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"Princess Cadence! I think I figured out-" Sunburst had burst into the room, grinning eagerly with an old book in tow before he had faltered. Cadence turned back to look at him, smiling kindly, but he hardly noticed, his eyes locked onto the dark, intimidating stallion standing next to her.

Lord Sombra raised an unimpressed brow and scowled.

"Sunburst! Great timing, I was just mentioning the Promenade to Sombra," Cadence said happily, stepping forward to place a friendly wing over his shoulder. She peered curiously into the book he was levitating. "What is it you found out?"

Sunburst had still been glaring at Sombra before he took notice of the princess's question.

"O-oh! It says here the Promenade was a celebratory event, a lot like the Crystal Faire. All the ponies of the Empire would walk to the castle and bring only the purest crystals and present them to the princess, who-"

"That's all wrong."

Sunburst and Cadence looked up from the book in confusion. Sombra's jaw was locked tight as he grimaced in displeasure.

"Excuse me? What's wrong exactly?" Sunburst asked curtly, rolling his eyes in annoyance at being interrupted.

"All of the information. For starters, the Promenade wasn't as exuberant an event as the Crystal Faire- it was much more solemn because it was a coronation ceremony. Ponies wouldn't take the crystals to the castle- the royal heir would go to them for the crystals and would then lead all the citizens back to the castle in a regal procession. From there, the heir would embed the crystals, which would have been priorly endued with the love of every individual citizen, into the Crystal Heart, strengthening its power. This act of tribute to the Empire by the heir was symbolic for their being able to protect the kingdom later on during their rule," Sombra finished, having drawled out all his knowledge on the subject with a deadpanned air.

Cadence's eyes were wide with intrigue as she had listened intently to Sombra's monologue, but Sunburst's frown had only deepened as he continued, having flipped through pages of the book to cross-refrence his words to no avail.

"There's nothing that indicates the Promenade being anything like what you said here in the book," Sunburst grumbled dejectedly, stroking the ancient journal with care. This time it was Sombra's turn to roll his eyes.

"You musn't believe everything you read in books, Wizard. Half of the customs and traditions written in that old tome aren't nearly as accurate as they should be," Sombra grunted, causing Sunburst to puff up in indignation.

"Well, it's the only historical collection I could find in the library that isn't totally in tatters- perhaps thanks to the particular reign of a certain villain who's made piecing back information difficult as is. Besides, this old tome is the book that helped Princess Twilight find out about the Crystal Heart in the first place in order to defeat you!" Sunburst said sharply, displaying the book proudly to Sombra, who had narrowed his eyes at the smaller stallion, a cruel snarl playing on his lips. The scornful expression on Sombra's face had only cowed Sunburst for a moment before he resolutely held his ground, not daring to make another move but still wanting to stand up for himself and his research against Sombra's arrogance over him.

"You small, floundering-" Sombra had begun to snarl before being interrupted by a firm hoof on his shoulder. Cadence had watched the tension rise and had decided to intervene before things really got ugly.

"Alright, thank you both for the information! Looks like we'll be hosting a Promenade when Aria and Aurora are of age, but that won't be for a while longer, so let's just forget about the whole thing for now, shall we?" Cadenced trilled, turning her gaze to look at the both of them squarely in the eye, sending them a clear message despite her cheery exterior.

Sunburst huffed while Sombra scowled, but the two dropped the matter, knowing fully well what would be in store for either of them if they pushed the princess further.

Cadence sighed raggedly afterwards, feeling a headache coming on.

She loved Sunburst and Sombra, she really did, and she eagerly sought out their advice and company often, but the two together were never to be mixed, unfortunately.
--

I've been working on this baby all day long, folks. Context below!

As two of Cadence's most important advisors in Empire related matters, Sunburst and Sombra are very important to her. She often looks to them when it comes to the customs and traditions of the Empire she herself isn't 100% well-versed with, but unfortunately, her two sources tend to bicker with one another more often than not when they try to help her. Sombra's memory isn't crystal clear from the time before he became king, so his knowledge on Empire affairs isn't always the greatest, but neither is any of Sunburst's findings, which are usually very vague, as most historical accounts were destoryed during Sombra's reign, unfortunately. The few that do remain are in terrible condition, so it's made Sunburst's research efforts much harder, I'm afraid. Cadence constantly has to pacify her two sources of information whenever the two squabble over who is most likely correct.

