Parting a warm pink-and-white feathered embrace, Celestia’s furrowed brow clashed with her kind and beatific smile. “I didn’t want to interrupt your vacation with Captain Armor, but I felt it was necessary. Thank you for coming on such short notice, Princess Cadenza.”

“Cadance, Auntie!” giggled the smaller mare. “You know I can’t stand formality around family, even surrogate family.” At a motion from Celestia she stepped back to take a seat at a plain and time-worn table and her smile vanished. “I came as soon as I could, Your message said you had something critical to discuss – something about the future of Equestria? Should we be gathering the Elements?”

“Not at the moment, Cadance. There is indeed a growing threat to Equestria, and though the emergency is still far off, I feel it would be prudent to be prepared.” The alabaster Princess sank to her haunches on a cushion across the table and took in a deep breath as she closed her tired eyes for a long moment. “The problem is your other Aunt, so to speak. I fear the Elements were not entirely successful in exorcising the Nightmare from Princess Luna. If I’m right, the Elements and I will not be able to stop her again. That’s where you come in.”

Eyes wide, Cadance recoiled and gulped visibly. “M… Me? Auntie, you’re kidding, right? If you can’t stand against Nightmare Moon, what makes you think I can?”

Celestia stared down, scratching a hoof across the table and tracing lazy circles as she spoke. “Directly, no, you couldn’t. The first time I banished Nightmare Moon, I did so by wielding all the Elements personally. I was successful, but unfortunately doing so is a one-time affair, and as I expected it broke my connection to the Elements. Luna’s connection was broken when she let Nightmare possess her. That left the Elements unusable by the two of us.”

Cocking her head, Cadance asked, “The Elements found new bearers, so where do I…”

Across the table Celestia and raised a porcelain-white hoof. She gently tapped her horn and with a grin, unfurled and fluttered her great white wings.

“An alicorn?” Cadance shook her head and began to inch away from the table. “You’re joking! I can’t do what you do! I don’t raise the sun or moon – Celestia, I can barely cook! I can’t wield the Elements myself!”

The Sun Princess reached across the table and lay a hoof on the shaking pink pony’s shoulder. “But you can, Cadance! I know you can. I know the Elements better than any pony living and all my research confirms it. Each alicorn has this power, though Luna and I are now exempt, of course. You may be young, as ageless Princesses go, but you’re still one of us and this is something you can certainly do, should it come to that.”

Cadance stared down at her shivering hooves but when she next looked up, her jaw was set and her voice lost its quaver. “I trust you, Princess. and if it comes to that, I’ll do my best.”

“I know you will, Cadance. We must save that plan as our last resort, of course. There is one other option we need to discuss.” Celestia leaned in and placed her hooves on the creaking table. “Every endgame I play out with Nightmare Moon shows the same result: having been defeated by the Elements twice, her first action would be to separate or cripple the Elements or their bearers.”

Something sharp and hard flashed behind Cadance’s violet eyes. “Twilight? You think she’d try to hurt Twilight?”

“Yes,” Celestia whispered harshly, “I believe she would.” Her face was frozen for long seconds before she cleared her throat and continued, “Twilight was largely responsible for her last defeat, so she would be a primary target. All of the Bearers would be in danger, though. Nightmare may try to eliminate one of them as a tactically easier target, which would break the Elements just as effectively.”

“But what can we do? We can’t lock Twilight and her friends away in some armored tower out of fear that Nightmare Moon might go after them, it’s…”

“I know, Cadance,” said Celestia, raising a hoof to her niece, “and I have a plan to ensure it doesn’t come to that. Last Nightmare Night, I advised Luna to put in an appearance in Ponyville. I told her it would be better to start her reintroduction to Equestrian customs in a small town rather than in Manehattan or Trottingham.”

The corners of the pink mare’s mouth curled into the beginnings of a smile. “You sent her to see Twilight.”

“Perceptive, Princess Cadenza! And if you remember your foalsitting days, what was Twilight’s favorite activity outside of reading?”

Cadance’s smile overtook her muzzle. “Stargazing.”

“And what do you think happened between my faithful student and the Moon Princess?”

“Best friends forever, I’d imagine.”

“Precisely.” Celestia’s grin was gently predatory. “Neither of them have any experience whatsoever with affection, close friendship beyond the platonic sort, and certainly not romance. So…”

Raising an eyebrow, Cadance offered, “You’re saying you want me to nudge them together? Auntie, you realize that I can’t create love, right? I can only bring the love that’s already there to the surface, or give existing feelings a second chance. Are you sure this has a chance?”

“Positive, Princess! I know my student and I know my sister. I see the look in Luna’s eyes every night. Cadance, when she’s on her balcony, Luna’s not looking at the stars or moon – she’s looking towards Ponyville. And with a little help from you, I think Luna can have the kind of relationship that would have prevented Nightmare from possessing her in the first place.”

Cadance squinted and paused. “So what happens in sixty or eighty years, Celestia? Twilight’s not immortal.”

Celestia’s eyes twinkled as she grinned. “We’ll handle that later. First things first.”

Author's Notes:

TMP Prompt # 224. The Prompt: That’s the power of love!

Retrospective and Extended Author's Notes:
As with all my thematically-linked TMP submissions, this one wasn't written first, and was inserted somewhat later after FiMFiction started allowing authors to re-order chapters at will. This initially caused some consternation with my readers, who at first glance thought Celestia and Cadance had either arranged or engineered Twilight and Luna's relationship. As will be seen in later chapters, this wasn't entirely the case.

I gave Cadance the "limited Love powers" talent here; no outright mind control for her. But do think, for a moment, just how deep that could go! In the comics Celestia had a long-since-ended relationship with Sombra (before his Heel Turn) - imagine the kind of confusion Cadance could've sown in Sombra if she'd known about that relationship during The Crystal Empire 1 & 2.