//------------------------------//
// Chapter 18 Wedding Plans 
// Story: Super Stallion 
// by PioneerofImagination 
//------------------------------//

The day of the royal wedding had come and nearly all of Canterlot was ablaze for the big day, however there were a couple problems right off the bat. First off, Cadance was rather upset that Stone Wall had gone crazy and ran off so he wouldn't be able to give her away. On top of that several days ago, a threat was made against Canterlot so while originally against Stone Wall's wishes Shining Armor had put a barrier around Canterlot. 

But with it still being a wedding the ponies tried to keep all things happy and positive. The guards while still on high alert also still tried to enjoy themselves, especially the guards that were rather close to Shining Armor. 

Squeaky Clean however was having trouble enjoying himself because he was still depressed about the disappearance of his dear friend. "Why did it have to be this way?" Squeaky asked himself as he was all by himself in a broom closet. 

"Are you feeling better Squeaky?" Princess Celestia asked who found him.

"No, If anything I feel worse."

"I know how you feel," Princess Celestia said as she wrapped her coltfriend in a soft yet caring hug. "I miss him too, more than you could imagine. But this is a special day and we can't let this get the better of us, for Cadance and for Shining Armor." Princess Celestia then led Squeaky out of the closet.

"Um about that, Cadance hasn't really been herself lately, have you noticed?"

"She's probably coping with what happened with Stone Wall." 

"Who's coping with what?" Princess Cadance herself appeared as if out of nowhere and approached the 2 other ponies. 

"Oh hello Cadance. I was just trying to cheer up Squeaky."

"Well perhaps you need a hand with that," Discord said, his voice coming out of nowhere. "Or a paw or a claw or maybe all three." Discord then appeared in front of Squeaky a few feet in the air causing Squeaky to protectively get in front of the princess. "Ah how cute, still protecting sun butt."

"What do you want Discord?" Squeaky asked, trying to sound intimidating to Discord's amusement. 

"I'm here to help with the wedding preparations of course."

“You are?” Squeaky asked, shocked.

“Yes, this whole thing has rather caught my attention. So I figured I might as well help out as I watch the whole thing.”

"Uh, no thank you Discord, I'm going to be asking Twilight and her friends to help with all wedding preparations. Your service will not be required. Not even remotely."

"Oh come now it's a royal wedding. When am I going to get a chance to mess up, I mean help out with something like this?"

"As I said Discord, your service will not be required," Princess Celestia said this time with a more strict and rather upset tone. 

"I see, well does that mean you don't want my help stopping this threat that's been made." 

"I'm sure I can handle that as well."

"I? As in you? As in just you?" Discord then started to laugh almost hysterically while doing backflips in the air.

"What in Equestria is so darn funny?"

"You are sun butt."

"My name isn't-"

"Do you honestly think you can prevent anything?"

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"With all due respect, when have you ever prevented anything?" Princess Celestia was immediately offended by Discord's remark but managed to shallow her anger.

"I managed to stop my sister when she became Nightmare Moon."

"Something you could have prevented if you just paid more attention to your sister's feelings. I was a statue at the bottom of a mountain and even I knew what was happening there. Come on now, I’m offering you help. You said if I could be “reformed” my magic could be used for good, but then when I offer, you turn it down. You’re more random than I am."

“She said she’s not interested,” Squeaky said.

“Yeah, and that’s pretty stupid,” Discord then started poking her head. “Just because you’re a princess doesn’t mean you can be a royal blockhead.”

"Don’t talk to her like that you loudmouth-" Squeaky was cut off when Discord picked him up with his tail and started ringing his neck.

"Oh stop with the bodyguard routine already."

"PUT HIM DOWN!" Princess Celestia said in her royal Canterlot voice and Discord decided to humor her and let him go. "I will not stand here and allow you to disrespect me in my own castle! Get out of my sight and I forbid you to interfere in this wedding whatsoever. If you do so help me I’ll have you turned back to stone! I am fully capable of protecting this wedding from anything that might happen and you can ask Princess Mi Amore Cadenza about it herself. Got it!?"   

Discord then turned to Princess Cadance then made a very strange smile "This wedding may be more interesting than I thought." And with that, he vanished. Princess Celestia then took a breath and helped Squeaky up.

"You're really quite lovely when you're mad, and a few seconds ago, you were down right gorgeous."

"Thank you," she said with a bit of a chuckle. She then looked to her adopted niece with concern who still hadn't said anything. 

"Are you alright Princess Mi Amore Cadenza?"

"Y-Yes. I need to go," Princess Mi Amore Cadenza said and then she flew off.

