174. The Price of Knowing - Part III
Shining Armor uttered a deep sigh as Cadance’s aide placed another stack of documents before him.
“This is the last batch, Your Majesty,” the crystal mare said apologetically, though not without amusement in her eyes.
Shaking his head, Shining Armor grabbed the document on the top with his magic and laid it before him on his desk. “Bla bla bla, the Crown hires company yada yada to construct the Crystal Stadium- ouh, that’s for the Equestria Games!” he thought, finally getting excited in what felt like hours. Rubbing his tired eyes, he looked over the document carefully.
It was still months before the Equestria Games Committee would begin interviewing locations that want to host the biggest sporting event in the world, but if the Crystal Empire were to have a chance to be even considered, let alone chosen, they had to start making preparations right now. And they needed to host it. With the Crystal Empire gone for so long, all its diplomatic and economic relations with other nations were non-existent, Equestria being the only exception for obvious reasons. For this nation to bloom once again, Cadance and Shining Armor needed to fix that. Diplomacy could only do so much, though; however, an event like the Equestria Games being hosted in the Crystal Empire would reintroduce this nation to the entire world, lure business partners and investors, and equally as important, help the crystal ponies open themselves up to the world.
“The Crystal Empire must integrate itself back with the world again,” Shining Armor thought, then frowned inwardly. “Especially if Princess Celestia is right and we can expect our world to have even more interactions with Azeroth in time…”
And just like that, he got reminded of what Princess Celestia had told him and Cadance during her short visit earlier today. Shining Armor grimaced. Throughout the rest of the day, he had tried to put aside all the thoughts about…
“About the mass murderer living within the walking distance of my little sister,” Shining Armor finished his thought grimly.
Shaking his head, he refocused on the documents before him. Quickly scanning them, he saw that everything was in order, just as he and Cadance had worked out. And the cost was…
“… about enough to put a dent in the Crystal Empire’s budget the size of Aquestria,” Shining Armor remarked, rolling his eyes. Putting aside the document for now, he quickly browsed through the pile of the documents he had just signed minutes ago, looking for- “Ah, here it is, the loan from Equestria First Bank.”
Once again he sighed. This loan would make it possible for the Crystal Empire to cover all their projects and leave the treasury secured in case of any unexpected disasters. More importantly, he knew the deal they'd negotiated was extremely good.
“Still, returning the loan with thirty percent income in ten years… I wish we could have extended that to twenty years. Oh well,” he summarized, then put the signed document away. Leaning over the contract with the construction company, he quickly made sure once again that everything was in order before leaving his signature, then grabbed a seal of the Crystal Empire and left it beside his signature. Lastly, he pressed his hoof against an ink pad and stamped over his signature and seal. “And done,” Shining Armor thought, wiping his hoof on a brush.
The next few documents were less important, one about hiring a new cook, another about a ball, and so on. Finally, one last document was left. Shining Armor grabbed it quickly, eager to be done so he could go to Cadance already… but realizing what he was holding made him pause.
The agreement between the Crystal Empire and the Order of the Celestial Light.
“‘The Crystal Empire pledges to the construction of a cathedral of the Order, where ponies could gather and pray to the Holy Light,’” Shining Armor read, despite already knowing the contents of this document; he had helped devise it, after all. “‘The Empire will cover all costs of the construction and upkeep of the cathedral. The Order of the Celestial Light, who shall use the cathedral as their headquarters within the Crystal Empire, pledges to assist the Empire with helping their subjects and defending their borders, as well as returning all of the Crystal Empire’s expenses eventually.’”
Until a few hours ago, the most worrisome part was the use of the word “eventually”.
Shining Armor sighed and rubbed his temples. He knew he was being at least a bit unfair. Ever since Arthas came to Equestria he acted with honor and in the best interest of everypony. He was also upfront about his past as an evil monster, to some extent.
Said “extent” ended before any details of his past.
“I suppose knowing just what he had done in his previous life is a bit shocking… and the knowledge that - considering his Order already has a similar agreement signed with Canterlot and probably soon will have with Griffenhalla - he’s going to practically have small armies in three of the four biggest cities in this world in just a few months isn’t helping!”
“Your Highness?” Cadance’s aide’s voice pulled him from his musing. “Is there something wrong?”
“Yeah, three or five things,” Shining Armor wanted to snort in reply.
“No, everything’s fine,” he said instead, his long years as a Royal Guard helping him keep his face neutral and stopping him from betraying his misgivings.
