A bright ball of light lit up the interior of the Crystal Empire's throne room, and four ponies appeared with a flash.
"STOP! IN THE NAME OF… oh. Oh Princess. Shining Armor. My apologies. I didn't realize." A guard had charged over at their appearance, brandishing a spear, while two more appeared in the doorway with amazement written on their faces.
"It's alright, Magnum." Cadence still had a wing around Aura, but had stood up to her full height.
"Maybe that wasn't the best idea." Twilight grimaced as she took in the scene.
"My thanks for your quick response, Magnum." Shining stepped forward and saluted the guard. "Our apologies for the unexpected entrance," Shining raised his voice slightly so the two guards at the door could hear, "we wanted to get back to the castle as quickly and painlessly as possible. We utilized Princess Twilight's skill with teleportation to do so, though I must admit," he grimaced, "we did not think through the shock it would give you. My apologies, go back to your posts, and my thank again for your quick response." Shining bowed his head at them, and they all trotted off."
"Magnum, come back for a moment please." Cadence called.
Aura had found her feet, and though still unsteady, was gazing curiously at the guard who had turned back towards them at Cadence's call. His face was marred by a long scar across one eye, and as he walked over to Cadence, she detected a slight limp. Magnum was staring curiously at her as well, which she didn't immediately notice.
"Magnum, I would like you to meet Aura Skies. She is the pupil I told you I would taking on." Cadence explained. Magnum bowed, his almost white hair flopping forward.
"A pleasure to meet you, miss." Aura colored at the bow, but returned it as well as she could, limbs shaking slightly from her nerves.
"You as well."
"Magnum is the captain of our guard, and also one of our advisors." Shining explained to Aura.
"Aura will be staying in the castle up in the south corner." Cadence continued, still speaking to Magnum. "She is to have free access to the castle, and to us, at any time."
"Of course, Princess." Magnum bowed to Cadence. "Would you like me to inform the guard of these orders?"
"I'll be calling a personnel meeting later tonight to make sure everyone knows, but for now, if you could inform the guards on duty, I would appreciate it." Shining responded, gratefully.
"Gladly, your highness."
"Magnum, please. Just Shining. Or Captain, if you really must."
"Captain, then." Magnum looked pleased, bowed again, and exited the room.
"He can't get over calling you 'your highness', can he?" Cadence asked Shining, quietly.
"No. While I appreciate what he's trying to do, it's starting to drive me mad." Shining sighed with his head downcast.
"Why do I know him?" Twilight broke in, looking thoughtful.
"Snow Force." Shining answered, shortly. Twilight met his eyes with understanding, and said no more.
"Um…" Aura finally stopped swinging her head back and forth to follow the two speakers, and nervously spoke up. "What? I mean… why? I mean…" she trailed off, uncertainly. Cadence looked at Aura with a warm smile for her tongue-tied student.
"We'll tell you the whole story some other time. Meanwhile, let's show you to where your room is." Cadence kept close to Aura's side as the group began to walk off.
"You're going to just love it here!" Twilight enthused, stepping lightly beside her. "This castle is gorgeous."
Crystal walls and passages winked at Aura from all sides and seemed to reflect natural light until the whole place had a warm glow about it. For a castle, she mused, it did feel… homey.
"Like I've been here in a dream," Aura murmured. Her eyes snapped wide and she stopped dead in the middle of the hallway to frantically look at her horn. It was… devoid of magic?
"Well I guess we know the blocking spell works now!" Twilight chirped, looking pleased. "You thought something that made you think you were using your magic?"
"Yeah." Aura was still staring bemusedly at her horn. "You remember on the train when I said the first glimpse of the Empire I had felt familiar in some way?"
"Sure."
"Well, I got that feeling again with the castle. A déjà vu feeling. Or a feeling feeling is more like it." Aura shook her head, confused.
"So why did you look towards your horn?" Cadence, who had been standing off to the side listening, finally broke in.
"Um…" Aura fought to try and rationally explain her actions. "Because on the train I was using magic without realizing it when I… I was feeling things."
"At least you're starting to recognize it." Twilight huffed, but then winked at Aura to take any sting out of her words.
"The Empire felt homey to you?" Shining looked curiously at Aura. Aura, suddenly finding that she had lost the courage to interact with the still strange stallion, ended up simply nodding.
Cadence put a hoof on Shining's shoulder. "I think we should save our questions for another time, don't you?" Aura shot a thankful glance at Cadence.
"Ah, yes. Probably a good plan." Shining agreed.
Shining resumed his tour of the castle, pointing out various rooms and halls along with their uses, or in some cases, historical uses as they were quite empty at the moment. As they turned towards a corridor leading off towards the south corner,
Shining turned to Aura.
"We found a spot back here that we think will be the perfect little apartment for you."
"Re-ee-lly?" Aura stuttered. Shining wisely pretended the stutter hadn't happened.
"Really. Twilight told us about where you'd been living, and while we couldn't bring a forest into the castle, we found a nook we think you'll be happy in."