"Mi Amore Cadenza?" 

"It's her full name she doesn't really go by it but I guess she feels like being fancy. After all, it is her special day." 

"Well I guess that makes sense." 

"She may also be trying to keep a strong face with Stone Wall gone, they were actually really close."

"I suppose," Squeaky Clean replied, having a rather bad feeling that he wasn't sure where it was coming from. 


*** 
         

Twilight and her friends arrived in Canterlot and Twilight quickly made her way to the soon to be groom. "Hi there BBBFF I was on the train entering Canterlot and it turns out there's a giant bubble around it. What's up with that?" 

Shining Armor explained the reason why, as well as why she was told to bring the Elements of Harmony that would be placed in the vault. Shining Armor also told his little sister that he deeply wished she would be the best mare. 

"Really you want me to be the best mare?"

"Of course Twily, I'd be honored." Twilight naturally agreed, however as she looked over the wedding preparations she, much like Squeaky noticed Cadance was not acting like herself. While overlooking the last few things she ran into Squeaky as he was doing the last of his cleaning. 

"Oh hey Twilight."

"Squeaky hello there, how have you been?"

"I'm okay doing quite a bit more cleaning than usual but it's nothing I can't handle."

"Actually I mean, well since Stone Wall, you know."

"Yeah I do, and I'm doing okay thanks.”

"Hey Twilight!" A guard from across the hall called out as he was walking with 2 other guards. "Isn't your brother the best?"

"Yes he is." 

"You got that right," a different guard said. "He gave us all raises and extinctions in our vacation days."

"He just started as captain of the royal guard and already he's better than Stone Wall," the third guard said. The guard trio then walked off as Twilight looked at Squeaky with concern. 

"I've heard quite a few guards talk like that, and it hasn't been easy. I get that they like your brother. He's a nice guy, but Stone Wall was like my brother."

"Well, I'm sorry I don't really know what to say."

"It's fine, sometimes it's helpful enough just to have somepony to talk to. You know, let it all out." 

"Janitor, were you told you could stop cleaning?" Princess Mi Amore Cadenza asked him as she approached from behind.

"My name isn't janitor and I'm just resting for a second." 

"You can just later for now I want this entire castle swept and mopped so hop to it." She then looked at Twilight. "And if you have nothing to do, why don't you help him and make sure he does it right." Princess Mi Amore Cadenza then quickly left as she used her magic to give Twilight a mop. 

"Right away Princess Demandi Pants," Twilight said.

"I know right, she's been acting like that all day," Squeaky added.

"Well I'm not cleaning, I'm going to see just how much my friends dislike her." Twilight then left, but when she talked to her friends. "How can you not agree she's the worst bride to be ever?"

"Who me?" Spike asked, holding a miniature version of Cadance and speaking in a different voice. Twilight tried to get her friends to see reason about the bride to be but they were strangely defensive of her. They then thought Twilight was simply defensive of her brother and was just taking it out on her. 

“I am not being possessive, and I am not taking it out on Cadance. You’re all just too caught up in your wedding planning to realize there probably should even be a wedding.” Twilight then stormed off not knowing Discord was watching from above.

“More than you know Twilight, more than you know.”


***


Squeaky Clean was in the royal chambers with his royal mare friend who was rubbing his back and his legs. "Oh you poor thing, you must be exhausted."

"You got that right I don't think I can even stand up. With all this extra cleaning I deserve a raise."

"You just got a raise."

"Your point being?" Before Princess Celestia could respond there were loud poundings on the chamber doors. 

"Princess Celestia! Princess Celestia! Open up, hurry, Shining Armor's in danger!" Princess Celestia then quickly opened the door and Twilight ran right in. Squeaky then summoned his strength to grab his mop that was by the bed to make it look like he was cleaning but was equally as concerned about Twilight. "Cadance is evil, she's brainwashing Shining Armor!" 

"Twilight Twilight calm down," Princess Celestia said as she placed her hoof on her shoulder. "What are you talking about?"

"Cadance used a spell that made my brother's eyes go all." Twilight then made a strange face. 

"Twilight, she's not evil," Princess Celestia said in a comforting tone. "Your brother Shining Armor has been getting headaches since he's put that barrier up, Cadance has been healing him."

"W-What?"

"Yes, so your brother is all right, but I need to get back to watching over Canterlot."

"No please listen to me, she's been horrible to my friends and she's clearly done something horrible to her bridesmaids. I tried to tell this to my friends but they wouldn't listen to me, so you have to," Twilight said, starting to sound hysterical. 

