They appeared back in the hallway right in front of Cadance's room.
Cadance simply stood in place as Silver wove the magic to clean her, and additionally, she felt the burns on her stomach and side grow out with a tingle. Turning her head over, she watched as the fur on the spots fell out and was replaced with new hairs, the skin underneath unblemished.
"Thank you."
"You're saying that a lot today." Silver sardonically quipped
"You keep giving me good reasons to." She took a step forward and smiled at Silver
Silver backed up and held up a hoof, "Nope, I know that look, no hugs."
Cadance spread her wings
"Little Princess, I'm not jok- eep!" Silver scrambled and tried to scramble away as Cadance jumped into movement.
HEheE!
Cadance was taller, and Silver was unsurprised, so it wasn't a difficulty to scoop her up from the side in a wing hug. Silver struggled for a moment, awkwardly posing herself in the hug, before relenting.
Oh wow, she's heavy
"Ponies are so touchy feely." She mumbled
Cadance didn't retract from the hug, but still leaned back for proper eye contact, "I don't know why, or honestly how, given my experience with you, but you treat me like a friend; so that's how I'll treat you." Cadance squeezed Silver, "Hugs are part of that deal."
Exactly what Luna described... You haven't changed at all since then, have you?
The moment lasted another second before Cadance released the mare, who stumbled away, and made a show of brushing herself off, "Right." She... half glared, half lidded-stared at Cadance, "I'll keep that in mind and maintain the required defenses."
Cadance giggled, honestly, at Silver's sarcasm.
At least I hope that's sarcasm
"I'm glad you had fun at least."
You made sure it happened...
The thought struck out at Cadance
You... She tried harder than I expected to make it happen... She worked... Did she plan that all? Know it was goin- of course she did, she started our interactions by building up my annoyance...
She gave Silver a softer look, "Silver, did yo-"
Silver interrupted her with a smirk, "Tick tock Little Princess, you're going to be late."
Hmm?
"But it's bare-" Cadance stopped herself, what was going to be the phrase 'barely sundown' was interrupted as she glanced out to the dusk on the far balcony of the hallway.
Oh right, the other side of the world. Wait, how did we get back so fast?
Cadance turned back to Silver and opened her mouth
Silver tapped the wrist of her hoof and raised an eyebrow
"This conversation isn't over."
Silver smiled, "Smell ya later" and she turned and walked around the corner, humming some jaunty tune.
Cadance laughed at the exit, and turned herself to rush down to her office.
"So." Cadance said to the ponies in front of her, a crystal stallion, Homeward, and two pegasi.
It was currently seven thirty, and she'd gathered up the ponies who were waiting outside of her office with Amber and pulled them into her office. She sent Amber to run for tea, and pulled the four aside to the table and cushions near the door, rather than her desk.
The stallion was apparently an immigrant, some lost lineage of crystal pony that left the Empire at some point, he was a shimmery quiet yellow color, his mane, an orange version of the same. He had a cutie mark of an over stylized 'sun ray' coming from the sun, his name? Dawn Ray.
Unsurprising
Then there was Homeward, the earthy green unicorn with a minty green mane. She had a cutie mark of a... broken bone...
I'll have to ask about that at some point
Then there were the pegasi twins, they were by far the normal of the four. Symbol and Marker, apparently they were for hire temps together, they handled the data analytics for the group, since you know, that was the original purpose of the team's job. The pair of mare and stallion were by far the most reserved of the group. Marker, that is, the stallion wore a pair of sunglasses at all times for an unknown reason.
The group dynamic as Cadance had determined it was thus: Dawn Ray was the group's artist and 'interaction expert' the extrovert of the team. Homeward was the leader, the organizer and the apparent friend that kept the group together. Dawn and the twins didn't seem to like each other very much, at least as far as Cadance could sense. The twins apparently handled all of the actual 'work', that is to say, all of the stuff Cadance would view as work.
"So?" Homeward said tentatively, breaking Cadance out of her mental review of the situation.
Cadance shook her head, "You four were originally from the census division for data analytics right?"
Marker smiled, "You looked us up then."
Symbol spoke in an eerily similar voice, just effeminate, "Yes we are, hoping to change that."
