Cadence sat up in bed and rolled the glass jar over in her hooves, contemplating the tiny wisp of smoke curling inside.  “Soooo...” she said carefully.  “King Sombra?”

Twilight nodded over her tea.  “Well... what’s left of him, anyway.  Don’t worry, the jar is Hermetically sealed.{1}  So, feeling any better?”

Cadence nodded.  “A good rest was just what the doctor ordered,” she said.  “I’m just astonished at how quickly Sombra was defeated.”

Twilight, Spike and Cadence were in the Princess’ royal bedchamber, having a bit of tea and holding a “debriefing”, for lack of a better word, of the events over the past few days.  Cadence had been asleep for most of it; she had been single-hoofedly sustaining the magic barrier for days prior to the Bearers’ arrival, and had collapsed almost immediately after Sombra had been defeated.  Then she’d woken up just long enough to open the Crystal Fair and lead the Crystal Ponies in recharging the Heart that protected the Empire... and after a day of overseeing the festivities, had promptly keeled over again, sleeping through the remainder of the week.

Twilight shook her head.  Just like the wedding; Cadence had shrugged off weeks of imprisonment, malnourishment and exhaustion to arrange her own wedding in a single day, danced at her own reception, and didn’t show a sign of exhaustion till their honeymoon carriage had driven off... at which point she’d reportedly folded like a tent, and slept away the first two days of her own honeymoon.  Where did she get such reserves of strength?  Twilight was beginning to suspect that Cadence was in her own way as much a party fanatic as Pinkie Pie...

Twilight grimaced.  “It was... what’s that term Rainbow Dash uses?  A curb stomp?” she admitted.  “Sombra attacked us almost the moment we got off the train.  Not much of a strategist; he attacked the Elements of Harmony, a dozen of Celestia’s finest, three of the University’s most powerful unicorn mages, and Shining Armor as a giant cloud.  Hmph.  Never mind the mages; with all the armored pegasi in our party that was like attacking Pinkie Pie with a tray of cupcakes.”   The two ponies chuckled at the mental image.  “The airborne Guard bucked the rain and lightning out of him, then Shining Armor and the unicorn scholars held him in place with a magic barrier long enough for us to power up the Elements and, well... Rainbow of Friendship, point blank to the face.”  The tiara she still wore gleamed in counterpoint.  “The whole thing took maybe thirty seconds.”

She pondered for a moment.  “Granted, the volley of cannon fire from the train didn’t do him any favors either.” Rolling artillery, what a concept.

Her summary was fairly accurate.  The rest of their visit had been almost anticlimactic.  Twilight had spent the train ride reviewing both the Curse and the history book Princess Celestia had finally coughed up.  The remaining effect of the curse was actually little more than a weak amnesia spell.  Twilight and the three University scholars she’d snagged had almost beelined to the Crystal Heart, while the others (largely led by Pinkie Pie) had organized the Crystal Fair.  For all the ominous buildup, King Sombra had turned out to be a pathetic magic hack, as well as a pushover in combat, and his terrible “curse” had popped like a soap bubble the instant the fair got underway.  What kind of Evil Overlord relied on a mind-control spell that could be undone by a flugelhorn and a funnel cake?

Note to self: never, ever, even imply to Pinkie Pie that the flugelhorn had anything to do with it...

The final magical barrier to the Crystal Heart, a doorway that opened to your worst fears, hadn’t even proven a decent obstacle to Twilight’s entry.  After all, her worst fear had already come true.

“Anyway,” Twilight said with forced cheerfulness, “now that Sombra has been taken care of and the Crystal Heart is back in place, we figured we’d be on our way.  Well, maybe after a day or two.  All of us would like to get a look around the Crystal capital, do the ‘touristy thing’ for a day or two...”  She smiled perkily and made quote marks in the air with her hooves.  “Maybe spend time with my BBBFF and my favorite sister-in-law without some giant smoke pony or shape-shifting bug ponies leaping out of the closets at us...”  She blinked.  “Oh, that reminds me; I made a list of improvements you might make to the Crystal Empire’s defenses.”

“I –” Cadence said.

“Oh, it’s nothing much, just a little list of ideas I had, and little issues that crossed my mind,” Twilight said with a grin.  “Well, I mean, it sort of occurred to me that you might want to supplement the Crystal Heart with something a little more, um...”

Cadence cocked an eyebrow, waiting.

“...um, practical,” Twilight finished.  “I mean, no offense, but after all, King Sombra conquered the Crystal Empire even with the Heart in place – I’m still researching exactly how he did that – and there are other enemies who... well, I mean the Heart is powered by Love and Hope, and Changelings feed on love...”