"Twilight, if something horrible was happening in the castle, don't you think I would know about it?"

"No, because you're waiting for it to happen on the outside," Twilight said, now sounding like she had an epiphany. "A threat just suddenly gets made and while you're waiting for something on the outside, the threat manipulates things on the inside." 

"That actually does make sense if you think about it, your highness," Squeaky Clean added as Twilight just now noticed that he was in the room.

"Squeaky? What are you doing in here?"

"Cleaning, what else?"

"Oh right, but what if Cadance is the ring leader behind this whole thing?"

"Twilight, do you understand what you're saying? Cadance used to be your foalsitter for crying out loud."

"She’s an imposter!”

“What?” Princess Celestia and Squeaky asked. 

“I get it now, Cadance gets replaced by whoever made the threat and is going to attack the castle somehow.”

“That would explain her recent attitude,” Squeaky said.

"No," Celestia said rather strictly. "Twilight please leave, I need to monitor."

"What? But princess, I need your help."

"No you don't, because nothing is wrong. Now it's time for you to go." Princess Celestia then politely but firmly started pushing her out of the royal chambers with her wings. 

"What are you doing? We need to do something about Cadance!"

"No, we don't now put this to rest and make sure the wedding goes off perfectly." Twilight was then shoved out the door. She turned around and tried to reason with her teacher but she closed the doors right in her face. Twilight tried to open them but Celestia wouldn't let her in; she pounded the doors with her forelegs in an act of rage.

"YOU'LL BE SORRY!" Twilight then ran down the hall but quickly stopped running as her depression seemed to have sucked out her energy. Tears poured down her face. "W-Why won’t anypony listen to me? Why won't they help?"

Back at the royal chambers Squeaky was rather shocked at the princess's behavior. "Don't you think that was out of line?" 

"Oh don't you start with me now," Celestia snapped at Squeaky to his surprise. After a minute she calmed down and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, it's just been a rather long night."

"Maybe you should go to bed now." 

"That's actually a pretty good idea," Princess Luna, who had just flown in said. “You should rest now sister, as always I shall guard the night."

"I'm perfectly capable of watching over Canterlot at night as well as day Luna."

"I meant no insult sister, I merely meant that if you can rest now."

"I'll rest later for now. I'd like to monitor a little longer."

"I see, well then I'll come by later." Princess Luna then made her way out of the chambers.

"And I guess I'll see what any more cleaning I can do now that my energy is back," Squeaky added as he followed Luna outside while Celestia looked through the telescope. When they were outside the royal chambers Luna stood next to Squeaky.

"Has my sister been acting rather defensive lately?"

"Yes she has, so you've noticed."

"It's rather hard not to. Do you have any idea why she's acting like this, because I don't think it's this unknown threat?"

"Well, Discord showed up earlier and he-"

"Wait Discord?" Luna asked, rather shocked. 

"Yes."

"That alone explains it. He always had a way of crawling under my sister's skin. Well kind of everypony in general, but my sister especially."

"Do you think maybe he sent the threat just to mess with her?"

"Hard to say I wouldn't put it past him. I have a very bad feeling about all this and we need to be on our hooves."

"I think you may be right." But if things get too rough, Super Stallion can help out.   


***


During the rehearsal, all the ponies were in place except for Twilight who busted in and tried to convince everypony the bride to be was evil. She brought up various points and got in Princess Mi Amore Cadenza's face. "But if I'm wrong about any of this, I'd love to hear your side of things," Twilight said.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Princess Mi Amore Cadenza asked and then proceeded to run out the main hall crying. 

"Because you're evil, and an imposter. Evil imposter, and if I don't stop you you'll make my brother's life miserable," Twilight answered as she tried to chase her to get some answers out of her. But her brother got in her way and was very clearly upset. He then made counter points to the things that Twilight brought up barely letting Twilight get a word in edgewise. 

"It's important to her that this wedding be perfect. Something that obviously wasn't important to you."

“Woe now,” Swift Sweep said, who was brought on a day shift to clean for the wedding.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go, and comfort my bride," Shining Armor said as he was leaving the grand hall. "And you can forget about being my best mare.

“Ouch,” Squeaky said.

“In fact if I were you, I wouldn't show up at the wedding at all." Squeaky and Swift gasped at the same time as Shining Armor then left, leaving Twilight utterly depressed. 

"I-I really screwed up," Twilight said as she turned to her friends.

"Ya sure did," Applejack said, who wasn't showing any signs of sympathy whatsoever to Twilight's surprise. "What? It's the truth if y'all can't handle it, too bad!"

