Chapter seventeen

The train that takes them to the Crystal Empire is not like the normal one that would bring them to Canterlot. Although the previous trips to the latter are now made by flight, the Empire is just a tad too far off for Twilight or even Flash to fly to. The train itself is made of crystal, the same found in the empire and glistens as it hurdles towards the sparkling city far faster than the usual train could manage without breaking apart, making the trip bearable to those that don’t like to travel. And at the same time a wonder to those who have never seen a crystal train… which oddly enough is a lot in Ponyville.

Twilight has the list of books she needs from the extensive library that is at the empire that is governed by both her brother, and her sister in law. Considering the Empire itself is older than many will ever realize, the vast collection of books with in its pristine walls rival that of even the one in Canterlot. Which is exactly why she is on her way, some of the books that Celestia suggested she go over, and the spells that are in a few of them, are nowhere to be found in Canterlot castle. A simple task for her and her new assistant to take on, and although their stay will be short, it will give her a chance to see her brother. Something that, because of her Princess learnings, has dwindled.

All the while Flash came along more so then anything just to make an appearance, considering although he may be her guard, they are now in his original home. Probably one of the safest places she could be, short of Canterlot that is. Both the ponies sit across from one another in the train car as it speeds down the track. Twi with her bag right next to her as she checks it one more time just to make sure she hasn’t forgotten anything, a little OCD at the moment. While Flash keeps his blade on his back while looking out the window at the scenery passing by. The two have sat in more silence then anything for the most part. Both perfectly content to the trip as they remain lost in their own thoughts when it comes to their own travel partner. ‘I don’t know if he has ever met my brother?’ Twilight thinks to herself before realizing how stupid such a question was, ‘well of course he has, at one point at least. He is high ranking himself, and my brother is Captain of the royal guard… they probably have worked with one another at one point,’ she concludes while trying to determine what Shining will say when he meets the guard that is currently sleeping a mere ten yards from her in Twi’s own home. At the same time wondering what Cadance has told him about that subject, ‘…they are married, I’m sure she has told him something?’ she finishes off with.

All the while she is thinking of these questions to herself. Flash is doing the same, ‘What does the Captain know of me? I have worked with him on a few occasions over the years, but does he remember me?’ he asks himself while propping his head up on one hoof, looking out the window, ‘this is going to be awkward, meeting her brother on a different level than just the average guard. Especially the guard that has a thing for the princess, his sister.’ Flash bites the lower portion of his lip as he admits to himself the emotional state building up in him once more. Although when he opens his eyes to the sight before him, a small smile graces his face as he extends a hoof over to Twilight and taps her own. Getting the Princess’s attention she looks at her guard as he mutters only two words. “We’re here.” Twi looks out the window and sees the glistening Empire before them as the light hits it in the distance, getting closer and closer to their destination.

The train comes to a screeching halt as the breaks are pulled and the wheels strain to slow down the massive locomotive. The crystal ponies around the station cover their ears to help muffle the noise as they to shine in the light much like their city. As the train comes to a stop, Twilight steps off when the doors open with only her bag on her back as the guard follows suit holding his sword close by. Although the mood around them doesn’t even welcome the threat of violence as the ponies that once covered their ears, start to bow at the new arrival of the Princess before them. Easing them back up with her hooves, she blushes a bit at Flash.

“I’m really never going to get used to that part of this title,” she says walking further in to the station.

“You seem to be doing quite well so far, Twily,” she hears off in the back ground. The young Princess turns around and sees her strapping older brother standing there in uniform as he meets the two after their trip. Twilight uses her wings to give a little extra push as she lunges to close the short distance between them. Tackling her sibling to the ground in a warm embrace.

“Shining!” she squeals, “it’s so great to see you! How have you been here? How is being a prince? Where’s Cadance? What’s the, mumf-” she gags when a hoof is placed over her mouth by the older counterpart. Getting back to his feet he brushes some of the dirt off of him before answering.

“It’s ahh… nice to see you too Twi, I’m going to guess you missed me?”