"You didn't have to go to all that fuss…" Aura said, shyly.
"It was no fuss," Cadence said gently, and eyed Aura as if storing away something in her mind.
"Where are we going? I don't think I've been in this section of the castle before," Twilight asked.
"You'll see!" Cadence said, "this wing isn't used as much as the rest of the castle, we thought it would be quieter for Aura over here."
"Sounds perfect," Twilight shot a grin at Aura, but Aura was looking around the gleaming walls with awed eyes and paying no attention to her friend.
"You'd be surprised how much of this castle is unused," Shining commented. "I suppose the size was necessary when it was built, but it's rather overwhelming now."
"There's nothing in the history books about it?" Twilight queried.
"Nothing at all," Cadence said. "Not that we can find, at least. Though I must admit, we have not looked in depth just yet."
"From what we have seen, there seems to be a paltry lack of information about the founding of the Empire," Shining explained.
"That's… odd." Aura glanced over, curiosity winning over shyness. "Wouldn't Princess Celestia know about it?"
"Good thought, but no," Shining smiled.
"From what we know, the Empire was not originally part of Equestia, though Equestrians might have had a hand in building it," Cadence explained. "It was founded not long after Equestria, and from what Celestia has told me, the two nations were always friendly, but she never discovered much detail about it."
"Strange," Twilight muttered. "I'm sure there has to be a written history somewhere…"
"If there is, we have not found it yet." Cadence said sadly.
"Here we are!" Shining had stopped at the end of a hallway, the others standing behind him looking curiously around.
"Um, brother mine? There's no door," Twilight stated, confused.
"Oh really?" Shining taunted. "Look again." He glanced not around, but upwards.
"Is that…" Aura looked curiously, following his gaze, "is that a trap door?"
Cadence gave a laugh. "It is! Eventually, when your magic is more stable, you will be able to open and close it by magic. But there is a pressure pad hidden on the wall so you can open it without magic, or so non-unicorns can come and go if you show them how." She pointed to a cluster of crystals on the floor, not exactly out of place, but that had a hoof-shaped indent at the base where it met the floor.
"Go on, try it!" Shining enthused.
"This is so cool," Twilight was grinning.
Aura walked over, gently placed her hoof in the rough semi-circle, and pressed down. The round trap door above slid out of sight, and a sturdy ladder materialized at an angle. She couldn't see much beyond the opening, it just looked, bright?
"Climb up!" Cadence grinned.
Aura nodded, and with huge, wide eyes, climbed slowly up and scrambled though the hole. She found her feet, stepped a few paces away from the hole, and flat out gawked.
Stretching in a dome above her was a beautiful skylight that encompassed most of the roof in the room. Wooden beams that curved from the floor to the edge of the dome were spaced evenly around the circular walls, and the walls themselves were made of deep creamy crystals that gave off soft warm glitters. The floor was made mostly of smooth wooden planks, except where two natural looking breaks occurred that were filled with huge flat fieldstones. One break off to her left surrounded a hearth with a small fireplace, the other, almost directly in front of her, led to a pair of glass doors that appeared to open on a balcony. A bed stood to her right, comfortable looking even if it was plain, along with a wardrobe and dresser. A desk surrounded by nooks and shelves in the wall was over by the door to the balcony. A couple large and comfortable looking armchairs flanked the fireside along with a little round table. Now that she was looking more closely, the walls had little shelf alcoves in many places, lined on the bottom with wood, and matched the simple wooden mantle above the fireplace to a tee. The Starstem pot perched on the mantle, and the rest of her meager belongings sat in a pile next to a bare strip of wall.
"It seems we did well." Cadence said quietly, looking at Aura's shining eyes.
"Oh, oh it's perfect!" Aura gasped, forgetting to be in awe of her two patrons. "How did you ever?"
"It was already like this for the most part!" Cadence replied. "It was a conservatory once, but that must have been a long time ago. We found a few half-filled pots of dirt scattered around along with some benches and other old gardening tools, but nothing else. I remembered it when we found out you would be coming to us, and as it seemed to fit what we knew of you, we cleaned it out and spruced it up."
"It is a bit strange," Shining added thoughtfully. "It doesn't fit with the rest of the castle décor, we're both curious as to who built it in the first place. But it certainly seems to fit you!"
"It's like it was made for you," Twilight breathed, and then turned to nuzzle Aura. "See? I told you!"
"I never could have imagined…" Aura whispered softly.
"I know it's rather plain at the moment, but I wanted to let you decide what you wanted it to look like." Cadence said.
"Really?" Aura looked up, a mixture of gratefulness and surprise on her face.
"Of course! It is your room after all. And I think I have an excellent way of starting on our lessons and getting you some decorations," Cadence suddenly grinned with a light in her eyes.
Aura was thankfully too overwhelmed by the room to worry about Cadence's plan. She had meandered over to the double doors and gently pushed them open to walk outside. They were high up on one of the castle spires, high enough to see a good half of the intricate streets that made up the city, but more importantly, there was a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. She propped her front feet up on the balcony ledge, and sighed as the wind traced fingers though her mane.