Unfortunately, it seemed the crystal pony wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure, Your Highness? Princess Cadance always signs documents herself unless she is attending to her other duties, and I know she hadn’t had anything scheduled to do right now. Does Princess Celestia’s unscheduled visit earlier have… anything to do with this?”
“Damn she’s smart,” Shining Armor remarked, making a mental note to talk with Cadance about giving her a pay raise.
Faking nonchalance, he waved his forehoof. “Princess Celestia just wanted to inform us about some events and celebrations she wants to hold in the future. Cadance is making plans on how best to prepare for them.”
“Oh, I see. Well, if Your Majesties need some help I will be more than happy to lend a hoof.”
Despite the crystal pony’s reply, Shining Armor could see that she still had some doubts. Not wanting to give her another chance to ask about Princess Celestia’s visit, he quickly pushed away his misgivings and signed the document.
“There,” he said, grabbing all the documents with his magic and stacking them up neatly before passing them to the mare. “That was the last one, right?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. If there’s nothing else you wish me to do-”
“No, you’re free to go.”
“Then I wish you goodnight, Sire,” the crystal pony said, bowing.
“Goodnight.”
As she left, Shining Armor sighed and leaned back in his chair. He was still getting used to crystal ponies calling him ‘Your Majesty’ or ‘Sire’; it had been weird enough when after their wedding ponies would start to address him as ‘Your Highness'.
“And then we became the rulers of the Crystal Empire,” Shining Armor mused, looking at the picture of Cadance on his desk. “How ironic.”
Their bedchambers within the Crystal Palace were located far above the Throne Chamber. It was a spacious room, so large that it took most of the floor they were located on, the rest was basically just the staircase. Walking into it, Shining Armor couldn’t help but think about how now they knew that this chamber used to belong to Cadance’s grandmother. And every ancestor before dating back to who knows how many generations.
“Certainly doesn’t make things awkward,” he remarked as he walked through the empty room towards the balcony.
Cadance was standing there, leaning over the balustrade, her gaze firmly on the city below. She hadn’t turned to greet him, even though she had no doubt heard him come in. Hoping she had felt a little better than when he had left her to deal with the state matters, Shining Armor trotted over to stand beside her, his coat brushing hers.
“Hey,” he said softly, kissing her cheek. “How are you?”
“About a thousand years older,” Cadance replied dryly.
“Well… you don’t look a day over nine hundred.”
A snort escaped her. “Thanks,” she said, sounding a little happier, as she leaned against him.
“I finished all your duties,” Shining Armor told her after a brief silence. “Signing the documents took a bit longer than I thought.”
Cadance nodded absentmindedly.
“How are you?” Shining Armor repeated his question again.
“I’ve been thinking if this is how Arthas feels.”
That was not an answer he was expecting. Leaning back a bit, Shining Armor gave his wife a quizzical look as he tried to figure out what she meant, but ultimately he gave up. “You’re going to have to walk me through that one.”
“I mean…” Cadance began, her brow furrowing. “He had a life. He had friends and family- as it turns out he even had an entire kingdom, too. Really feels like we should have figured that out in his case…”
Shining Armor had to agree with her on that. Considering how knowledgeable in politics and diplomacy Arthas was and how many prominent figures of his world he knew, it really hadn’t come as that much of a surprise when Celestia had told them about him having been the crowned prince of Lordaeron.
“Not to mention the massive guilt he feels over the Forsaken…”
“Anyway,” Cadance resumed, “he had a life. And then because of things beyond his control - or, well, mostly beyond his control - he had lost it all… and now he has a life here. A pretty good life. He might no longer have any of his family, but he has friends and loved ones, and in time might find a new family.”
An image of Twilight popped in Shining Armor’s head. “Hopefully NOT.”
“So he must be happy here. At least, I hope he is. But at the same time, he wouldn’t have this life if he hadn’t lost the one he had in Lordaeron.” Cadance laid her head on her forehooves. “I can relate to that, now. I too have a life. A quite good one,” she added with a mischievous glance at Shining Armor. “It’s the life I love. But… I could have had a different life. I would have had parents, a grandmother, a twin brother…” Cadance trailed off, sighing sadly. “All because of something beyond my control, too.”
