2.0

For several years Cadance had silently reigned alongside Celestia as a quiet, but not forgotten protégé of the princess. She was much beloved and had grown into a fine young mare, even though she was still an adolescent and only a teenager. She was well known for her upbeat attitude and occasional spontaneity. Early on she was struck with tragedy. Her mother and father both died shortly after her initiation into royalty.

Her father died of a heart attack and her mother fell ill shortly afterwards of a broken heart. The illness was swift and she didn’t suffer for very long, but Cadance missed them both very much. Many thought it was a royal conspiracy for Celestia to gain control of some aspects of the Trottingham legislature, as Celestia became reagent of their titles until Cadance grew up, but the grief of the two princesses dismissed the suspicion. Not a single day passed where they were absent from Cadance’s mind. Celestia had been a mother figure to Cadance as soon as she needed one.

Now Celestia and Cadance were the de jure Princesses of Canterlot and Cadance was ready to become a full-fledged royal family member. Despite being only an adolescent, Cadance had taken to royalty quite capably and legally came of age to be a Princess. Celestia had planned for the crowning ceremony to fall on the Summer Sun Celebration as to make it a grand crowning of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Cadance’s new royal name.

Since there had not been a crowning for a Princess of Canterlot in 1000 years, this celebration was to be truly grand. Princesses from the neighboring kingdoms were planning to make appearances because of the momentous occasion. It was uncommon for them to meet because of the nature of the Princesses special powers.

Celestia looked out into the crowd of anxious ponies. She had created a grand celebration in her Canterlot, every mare, stallion and filly attended. There was food and attractions and excitement for all. She saw a young filly in the crowd whose eyes had grown wide with wonder and was carefully watching Celestia’s movements.

She braced herself carefully took control of the magic that gave her, her awesome power, the power to raise the sun. In a mighty leap, she jump in front of them and raised the sun, so that her silhouette eclipsed it, the golden rays shining through her feathers. She looked back down at the same young filly. An indescribable majesty had taken her mind. She stared up at Celestia with wonder and purpose.

After the raising ceremony, there was a recess for the patron ponies before the crowning ceremony at dusk. Celestia and Cadance made themselves busy conversing with the subjects and mingling. Princess Rosetta of Concordia approached Celestia. She was a tall white mare with an auburn mane and emerald eyes. As she walked, ponies were careful as to not block her path and quickly scurried out from in front of her.

“Celestia, it has been some time,” spoke the powerful pony.

The buzz of the crowd began to lower its volume as they realized the impasse taking place before them.

“Yes, it has,” Celestia replied, equally strong. She was careful to not create any unnecessary tension between them. It was already a tense scenario, “I hope you may find your time in Canterlot enjoyable. Please make yourself at home.”

Despite the occasion, Rosetta was the only other Princess to attend. Technically Canterlot and Concordia were the closest of the kingdoms, but it didn’t mean much. All the kingdoms had subtle disagreements on the power distribution of the Princesses. Canterlot was most despised because of its exclusive dual Princess status, however each Princess was impossibly powerful in their own right. For the safety of Equestria, they seldom met as to not sow personal disagreements between them.

“Yes it has been most wonderful. I have yet to meet this new princess, so I cannot say that my visit is most satisfactory yet,” Rosetta casually announced.

“Oh she should be around here somewhere. Fancy Pants, could you fetch Princess Cadance for me please?” Celestia said to Fancy Pants quickly. Seeing the severity of the princess’s demand, he dashed off into the crowd.

A few moments later, they heard some loud, familiar complaining.

“What do you mean ‘summoned me’, I don’t even know what that means. Do I just follow you? Is that what you tell ponies when I ask the somepony to find another pony? ‘Princess Cadance has summoned  you.’? That’s so crazy!” Cadance blabbed to Fancy Pants.

Cadance strolled up to Celestia.

“Cadance, this is Princess Rosetta of Concordia,” Celestia introduced.

“Charmed,” replied Cadance.

“Likewise,” Rosetta responded, a little taken back, “Yes I have come to wish you the best of luck in your reign.”

“I am honoured to have your blessing,” Cadance responded, quite rehearsed.

After the chatting for a bit, Celestia and Rosetta went around the festival having a polite amount of fun. Cadance had split off and mingled with her subjects, she was often stopped by the more important ponies, but she liked the common ponies and always found ways to sneak away from the high society ponies.

She was strolling through the game stands and spotted a timid looking filly trying her luck against one of the games. She had just given the owner two bits.

“Alright, just throw the ball, if you can knock over all the bottles, you win a prize,” the pony running the stand explained, “You get two balls to throw.”

“Uhh, okay?” she said nervously. The balls were too big for her and she struggled to hold them without dropping them. She hopefully looked up at one of the prizes. She wanted the plush toy pony with buttons for eyes.

With her eyes on the prize, she cupped one of the balls in her hooves and, barely reaching over the counter, threw it at the bottles all stacked up. She cleanly knocked over three of them, but the others seem to stick to their spot. Over-joyed and smiling, the filly confidently picked up her second ball, carefully aimed and missed completely, throwing it just to the right of the stack. The filly looked desperately from the stack of bottles to the stand owner to the prize pony, hoping for another try. When the stand owner ignored the filly and continued talking to his next customer the filly sadly walked away.  Cadance’s heart broke a little bit, so she went and talked to the filly.