Twilight rolls her eyes at him as he grinds her teeth slightly, “yea, sorry about that. It has just been so long sense I’ve been up this way and you never really come down to Ponyville, or Canterlot for that matter.”

“Well…” Shining Armor says scratching the back of his head, “I have my own duties to tend to here, as you have your ‘Princess in training’ status,” he takes note of the royal guard in golden armor behind her as he stands at full attention in the presence of a superior, “… and I also had to sign over a guard of mine to you… thank the wife for that one,” he side steps around his baby sister to welcome the guard back for the time being.

Flash meanwhile has really been standing there, legs straight and snapped too, head and eyes forward in a thousand yard stare. When the Captain though gets to him after greeting his own sister, the lower ranking guard pops a hoof to the edge of his helmet, “Good morning sir Royal guard, Flash Sentry, reporting.”

The salute is dropped when Shining does the same, “Nice to know that some of the guard can remember their training… although honestly, you don’t have to keep it up like this… though I appreciate the display,” Shining watches the expression on Flash's face not falter, “that means you can relax.”

With that Sentry takes a deep breath as he lets his legs dwindle a bit, getting their feeling back in them. “Thank you, sir” he nods at him respectfully as Shining returns the favor.

“Likewise, Sentry,” he puts an emphasis on the guards’ name, making a mental note of everything the guard does as they walk and talk amongst themselves, “… I do remember working with you Flash from time as it was required, nice to know my wife has a good vibe for the proper one to send to watch over Twily while I’m not there”

“Ah…” he stumbles after receiving the unexpected complement, “thank you, sir”

“As for Cadance though,” Shining says to reply to his sisters previous question, “she is in the castle right now waiting for us to arrive, I told her that I wanted to be the one to greet you two to the empire...” he says as they walk with in the crystal castles boundaries, below it all remains the Crystal Heart. A light shade of cobalt as it radiates the love that all the ponies feel in the kingdom from its wonderful grace.

Twilight still can’t help but pause as she looks at the huge gem that was used years ago to banish the one time ruler of the lands before them. Though as she pauses, her brother does the same. “It’s still there Twilight, don’t you worry… it’s not going anywhere.”

“I know, Shining…” she says playing it off, “it just seems like such a long time ago sense Sombra was here and trying to take over the Crystal Empire again…”

“King Sombra,” Flash mutters, enough for Twilight to hear and soon enough her brother to listen in as well. “Once ruled the Crystal Empire and after his original defeat made the whole kingdom disappear. Though when it returned so did he, that is until the Crystal Heart was brought back and banished him from this world,” both the siblings stand there in slight bewilderment at the history lesson that was given to them. Flash looks off to the side though as he recalls what he just said, “I…ahh… had a lot of time to read in your library a few days ago.”

Twilight beams warmly at him, and then to her brother while he still has the face of sheer confusion. “Glad to see you occupied it well…” she answers while they walk next to one another, entering the castle. Twilight nudges Flash in the side with her own hind, “…show off” she says playfully to him, only getting a chuckle out of the guard as they go and find the Princess of love.

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Cadance herself is in the library surrounded by books floating around her. Already having received a copy of the list from Celestia of what Twilight needs. Although she hasn’t found all of them. The few she brought off to the side is better than nothing, considering the more she did now, the more she could get an ear full from Twilight and interrogate her herself about how the last week or so has gone.

The door to the library swings open as the trio fall in and the husband walks up behind his wife, putting a hoof over her. “You’re never going to guess who I found at the train station…”

Cadance didn’t hear them enter as she focused on the task at hand, and at the surprise nearly fumbles the books from her magical grasp as she greets her husband with a warm tender kiss on the lips. “I would never guess who that would be,” she trails off, turning around and embracing the young Princess before her, “it’s wonderful to see you Twilight. How was the train ride?”

“Uneventful… boring… long…” she waves her hoof in the air as she speaks, “or you could try all of the above. How have you been sense I last saw you?”