"Applejack," Twilight said, clearly hurt.

"Come on y'all let's go check on the princess," Applejack said and the other 4 ponies walked out with her without even looking at Twilight. "W-wait," Twilight pleaded as her friend left her behind. Princess Celestia then started to walk out the door as well.

"I was just trying-"

"You have a lot to think about."

"Princess, wait!" 

"Wait for what? For you to screw up even more than you already have?" Twilight's jaw almost hit the floor as did Squeaky's and Swift Sweep’s. "I told you before Cadance was healing your brother, but my word wasn't enough, you needed Shining Armor to tell you too."

"I just tried to-"

"I don't want to hear it. I'm going to run damage control. You just sit here for a while and think about how much you screwed up today." 

"Princess don't you understand I was just-"

"I don't care! I don't care about understanding. I don't care if you get to be in this wedding or not, and right now, I don't care if I ever see you again." Twilight's jaw dropped after that last part and Twilight then lowered her head in defeat as Squeaky and Swift approached her. 

"Twilight," he said, not sure where to start. "Sometimes we think-"

"Squeaky! Swift Sweep! Come with me now!"

"But princess-"

"NOW!" She yelled with the royal Canterlot voice and the janitors decided it would be best to do what the princess wanted. So they left the room while giving Twilight a sympathetic look. "Though you were right about 1 thing, Twilight. I am sorry, sorry I ever made you my student."

Princess Celestia slammed the doors as hard as she could and Twilight started to cry again.

"Princess!" Squeaky said. 

"What! You think I don't have a right to be angry at her right now?"

"Even if you do, what you and the others said was out of line," Squeaky replied.

“Yeah, Twilight made some mistakes but she-”

"Well who asked you 2 anyway?" Princess Celestia said, interrupting Swift Sweep. Squeaky was shocked by that last comment and then got angry himself.

"All right, that does it! Royalty or not I'm not taking this, find some other pony to be your verbal punching bag." Squeaky then decided to teleport away.

“Yeah, you’re a royal jerk.” Swift Sweep flew off. Leaving Princess Celestia all by herself who finally realized too late that she was out of line. She looked back at the doors she recently slammed as she started taking deep breaths.

“I’ll apologize to her later. And Squeaky and Swift.” 


***


Not too long after her friends left her all alone, Twilight found herself even more alone in the caves beneath Canterlot as a result of the very pony that they were defending. 

"Help somepony please help me!"

"It's no use nopony can hear you and nopony will be able to find you all the way down here," Princess Mi Amore Cadenza said while in the crystals.

"Oh yeah, that's what you think," Twilight thought as she pressed her special bracelet inconspicuously and prayed that Squeaky changed or would change into Super Stallion soon.

"Down here you won't be able to interfere at all with my plans."

"Plans? What plans?"

"The plans I have for you're brother of course."

"You leave my brother alone!" Twilight suddenly snapped.

"Only way to stop me is to catch me." Twilight then blasted away at the crystals as Princess Mi Amore Cadenza laughed at her attempts.

"It may take me an hour, it may take me a week, it may take me 20 years, but when I get out of here, I'm going to make you suffer for everything you put me through. And that's a promise!" Twilight then blasted a wall down and a certain princess was revealed. 

“What the?” Twilight said surprised. 

“Twilight? Oh thank goodness, listen to have to believe me. The Cadance who put you down here is-”

“An imposter,” Twilight finished and suddenly hugged Cadance who hugged her back. “I knew it,” Twilight said crying. “I knew she couldn’t be you. I knew something wasn’t right despite what they all said.”

“What?” Cadance asked. Suddenly Super Stallion arrived. 

"Well it's certainly a good thing that I decided to cool off by going for a fly."

"Super Stallion!" Both Cadance and Twilight said as they approached him and he wrapped a foreleg around each of them.

"Let's get you 2 out of here. But this time I'm taking the scenic route, don’t want you 2 to hit your heads." Super Stallion took off while Cadance explained she was replaced by a changeling. She even sang a song while Super Stallion got her and Twilight back to the castle and fought off the brainwashed former bridesmaids. 

"Super Stallion hurry, the wedding has already started," Cadance said, desperate to save her husband to be. 

"Don't worry I wasn't even using half of my full speed."

"Really?" Twilight asked. "What's your maximum speed? How were you able to measure your speed? Do you think you can do a sonic rainboom?" 

"Uh Twilight," Cadance said.

"Right, sorry now isn't the right time." 

"Super Stallion, how quickly do you think you can get us to the ceremony?" 

