One bad egg

by KarmaSentinal

Buried secrets never stay buried forever.

Princess Cadence stood alone on her room’s balcony, trying not to shiver in the pre-dawn wind. The sun had yet to peek over the horizon, nestled between the two mountains that flanked the city she found privileged to rule over; standing here to watch the sunrise had become a habit the young princess found relaxing, a true moment all to herself.

Sadly, this little enjoyment didn’t ease the dulling ache that gripped her mind.

Since ascending to the Crystal Throne with her husband the struggles of bringing an ancient City State into the modern times has been an enormous, but manageable affair all things considering. Long hours of near endless civic and economic reforms from the ground up spanning almost 7 months and along with the construction of some badly needed infrastructure isn’t for the faint of heart.

‘The Daily Grind’ Celestia called it and rightly so. Her aunt continuously raising the Sun (and Moon at one point) while ruling Equestria proved to be the perfect role model for the young princess.

The warming touch of the sun broke Princess Cadence from her inner monologue, just in the time to watch the sun proudly rising into the new day sky. She had missed the start but watched a little wide eyed like a foal seeing something amazing, a reaction never could rid herself of. Princess Celestia found it heart warming and always thanked her pink little niece before the pair would make their way to breakfast.

Silently whispering a thank you to her wonderful aunt, Cadence watched the final moments of another unique sunrise before going back inside.
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Breakfast today was served in a similar manner as the day before within the same dining hall tucked further back into the castle’s interior, next to the vacant Guest Wing; a parade of sparkling servers with manes in a single bun, tails cut and trimmed to just above the hock. The professionals entered in two single rows (one for each side of the table) carrying an assortment of trays, dinning décor, three dual candle holders, candles for the holders, and more unnecessary items found at any formal meal.

All of this was unneeded but the royal pair held their tongues, knowing the ponies were just doing their jobs and there wasn’t any point in treading on their hooves. Until then, the royal couple sat across from each other waiting patiently for the wait staff to finish setting up the table.

“Enjoyed the sunrise dear?” Shinning Armor asked, shifting slightly as two servers moved around him placing plates and a candle holder.

“Very much so, Shinny.” Princess Cadence replied as she turned to thank a maid.

The couple fell back into silence as the staff finished their preparations, quickly departing as the dining staff brought in the breakfast platters. Prince Shinning Armor and Princess Cadence continued being quite only speaking to thank the servers for their time, waiting until they were the only ponies in the room before continuing their conversation.

“The Equestrian Games are coming up soon and we’re offered the honor of hosting them.” Cadence started off, dropping the big news first.

“The Equestrian Games? We’re going to host the games!” Shinning asked, unable to hide his excitement.

Cadence nodded, lowering her fork to the plate so she could grab the napkin next to her left hoof.

“Aunt Celestia felt it would be a great way to expose the Crystal Ponies more to modern culture, with colosseum style competitions mixed in for fun. And asked..well wondered if you dear, would be up for personally seeing over the games?”

“Of course, I’ll do it!” Shinning Armor shouted, happily accepting the offer.

A chance to not only host one of the most prestigious events in modern times but the honor of actually coordinating/overseeing its overall setup? The choice is a no brainer and seeing beyond the immediate his satisfaction, the prince knew the significance of hosting such an event in the Empire would mean to their citizens.

Oh, the time! He’ll have to start right away, right after breakfast even! He would have to repair, even expand the current circus if they were going to adequately house the expected turnout each game had attracted before. More guards will have to be recruited and trained way in advance to…

“Shining Armor! Hello!” his wife called to him, even waving her pink hooves sporadically to get his attention.

“Sorry Cady.”

“It’s alright Shiny, it’s a pretty big deal. Maybe bigger than Aunt Celestia’s love of cake!” she joke, earning an amused snort from her husband.

“Is that even true? Even as Captain and dating you I never seen her eat a single slice.”

“Maybe I’ll tell you when you’re older.” Cadence shot back, falling into a fit of giggles which Shining joined in.

The Royal Pair loosened up after that, forgetting everything not within the dining room. Eating how they use to when Cadence join the Sparkle Family for dinner after foalsitting Twilight before heading home. No masks had to be worn or careful treading of words but the full understanding that the pony across the table would accept them, flaws and all. A wonderful feeling knowing at least one being in the world could see the unhinged side and still be there.