While Sunburst is a touch afraid of Sombra (and really always has been, along with many others still, honestly), he's more than willing to stand up to him for the sake of helping his princess on anything she needs. When Sombra was being reformed, Sunburst was right there with Cadence in disapproval for the decision made by Princess Luna. He didn't trust in the possibility of Sombra ever being able to change, and even when he did so, and even when Cadence herself was able to forgive him for his crimes and even go so far as to forge a deep friendship with him, Sunburst had always remained skeptical and disdainful towards him. He's learned to grow tolerant toward Cadence's change of heart for him, but there's still little to no friendship to be found between them both. Sombra himself is cold and distant towards Cadence's student and royal wizard only because he's weary towards Sunburst's studies- figuring out the history of the Empire before his reign, which is incredibly difficult because he had made sure to destroy most records of it in the first place. He's ashamed at how much work he's putting eveyone up to in finding out their identities and customs as part of the Empire since his terrible rule made them forget who they were, so Sunburst naturally brings up a lot of regretful feelings in him for being tasked in having to uncover all those things up.

Still, while they rarely ever get into real, heavy arguments (thanks to Cadence), and only make snide remarks to one another when she's out of ear shot, they can tolerate one another...for at least five minutes before Sunburst wants to strangle Sombra, pfft. Other reasons for them to squabble are their respective teaching methods. I mentioned earlier that Sunburst is the personal tutor to both Cadence's daughters, and that Aurora's Crystaller is Sombra, which leads to clashing lesson plans for her studies. Sombra tends to move too fast for Sunburst's liking, so he would much rather hold the reigns in teaching Aurora himself all about the Empire and other things instead of having to share the title of history teacher with her Crystaller. Aurora's lessons leave her feeling confused and exasperated with her two honorary uncles/official mentors more often than she feels confident in her studies and knowledge, heh.

Oof, that was a lot of spiel, sorry! I really wanted to do something with these two, and all together Sunburst, Sombra, and Cadence form some of my absolute top favorite ponies from the show, hehe. It was super fun to work with the three of them! Hopefully I can do it again soon. In the meantime, enjoy, folks!

Art and Harmonyverse belong to me.
MLP:FiM belongs to Hasbro.
Background source was modified in this piece!

Sidenote: y'all get it? A Princess Promenade?? I thought it'd be a nice nod to some of the old generation MLP canon with a G5 spin to it relating to the Empire, haha!

Description

"Princess Cadence! I think I figured out-" Sunburst had burst into the room, grinning eagerly with an old book in tow before he had faltered. Cadence turned back to look at him, smiling kindly, but he hardly noticed, his eyes locked onto the dark, intimidating stallion standing next to her.

Lord Sombra raised an unimpressed brow and scowled.

"Sunburst! Great timing, I was just mentioning the Promenade to Sombra," Cadence said happily, stepping forward to place a friendly wing over his shoulder. She peered curiously into the book he was levitating. "What is it you found out?"

Sunburst had still been glaring at Sombra before he took notice of the princess's question.

"O-oh! It says here the Promenade was a celebratory event, a lot like the Crystal Faire. All the ponies of the Empire would walk to the castle and bring only the purest crystals and present them to the princess, who-"

"That's all wrong."

Sunburst and Cadence looked up from the book in confusion. Sombra's jaw was locked tight as he grimaced in displeasure.

"Excuse me? What's wrong exactly?" Sunburst asked curtly, rolling his eyes in annoyance at being interrupted.

"All of the information. For starters, the Promenade wasn't as exuberant an event as the Crystal Faire- it was much more solemn because it was a coronation ceremony. Ponies wouldn't take the crystals to the castle- the royal heir would go to them for the crystals and would then lead all the citizens back to the castle in a regal procession. From there, the heir would embed the crystals, which would have been priorly endued with the love of every individual citizen, into the Crystal Heart, strengthening its power. This act of tribute to the Empire by the heir was symbolic for their being able to protect the kingdom later on during their rule," Sombra finished, having drawled out all his knowledge on the subject with a deadpanned air.

Cadence's eyes were wide with intrigue as she had listened intently to Sombra's monologue, but Sunburst's frown had only deepened as he continued, having flipped through pages of the book to cross-refrence his words to no avail.

"There's nothing that indicates the Promenade being anything like what you said here in the book," Sunburst grumbled dejectedly, stroking the ancient journal with care. This time it was Sombra's turn to roll his eyes.

"You musn't believe everything you read in books, Wizard. Half of the customs and traditions written in that old tome aren't nearly as accurate as they should be," Sombra grunted, causing Sunburst to puff up in indignation.