Cadance looks over to her husband, recalling the night when she came back and the ‘sleep’ that followed. “Oh I’ve been just wonderful,” she presses her wing down on her side to make sure the bite mark that still shows is well hidden from the overly peering eyes of Twilight. Shining just stands there with a smirk on his face as he knows all too well what she is doing. “I just have been taking a few of the books out that Celestia asked for you to get ahold of. I was figuring that if we got done early…” she looks over to Flash standing there next to her Shining Armor, “Then we could all head out for the evening and catch up, considering that I know you haven’t seen your brother in quite some time.”

“Did you two plan on staying the night?” Shining asks the pair.

Twilight never really thought about it that much, considering that this was a short trip. But then again at the same time, there really isn’t much waiting on them back in Ponyville, short of a very long day with the friends. Without seeing any sort of gesture from Sentry discouraging it, she nods at her sister in law, “That sounds like a lovely plan.”

“Great!” Cadance smiles warmly at her. She then uses her horn to pick up both Flash and Shining off the ground by their flanks and hurry them out of the room, “now you two let us get to business,” the Princess says, unable to hide the fact that there is some back ground motive behind her pushiness, “we’ll come and get you when we’re done.”

The door slams behind the two colts as they sit there dumbfounded by the actions of the Princess after being kicked out of the room. Shining sits up on his hind quarters as Flash uses his wings to prop himself up. All the prince does is look back at the door and shake his head slowly with a smile, “Ah… I hate it when she does that,” he helps up the fellow guard.

“How often does that happen, sir?” Flash still ask formally.

“You really don’t have to say sir after everything, Flash…” He reminds him, “and to answer your question… probably more than I would like to admit,” He awkwardly scratches the back of his head, “but hey, let’s leave them be to their own duties… I have a thing or two to ask you about, my sister…” Shining says. Getting a nervous gulp from the deepest part of Flashes throat as the subordinate follows the leader.

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After the abrupt forced exit by the Princess of the two males. Twilight is left just standing there with her sister in law, knowing full well why Cadance wanted those two gone in the first place. She gets down to business, in regards to the books that is, waiting for her in law to ask about how her and Flash are getting along.

Cadance lifts another book off the shelf, floating it over to Twilight as she checks it off the list and puts it in her bag. “Magical beasts and creatures: a reference guide,” she reads off as the next book is brought over to her, flipping in to a few pages she finds even a few nastiest that she and her friends have dealt with. Parasprites, Cerberuses, Hydras…and of course, Changelings.

“How many more do you have left to get?” Cadance asks while using her wings to hover to the higher levels of the bookshelf, looking at the stack that Twi has already procured.

“Oh… just a few,” Twily says distracted as she flips through the book. Coming to the section that she had to deal with first hand recently. As she reads the part on changelings though, the young Princess nearly drops the book, “A spell!” she gasps, grabbing the other Princess attention.

“What? What did you find?” Cadance lands next to her.

Twi skims through the text to get it across her mind, before answering her friend. “Originally… the power of a Changeling to feed off of the love of another was only theirs, however according to this though a wizard by the name of Scepter Gem created a spell that can do just the same.”

“So… why so interested in Changelings all of a sudden?” Cadance asks curiously. Knowing that Twilight wouldn’t have an outburst if it didn’t have some sort of backing.

The younger Princess merely puts the book away for later as she rolls her eyes, “I’ll tell you and Shining later tonight, don’t worry about it though, it’s nothing…really.”

Trusting that she will get the inner details from her fellow Princess, Cadance proceeds without question helping find the remaining books. It isn’t until they have gotten all the books that were listed, and Twilight sits in chair looking over a few of them, that Cadance decides this is the time to bring up the subject. “What are you looking at now?” she asks to open up with some small talk.

“A Possession spell,” Twilight says reading over the spell a few more times before putting the book down and sliding out of the chair, “here let’s see.”

She begins to concentrate on casting the incantation. Focusing on a simple item to test out the new spell, a small metal Eagle desk top decoration on the table across from them is picked out as the target. As her horn charges up, it can be seen sending red arcs of energy over to metal statue. Cadance stands back watching her younger ‘sister’ do her work after reading over the spell. It has always amazed her how fast Twilight could pick up a new enchantment and just run with it like she had known to do it sense she was born, although at heart knowing it was thanks to the years of training that the still young mare has had. Finally after a short time, the largest spark from her horn leaps over to the Eagle and causes it to glow a deep orange as it has heated up from the energy that was just poured in to it, before after a few seconds it cools down. The two mares look deeply at the figure waiting for any sort of reaction.