For the next two hours, Shinning Armor and Cadance lavished in the rare moment they could truly act as a married couple and not as leaders. Any accumulated work, while unwelcomed would be met with a renewed sense of vigor and dedication it would bristle Twilight’s fur with jealousy; pressing matters will be dealt with, all else could simply be hoofed over to some otherpony.

That’s a perk of being a Prince and Princess, there were always ponies to delegate work onto.

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The daily log of gossip and chatter shared between friends, family, strangers, or anybody willing to listen filled the city streets like a low floating cloud. Mixed in between the fluff and juicy tidbits were a thin layering of worry: will today go alright? Almost two years to day the curse over the city ended, bringing the inhabits out of the darkness and back into the light.

To a visitor taking part in the day’s joyous celebration wouldn’t notice these traces of fear unless they look beneath the surface.

Trotting down this bustling main road lined with shop keeps and vendors preaching about the quality or exoticness of their wares. A few even targeted him, taking some in their hooves to show him as he passed. Even as he politely declined, a couple of these sales ponies still called out to him from a black away before turning around to target some other pony. Maybe it was the armour plates strapped to him, or the royal seal embroiled into his satchel that encouraged this solicitation, either the reason he had a job to finish. Maybe after his shift he’ll come back and look around.

This repeated itself for the rest of his trot until he entered market plaza. Here the crowd was even worst as what looked the entire city had gathered in this main hub; mostly food stalls dominated the space but sparsely spaced in between were other vendors selling anything that might make some bits. One off to his left was selling the traditional cooking wares of the Empire as well as the modern Equestrian wares as well. Next, to this was a stall selling little foals toys while the one across from it opted for foreign candies of different nations.

“If you can’t find it here, then it likely doesn’t exist. “he thought as he cut into the crowd.

Here and there he caught quick glances directed toward him and the satchel hanging over his right withers, but nopony did anything to stop him as he closed in plaza center. Here the communal board acted as the premier destination for announcing events, forecasts, news, and public discussions. The closer he got the more eyes he felt trailing him, watching his every move ready whisper among themselves. He ignored this of course, as his training dictated him to do so.

Instead, he smiled with satisfaction as he finally stood in front of his goal, the Announcements board. With a quick use of magic the strap keeping the bag close was loosen, allowing his magical grip to pull out a hammer, a nail, and one finally printed sheet of stationary. Placing the stationary directly in the center of the board, he quickly struck the sheet into place with the nail and hammer.

Taking a step back, he nodded happily as replacing the hammer back into the satchel, tightening the strap once again before turning around to head back to once he came. He chuckled, watching how the ponies began gathering around the note he just posted. The market chatter began to switch from vender and buyer haggling prices to hushed excitement and speculation as to what this meant for the Empire.

The ponies closest eagerly began reading its contents as a crowd of the curious quickly formed behind them, wondering what all the fuss was about.

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“The notice for volunteers was sent early this afternoon. Everything permitting we’re hoping to have a full response by the end of the week. “

The armored clad, orange stallion gave a slight nod, mostly to himself than his mare companion.

“Alright, mark it off.”

“Check.” the single word was followed by a single, deep scratch.

The pair had kept to this routine since the early hours of the morning. It started off as any day within the Crystal City would: the citizens would awake with the first sight of the sun, the night guards would swap with the morning shift, the Royal Family’s breakfast would be started so it can be ready by the time the woke.

Lieutenant Sentry had woken up earlier than most in preparation for the day’s schedule. In a few days, the anniversary of the Empire’s return and the Dark King’s defeat would arrive, and the Prince and Princess had big plans to celebrate it. Leaving the young officer in charge of the finer details affiliated with hosting such an event.

“What about the guards? Did we get that updated patrol schedule yet?”

“We haven’t Knight Sentry…

“It’s just Lieutenant Sentry or Flash Sentry if you really want.”

“Right, right. Sorry sir. No. We haven’t received the updated patrol schedule as of yet.”

It was an expected answer given how the day’s been so far, earning another disappointed sigh.