"We're already there." Suddenly Super Stallion arrived just outside the room where the wedding was and dropped the 2 mares.

"By the power invested in me I now pronounce you-"

"I object!" Super Stallion said as he burst into the hall with Twilight by his side.

"Oh great now she's gotten Super Stallion involved somehow," Rainbow Dash said, not really caring at the moment that Twilight most likely heard it.       

"Super Stallion, what is the meaning of this?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Why does everypony want to ruin my special day?"

"Because it's not your special day, it's my special day," The real Cadance said as she entered the room to everypony's shock. She quickly explained to the ponies there what she explained to Super Stallion and Twilight. Afterwards the fake transformed into her true form, the changeling queen Chrysalis, who explained how she had brainwashed Shining Armor and how her army was on the verge of destroying his barrier. 

"This sounds like this is going to be 1 stressful wedding," Super Stallion said to himself. 

Chrysalis then explained how Shining Armor was completely under her control and that he wouldn't be able to reuse his protection barrier since his power had been drained. "He may not be my husband but he's under my complete control. You may have exposed me, but my army and I, Queen Chrysalis, shall still take over and drain all the love in Equestria." 

"No you won't, you may have stopped Shining Armor from using his protection spell. But now that you have foolishly revealed yourself. I can protect my subject, from you!" Princess Celestia then tried to take down Chrysalis, but to every creature's surprise including Chrysalis, she overpowered Celestia. As she fell onto the ground Discord suddenly appeared in front of Celestia and was laughing his head off.

"Oh my flipping gosh, that couldn't have been funnier if I planned it!"

“Discord? Where did you come from?” Twilight asked.

“The other regions of your mind.”

"D-Discord," Celestia said, happy to see him for once. "I'm so glad to see you."

"Wow really?"

"Yes I know, we can discuss the irony of it later. But listen, a changeling army is invading so I need to use your chaos magic-"

"Okay see I'm gonna have to stop you right there," Discord interrupted. "See I've been given direct orders from the princess, who is a total pain in the royal rump by the way, that I'm not allowed to interfere in the wedding whatsoever. I was even threatened to be turned back into stone, imagine that."

"No Discord please," Celestia pleaded while also trying to stand. "I need your-"

"Sounds great, I'm gonna do absolutely nothing and see just how much damage these changelings can do." Discord then floated over to the front of the hall to enjoy the show. "Proceed."

"R-Really?" Chrysalis asked.

"Well of course,” Discord answered as he made a recliner appear.

“Discord, you can’t just sit there,” Twilight said.

“You’re right.” Discord then snapped his fingers and made a plate of cheesecake appear.

“The capital is being invaded and you’re eating cheesecake?!”

“Pinkie Pie, is there ever a bad time for cheesecake.” Discord leaned in. “Is there?”

“So seriously, you aren’t going to stop me?” Chrysalis asked.

“I didn't stop you last time I saw you. Why should I stop now?"

"Wait a minute," Super Stallion said as he flew over to Discord. "You knew all along she was an imposter didn't you?!"

"You are correct, my non-winged flying friend."

"And now you're going to help the changelings take over aren't you?!"

"You are not correct."

"That's what I…Wait what?"

"I’m not gonna stop her, but I won’t help her either. I'm not really interested in seeing the changelings take over as I still kind of sort of maybe still want to retake Equestria myself. I guess you can say I want to see how all this is going to play out." Super Stallion didn't quite know what to say, but knew he still had a crisis to deal with so he decided to focus on that.

"Okay fine, first things first. Cadance, how long do you think the barrier will last?" Suddenly the entirety of the barrier was shattered and the changelings invaded Canterlot. "Never mind."   

"The Elements of Harmony. You must get them, and use their power to defeat the queen," Princess Celestia said as the mane 6 gathered around her. The 6 then ran off to get to the Elements of Harmony while avoiding the changeling army. 

"Don't worry Twilight, help is on the way!" Super Stallion said.

"Not so fast, stay right where you are," Chrysalis called out to Super Stallion, stopping him in his tracks. 

"I don't think you're in a position to stop me from doing anything."

"Oh I believe I am," Chrysalis said as she flew over to where Princess Celestia was still on the floor. "I've been around for a long time and I've learned to pick up a few things. I can sense that you have feelings for this pony, love is not only an excellent source of energy, but it's perfect for getting others to do what I wish."

"So stupid stallion has the hots for sun butt, interesting," Discord said as he continued watching. Chrysalis then placed her hoof on Celestia's neck and pressed not too hard but enough to make her groan from the pain. 