Dawn and Ward just nodded
"I didn't get a chance to look over any of the work your team did, could you enlighten me?" Cadance moved to take a sip of her tea as they all looked to each other, trying to decide who would speak.
Homeward ended up taking the mantle, "We mostly worked with the other divisions, at first we didn't really have any information to present any projects like the census division is designed to do. So we organized things for the other relief divisions."
Symbol spoke up, "That is until now."
Cadance without looking, "Would you summarize for me?"
Marker was the one who responded, "We have enough data to present a project, now."
"Me and my brother have been checking through the information Ward had wanted us to search for."
Marker continued, "Ward had predicted several issues based off of her experiences in Equestria, once we had enough data to prove the recurrence she and Dawn created the initiative we're presenting to you."
Homeward awkwardly chuckled, "It's less of an initiative and more of a..." She twirled her hoof, "Well I don't know, but that's okay. I-"
"You haven't done anything like this before then?" Cadance interrupted.
While Homeward's mouth flapped, Dawn came to her rescue, "Homeward is just about as experienced as one can be without just being a part of the EEA, even though she's never done something like this before."
Cadance giggled, "Don't worry to much about impressing me, I've already decided to 'hire' you all, for lack of better phrase."
Homeward's stance changed from 'interview-e' to 'excited filly' while the rest simply tried to make sense of the phrase, "Really?!"
"Yes."
"Oh thank you Princess!"
"That wasn't very hard." Symbol said monotonously.
Was that snark? It's hard to tell
Cadance smiled, "The truth is, you stopped me at the perfect time. A school is something I was already planning, so besides your merits, you're exactly the ponies I was looking for."
Marker spoke again, "Unsurprising, if we noticed it, surely the Princess would have too."
"Wait..." Dawn said, "So, if you already were working on this, and we're already hired, why the meeting?"
Homeward smiled and leaned forward, meeting Cadance's eyes, "Vision. Obviously."
Cadance leaned forward too, meeting Homeward's expression, the mare leaned back, not really sure what to make of Cadance doing so. "Sorry." Cadance returned to a normal posture, "But she's right, Vision. I'm not looking to setup schools, I'm looking to build an institute. A college if you will, the biggest ever."
Symbol's head tilted, "Lofty goals."
Marker shifted, "Are you sure that's what the Empire needs?"
Cadance nodded, "The crystal ponies can't survive on tourism alone, the majority of children are self taught. Raised by the village, so to speak." As Cadance spoke, the group nodded along, "What we lack at the moment, is something bigger. A market." She smiled as she saw the confusion, "As it stands, there's no reason for somepony to train to become a teacher, or for a noble to invest or cater to an elementary school, nopony wants one. Most of our immigrants are adults, so we're fine on that front too."
"What making an institute that provides a higher form of education will do is create a demand for lower education over time."
Marker's ears perked up, "The private sector will take over."
Symbol had the same realization, "The incentive will solve the problem for us."
Cadance pointed a hoof at the air, "And. It means we can rely on retroactive laws to solve problems as they crop up." She glanced towards Dawn, deciding to say this to him for no particular reason, "Thing is, I need rules, regulations, features; truth is, I don't know anything about running a school, much less the regulations to make it work."
"That's where we come in." Homeward said
"Mhm. What do you think?" Cadance asked to the room.
They shared glances with each other.
Homeward turned back to Cadance with an inquisitive look, "So you need us to... gather a together a list of rules, laws and regulations for a college like research institute?"
"At first, yes; after, I'll probably have you all run it."
Dawn's eyebrows shot up, "Run it? You mean the school?"
Cadance gave her false Princess giggle again, "Well who better to run it than the ponies that made the system?"
"We'll do it." Homeward said confidently
"Ward" Marker hissed
Homeward held up a hoof, "We'll do the first part, at least. I don't know about... running a school."
Tell me about it...
"We'll find out when we get there then. Thank you all for your time."
They cleared out after they verified that they were actually suddenly in charge of doing what Cadance had asked them to do. As they filed out, and Cadance mused on how they clearly weren't prepared for the meeting to go so successfully, Shining walked in.
"Shining!"
"Hey Honey."
They shared a hug in a way that skipped the majority for storytelling for their individual days.
"So?"
"Silver was... Actually, I need to hoof something off to you." Cadance pulled the crown out of her pocket space.