“I’ll have a talk with Up To-Date to get it posted by the end of the day, but until then we’ll keep the previous schedule intact. “

“Uha uha, check.” The mare followed this statement by adding another check mark onto the parchment, a little note added next to that particular line.

Flash returned a quick salute from a pair of morning guards before continuing down the hallway.

Almost a full year later with a volunteer company of Equestrian Guards supporting them and they were still severely under staffed; a complaint ignored by the his former captain and his wife, Princess Cadance. He was well aware of the time required to train guards, even more given the Empire’s unique situation but why in Celestia’s blue sky couldn’t they switch from volunteer to a draft?

Mandatory registration with a two year minimal service requirement would solve the body issue for the time being.

Tartarus, even when their time expired some mostly likely would stay and those that don’t would already be trained in case of emergencies! Yet, it would “…disrupt the delicate healing process...” as it was firmly stated, shutting that door for the moment.

“Running Action, could you wake some of Night Shift in about 5 hours, and have them do a quick sweep of all areas not currently assigned?”

“But Knight..er Lieutenant Sentry! The Night Shift does enough as it is and deserve their rest, couldn’t we have the day shift bare a few more areas?”

“No.” Flash shook his head. “We’re back to the root of it all, not enough bodies; I already had to decrease patrols around the train station and entirely drop guard duties for most of the castle, minus key rooms. We simply don’t have enough ponies to carry the weight. “

“Why does it have to be done today instead of tomorrow? “

“Because Captain Square Shoulders still acts like we’re back in Fort Pegalopolis with stallions out the flank looking for something to do. It’s those standards we’re being held to. “

He stopped suddenly and quickly looked around, down the hall and back only to find the two of them as its sole occupants; Running Action mimicking Flashes ‘actions only to be left confused to what they were looking for. Thankfully Flash answered that question quickly.

“At that intersection we turned on should have had at least one guard posted there with another two patroling in this hall, we need the night shift.”

Lieutenant Sentry didn’t wait for a response and made a left traveling down the vacant hall, eyes drifting in restraint wonder as he noted something etched into the walls not seen in the others. Running Action was talking about something, but failed to pay attention as he tried to make out the little pictures; they seemed to be of a bird, the same given how each looked like the other.

No coloring sadly, but the detail was enough to give the idea that his avian held some importance to warrant such time and energy. Flash would have continued to absent mindedly study these drawings if the lack of talking from Running Action had continued.

Looking behind him, he noted how the mare assigned to help with his duties had fallen some ways behind, frozen wide eyed as she studied the hall with a different recognition. The one a foal might display when they realized they did something they weren’t suppose to, a look of terror of being discovered.

“I..I.I..Iwe..we shoul..shouldn't be here.” She managed to sputter out.

“What do you mean we should be here, this is apart of the new patrol schedule. We have to...”

“NO!” she yelled, taking her eyes off the avian etches to face Flash Sentry. “I mean, oh no! We’ll be late for brunch if we don’t leave now. Sooner the better.”

“But it’s the middle of lunch! He called to her, but to no avail as he stood watching the last bit of her tail disappear around the corner.

Alone in perhaps one of the most deserted sections, let alone halls in the castle, Flash tried explain his assistant, maybe even friend’s bizarre behavior for a moment. As he stood there pondering his eyes wondered up to the etches once again, this time lingering on one in particular with its eyes peering right back.

“This place is a little creepy.” He told himself, before quickly trotting to catch up with the mare.

Author's Note:

In the chapter the term circus is the old Roman term for a chariot race stadium, I figured it sounded (and fit better) given the world and all the puns.

But for the story, I've had it on hold for some time as I dealt with life, wrote small concepts for other stories while I pondered how to fix One Bad Egg's flow problem. The end result is I've written a new opening chapter, a small rework to Victoria's introduction chapter with plans to go over all current chapters in the hopes to fix consistency problems.

I want to finish this story first before diving back into her early life in Equestria and what happened to lead Victoria on the path she's currently on.

So, first things first here is the new opening chapter to start us off, with a new version of 'The ice melts' coming by the end of the week. After that, Ill tackle editing/updating the rest of the chapters before we get to the new content.

Feel free leave comments and/or ask any questions you may have, and Happy New Year!