're done you're free for the week! See you on Monday!" Happy that they'd have an extended weekend the pace of most of the runners picked up quickly and there was even a ragged cheer that their hard work had been rewarded.
"Save some food for me, I'll be back at the palace in probably an hour!" Shining called after her. Cadence had already gotten a bit of distance so that she could take off again.
Nodding in agreement, and not feeling particularly energetic in her persistently glum mood to call after him, Cadence took a deep breath and leapt up into the air. Even flight didn't do much to cheer her up, coasting high up along the air in minutes. Distracted somewhat in her thoughts, she realized she'd gone high enough to begin buzzing against the top of the dome. Subjecting herself to freezing air, especially at this height, wouldn't do much to improve her thoughts at all.
Back over her city she started to descend to a lower altitude to see the various ponies residing in it and going about their business. It was a bustling network of life and vibrancy and she could pick up on all of the emotional undercurrent present. Cadence was a natural empath, being something of an expert on love, and she was acquainted with all of the emotions that could be felt. Today was a good day for many it seemed because she felt awash in the positive feelings of those in the city with virtually none of the negative.
Perhaps she had been needlessly down on herself after all. The warmth and 'glow' of the city was like a balm to her soul. Smiling already she went further down, the buildings and street coming into view right in front of her. Surely a city this alive wouldn't crumble into ruin because of a few taxes or the relative experience of those appointed over them, right?
When her hooves touched the cobblestone of the road many of the crystal ponies going about their business started at the appearance of their Princess. Instinctively they began to bow low to the ground, it was heartfelt enough as far as Cadence could tell but she couldn't help but feel a little guilty at disrupting what had seemed like such a nice day for all of these ponies.
"It's okay, my little ponies." Cadence said, hoping they could go back to their business and affecting the style of address that Princess Celestia used, it certainly had a very pleasant ring to it even if she thought it sounded a little silly for her to say. She refused to sink back into negativity, to think of herself as a pretender to the title of 'princess'. "Go uh, about your business?"
The ponies around her didn't have to be mind readers to pick up on her unease and, on rising back up, seemed to give her curious looks. But, eventually, they did start to resume their business. There was something of a wide circle though, matched with the occasional reverent look suggested that her status as their savior had left a lasting impact on their regard for her.
The stained glass windows marking the victory over Sombra was prominently displayed in more than just Celestia's palace. Any pony walking near the crystal palace were liable to see the dedication to their deliverance from the evil unicorn. Everywhere Cadence seemed to turn things as a ruler appeared to get more and more complicated. Would the ponies of the Crystal Empire ever regard her as a fellow, normal pony? Would she even want them to be? Princess Celestia didn't seem to think so, always treading that fine line of staying as a impressive and important pony while remaining relatable.
That sort of love, verging on worship, wasn't what Cadence thought she wanted though. Trotting her way through the winding streets she cast momentary glances to the various ponies both in the street and through various windows. Each time she turned down a different path they stopped, bowed or otherwise looked at her with a mixture of awe and apprehension as to why she was there.
Coming to a park; with lush green grass, a ornate stone fountain and blooming, colorful flowers, Cadence stopped at a bench and sat for a moment. Here, sitting instead of moving about, she could better see the city life ebb and flow about her without too much disrupting it. Glancing up at a nearby clocktower she was reminded that she'd have to be getting back to the palace soon. She had gone out of her way to ask Shining to eat lunch with her after all.
Then something unusual caught her eye. Two crystal ponies who looked to be in their teens, with their slightly disproportionate and longer legs, were walking next to one another and trying to look at anyone but each other. It was an amusing sight and had all the tell tale signs of a date that was not quite living up to their expectations if the downcast looks and radiating nervousness was anything to go by.
The young filly had a bouquet of roses she was holding in her mouth which were obviously making it difficult to speak. The colt and her were just out of earshot for the Princess but Cadence could figure details out without having to be directly privy to them. They'd stopped in front of a fairly nice looking restaurant which, at midday, was completely packed to the point of many ponies being lined up and out of the door.
Clearly that was not something either of them had anticipated for the colt frowned and looked between his date and the long line. He said something to her and then very quickly darted directly inside the restaurant, presumably to speak about somehow getting ahead or that he perhaps had a reservation. Regardless of the reason his date was left standing, bouquet still in mouth, in the middle of the busy street by herself.
Time stretched while Cadence watched quietly, the filly looking more and more upset with each passing second. The colt hadn't reappeared, the Princess imagined it was likely he was having difficult getting a word in edgewise to get the attention of the pony providing seating. Cadence could all but read the emotions playing on the young mare's face, the mounting annoyance and disappointment at what was generally suppose to be a fairly important experience.
It looked as though, to Cadence, that the filly was just about to leave altogether when the Princess of Love decided to intervene. Clearing her throat loudly enough to draw attention, she waved the young pony over with a hoof. The filly's eyes had went wide in recognition and she hurried over very quickly, bowing low automatically once she was in front of the sitting Princess.