"What's this?" He said concerned at the dark magic wafting off of the thing.
"Erm-"
Maybe you could have done that a little differently Cadance
"It's a dark magic artefact of sorts." Cadance said slowly, trying to be nonchalant
Shining took a deep breath
"Silver took me 'treasure hunting' today"
Shining raised an eyebrow
"I know... It was mostly safe..." She winced
Shining just shook his head, "Do you have to get yourself into danger like that?" He pointed at the crown.
"Yes?"
Shining rolled his eyes, "I've already expressed my... opinion." He took the crown in his levitation, "What does it do? It feels angry."
"The short version is that it is. Silver guessed that it can extract and store negative emotions, channeling them into the wearer"
"And she didn't..." Shining looked over the crown at Cadance, "She didn't keep it?"
"Said she wasn't an Emotion mage" Cadance pointed at the crown, "Plus, she said she couldn't have used it for anything anyways."
"So why even go get it?"
Cadance rolled around the answer in her mind for a second, trying to phrase it just right. "Shining I think; I think Silver actually cares." Cadance gestured to the crown, "I mean, about me."
Shining let her continue, since he could tell there was more
"Silver put together the whole trip, and the last one to help me relax. She gave it a lot of thought, and put a lot of work into it. Remember what I told you about Luna?"
Shining nodded, "Yeah, quite the story."
"I think She's doing the same thing with me."
"What, pushing you to learn things?"
Cadance tapped her muzzled with a hoof in thought, "No no... It's different, in a way, but kinda?"
Shining didn't have a response for that.
"It... Something Luna phrased it applies, she meant: 'Dusk was my friend, but I wasn't his.'" She ruffled her wings, "It's all over everything she does. She treats ponies like they're so important, but only her way, only the way that keeps everypony at hoof length."
"You're saying she... pushes ponies away?" Shining looked deep in thought
"In a way, I'm not sure why, but yes."
Why is this so difficult to explain?
Cadance understood the feeling, the relationship was something she could understand intrinsically, but communicating it?
"It's like... I know she doesn't trust me, but she still does?"
"She doesn't trust, but not because you're untrustworthy, it's because she knows the bigger picture better than you; knows we're prone to mistakes."
What?
"Uh-" Cadance gave her husband a sideways look, "Yeah... Exactly that, except-"
"Except she doesn't know the bigger picture better. She just thinks she does. Then instead of getting stuck in her own little world, she makes her own world everypony else’s and takes the lead."
"Shining?"
Shining snapped out of his thoughtful state, "Yeah?"
"Where'd all that come from?"
Shining furrowed his brow, "What she told me. The... The way she said it. She knows we'd eventually have a conversation like this. It's part of what she told me, when she told me I was, 'to young to know yet.'"
Cadance kept looking at Shining in confusion.
"How much did she tell you? Just as she was walking out?"
Shining gave a wry smile, "A little bit more than the couple of seconds she left in." and he rubbed the back of his neck.
The two sat together in thought for a moment
"Nevermind that for now, remember that school idea I told you about?"
Shining nodded and Cadance went on
The rest of the night was spent talking together until they went to bed, Cadance never ended up reading the letter's Point Flare had sent her that evening, and roughly a mile away Silver returned from her chores after distracting Cadance.
The Silver mare walked into her domicile, the wards washing over her, and mechanically twinging at the gem implants that verified her mental stability.
Three
Check. Check. Memory association, mildly unstable. Check. Check. I'll need to reset my manifestation gate, being liquified did a number on the nexus
Before the thought or even the wards were done Silver had already walked past the the door, the front sitting room which she'd converted into an active manipulatable spatial fold, and into the dorms.
Eighteen
"Point Flare."
The group on the interior looked up an-
Consensus, preparation, mark and manipulate.
Silver's eyes clicked from the eyes of each of the interior ponies.
"With me-" Verifying effect, let's go with half confidence. "Please."
Point Flare levitated the cards she was lifting with her horn-
No aura discoloration, concerning, I'll have to check to see if there were any complications with the horn taking.
Twenty five
Point Flare was following Silver out into the staircase which Silver was already halfway down. They both walked through the folded space that brought them into the laboratory a couple of miles below them.
Don't look, keep moving, you've got to be a good role model.
