“The strategy, the vision, the plan for the future!” Cadence muttered underneath her breath, shuffling through a stack of memoranda while neatly sidestepping one Ms Accounts Receivable. “Oh, hello, Reesy.”
Cadence had gotten enough of pomp and circumstance in her old job. No need for formality now. And it made her feel better to have everyone stop looking at her with such awe.
“Oh, good morning, Cadence!” the mare said.
The clocks had already struck sixteen, and Celestia only — come to think of it, not even her — knew what time it was supposed to be based on the position of the sun, but that wasn’t the point of the greeting. It was one of the little changes Cadence had suggested since ending up here, a reminder of what they were fighting for. Coming up with that sort of thing was a welcome relief from juggling the hundred different things that came across her desk — well, Shiny’s desk, for all that counted — every night.
They were running low on kerosene with no apparent explanation; lamps had, if anything, been less in demand as the sols tried to make as much use of the thin sunlight as they could.
The Diamond Dogs who had smuggled in the last shipment of guns were still refusing to leave on account of the lockdown, and there had been a few altercations between them and some of the more traditionalist among the sols over the meat the dogs had carried with them from the dayside.
The physical embodiment of the sun (a subject of myth and prophecy for untold centuries) and her husband were shouting at each other.
“I am not the bad guy here! She killed those ponies. Not me!”
“Those deaths could have been prevented.”
“This is a war! Casualties happen.”
“Of tens of thousands of innocents?”
“Nobody living in Canterlot is innocent,” Shining said, his voice dangerously low. “They’re a lot of collaborators and traitors selling out their own people for apartments and better food.”
Cadence poked her head into the room. “Oh, hello there, honey. Anything your favorite collaborationist can do for you while you’re busy?”
Shining scowled. “That was different for you, and you know it.”
“They didn’t make the system, Shiny — “
“They just keep the machinery of oppression running. They’re complicit as anyone else.”
“Maybe they don’t see themselves that way. I didn’t.”
Celestia coughed. “Now is perhaps not the time for philosophy. The fact remains that you lied to me, Shining Armor.”
Shining glanced at his wife, and shrugged. “I didn’t want you to worry.”
“Ah,” Cadence said. “A classic.”
“Sun in the sky, I thought one alicorn was bad enough,” Shining Armor says.
“Aren’t you a charmer.”
“As for myself,” Celestia said, “I would go to contest my sister, come what may, if it were not for your insistence that I stay.”
“Then go! We were doing fine without you!” Shining shouted, pointing at the door. “If you don’t want to help, then you can leave.”
Silence hung in the air.
“Shining Armor,” Cadence said, “I hope you don’t take it too personally when I tell you that this is absolutely insane.”
“No, why would I?” Shining asked. “Oh. You think you can do my job better than me. Right.”
‘What job?’ Cadence almost said. Almost.
But Celestia spoke first. “Shining Armor, you are relieved.”
Shining gawped. “What?”
“You are relieved,” Celestia repeated. “I discharge you from your duties to me and to this cause.”
“You can’t do that!” Shining objected, then paused and turned to Cadence. “Can she?”
Cadence bobbed her head in a noncommittal sort of way. “Technically, she has always been the true leader of this organization. You were the regent, remember? We drafted a constitution a couple of years ago.”
“I said it was a bad idea then, too.”
“But agreed to abide by it.”
“I didn’t expect that the Sun would have such a profound misunderstanding of the conflict we’re engaged in,” Shining said.
“None has said that you cannot speak prettily about it,” Celestia said. “I hereby remove you from your post. A new regent will be appointed forthwith.”
“You’re making a mistake, princess,” Shining said. “I should have consulted you about Canterlot, I’ll admit, but — “
“Honey, can I stop you there for a minute?” Cadence asked. “Celestia, who did you have in mind as his replacement?”
Celestia smiled beatifically — a hard trick to learn, Cadence knew. She said, “I hope you would serve.”
Shining Armor slammed a hoof on his desk, his face working, and he was breathing heavily. But when he spoke, it was quiet. “I can’t believe this,” he said, and walked out of the room without even bothering to slam the door.
“Ouch!” Discord said. “My goodness, that was positively painful to watch."
Shining sat sullenly on his bed, staring at the wall. Discord waved a paw in front of him. “You are listening, aren't you? You know, I've always thought the most important thing in any relationship is communication. Why don’t we talk anymore?”
“I don’t like you very much,” Shining said.
“Whatever. Listen, I know a way to fix this, but you have to listen to me very carefully.”
7377350
Well, I have good news for you.
(Addendum for the general audience: as you might have guessed from the new chapter, I am resuming work on Through A Glass Darkly. I apologize for the length of this chapter -- the next will be longer -- but I wanted to prove that I haven't abandoned the story after all.)
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Hi there, everybody. Thanks for your encouragement (yes, even you, Bitter). It gave me what I needed to push through this rut and get back to work.
7383132 Fun fact: Replying to someone on a different chapter than their initial comment means they don't actually receive a notification.
Also, glad to hear there'll be some kind of proper conclusion to all of this.
7383139
Frick.
7383161 It's okay. I've encountered the same phenomenon myself.
7383161
I think it's pretty likely they'll see your response since they obviously care about this story. I know I'm happy to see it continue, even if it is in bite-sized.
7383350
True dat, I did.
Glad to have you back in any capacity. It's nice to see Celestia taking charge even if that results in less than the best results at first. Shining Armor seems to near to the problem to evaluate anything without his bias.
Not bad, but I hope that your are at least considering making some changes from your previous outline.
I promise to try to appreciate this story more from now on
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There will be significant structural changes, and the body count will be lower than previously stated. That's all I have for now.
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Thanks!
Eh. Cadence really should refuse on principle.
I'm very much glad you decided to continue this, especially seeing as I picked it up from the "Updates" portion of the feature box after the last update and was extremely disappointed that you had decided to abandon it the moment I had decided to pick it up. I'm very excited to see where this goes and especially eager to see the fallout with Twilight, Rainbow, and Fluttershy.
Well that just happened. And it was all incredible.
Damn, Discord is THE EMBODIMENT of the Devil.
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He's a man of wealth and taste.
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Oh, I'm working on it again, albeit at my usual snail's pace.
7476179 I'm used to slower....besides, it's (partially) because you hold yourself to a high standard.
I am a bit worried about the sols now. Celestia reign while compassionate has a high chance of running the resistance into the ground. She is spending precious resources on non-critical elements and now is dismissing their best strategist.
Lets hope she has a better understanding of the situation than she has show so far.
I am curious about AJ, what has she been up to?
AFAWK her brother is captive now, so she should be coming into scene soon.
7572593 let me just say there fucked if the best strategist is shiny no offence to the guy but he's not the brightest bulb