"Pwinfcess Cadfence." It sounded like she said, not quite able to enunciate properly with flowers in her mouth.
Cadence gave a amused little chuckle at that, her horn going aglow and taking the bouquet from the filly's mouth. "That's a little better. What is your name, my little pony?"
The filly still was a bit wide eyed, but stammered out. "I'm Blue Amber but everypony just calls me Amber...I mean, you can call me whatever you want your majesty." The sparklingly blue crystal pony filly hadn't moved up from her bow.
"Its quite alright, Amber. You can get up." Cadence soothed, finding herself fairly entertained at the nervousness. She gave a experimental sniff to the bouquet of roses, they actually were quite nice.
"C-can I help you, Princess Cadence?" Amber asked, looking confused.
"Hm. I was hoping I could help you actually." She replied, now seeing why Princess Celestia enjoyed her position so much. It was nice to help ponies in need.
Of course the nervous young filly didn't understand even a little. "Princess?"
"Let me give you a little advice." Cadence said by way of reply. "Boys are stupid."
Amber boggled at that. "What?"
Having a point to make, and enjoying playing up the 'mysterious sage advice of a princess' angle she continued. "We girls can be stupid too, but boys, especially young colts, make all sorts of silly mistakes when they want to impress a nice young filly and don't mean to look inconsiderate or dumb."
Slow to the uptake, but perhaps coming to understand what she meant, Amber turned to look back at the bustling restaurant where her date was still inside and then looked back at Cadence. "Sunrise and I aren't on a-."
"For instance, any mare knows that you probably shouldn't give roses on a first date. But how is a colt suppose to know all the sort of hidden meanings behind each flower? He probably just knows you're suppose to give flowers and he probably only knows about roses...its really the thought that counts." Cadence continued speaking, taking another sniff. She'd have to gently nudge Shining Armor into remembering to get her flowers like these. It was almost their anniversary after all.
Blue Amber gave a terrific blush at all of that. "Princess-."
Cadence held up a hoof, giving a small 'tsking' sound at Amber trying to interrupt. "Not to mention its a mistake to have your date carry the flowers in her mouth, if he'd been less nervous he'd have suggested you keep them at your house...or anywhere else. I'm glad you didn't jab yourself with all of the thorns though." She giggled at that a little, now very much in a good mood. If there was one thing Cadence knew it was about love and relationship advice.
"I guess, Princess. But-" Blue Amber was still trying to get a word in edgewise but Cadence was on something of a roll and stopped her again.
"Finally, the restaurant. With how young you both are I'd probably have suggested going on a more scenic tour. Perhaps a park or...well, somewhere not so busy. It would probably cost a lot less too. Though I think your first date is still going a lot better than the one myself and Prince Shining Armor went on. That was a disaster." Cadence laughed at the memory of that.
Amber got a little wide eyed at that personal detail, as if the thought was impossible to contemplate. "You had a bad first date, Princess? Oh, uh...Sunrise and I aren't on a date though." She covered, inching a bit closer to hear more.
Cadence nodded. "We weren't very much older than either you or Sunrise. The weather team in Canterlot had scheduled an enormous thunderstorm while Princess Celestia was out of town. We didn't know that until we were walking through one of the mountain paths together. Prince Shining Armor had to make us a shield while trees blew down around us or we might have been crushed. We were eventually rescued by a few members of the weather team and were soaked by the time they did."
Blue Amber's mouth had nearly fallen open at the story, eyes wide. "That sounds really awful!"
"It was pretty bad...but Shining Armor did protect me the whole time and looked very cute doing so. After we were rescued the weather ponies made us hot chocolate and we got warm under a blanket together until our parents could come get us after the storm. So it wasn't all so bad."
The filly nodded, looking considerate. "And you did get married eventually. You think that uh, Sunrise and I should go somewhere else instead of at a restaurant?"
Cadence tapped her chin thoughtfully, considering what to suggest. "I wouldn't advise going in the middle of a thunderstorm at least." She laughed a little at the idea, which Amber shared with her. "The important thing, if you really like him, is to have a sense of humor and know that not everything is always so storybook or goes according to plan. Where you go, what you do, it's about having a special somepony to share it with."
"Thanks Princess Cadence." Blue Amber smiled, turning and seeing Sunrise come back out of the restaurant. "That's him, I've got to go!" She'd said before darting off to run up to the colt.
Cadence was still left holding up the roses and started to call after her. "Actually you forgot..." She gave it up when Blue Amber was obviously explaining to Sunrise why she'd been speaking to the princess of their own country, Sunrise looking somewhat surprised himself. Then, on what appeared to be Amber's suggestion, began walking away from the restaurant and talking quite happily to one another.