There were thousands of them, tens of thousands of insectile ponies clinging to the great Crystal Tower in a buzzing, undulating mass, like a swarm of bees clinging to an oak tree.  The city had been overwhelmed in moments of their arrival, and countless millions more swarmed in the air, heading for the tower as fast as they could fly.  At the center of this seething mass was Queen Chrysalis herself, clinging to the Crystal Heart with all four limbs and gnawing on it like a madmare.  “MINE MINE MINE MINE, IT’S ALL MINE ALL THE NUMMY GOODNESS IN IT IS MINE DO YOU HEAR MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE ALL MINE–!”

Cadence shivered all over, shaking off the vision, and made a mental note to start going over Crystal Empire defenses with Shining Armor immediately.  Oh yes, she was going to go over Twilight’s “little list of ideas” very, very carefully.

“Ooops.  If you’ll excuse me, I have to use the little fillies’ room,” Twilight said, setting her cup down and getting to her hooves.  “A little too much tea I’m afraid.”  She trotted out of the room.

Cadence waited for a moment to be sure Twilight was out of earshot.  She looked at Spike.  “It’s bad, isn’t it?” she said worriedly.

Spike looked at her, his expression deadpan.  “Between the crying jags, panic attacks, bouts of giddy euphoria at her ‘new freelance studies’ that spiral into fits of bleak depression at the drop of a hat?  Yeah, you might say it’s pretty bad,” he said.

“Oh dear,” Cadence lamented.  “What was Aunt Celestia thinking?  This much responsibility, so soon...”

“More like the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Spike said, reaching for the teapot.  “Oh come on,” he said at Cadence’s expression as he refilled his cup, “do you really think this was too much for Twilight?  That she ‘snapped under the strain?’  She came here and passed this ‘test’ with flying colors!  Just like every other test Princess Celestia has thrown at her.”

“Then why –?”

Spike sat back with his cup and cocked an eyebrow at her.  “Lemme try again,”  he said.  “Just like all of the other hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tests Princess Celestia has thrown at her.  Day in, day out.  Big tests, little tests, surprise tests, trick tests she wasn’t supposed to pass... every single day since she became Celestia’s student, Celestia has been testing her.”

“I think you exaggerate a bit,” Cadence protested.

Spike looked at her.  “Cadence, you’re talking to a guy who’s birthday was Twilight Sparkle’s very first test,” he pointed out.

“Ah... well... true...”

“She was supposed to fail that one too, by the way.”

“Errrrmm...” was all the Crystal Princess could venture.

“Right.  You get it.  Ever since Twilight was a filly, it’s been like this.  She’s never known when the next test or trial or challenge was gonna come, or if she was being tested in some way right that very minute.  Why do you think she studies all the time?  Why she makes all those checklists?  Why she flips out if everything doesn’t go exactly to schedule?  The stress has made her completely bonkers.”

Cadence’s stare grew distant as she flipped through her memories of Twilight.  As a filly, as an eager new pupil, as a maturing ambitious young student... who always seemed to be frantically cramming for some yet-to-be-announced test.  Spike was right.  “Oh, poor Twilight,” Cadence murmured, her eyes wide.  “But surely Celestia is aware of this...?”

Spike snorted.  “If she is, she sure doesn’t show it,” he said.  “Did you know she once tested Twilight’s telekinesis by pretending to throw a Fabergé egg at her?”

“She didn’t!”

“Hey, I was there. ‘Did you know these eggs are worth millions of bits each?  Here, catch!’”

“Oh, that is awful!”

“That’s day to day life when you’re Celestia’s ‘faithful student,’” Spike said, making quote marks in the air with his claws.  “Frankly, once Twilight gets over her mood swings about it, quitting as Celestia’s student will be the best thing that ever happened to her.”

“Spike...”

“It’s the truth.  I mean, look at how fast she took care of business here.  That’s how good Twilight is when she doesn’t think she’s jumping through more of Celestia’s hoops.”  

Cadence frowned, but said nothing.  It was true; Twilight the Loyal Student would have dithered and double-guessed herself; Twilight on her own had taken charge, moved in and got the task completed – and didn’t apologize for using what she needed to do it, or how she did it.

“Do try to understand, Spike,” Cadence said, laying a hoof on Spike’s arm.  “Princess Celestia loves Twilight dearly, as if she were her own daughter...”

“Yeah, and Twilight loves her like her own mother,” Spike said.  “But if she really loves Twilight that much, then she’ll do what’s best for Twilight, and leave her alone.”

—— —— — —— — —— ——

Far away, in a distant castle on a mountaintop, in a secluded room in its highest tower, those words echoed again from a shimmering magic mirror.  Nopony was there to hear those words, save Celestia.  So nopony was there to see the tears tracking their way down her cheeks.

{1} Oh come on, it's a magic pun, y'all. Look it up.