Hey, everypony! Guess what I've got for you all...a brand new chapter of "The Alicorn Queen!" Enjoy!

Cadance ran off to the house of the Sparkle family. There, she was greeted by her best friend Shining Armor, a white unicorn with a mane and tail of different shades of blue, blue eyes and a cutie mark of a shield with a sparkle on it. "Hi, Cadance!"

"Hey, Shining! Come on, I want to show you this really cool place that my aunt told me about!"

"What is it? It's no place dumb, is it?"

"No, no, it's REALLY cool!"

"So where IS this really cool place?" Shining's mother, a white unicorn with a purple and white striped mane and tail, blue eyes and a cutie mark of three purple starts asked.

"Oh…" Cadance tried to think of something. "It's, uh…around Crystal Pond."

"Crystal Pond?" Shining repeated. "What in the hoof is so cool about Crystal Pond?"

"I'll SHOW you when we GET there," Cadance replied quietly.

"OH…" Shining got Cadance's secret message. "Hey, Mom, can I go with Cadance? Please?"

"Have you asked YOUR mother for permission, Cadance?" Mrs. Sparkle asked.

"Yes ma'am, Mrs. Sparkle. She said I could go…but only if Archibald goes with us."

"Sounds safe to me. All right, Shining, you may go."

The two young ponies cheered. "Me too! Me too!" came a youthful voice. The ponies turned to see Twilight, Shining's younger sister, a purple unicorn with a dark blue mane and tail with pink and purple streaks, purple eyes and a cutie mark of magic sparkles. "I wanna go, too! Please, Mom, can I go? Please?"

"Twilight, sweetie, you have math lessons today, remember?" Mrs. Sparkle reminded her daughter.

"Oh, right." Twilight sighed disappointedly. "Then can I go with them next time?"

Mrs. Sparkle laughed. "OK, Twilight, you can go with your brother next time."

"YAY!"

A few minutes later, Cadance and Shining were walking together, following Archibald. "Step lively now, you two. The sooner we get to Crystal Pond, the sooner we can go back."

"So where are we REALLY going?" Shining asked his companion quietly.

"An Ursa graveyard," Cadance whispered.

"NO WAY! THAT SOUNDS AWESOME!" Shining yelped.

"Shh!" Cadance shushed him, putting her hoof over his mouth. "Not so loud. Archibald will hear you."

"Oh, right," Shining agreed in a hushed tone. "So how are we going to ditch the green bean?"

"Well…" Cadance and Shining whispered a plan to one another. Archibald turned around to see the young ponies. "Oh, just look at you two…little seeds of romance blossoming in Canterlot. Your parents will be thrilled, what with you being betrothed and all."

"Be-WHAT?" Cadance asked.

"Betrothed. You know, intended. Affianced."

The ponies looked up at the asparagus with confusion. "What does that mean in English?" Shining asked.

"It means that when you grow up, you two are going to get married."

"WHAT?" both ponies asked hysterically.

"No way!" Cadance replied.

"Ew, gross!" Shining shuddered.

"I can't marry Shining, he's my friend!" Cadance refused.

"Yeah, it would be too weird!" Shining agreed. "I mean, Cadance wrestles better than most of my colt friends, I can't marry HER!"

"Well, sorry to shock you two turtledoves, but you have no choice," Archibald replied. "It is customary for the next in line for the throne to marry his or her closest foalhood friend of the opposite gender. It's a tradition that has gone on for generations, and it must NEVER be broken."

"Well, when I'm the queen, that'll be the first thing to go," Cadance playfully decalred.

"Not as long as I'M around, it shan't be," Archibald responded.

"Well in that case, you're fired."

"Nice try, missy, but only the QUEEN can fire me."

"Well, Cadance is the future queen," Shining reminded him.

"That's right…so you gotta do everything I tell you to do."

"Not yet I don't," Archibald bristled. "And I must say, with an attitude like THAT, I'm afraid that you are shaping up to be a rather pathetic queen indeed."