“That might be true,” Shining Armor agreed, understanding now what she meant. “But to be precise your and Arthas’ situations are a bit different, for starters he-”
But Cadance was already waving her hoof dismissively. “Yes yes, I know. And we’ll have to talk over all of that eventually. But right now I need to get over this, then we can talk about the past of the guy who will most likely eventually end up being our brother-in-law.”
“Yes, of course-” Shining Armor began to agree but then it registered within his brain what she had said. “Wait, what?!”
Cadance gave him a look in which amusement and affection mixed with annoyance and exasperation. “Shining honey, please, it’s pretty obvious how those two feel about each other.”
“Sure, but it’s not so obvious to me if that's how it should end up,” Shining Armor thought privately, but he kept that to himself; indeed, this wasn’t the time to discuss that… also, even he could see that he was probably a bit overprotective of his sister in this subject, even after learning everything about Arthas.
“Whatever,” he waved aside her remark, causing her to roll her eyes in amusement; no doubt she had figured out what he thought about it. “Back to the important matter… I know this is a lot to take in, and quite honestly I can’t even imagine what you must be going through, but… there are some good things in all of this. Like you having a niece and an aunt.”
“I know, and I’m happy about that,” Cadance agreed, but then to Shining Armor’s sadness she sighed. “But I had already befriended Serenity, and I already loved Moonlight even when I thought she was just my adopted aunt’s daughter. Has something really changed now that I know that the former was the sister of my father that died before I was even born and that the latter is the daughter of my twin brother? Who also died before we were born?!”
“Actually, that was after you were born, Shadow Bolt hadn’t died until Nightmare Moon and that was years after the Crystal Empire disappeared.”
“Oh right, because that’s the important part of this time traveling nonsense,” Cadance snorted, swishing her tail angrily. “Why did somepony do that?” she asked, frowning. “I can understand somepony taking us away from Prin- our mother, considering she was most likely dying - though you’d think somepony capable of time travel would be able to help her - but why did they separate us? Why put us in completely different ages, in the same damned forest?”
He knew the question was rhetorical. Shining Armor had no idea why, nor did anypony else who knew about this.
Cadance took a deep breath, calming down a bit. “I suppose I should be happy that once we prove it’s true, our rule over the Crystal Empire will be secured,” she muttered, though her tone betrayed how little she had cared about it; their subjects loved and accepted them regardless already, so what was the point?
Shining Armor knew they should probably start making plans regarding announcing that to the Crystal Empire, but there was time for that later. Now all his wonderful wife needed was his support.
“I’m sorry you will never know what could have been,” he told her softly, brushing her cheek, “but I promise I’ll do all I can for this life we share to be amazing.”
Cadance hummed happily. “You better,” she replied mischievously, bumping her flank against his.
Happy to see her brighten up a little, he kissed her cheek again. “Anything I can do to make you feel better?”
Cadance sighed and turned to gaze at their city again, falling silent for a few heartbeats.
“Do you still have that firefighter uniform?”
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Still alive! Yes!✊
Glad to see a new chapter, and on the day after the WotLK pre-patch release. If anything, I find the timing to be kinda appropriate.
Holy Syay! It's alive! Nobody panic! Why are you panicking!? STOP PANICKING! *hyperventilating increases*
Yeeeaaahhh Thank you for the chapter) Waiting fornext ones
lmao, costume sex
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Invincible's theme intensifies
Great update Glad you are doing well. Hey did you hear about the update to wow. The helm of domination was destroyed. And a tiny fragment of Arthus was featured.
Given the amount of time between this chapter and last i am going to assume the delay it was both Virus and shadowlands related.
still it is great to see another chapter as i am really looking forward to more of this story.
A UPDATE YAY hope you keep bringing them out. Now to reread the entire story because I only remember bits and pieces of it
Yay it's back and literally yesterday I was thinking if this will continue soon
And they go right to fetish territory by the end
I don‘t know why I‘m asking but, please ignore Shadowlands.
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I’m pretty sure this won’t make it past Cataclysm. Hints have been dropped that pony Arthas has a role to play in bringing down Deathwing - a role he’s unlikely to survive.
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yeah not likely especially sense everything Arthus did can go even farther back to be a combo of the burning legion and the jailer from the maw the helm he wore and the sword he held was made in the maw Uther had a wound that damaged his soul and was seeping the maws energy from it and after the banshee queen tore the helm apart the sky tore open and linked the living world with the after life yes it was super convoluted but it put what exactly was the main factor in corrupting Arthus that being the JAILER. and the banshee queen was made as a back up plan for him