"I'm sure you wouldn't want anything bad to happen to her would you?" Super Stallion then lowered back down to the floor. Chrysalis had him right where she wanted him.

"Sorry Twilight, but you're on your own." 

"Good, good, and for good measure." Chrysalis then sucked out Super Stallion's love for the princess which drained him of his energy causing him to fall to the ground. "Oh my that love's power was on par with Shining Armor's." 

Before long Swift Sweep flew in. “Princess Celestia, there’s an army of changelings-” Swift stopped when he saw Princess Celestia hanging from the ceiling as well as Princess Cadance stuck to the floor right next to her brainwashed husband to be. “Oh, I guess you already know.”

“Things look bad for you ponies,” Discord said as he continued to snack on cheesecake.

“Are you gonna share those?” Swift Sweep asked. 

"You won't get away with this, Twilight and her friends will-" Cadance was cut off when the changelings brought in the mane 6 back against their will.

"You were saying?"

 "Super Stallion?" Rainbow Dash called out. "Not you too!"

"Yeah there's nothing I can do. Other than to say that this sucks," he replied, trying to remain optimistic, but that was getting harder and harder by the second. 

“Sucks to be you right now,” Discord said.

As the mane 6 was brought back several guards were trying to force back a large group of changelings. Said group fired spell beams all together that a guard managed to counter with a shield spell. Unfortunately the spells bounced to where the others were and hit the ceiling causing it to break and the rubble to fall directly on the bride to be.     

Cadance screamed in absolute fear as the rubble was about to fall on her when suddenly, the rubble was turned into large bubbles. “You, you saved me?” Cadance asked, surprised as she looked at the 1 creature that could have done that.

“If you die I can’t bother you anymore,” Discord answered.

Queen Chrysalis then ordered the changelings who brought the mane 6 back to go out and feed and they were more than happy to do so. "It's funny really, Twilight was suspicious of me all along. Too bad the rest of you were too concerned with your wedding planning to realize her suspicions were correct." Applejack then approached Twilight.

"Sorry Twi, we shoulda listened to you."

"Yeah you should have! How does it feel to know this whole thing is your fault?"

"W-What?"

"What, it's the truth, if y'all can't handle it too bad!" Twilight said. 

"Cruel ironies are fun aren't they Twilight?" Discord asked who had suddenly appeared on the opposite end of Twilight.

"Discord you can stop all this," Applejack pleaded.

"Yeah, yeah, if only I wanted to. And I don't." 

"Why not!" Super Stallion called out as he also tried to stand. Suddenly Discord picked him up by his cape.

"Is it petty to say I'm still upset about you costing me ruling over all Equestria?"

"Yes!" Discord then dropped Super Stallion and walked over to Chrysalis. 

"Well too bad, cause I am."

"It's also funny," Chrysalis said. "When you first appeared I thought you were going to blow the whistle on me. But now I've quite impressively taken control of Canterlot and soon Equestria wouldn't you agree?"

"Eh," Discord replied.

"Eh?" Chrysalis replied rather offended. "What in the world is eh supposed to mean?!"

"Look, the mane 6 are still able to fight back. You could have drained stupid stallion of his energy a little more, and you've hardly done any damage to the capital, even though you have an entire army." Discord then flew over to the cocoon holding Princess Celestia. "Plus, sun butt should be in a position where you can playfully banter with her." With the snap of his fingers Princess Celestia’s face and nothing else was sticking out. "Like so, quite the sticky situation you've got yourself into huh?"

"Discord, why are you just letting this happen?”

"Some creature has to keep you in check sun butt, otherwise you'd just spread harmony and balance all over."

"IT'S. MY. JOB!" 

"You wouldn't have a job if it weren't for me. Do I need to get out the chart explaining our symbiotic relationship again?" Discord then floated down to where Chrysalis was and put his claw arm around her. "Let me show you a few other things about your invasion plan."

"Uh, okay," Chrysalis replied as she and Discord walked over to the window during which Twilight slowly crawled over to where her old foalsitter was. Halfway there, Discord turned his head and Twilight froze while her heart jumped. Discord simply looked out the window more and Twilight quickly got to Cadance and removed the slime holding her.

"Quick, go to him while you still have the chance." Quickly following Twilight's advice Cadance went over to her beloved Shining Armor and was able to remove Chrysalis's brainwashing spell. Shining Armor then quickly regained his senses. 

"W-What happened, is the wedding over?" Suddenly Chrysalis jumped in front of him while Discord slowly walked away from the windows. 

"It's all over!"

"Your spell! Perform your spell!" Twilight said.

"What good would that do, my minions already foam free?"

