The modern world is all to often framed as an even playing field, wherein everyone starts on similar footing and is provided comparable opportunities that will open and close doors in the future accordingly. Of course there are many of those who live in the world would dispute that claim outright, but both sides can agree that there are those who seem to have lives that are touched and special. Regardless of the position they were born into, their presence in the world is unique either by luck, providence, or any other attribution to something greater than themselves moving behind the scenes.
Mi Amore Cadenza, Cadence to everyone, fits the bill perfectly, though she would never admit it herself. As is often the case, what one believes about themselves, and the expectations placed upon them, don’t always align. Conflict, and change, are often the result.
“Did someone drink the last of the milk?” a voice whines from the kitchen, snapping Cadence’s eyes away from the textbook in front of her. The raspy sound comes from a small and tight, gym short-clad butt sticking out from the refrigerator, wobbling from side to side like an agitated cat. After a few seconds more the owner of said backside huffs and straightens up, clear, blue eyes fixating on Cadence while an uncertain pout forms on her lips. “C, did you see anyone drink my milk?”
“Unfortunately not, Lemony,” Cadence replies with a gentle smile as she taps the book in front of her. “I’ve been out here for the past hour and you’re the first person I’ve seen this morning.”
Lemony Gem’s pout turns into a delicate scowl, her lightly tanned features tightening as she considers this information. “I bet it was D,” she concludes after a moment, turning on the ball of her foot as she hurries deeper into the house. A series of rapid knocks and throaty accusations follow, Cadence allowing herself a small smile as a more measured, if tired, female voice joins in. Such is how things are when sharing a home with two other young women.
Before long, Lemony returns with the third member on the lease, a pale redhead who does her best to cover an especially long and wide yawn. “Morning Diamond,” Cadence says with a cheery smile. “Another late night studying?”
“As usual,” Diamond Rose returns the playful accusation with a delicate smile before moving over to the stove and preparing a tea kettle. “Which wouldn’t be so bad, if someone had let me sleep in.”
“I just want to know what happened to my milk; it feels wrong to come back and just, not have anything to drink!” Lemony protests and places a thumb into the waistband of her shorts. “I know there was still some left when I came back from work yesterday, so sometime between then and now, somebody took it!”
Placing the kettle onto the stove, Diamond sighs and glances over her shoulder. “It’s just milk, Lemony. I’m going grocery shopping today, as usual, and I’ll get you some more. You can go one morning without it, right?”
“Well yeah, it’s just one morning, but it messes with my routine,” Lemony pouts, sitting down hard at the table across from Cadence. “And the mystery behind it all bothers me too. Both of you say you didn’t drink it, so what happened to the rest of the milk?”
“Don’t worry about it too much,” Cadence assures her friend, reaching out and patting Lemony on the hand with a beatific smile on her lips. “Some things in life are mysteries, and that’s okay.”
Cadence’s words are punctuated by a loud yawn from the bedroom hall, a distinctly masculine voice grumbling, “Did someone say mystery?”
The lanky, sleepy eyed shuffles into the dining room, thankfully dressed from head to toe in an undershirt and a pair of long sleeping pants. The smile on Cadence’s face shifts from kind to dreamy as she looks up at the man, while Lemony tilts her head back and frowns, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Yeah, the mystery of why Lemony doesn’t have her morning milk. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you, Shining Armor?”
The room falls silent, save for the distant gurgle of the tea kettle as it begins to boil. The accused wets his lips for a moment, the drowsy attitude falling away as his brain begins to catch up on the situation. All the while a crease begins to deepen on the forehead of the girl denied her morning milk, while Cadence and Diamond Rose look on with shallow, amused smiles. At last, Shining Armor reaches up and slicks back his hair, doing his best attempt to play up what charm he has. “Ah, well, you know that milk can help you grow up big and strong…”
Lemony is on Shining in a moment, locking the taller man in a headlock while she clings to his back like an angered cat as the tea kettle starts to wail for a few brief seconds. Thrashing about, the minty-haired girl makes a theatrical declaration, “You cheat! What gives you the right to come into your girlfriend’s place and just take and do whatever you like!”
To his credit, Shining goes along with the over the top reaction, swaying from side to side as Lemony tugs him along, although his knees begin wobbling after a few seconds. The smaller girl gets a few good shakes in before dropping off his back and scowling up at the thief, the height difference between them forcing her to tilt her head back to make eye contact. “We’ve known each other for a long time, Shining, but you aren’t nearly good looking enough for me to forgive you for this.”