"Well, it's the only historical collection I could find in the library that isn't totally in tatters- perhaps thanks to the particular reign of a certain villain who's made piecing back information difficult as is. Besides, this old tome is the book that helped Princess Twilight find out about the Crystal Heart in the first place in order to defeat you!" Sunburst said sharply, displaying the book proudly to Sombra, who had narrowed his eyes at the smaller stallion, a cruel snarl playing on his lips. The scornful expression on Sombra's face had only cowed Sunburst for a moment before he resolutely held his ground, not daring to make another move but still wanting to stand up for himself and his research against Sombra's arrogance over him.

"You small, floundering-" Sombra had begun to snarl before being interrupted by a firm hoof on his shoulder. Cadence had watched the tension rise and had decided to intervene before things really got ugly.

"Alright, thank you both for the information! Looks like we'll be hosting a Promenade when Aria and Aurora are of age, but that won't be for a while longer, so let's just forget about the whole thing for now, shall we?" Cadenced trilled, turning her gaze to look at the both of them squarely in the eye, sending them a clear message despite her cheery exterior.

Sunburst huffed while Sombra scowled, but the two dropped the matter, knowing fully well what would be in store for either of them if they pushed the princess further.

Cadence sighed raggedly afterwards, feeling a headache coming on.

She loved Sunburst and Sombra, she really did, and she eagerly sought out their advice and company often, but the two together were never to be mixed, unfortunately.
--

I've been working on this baby all day long, folks. Context below!

As two of Cadence's most important advisors in Empire related matters, Sunburst and Sombra are very important to her. She often looks to them when it comes to the customs and traditions of the Empire she herself isn't 100% well-versed with, but unfortunately, her two sources tend to bicker with one another more often than not when they try to help her. Sombra's memory isn't crystal clear from the time before he became king, so his knowledge on Empire affairs isn't always the greatest, but neither is any of Sunburst's findings, which are usually very vague, as most historical accounts were destoryed during Sombra's reign, unfortunately. The few that do remain are in terrible condition, so it's made Sunburst's research efforts much harder, I'm afraid. Cadence constantly has to pacify her two sources of information whenever the two squabble over who is most likely correct.

While Sunburst is a touch afraid of Sombra (and really always has been, along with many others still, honestly), he's more than willing to stand up to him for the sake of helping his princess on anything she needs. When Sombra was being reformed, Sunburst was right there with Cadence in disapproval for the decision made by Princess Luna. He didn't trust in the possibility of Sombra ever being able to change, and even when he did so, and even when Cadence herself was able to forgive him for his crimes and even go so far as to forge a deep friendship with him, Sunburst had always remained skeptical and disdainful towards him. He's learned to grow tolerant toward Cadence's change of heart for him, but there's still little to no friendship to be found between them both. Sombra himself is cold and distant towards Cadence's student and royal wizard only because he's weary towards Sunburst's studies- figuring out the history of the Empire before his reign, which is incredibly difficult because he had made sure to destroy most records of it in the first place. He's ashamed at how much work he's putting eveyone up to in finding out their identities and customs as part of the Empire since his terrible rule made them forget who they were, so Sunburst naturally brings up a lot of regretful feelings in him for being tasked in having to uncover all those things up.

Still, while they rarely ever get into real, heavy arguments (thanks to Cadence), and only make snide remarks to one another when she's out of ear shot, they can tolerate one another...for at least five minutes before Sunburst wants to strangle Sombra, pfft. Other reasons for them to squabble are their respective teaching methods. I mentioned earlier that Sunburst is the personal tutor to both Cadence's daughters, and that Aurora's Crystaller is Sombra, which leads to clashing lesson plans for her studies. Sombra tends to move too fast for Sunburst's liking, so he would much rather hold the reigns in teaching Aurora himself all about the Empire and other things instead of having to share the title of history teacher with her Crystaller. Aurora's lessons leave her feeling confused and exasperated with her two honorary uncles/official mentors more often than she feels confident in her studies and knowledge, heh.

Oof, that was a lot of spiel, sorry! I really wanted to do something with these two, and all together Sunburst, Sombra, and Cadence form some of my absolute top favorite ponies from the show, hehe. It was super fun to work with the three of them! Hopefully I can do it again soon. In the meantime, enjoy, folks!

Art and Harmonyverse belong to me.
MLP:FiM belongs to Hasbro.
Background source was modified in this piece!

Sidenote: y'all get it? A Princess Promenade?? I thought it'd be a nice nod to some of the old generation MLP canon with a G5 spin to it relating to the Empire, haha!