When Blade woke up this morning he had an uneasiness in his stomach. Today was the day of the royal wedding of princess Cadence and Shining Armor. He knew Shining Armor from heroic stories of him in the Equestrian Royal Military. Shining Armor was the pony who protected Canterlot from chaos in the second Discord incident. Even now he had a protection spell surrounding Canterlot. Blade almost idolized him.
The armor Blade was wearing now was different from the armor he wore in boot camp. It had a red crest on top of his helmet to show that he was a swordspony. His armor was golden with blue streaks painted across the side of it. Also, he wore a red cape over his armor with the Equestrian flag stitched on it. He thought the cape was a bit much, but this was a royal wedding, after all. Blade then tied his sheath around his waist, put is sword inside, and made way for the wedding chapel.
* * *
Blade made it to the wedding a bit early, so he decided to talk to one of his squad mates who was assigned to guard Shining Armor at the wedding, his friend, private Buckler.
"So Buckler, what do you think of all this?" asked Blade
"What, the wedding, or the god awful breakfast they served at the military cafeteria this mourning?" asked Buckler.
"The wedding," replied Blade.
"Well, I heard from some of Cadence's family and friends that she has been acting out," said Buckler.
"I think it's just wedding jitters, you know how mares can get on their "special day"," said Blade.
"OH, I didn't know it was the princess' time of the month," Buckler joked.
The two colts laughed.
"You were always the joker weren't you Buckler?" Blade said.
* * *
The two friends talked back and forth until the family, friends, bride maids, the groom, princess Celestia, and then, finally, princess Cadence arrived.
"Mares and gentlecolts," Celestia said, "we are gathered here today to witness the unity of princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor. Shining Armor, do you take Cadence to be you lawfully wedded mare?"
"Yes, I do," replied Shining Armor.
"And do you, princess Mi Amore Cadenza, take Shining Armor to be your lawfully married stallion?" asked Celestia.
"Yes, I do," said Cadence.
"Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, it its my great honor to pronounce you-"
"Stop!" princess Celestia was interrupted by a purple mare named Twilight Sparkle.
Everypony was looking with disappointment on their faces. This struck Blade as odd.
"Why does she have to be so possessive of her brother?" Cadence said with an annoyed tone. Cadence quickly caught herself and said with a sod tone, "Why does she have to ruin my special day?"
Now Blade defiantly knew something was up. He put his senses on high alert. Blade then heard a voice that surprised him.
"Because it's not your special day, it's mine," said Cadence.
Now Blade was confused. Two princess Cadences? Obviously one was an imposter.
"What? But how did you escape my brides maids?" obviously this was the imposter.
"They're brides maids, I just threw some flowers wrapped in paper to the other side of the cave and they all just fought for it," said the real Cadence.
"Hmm, clever," said the imposter, "but you're still too late."
"But I don't understand," inquired a orange mare name Applejack. "How can there be two of them?"
"She's a changeling," said Cadence. "She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power feeding off your love for them."
The imposter's eyes and horn started to glow an emerald green. Blade tore off his cape and unsheathed his sword. To Blade's astonishment, a green fire circle formed around the changeling and the green fire shot up and formed a cylinder around her.
Once the fire went down the changeling took its true form. Its coat was black as night with holes through her legs and horn. Its wings look as large as an alicorn's, but it looked like a fly's wings with holes through it. Her mane and and tail were of a dark cyan color with a hint of green.
Blade thought as if he were looking at the face of evil itself.
"Right you are princess," the changeling spoke, "but as queen of the changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects. Equestria has more love than any place I have encountered. My fellow changelings will be able to devour so much of it, that we will gain more power than we ever dreamed of!"
"They'll never get the chance!" Cadence exclaimed. "Shining Armor's protection spell will keep them from ever reaching us."
"Hm hm hm hm, oh I doubt that," said the queen. "Isn't that right dear?"
Uh huh," Shining Armor groaned while shaking his head up and down.
Cadence made a dash for the queen, but she quickly stopped.
Uh hah, don't want to go back to the caves now do you?" the queen asked. "Ever since I took your place, I've been feeding off Shining Armor's love for you. Every moment he grows weaker, and so does his protection spell. Even now my minions are chipping away at it."
Everypony in the room looked up to see a changeling army bashing into the sphere that surrounds Canterlot.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha?" the queen snickered. "He may not be my husband, but he is under my total control now. And I'm sorry to say, unable to perform his duties as captain of the royal guards!"
"Not my Shining Armor!" Cadence pleaded.
"Soon," the queen continued, "my changeling army will break through. First we take Canterlot, then all of Equestria!"
"No, you won't," said princess Celestia. "You may of made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self..."
Celestia then butted horns with the queen of the changelings.
"I can protect my subjects, from you!"
Princess Celestia then rose into the air, her horn glowing as bright as the sun. She shot a yellow beam towards the queen, but the queen countered with a green beam. The two beams collided and pushed each other as if two foals put their hooves at each other to prove who was stronger.
At first, it looked as if Celestia would win, but the score quickly turned when the green beam grew bigger and stronger, eventually making it to Celestia's horn and knocking Celestia down to the floor on her side.
Blade was paralyzed. He couldn't believe what just happened, but when he put all the evidence in his mind together, one thing became certain. Princess Celestia lost.