“Oh, Lemony,” Cadence sighs, resting her cheek against her palm, the delicate smile still on her lips. “You always put up a front but everyone knows you have a soft spot for Shining.”
Lemony gives a small huff and tosses a shallow pout in the direction of her roomie. “Yeah, like a helpless little brother, maybe. I still wonder what you see in this lug sometimes, but, I guess you could do a lot worse too.”
Punctuating the backhanded insult with a smack of her palm against Shining’s shoulder, Lemony grins as she draws a small, pained yelp from the lanky man. Diamond Rose takes that as her cue to rejoin the group, cradling a mug in her hands as she sits down to the right of Cadence. She gives the young man a pitying glance, then throws him a line to safety.
“While harsh, I can second that. There were a few close calls when we were at Crystal Prep.” The redhead glances at Cadence and the pink-haired woman has enough decency to blush at the assertion. “Not that I would doubt your judgment, but you did have some unusual phases that gave some individuals the wrong idea.”
“Diamond,” Cadence whines, the ineffectual clenching of her fists only serving to catch Lemony Gem’s attention, the bright eyed girl all too eager to pile onto her friend.
“C’mon, C; you had your goth-alt phase, that all too brief stint as teenage party girl,” Lemony heaves a sigh and sits down to Cadence’s left. “I still think we could have hit up a few more parties; those boys were f-i-t. And then you had your cheerleader phase before you finally settled into this teenage sweetheart homemaker-to-be shtick and never seemed to move out of it.”
As Lemony makes a distressed face, as though she had just tasted something foul, Cadence reaches over and slaps her friend on the shoulder. The attack is more focused on creating a big sound than actually stinging, but the minty-haired girl still rubs her arm for effect. Diamond smiles behind her mug while Cadence takes everything in stride, although her brow is furrowed a little. “Education administration is not homemaking, Lemony. I just want to be able to support young men and women when they’re in a turbulent time in their lives, like I had in my aunties. Sometimes teachers are all they have and-”
Cadence’s long-winded explanation is cut off by a ringing coming from her bedroom. It takes two tones before Shining excuses himself from the girls with a smile. “Sorry, that’s mine. Back in a minute.”
The happy little smile returns to Cadence’s face as she watches him leave, the minor heat she had built up washed away in a moment by the man’s exit. Beside her, Lemony sighs and shakes her head. “You’ve got it bad for Shining Armor, C. You’ve been dating for over five years and you still look at him like he’s the most important man in your life.”
“Well he is,” Cadence says with a happy smile. “That’s the man I’m going to marry after all.”
Before the two can begin bickering about that, Diamond cuts in again. “Speaking of things in the future, the three of us have been putting off a certain discussion since the fall semester started.” Cadence flinches while Lemony adopts a more severe scowl, but allows the redhead to speak her piece. “Namely, what our plans are after our current lease expires.”
“Do we really need to discuss this now?” Cadence offers, the smile on her lips betrayed by the tension in her neck and forehead. “I mean, that’s seven or eight months away.”
“Yeah, it’s just a lease, D, not like one of us is pregnant or anything,” Lemony chimes in as she leans back in her chair, the front legs leaving the ground as she rocks back and forth. “It would make more sense to talk about this after the end of the current term. We’ll all have a clearer picture of what things look like and can make a clear-headed decision.”
Diamond Rose takes a deep breath, closing her eyes and sipping at her tea. As she swallows her anxiety, the slight rings under her eyes are all the more obvious. At last the redhead opens her eyes and gives a small nod. “Alright, I hear what the two of you are saying. But my financial situation is different than either of yours and I need to plan things out further in advance. Do I need to plan to put my graduate aspirations on hold and enter the workforce?”
Turning and looking at her friends in turn, she questions both of them. “Lemony, are you satisfied just working as a trainer at Bolt Fitness, or do you want to join their team? If you join the Wonderbolts, are you going to be moving out since you’ll be traveling more? And Cadence, are you and Shining Armor going to want to live together? If so, what does the living arrangement look like for the three of us?”
Cadence and Lemony fall silent in the face of Diamond’s questioning, and the redheaded woman sighs again, closing her eyes to sip at her tea. “I apologize for pushing these questions on you, but they have been stuck in my head for almost a year now.” Her voice takes on a softer, somewhat pained tone as she adds, “Our lives are going to start changing again, and they will take us in all sorts of directions. We might not be able to keep living like this…”
Diamond feels a warm hand cover her own and opens her eyes to see Cadence looking back at her, the tense expression from before having worn away to her usual delicate, distant smile. Becoming acutely aware of the racing heart in her chest, the worried girl feels her throat tighten in the face of her friend’s steady, consistent gaze.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t taking your concerns seriously, Diamond,” Cadence replies after a lengthy silence. With her free hand, Cadence tucks several strands of pink, purple and golden hair behind her ear and gives Diamond a gentle squeeze. “It is hard to think about and I’ve been avoiding it. And, I admit, my relationship with Shining could throw a wrench into our living arrangement. But I want you to know. Both of you.”