Cadance snorted. "Not the way I see it." She flew up to a tree branch. "When I'm queen, I'm gonna be the mane event! Nopony before me will even come CLOSE to how awesome I am!"

"You've got a rather long way to go, young mistress, I must warn you," Archibald told the alicorn as she landed back on the ground.

"Nopony will be able to tell me what to do," Cadance continued.

"You'll be free to do what you want, whenever you want to do it," Shining agreed. They galloped off together, leaving Archibald in the dust.

"Cadance! Shining Armor!" the asparagus tried to run after them, calling to them. Finally, he groaned. "I give up! If this is where Equestria's future is headed, I might as well leave and go back to Veggitopia. That filly is too out of hand…or at least she WOULD be, if I had hands."

Cadance and Shining laughed as they slowed down. "Sweet, it worked!" Cadance cheered as she looked back. "We lost the fuddy-duddy! I am a genius."

"Hey, Princess Genius, it was MY plan," Shining reminded her crossly.

"Yeah, but I pulled it off," Cadance argued.

"With MY help, you did."

"Oh yeah?" The two started wrestling for a while, but eventually Shining got a hold of Cadance and knocked her to the ground, pressing his body against hers. "HA! I pinned ya!"

"Hey, I'm a princess! You gotta let me win!" Cadance chastised him.

"Shining Armor don't let NOpony win, princess or not," Shining replied.

"Well at LEAST let me back up!" Shining got off of Cadance, who tackled him, causing them both to roll down a nearby hill. Shining landed back on top of Cadance. "Pinned ya again!"

Suddenly, a nearby geyser went off. The two ponies looked around to see a desolate area, with huge bones strewn everywhere. "I think this is it," Cadance whispered. They walked together to see tons of skeletons littering the area. "WHOA!"

"This is so creepy!" Shining shivered.

"I know," Cadance agreed. She smiled. "Isn't it AWESOME?"

Shining chuckled. "We could get into a whole heap of trouble here."

"Yeah, we could." The two laughed as they approached a gigantic bear skull. "Hey, I wonder if its brains are still in there?" Shining asked.

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Cadance answered. "C'mon, let's go in there and check it out."

"WRONG answer," a voice told them. They turned to see Archibald approaching them and groaned. "The only "checking out" you two shall do is to check out of this wasteland! We are WAY beyond the boundaries of Equestria."

Cadance giggled. "Oh look, Shining, the string bean is scared."

"That's MR. String Bean to YOU, missy," Archibald told her. "And right now, we are all in VERY real danger."

Cadance snorted as she approached the bear skull again. "Danger? HA! I trot on the wild side. I laugh in the face of danger. HA HA HA HA!"

Just then, there was a loud bout of laughter from inside the skull. Cadance yelped and ran to hide behind Shining as three odd creatures; a draconequus, a griffon and a Diamond Dog, crawled out of the skull.

"Well, well, well," the draconequus spoke up, circling around the trio. "Now what do we have here, Gilda?"

"I dunno, Discord," the griffon responded. She turned to the Diamond Dog. "What do YOU think, Ed?" The Diamond Dog simply laughed crazily. "Yeah, that's what I thought too…a trio of trespassers."

"And quite by mistake, I assure you," Archibald spoke up, shielding the two ponies from the circling predators. "You see, we were just on our way to…" He was interrupted by Discord putting an eagle finger over his mouth.

"Wait a minute, I know who you are. You're Celestia's favorite little stooge."

Archibald moved away from Discord, freeing his mouth. "I, SIR, am Queen Celestia's majordomo!"

"So that would make you…" Gilda confronted the ponies.

"Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, your future queen!" Cadance introduced herself boldly.

"Oh, our future queen, how charming," Discord responded sarcastically. "If I had known you were coming, Your Highness, I would've baked you a cake." He snapped his fingers and made a cake appear above Cadance's head. The cake then dropped onto her, covering her in cake and frosting.