Happy that she'd done at least one thing right today, Cadence smiled to herself and got up off of the bench. Then she realized she was running a bit behind on lunch and so hurriedly flew off towards the palace. Rather than a languid and scenic tour she got back very quickly and trotted into the personal dining hall just on the edge of being out of breath.
Shining Armor was already there, looking over some papers and studiously not eating despite having food in front of him. There were two sets of food, what appeared to be daisy and cucumber sandwiches with soup set out for both him and Cadence. He looked up when she'd opened the door and smiled. "I didn't think I'd beat you back here Cadence. I'd even taken the time to scrub behind my ears and everything."
Then he gave her a curious look, specifically a little off to her left. "Uh, are the roses for me? I thought giving flowers was like, a guy thing? Our anniversary isn't until next week either." Shining said in confusion.
Blinking, Cadence looked next to her and realized she'd continuously been levitating the bouquet of roses the whole time. "Oh no, I got...a little caught up giving advice." She explained, gesturing with the flowers as if that explained everything. She walked up to her husband, gave him a quick kiss and then hurried over to the food. She was fairly hungry, after all. It was only after she was chewing that she realized Shining apparently was aware of their upcoming anniversary. She'd have to find a way of rewarding him somehow.
Shining joined her, still looking a little confused. "You're in a better mood than before." He commented while she started to take large bites out of the sandwich.
Instead of speaking, because her mouth was full, she just nodded. After swallowing, and getting a drink, she did speak up. "I am, actually."
He smiled, having started to eat himself. "I'm glad, I was getting a little worried that maybe I shouldn't have skipped the meeting and left it all up to you."
Cadence shook her head, returning the smile. "It's alright, Shining. It doesn't matter what I do, or where I go. As long as I have a very special somepony."
"Aw, I love you too." Shining said, chuckling as they went back to eating.
It'd be a long day still, court would begin not to long from now and there were correspondence for the upcoming international summit to go over. But Cadence thought that the rest of her day was going to be a positive one over all. Whether Shining Armor and her really were up to the task or not didn't seem to matter as long as they working together as a team.
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You have made politics more interesting....by adding ponies! XD
Awesome chapter!
Another good one. However, you may want to give it another once-over, since I caught a few 'then' s where there should be 'than's, and a couple of sentences may need to be structured better. Still, though, this story is, as you said sweet and cute. Quite the winner
Historically, being the first culture to offer banking services has gotten you burned at the stake.
"Our anniversary isn't until next week either." Dang, Shining. I'm impressed.
This is exactly the Shining Armor and Cadence fic I have been wanting to read for ages. I love the slice of life and "getting the Crystal Empire going" bits. The portrayal of the main characters and introduced ones has been delightful as well.
I also appreciate that you've taken the time to think about just how badly Sombra screwed things up before he was deposed. I'm a sucker for worldbuilding so this has been a treat to read. Have you given thought to if the Empire, being a thousand years out of date, has had some of the same adjustments Luna had to go through? Language and technological shifts? It's touched on briefly with the railroad here, but that actually made me think about the show and realize it's a little inconsistent between Luna with her archaic sounding language and what we've seen of the empire. I was just curious as to your thoughts on that since you've given other things some deeper thought.
Anyway, it's a really great fic I am glad to have stumbled across. Please keep it up!
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I have thought about it actually. While it might be interesting to discuss the sort of technological advancements you see in the space of 1000+ years I don't think it would necessarily fit here.
Unless the ponies were living in mud huts in Equestria I can't think of anything that must have changed that drastically in the time between the Crystal Empire being cursed and its reappearing. Apart from some one-off gags throughout the show, (the Hydroelectric Dam springs to mind), Equestria seems to be pretty firmly in a pre-industrial sort of mindset. Even the railroad is just being run by a team of ponies. There are no cars or factories of any sort that we've seen.
So in the end I've had to conclude that Celestia, helped by how ponies in the show are, has designed society to prevent such advancements. The whole banking argument is a part of that and sort of my 'answer'. The ability to loan money is incredibly useful if you want to make a factory, for instance. I could speak forever on the subject of how one goes from pre-industrial to industrial but in the end I think Celestia made the decision to block it. Harmony, as a philosophy and quasi-religion, are likely the prevailing forces. Thousands of Rarities in a sweatshop bent over sowing machines for hours is not likely something Celestia wants, regardless of how many coats or dresses you might get out of it.
Since ponies are already happy finding their special talent and there is no real reason for it, beyond the sort of progress Acumen would want (for money and power which aren't things most ponies are after anyway) I don't see ponies becoming industrial anytime soon unless Acumen got his way. I'm not a Luddite though, I'm rather fond of my ipod and car. The ponies seem to have been dealt a hand that allows them to easily achieve a near utopia. I can do plenty of dark and depressing stories (and am working on a few) but this isn't one of them.
tinyurl.com/mbho6go