An unwilled emotion sprouted in Silver's head before she brushed it away at the same time she dumped the bags she had filled with materials. Gems and floating pieces of metal scattered along the table as Point Flare flicked her horn to turn on all of the lights in the lab. Silver blinked once to adjust to the new light levels.
Thirty four
"Catch" Silver tossed the liquid metal at Point Flare with a wave of levitation.
She did in fact catch it-
Not at a decent enough range, I'll have to manifest an addition to her reaction time next time we weight train her mana pool
Silver was already done enchanting one of the gemstones with a subconscious control system, and an interface. The act was so ingrained into her mind that it came to her without having to focus.
Forty one
"Burn away at the impurities for me, that's going to be our new transportation mechanism"
Point Flare brought the metal in her telekinetic grip with herself over to the table and started. Silver watched.
No mistakes, bad, I need you to make mistakes so I can teach you how to get better.
Silver shook her hoof away from the assembly and warped behind Point Flare, "Boo."
Fifty
The mare jumped ever so slightly as Silver suddenly appeared behind her. "Jeez. Do you have to do that?"
"Absolutely, you're burning off the extraneous magic, lean back with the power, lean into the precision. It's alchemy, not buckball."
"I know, you didn't have to startle me to remind me though." She frowned at Silver but readjusted her aura on the liquid metal.
Fifty nine
looks like the molecular stabilization effect from the spell is adjusting faster now, good, she got better
"You never know when something is just going to fall over in the lab, you've gotta make sure you don't jump like that and accidentally blow yourself up."
Point Flare rolled her eyes, used to what she thought was Silver's teaching style.
One-Seven
Silver pulled the assembly over to herself and connected the mechanics with the control system.
Let's see if I have to re-teach this
"Do you remember the phase spell I taught you?"
"Mhm" She said, concentrating on catalyzing field spell into the metal
Silver realized she was going to have to wait before she was going to do anything else, so she thought.
Shining should go looking for Cadance soon, which means the risk of going back out is too high, you have to stay. Project Heth? No, I have to readjust my mental acuity. Call it:
Mental faculty check and readjustment.
Spell practice with the group, I'll end it by warping them to the warehouse and have them look over the portals. That should give me time for Operation four.
Check the world stash state, hopefully I can get some pings back this time.
Note: Exercise your wings throughout the rest of the day, they really need work.
After I finish off Operation four (I'll need to reset the base defenses first) I can drop by the Engine and top myself off.
Then I can really get started with the day
One-Twelve
Two seconds had passed and Point Flare's aura disappeared around the metal as the enchantment took to the permanence. "Done" She said-
Proud, good, be happy you're working, be happy when you get better. Twist it, forwards
"Good work. Take this." Silver handed her the sea urchin looking assembly. It had a gemstone sitting in the center surrounded by a mix of antennae and rods of etched metal attached to hinges at the base of the case the gemstone sat in. "Use your levitation to submerge the device, the density should get lighter than air."
Point Flare took the metal and spread it out in her levitation like dough, the molecules sliding past each other until the 'solid liquid' was basically magical 'gas'. After, she simply dumped the 'metallic gas' onto the device.
One-Thirty five
"Now wait for the ping."
Flare held it in place until her aura disappeared, replaced by the rippling metal going taut, the whole thing turning into a visibly solid ball of metal. It began to float and rotate slowly.
"These are our new mechanical drones for lifting in the warehouse, I'll be teaching you how to make them from scratch tomorrow, gather the rest and we'll go over the magic theory tonight."
Point Flare nodded and made her way back towards the staircase as Silver wove a spell to send the drone to the warehouse.
One-Fourty nin-
Flare turned at the stairs, "Hey, uh boss? Are you okay?"
Damnit
"Yeah, just in a rush." Silver said flatly
"You're always in a rush." Flare said tentatively.
We cannot be friends.
"Go get the rest of the group Point Flare." Silver said without turning back.
Point Flare left.
Two.
Still thirty seconds behind, I'll have to find a better way to distance Flare's concerns.
The pony who was Silver spread her wings and began to stretch as she began recalling the night's lesson plans for her mage group; in addition to readjusting it for the groups current mood.
The mental image of a marionette sprung to her mind before the four layered enchantment that overlaid her brain registered a danger to her sanity and erased the thought so she could focus.