That is until a single blink comes from its metal eye.

“Well I’ll be,” Cadance says as she watches the bird, that is only about the size of her horn, hop off its pedestal and over to them.

“Incredible,” Twilight says as the bird stands on the table, looking at the creatures before them that it has only ever seen in solitude over the years in its frozen state

“He’s kinda cute actually,” Cadance extends a hoof out and starts to scratch the bird down along its spine. Watching as the metal object seems to still be able to feel it as it leans in further, nestling up against her hoof for more. Even perching itself up on the appendage as it gets comfortable.

“In an odd kinda way, I guess you could say that,” Twilight watches her sister play with the critter for a second longer before giving just a slight sigh, “there is just one thing-”

Before the Princess has the time to answer, the eagle tries to nip at Cadance’s hoof. Quickly jerking it back before any harm can be done, she drops the bird to the ground with a dull thud. The bird flaps its solid metal wings as it gains its footing, and when it does it looks at the two Princess and lets out a loud screech. Although neither one of them are intimidated by the little terror, Twi charges up a single bolt of energy in her horn in a few seconds for good measure.

Sending the violet projectile in to her creation and fries it to oblivion shortly after, leaving nothing more than a charred spot on the ground. Cadance and Twi walk right up to the stain left as the wife looks at her with a confused look on her face. Twilight cringes at her to late explanation, “The spell was made by a rather disgruntled Tyrant long ago, and it tends to have some of his views imprinted in the spell… not the best thing to try and practice in a library it seems.”

“You’re probably right about that one,” Cadance chuckles at her sister in laws face, “I’ll get someone to take care of the mark he left.”

“I’ll work at it more when I get home,” Twilight starts off, “There should be a way to help get them to follow the caster’s commands better.”

“Speaking of home,” the look on Cadance’s face lights up when Twi mentions her home. Instantly the younger of the two knows full well what is coming up next as she and Cadance pause for a moment, while Twilight looks through a couple more of the books. “How have you and Flash been getting along?”

“Just fine,” she answers quickly, trying to avoid the subject as much as possible.

“Just fine? Is that it?” Cadance tries to pry more, “I mean it’s been a week sense he has been there, I’m sure there is something more you can say about the subject?”

“Oh there is a lot that I could say about it,” Twilight opens up more, seeing that the best way to get over the subject at hand, is to talk about it more, besides. Cadance can probably help when it comes to telling him how she feels, “let’s be honest here, what is there I can say about it all that won’t end with an ‘I told you so’ from you.”

“Well the truth would probably be preferable at this point…” Cadance trails off as she rolls her eyes.

Twilight face hooves herself in response and runs it down her muzzle hard enough that it feels like it’s going to pull hair out. Taking a deep breath though, she exhales and tries to talk to her, “you were right,” she says almost under her breath but still enough to perk up the pink princess’s ears while she puts the book back down and begins to walk down the aisle of the library, leaving Cadance to catch up.

“What do you mean?” the Princess of love asks.

“About everything,” Twilight admits both to Cadance, and to herself now. At heart she knew it far longer than she may have wanted to say, but considering she is speaking to the pony who opened this door for her. Twi feels almost forced to admit it to herself, “I like this colt… probably more than just like him,” she shakes her head, “The way he acts with not only with me but others, the way he talks to me and is able to lighten up the day. How Flash is able to bring out a side of me that no other colt has been able to, a pony that will trip over themselves time and time again as they see this wonderful stallion,” she rants on and on, not even paying attention to the look on Cadance’s face growing with every passing sentence, “I’m starting to get more and more comfortable around him, even from the start, and he’s not only meeting what I asked for in a guard… but also what I would want in a Coltfriend, but I just don’t get it!” she stops unexpectedly and slams her head in a book shelf. Cadance even jumps a tad at the thump, but listens in to the Princess continue. “I’m losing my mind over him, and it’s obvious that I am. He has to feel something for me as well, you and Celestia both think so… and now the more I pay attention to him, the more I see it for myself… yet how come he can’t just say it!” she pulls her head back, bashing it in to the shelf over and over again at this confusing subject.