“Hey, what’s your name?” Cadance asked cheerfully.

The filly looked up at Cadance and jumped.

“Princess Cadance?! My name is Twilight Sparkle!” she said excitedly.

“Oh my! So Twilight Sparkle, would you like to be my friend?” Cadance asked warmly.

“Ok!” Twilight replied, as though she had completely forgotten the let-down of the game.

“So I saw you play that game, why don’t you try again?” Cadance asked.

Twilight thought back to just moments before and looked a little glum.

“Oh, I don’t have any more money. That’s all my mommy gave me,” Twilight replied sadly.

“Hmm…,” Cadance said to herself, “I’ll tell you what, we’ll go give it a try together. I throw one ball and you throw the other.”

“Really? Ok!” Twilight said bouncing back to the stand happily.

They both went back to the stand together. Cadance casually walked up and asked for a try. She gave the stand owner two bits and Twilight and Cadance each took a ball in their hooves.

“Ok Twilight, we’re gonna double team these? I’ll count to three and on three we’ll both throw, got it?” Cadance said determined.

“Got it! I won’t let you down,” Twilight piped happily, concentrating.

“One… two… THREE!” Cadance counted. On three they both threw their balls. Cadance cleanly knocked down the right side and Twilight the left. They ricocheted off each other blasting the stack apart. A giant smile grew over Twilight’s face.

“It looks like we have a winner!” the stand owner announced, “So which prize do you want little filly?”

Twilight pointed to the plush pony with button eyes. The stallion got it down from the rack and handed it to Twilight who proceeded to hug it closely.

Over the next hour, Cadance played all sorts of make believe games with Twilight in the garden, just a little ways away from the main crowd. Blissfully rolling around and chasing after her while Twilight enjoyed her new stuffed friend. Currently they were pretending to be powerful magicians casting spells on each other.

“I cast the super speed spell!” Twilight announced, swiftly galloping away from Cadance.

“Well I cast the teleport spell!” Cadance rebounded, quickly closing the gap between them

“I cast that spell too!” Twilight claimed.

“But silly filly! You are but only half the magician I am! You don’t know that spell!” Cadance declared.

“I don’t, but my smarty pants pony does and she taught me it!” Twilight said with the toy in her mouth, she ran behind Cadance and jumped on top of her, “He also taught me this tickle spell!”

Twilight jumped on top of Cadance and began tickling her. Cadance cried out.

“My famous spell! Who taught you that!?” Cadance cried, laughing.

“My Ms. Smarty Pants pony did! So take that! And that!” she replied, laughing.

Cadance and Twilight tickled each other until Cadance got the upper hand. Twilight laughed hysterically until she finally escaped and ran a short distance away.

“Ha ha! Teleport!” she claimed, still panting and giggling.

Twilight?” called a mare at the edge of the crowd.

Twilight looked for the source of the voice.

“Mommy! I want you to meet my new friend!” Twilight responded, running back to her mother.

Cadance got off the ground and dusted herself off. She walked towards the mare who seemed astounded.

“Your highness—“ she began.

“Oh just call me Cadance,” she politely interjected.

“Cadance, uhh…thank you so very much for watching Twilight for us,” she continued, still estranged by the fact that the Princess was friends with her daughter, “I hope she wasn’t too much trouble. I’m sorry if she bothered you, you must be so busy…”

“Actually it wasn’t any trouble at all,” Cadance retorted cheerfully, “She’s a darling little pony and we had a splendid time”

“If there is anything we can do to repay you,” the mare asked. It was obvious that she was in an uncomfortable spot, “This is just so kind and noble of you…”

“No, it was all my pleasure!” Cadance replied.

“We won’t take up any of your time then. We must be off and I’m sure you must get ready to be crowned,” the mare said, “Say goodbye to the Princess dear.”

“Good bye Cadance,” Twilight said sadly.

“Good bye Twilight Sparkle,” Cadance replied with an equally sad smile.

They began to walk off towards the mass, soon to be another face in the crowd and she’d lose that filly forever. Cadance thought about how this would probably be the last time she’d ever see Twilight again. In the short time they had together, she had so much fun playing with Twilight just like her mom used to play with her. Something clicked inside of Cadance as she fully saw herself in Twilight. A single tear rolled down her face. She couldn’t let her go. Something willed her to call out to them.

“Actually, your Princess does have a request,” she blurted out.

A little bit surprised, the mare turned back around.

“Anything… Cadance. How can I serve you?” the mare answered.

“I wish to foal-sit for your daughter,” Cadance explained, “Whenever you and your husband wish to have a quiet night alone, I will personally take care of Twilight. If you don’t object…”

Shocked by the bizarre turn of events the mare just stood there and stared between Twilight Cadances’ hopeful faces.

“Perhaps this coming Friday, Mrs. Sparkle?” Cadance suggested. Next Chapter: 2.1 Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 15 Minutes