"This is beautiful."
"I am so glad you like it." Cadence had also walked out with her and was overlooking the city.
"Like it? It's beyond perfect." Aura said as she turned to Cadence, and then blushed. "I… I don't feel…" she trailed off.
Cadence's eyes were suddenly on her level and staring at her kindly. "You don't feel, what?" Aura glanced back for an instant before looking away.
"… Like, like I deserve any of, of this." She finished, stammering quietly, finally admitting the thought that had been troubling her for days.
"You do," Cadence responded with quiet assurance, "and some day I hope you will see that about yourself."
Aura's ears drooped. If an expression could say "I doubt it", hers surely did. Cadence gently touched horns with her.
"For now," she continued, "please take my word that Shining and I believe you do deserve this, and that you are a very special pony." A soft glow that had been surrounding Cadence's horn now gently engulfed Aura's, and Aura started at the palpable love she felt coming through Cadence's horn. She finally met Cadence's eyes fully.
"I'll try," she whispered.
"That's all I ask of you," Cadence said kindly. "Now, I think you need a rest," she said as the two turned back inside. "We still have several hours before dinner, and all of your unintentional magic earlier took a huge toll on you."
Aura stifled a yawn, and Cadence's point was proven.
"Try and get some sleep," Cadence smiled, "one of us will come back to wake you up before dinner."
"You should probably listen to her, you look like you're about to fall asleep on your hooves," Twilight glanced over with a smile. Aura covered a second yawn.
"I am pretty beat. I guess that would be a good idea," she admitted.
"Sleep well!" Shining called as he disappeared down the ladder.
Twilight and Cadence chorused the same sentiment as they both slipped down the hole. As Aura curled up in the now incredibly inviting bed, she heard the trapdoor thud softly closed, and sighed deeply. Her eyes traced the outline of the room, her room, and before long tears began to fall from her eyes.
"It's beautiful, but it's not home," she sobbed, burying her face in her pillow. The logical part of her brain pointed out that of course it didn't feel like home yet because she'd only been there for twenty minutes, but as most everyone is aware, the logical part of our brain is ignored when one is under emotional duress, and Aura continued to cry.
Her pillow was damp by the time her now bloodshot eyes focused on an envelope lying innocently on the desk. She blinked. Casting around in her mind, she couldn't remember if that had been there since she walked in or not. Curiously she forced her shaking limbs to uncurl and stumble over to the desk, thinking absently that one of the first things she'd like to acquire was a good thick rug so her hooves weren't quite as loud on the floor. She held the letter up to her eyes, and a slow smile began to spread over her face. That hoofwriting was as distinctive as the pony who made it, and she would know it anywhere. A quick rip unsealed the letter.
PRrrrRRRRRR! A sound akin to a party horn came from the letter, accompanied by a violent eruption of confetti that proceeded to shower her with its colorful paper. For the first time all day, a true smile lit across Aura's face.
Dear Aura,
Did you like the confetti?! I just knew you might be feeling a little down with leaving all of us today so I just HAD to send this letter ahead to make you smile since I can't be there to do it! Isn't the Crystal Empire just scrumptious?! Well scrumptious in the way it looks I mean, don't go out there and eat just anything you see, most of it's made of crystal, yuk! Not yummy at all. Did you see the statue of Spike yet?! We all pretend it doesn't exist when we're here, because he goes just bananas over it every time. Cadence and Shining better have set you up with a sweet room to live in! I want to hear all about your first day, and the train ride, and absolutely everything! I miss you so so so so so so SO much already but don't worry, we'll be out to visit soon!
XOXOXO Pinkie
Aura was giggling by the end of the letter, pausing to sneeze a piece of confetti out of her nose. Other ponies might say that Pinkie tended to be a bit ditzy, but Aura knew better. Her friend knew everything about everyone and made it her job to make every pony as happy as it was in her power to make them, at any cost. Aura sighed, not a sad sigh this time, but the contented sigh of someone who has been reminded how very much they are loved by another pony. She hastily dug though the desk drawers and was rewarded by a stack of parchment, quill, and ink, and quickly wrote a note outlining her day and her new home and the odd magical disturbances she'd already caused to her oldest friend. To be fair, Aura wasn't able to write about her magic without a grimace of frustration, but she told her friend the stories all the same. The letter was tucked and folded with a resolve to take it downstairs at dinner to ask Cadence how to mail it back to Pinkie. That pony was liable to come charging off to the Empire if she didn't receive a response in a suitable length of time!
Aura hesitated at the desk, a guilty nag reminding her that she was suppose to write down everything that had to do with her powers in that magical little book, and that today's events surely deserved a place in the log. But a yawn convinced her that now was not the time for in-depth exposés on a rare magic form. To appease her conscious, she scribbled down a brief outline of the day, punctuated with several jaw-cracking yawns, and pushed the paper backwards on the desk when she'd completed her task. Tired hooves dragged her back to her bed, which she fell into gratefully and was blissfully asleep in a moment's time.