Reaching out, she takes Lemony’s hand into her own, squeezing the smaller girl tight enough that her knuckles start to pale. “I would never do anything to either of you that would leave you in a bad place. That’s not what friends do, and I love you both too much to even consider that as a possibility. So, no matter what happens, I’m always going to support you. And I hope you’ll do the same for me.”
As Diamond Rose starts to tear up, the minty-haired woman on the other side gives an irritated sigh, even as her own hand starts to shake in Cadence’s grip. “Aw jeez, C. You don’t have to be that mushy; D’s going to complain about her makeup getting ruined now.”
“Sh-shut up,” the green-eyed girl chokes, forcing a smile. “Thank you, Cadence. I know we’ve been friends for years, but hearing you say that is always affirming.” Taking another steadying breath, Diamond looks up at her friends and smiles. Before she can dive into some of the specifics however, Shining Armor comes back into the dining room.
Gone are the sleeping clothes, instead replaced with a pair of boots, jeans and a windbreaker. His blue hair is a mess, but his eyes are focused, seeing Cadence but at the same time already looking beyond her. He walks up and leans over the table as Cadence begins to rise from her seat, the two sharing a short kiss before he glances at the three of them.
The smile he wears doesn’t quite reach his eyes as he looks the women over before speaking. “Sorry to run out like this. My mother needs me for some, family stuff.”
“What’s wrong?” Cadence asks, releasing her friends’ hands in an instant as she continues to stand. She’s already rounding the table as the questions continue. “Is everyone okay? Do you need me to come along?”
Shining Armor lets out a small sigh and puts on a more genuine, dorky grin. “You don’t need to come, it’s just, Twily.”
At the name, Cadence’s expression tightens and she nods her head in affirmation. “Give me ten minutes. Don’t you dare go without me.”
Just like that, a pink whirlwind tears through the bedroom hall and disappears into the center room. The man chuckles a little, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Maybe I should have stayed quiet.”
“You say that like Cadence’s Sparkle-sense wasn’t already firing off,” Lemony says, adding a bit of levity to the situation. Two pairs of blue eyes meet, both with some obvious concern about the situation, but currently unable to do anything. Thankfully, Diamond takes the initiative to carry on the conversation.
“Twilight Sparkle, your sister,” she broaches the subject carefully, being the one least familiar with the girl in question. When Shining nods, Diamond takes that as a sign to continue. “Has there been an accident?”
“No,” Shining responds without any consideration.
“Maybe,” Lemony responds on the same beat, earning a pair of frowns, one confused from Diamond, while Shining’s is more severe. The minty haired girl is quick to explain herself. “Twilight is great, Shining,, but your sister is an accident waiting to happen. On multiple occasions she’s blown up your kitchen, her bedroom, and a bunch of school toilets. If it is as bad as you make it seem, C is going to tell us all about it later, so do us all a favor and drop the need-to-know attitude, kay?”
Averting his eyes, Shining stammers out, “Twily is not that bad, she’s just eccentric.” Lemony nods but rotates her wrist in a small circle, acknowledging the elder brother’s words while encouraging him along. “And she’s gotten better. It’s been four or five years since her last incident. It’s just that, lately, she’s been acting out again. Seeing things, connections, that just don’t make sense”
Shining Armor sighs and shoves his hands into his jacket pockets. “It started with that firework accident at one of the schools.”
“Where a student blew up the front entrance of Canterlot High?” Diamond offers, to which Shining nods. “That was an interesting event, admittedly.”
“And then there was that wild light show a little while later when CHS was hosting their music showcase,” Shining Armor continues as the girls nod along. “So, Twily got it into her head that these aren’t just freak occurrences, but the result of something strange at work in the world.”
At this point, Lemony sighs and closes her eyes. “Oh great, she flipped her conspiracy switch. What is it this time, government agents, little green men, or a secret society?”
Shining Armor flinches a little and mutters, “Magic. She thinks it is magic.”
The trio lapse into silence, but Diamond doesn’t miss the pointed look Lemony shoots in her direction. While not gloating, it’s clear that the minty haired girl is using this as a point in her favor.