Cadance pulls her friend back and holds her in her own fore hooves. A small tear can be seen in Twilight’s eye as she looks down at the sweet lavender face of a mare awash in a subject she knows little about.

“Flash is everything I could ask for and so much more,” Twi composes herself after getting her head on straight, slightly, “I didn’t think I needed friends, until coming to Ponyville and met the girls. Now didn’t think I needed a guy in my life, until I met him. Now that I see him every day, and nothing on that matter is said. I have to wonder, is it just me that really thinks this?”

“Twilight,” Cadance says softly, tenderly kissing the top of her fore head like she would do when she was Twilight’s foal sitter and she would get hurt in the park. “I know he has something for you in him, some colts are just more shy about it than others, just like some are able to hide it more… think of your brother,” Twilight’s muzzle purses up a bit as she recalls Shining when he was younger, while his wife explains, “he was so shy when it came to asking me out, or even just talking to me. Yet when I admitted it finally, it became so much easier for him to do so as well.”

“You think… he’s just shy to say anything?” Twilight asks, trying to make sense of it all in her own mind of what Cadance is saying to her.

“Why wouldn’t he be?” Cadance answers her question with another question as she makes her point, “I mean think about it. We’re talking about a Royal guard falling in love with a Princess,” she goes cockeyed for a second, “I’m pretty sure that if there is any mare a colt to be intimidated about asking out on a date, it would be a Princess…especially one that he is now charged with protecting.”

Twilight rubs the front of her head and horn, feeling where it hit the shelf repeatedly. Slowly regretting the choice in stress relief. At the same time thinking about what her friend said. Flash seems to be getting more comfortable, and she is the same. Although, at the same time it could be hard for him to open up to her because of her status, also considering he is professional about his job. Just as it’s hard for her to admit it because this is the first time that she has ever gotten this sort of feeling for another pony.

“You have a point there Cadance,” she says feeling the small bump rising on her head, “although I think on our next night out will-”

Cadance cuts her off, “wait, what do you mean? ‘Next night out’. You mean there was a first?”

“Well…” Twilight turns red as she draws out the opening, “last night before coming here, we went out on the town. It wasn’t a date, technically,” she shoots down the snickers that she is getting from her sister in law, “just something to get to know one another more. Flash made a reservation at Tulips, and it was just… wonderful,” Twi’s face says it all as she almost collapses at the memory of last night while they walk down the library to the main room. All her features lighting up from the rush flowing through her body, mind and heart. “We sat and just talked with one another the whole time. Afterwards though, he did surprise me-”

“Did he get down on one hoof?” Cadance cuts her off as she chuckles to herself, getting only a sour scowl from the young Princess as she continues.

“Anyways, we went and saw a local play in town. A Winter’s Night, one that I was particularly looking forward to seeing.”

“Didn’t tell you about that part of the plan did he?”

“No… we had decided to go out sometime before coming here to break up the schedule,” she explains the decision making process of her guard, “actually he surprised me with the reservation and the play. Although the play I didn’t find out about until after we finished our dinner.”

“Awe-e-e-e,” Cadance blushes over the mushy detail, holding a hoof over her heart at the sweet gesture. “When is your next ‘date’?”

“Our next night out,” Twilight stresses the point of the title about the evening, “is up in the air, although I would assume that it could be after getting back to Ponyville, seeing as we have a day out with the girls so they can ask the same things you have been.”

“Would you have expected anything less by this point though?” she asks, getting only a head shake from Twilight as they pack up the books she has with them and start towards the door of the library. “Come on, let us see what Shining and Flash could be up to.”

“That’s a scary thought right there.”

“Well… I did tell him about the little crush you two have on one another,” Cadance slips in, making Twilight almost drops her books at the thought of Flash now being grilled by her older brother.