"Just so you know, Princess, my gang and I are none too keen on little ponies like you stepping into OUR territory." He made a pony skull appear in his lion paw, making the ponies gulp. "Just for future references…assuming we let you leave here ALIVE." He crushed the skull in his paw.

"You can't do anything to me!" Cadance replied. She turned to face Ed. "Especially YOU, you stupid Diamond Dog! Archibald told me about how you're all a bunch of slobbery, mangy, stupid pooches!"

Archibald grinned and chuckled nervously. "Cadance, dear, let's NOT provoke the dangerous predators whose land we have intruded on, all right? Well now, if you all will excuse us, it's very late, and it's time we go back to Canterlot…"

Discord flashed in front of them. "What's the hurry? We'd LOVE for you to stick around for dinner."

"Yeah, I'm sure we can…PONY up some grub," Gilda agreed with a sick laugh.

"Ooh, I got a good one," Discord interjected. "Yes, I'd like to order a FILLY cheesesteak and a COLT-a Cola." That got both him and Gilda laughing until they noticed that Ed was making grunting noises and pointing in another direction.

"Hey, boss? Did we order this dinner to go?" Gilda asked.

"No, why?"

"Because THERE IT GOES!" Gilda yelled, pointing to the ponies and asparagus running away. They chased after them. As they ran, Archibald tripped over a bone and was caught. The ponies didn't notice this and kept running until they were out of breath. "Did we lose them?" Shining asked.

"Yeah, I think so," Cadance responded. Then, she gasped. "Where's Archibald?"

"Well, Mr. Majordomo, you've got an appointment with the Veggie Boiler," Gilda to the screaming asparagus as she shoved him into an open geyser.

"Oh no! Not the Veggie Boiler!" The geyser set off, shooting Archibald into the sky and off into the distance as the three thugs laughed.

"Hey!" Cadance yelled at them. "Why don't you pick on someone who actually HAS limbs?"

"Like…YOU?" Discord asked.

"Oh crud." The thugs started to chase the two young ponies off over the Ursa skeletons until finally, they tried to climb up a spine and fell down into a ribcage, trapping them…just as the thugs closed in.

"Heeeeere, pony, pony, pony…" Gilda called to them tauntingly. The ponies shivered and huddled together, awaiting their fate…

Suddenly, there was a flash of yellow light. An energy beam shot the three thugs down. Celestia swooped down and started bucking the thugs as Archibald came up to the ribcage and freed the young ponies. "Are you both all right?" he asked. They nodded and hugged him.

As they watched, Celestia finished her beat down of the thugs. "If you EVER come near my daughter AGAIN…" she threatened them.

"OH, is this YOUR daughter?" Discord asked, feigning cluelessness. "Did YOU know that, Gilda?"

"ME? No, no I didn't know that at ALL. Did YOU?"

"No, of COURSE not!" They both turned to Ed. "ED?" Ed stupidly nodded his head. Discord grinned nervously. "Heh heh…buh-bye!" The thugs all ran off as fast as they could.

Cadance sheepishly walked up to her mother once they were gone. "Mom, I…"

"You deliberately disobeyed me," Celestia interrupted her crossly.

"Mom, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"Let's go home." Celestia led the two guilty foals off, as Nightmare watched from the cliffs above, looking disappointed.

Uh-oh, Cadance and Shining are in DEEP horse apples now!

Yay, little Twilight! She's so darn cute! And don't worry, she'll be playing a bigger part later on in the story, so it's not just a pointless cameo.

Yes, I know I just skipped over "I Just Can't Wait to be King" all together...you're not supposed to put paraphrased song lyrics here, plus I doubt that I could come up with a clever enough version for Cadance.

Next chapter, we see the aftermath of the little showdown in the Ursa graveyard, from both the good guys and the bad guys. Stay tuned!

All my best, DiscordantPrincess.