Shining Armor tried to perform the spell but he had little to no energy. Luckily Cadance was there to offer her love to give him strength and the 2 of them were able to perform a spell that not only repelled Chrysalis, but her entire army. As the changelings were expelled from Canterlot Twilight ran straight to the window.

"AND DON'T COME BACK!" Twilight yelled out hoping somehow Chrysalis would hear her. Thanks to the spell the slime all changelings created were removed as well including the slime holding Princess Celestia. She was on the verge of hitting the floor but Super Stallion, who had regained his energy quickly flew over to catch her.

"Are you alright, your highness?"

"Yes,” she answered. Super Stallion placed her down as Twilight ran over.

“Don't worry about me, I'm fine. You-" Celestia stopped when suddenly Twilight ran right past her and instead ran over to Discord. Surprising him with a hug.

“You could have sold me out to Chrysalis, but you didn’t. Thank you.” 

“No problem,” Discord said as he returned the hug. Twilight smiled warmly as she hugged tighter. She turned her head and when she saw Princess Celestia her face suddenly turned cold.  

“Oh yeah, no problem for you,” Super Stallion said. “You didn’t have to do anything.”

“Like a politician,” Swift Sweep.

“You didn’t want to do anything,” Super Stallion added as Discord looked rather stoically. 

“Do you want to know something funny?” Discord asked. “I actually was going to help, after teaching a certain blockhead,” Discord bonked Princess Celestia on the head. “A lesson in humility. But then I saw how selfish everypony acted and changed my mind.”

“Selfish?” Cadance asked. “What’s he talking about?” 

“Oh don’t listen to him,” Princess Celestia said. “We may not have been on our best behavior, but we weren’t selfish.”

“Oh,” Discord said. And with the snap of his fingers, Discord made numerous phantoms of the ponies past selves that mistreated Twilight. Princess Celestia’s jaw nearly hit the floor as she saw her past self treat Twilight so badly, driving her to tears as she was forced out of the chambers. Twilight once again cried after seeing how badly she was treated.

“I, I didn’t mean to make you cry,” Princess Celestia said as she approached Twilight. She reached out her hoof to wipe the tears away, but Twilight smacked it away and ran out of the hall. Shining Armor was about to run after her but Cadance summoned a magic wall stopping him.

"Wait," Cadance said. "Let's give her time to cool off, in the meantime I think you need to tell me what happened," Cadance said rather strictly as she approached her husband to be.

"Don't give me that look."

"What look?"

"That Shining Armor did something stupid look."

"Well what happened?"

"I had a very good reason for yelling at my sister."

"Well what was the "very good reason?"

"She. Accused the fake you of being an imposter." Cadance then gave Shining Armor a rather stoic glare.

"I see," Cadance replied with a tone that matches her glare. 

"Oh come on it's more complicated than that, none of us knew it wasn't really you," Shining Armor said defensively.

"So Twilight just randomly accused "me" of being fake out of nowhere? That is rather strange."

"Well actually Princess Mi Amore Cadenza," Applejack said as she approached the princess.

"Princess Cadance is fine."

"Well actually Princess Cadance Twilight came to all of us saying that something was off with "you."   

"And what did you all do?"

"We. Didn't. Listen to her." Applejack then lowered her head downright ashamed of the way she treated her friend. "Yer not gonna be on our side about this are ya?" 

"I don't think you're even on your side," Cadance replied as she made her way towards the exit. 

"Cadance, where are you going?" Celestia asked.

"I think I've heard enough of your side so now I'm going to talk to Twilight."

"Well we can help you with that," Fluttershy said as the mane 5 prepared to follow.

"I think you all helped enough," Cadance said rather coldly stopping Twilight's so called friends in their tracks as she left.

Elsewhere, on a small piece of grass under the bridge leading into Canterlot, Twilight was lying down crying and crying. "Twilight."

"Huh?" Twilight looked up and saw her old foalsitter standing in front of her. "How, how did you know I was here?"

"You always came here when you were sad," Cadance answered as she placed her hoof on Twilight 's head in a comforting way.

"All my friends didn't listen to anything I said Princess Celestia didn't even listen to me. I just wanted to do the right thing but every pony a. a." Twilight started to cry again as Cadance hugged her to calm her down before she got hysterical and helped her sit down while she placed her wing around Twilight and placed her head on her shoulder.

"Ssh ssh, it's okay Twilight. Now, tell me everything."  


***


Discord teleported away and Super Stallion had decided to take off so Squeaky Clean could show up. Swift Sweep decided to catch Squeaky up on everything that happened. “And then Twilight ran off crying,” Swift Sweep finished.

“Wow, that is a lot to take in,” Squeaky answered. Even if I was already there. 

“Poor Twilight, she must have felt so horrible for her to run off crying like that,” Swift Sweep said. 

“I didn’t mean to make you cry,” Princess Celestia said in the corner of the room, trying not to cry herself. 

“I didn’t mean to make you cry either, Twily,” Shining Armor said.

“No, you just wanted her to not come to your wedding,” Squeaky said. Shining Armor shot him an angry glare but he wasn’t intimidated.

Before long Cadance had returned with a foreleg on Twilight’s back. “Twilight!” Princess Celestia nearly charged at her to hug her but Twilight wouldn’t let her. She backed up and Princess Celestia stopped, surprised at Twilight’s actions.

"Well I heard both sides and I was able to convince her to come back and talk things out." Hearing that Twilight's friends practically rushed over to her. 

"That's great Twilight, that means you forgive us and we can get on with the wedding at last!" Rainbow Dash said excitedly.

“Right now?” Twilight said.

“Of course darling,” Rarity answered. “I can’t wait to get back in that bridesmaid dress.”

“Can’t we take a break first? I’m really tired.”

“Tired?” Pinkie Pie asked. “From what?”

“I didn’t get any sleep last night, I was up all night trying to figure out what to do.”

“So your best plan was to accuse the fake out of nowhere?” Pinkie asked.

“I have trouble thinking clearly when I’m stressed. Plus fighting an army of changelings took a lot out of me too.”

“She was trying to get through more than the rest of us,” Pinkie Pie. “I mean for what good it did.”

“Like you did any better,” Twilight said to Pinkie.

“I mean, I guess putting the wedding off for a little while isn’t so unreasonable,” Squeaky said, who was still a little tired from getting his love drained.

“No way!” Shining Armor said. “We can’t just sit around. All of Canterlot is expecting this wedding. We can’t let him down, this wedding has to be perfect.”

“I think this ship has sailed,” Swift Sweep said.

“I could use some spare time to take a bath,” Cadance said. “I think I stepped on something in the mines.”

“Nonsense, we can relax and bathe later, come on Twilight,” Princess Celestia said as she approached her. “We have a wedding to get to, if you won’t help maybe you should just leave.” Squeaky and Swift were shocked to hear the princess say that. “Stop being selfish.”

“Selfish?! I’M SELFISH!?” Twilight screamed, shocking the others. “Where do you get off talking to me like that?! I came to you for help and you didn’t believe me or cared enough to listen. And even after realizing I was right, you still don’t!” 

“Oh snap,” Swift Sweep whispered to Squeaky who nodded.

Twilight's friends didn't know what to say as Twilight continued. "I begged and pleaded with all of you but did you listen, no! Did any of you care, no!"

"T-Twilight," Spike said and then she turned to him. 

"And you, I welcomed you into my home. I treated you like a son! And what were you doing when I was going through a mental collapsing crisis?" Twilight then used her magic to pick up the figures of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor that Spike was still holding. "PLAYING WITH TOYS!" Twilight then threw the figures towards the wall causing them to break on impact.

"I-I'm sorry, don't be mad." Spike then tried to put his claw on Twilight but she backed up. Princess Celestia then approached her student, shocked by the way she was acting. 

"Twilight, that's no way to talk to your friends." 

"You let them do it!" Twilight snapped back to the princess. "All those things they said to me, mostly my own brother."

"That was different," Celestia said, not really thinking before she spoke.

"Different? Oh I see, so when you think he's right he can yell and scream and say whatever he wants and that's okay. But when you know I'm right and I decide to give them a taste of their own medicine to see how it feels, I'm somehow out of line?"  

"Oh come on Twilight it all worked out," Princess Celestia replied trying to get her to see reason.

"No thanks to you." Twilight's comment shocked Celestia and she actually backed up a bit not sure what to say. “You still only care about the wedding, you haven’t learned a thing,” Twilight continued. Twilight then turned around and started to walk away. “Well if you want this wedding to happen so badly, you can have it, without me.” Twilight then started to walk off.

“Squeaky can’t you talk-” Princess Celestia stopped when Squeaky shook his head while raising his forelegs. Squeaky then teleported away while Swift Sweep flew off after finishing his cheese cake.

"Twilight, wait! We can't do this without you," Fluttershy said.

"You almost did."

"But Twilight," Applejack said.

"Why don't you go check on the princess? That's all you care about!" And with that Twilight made her way to the door. 

"Twily wait! Please!" Shining Armor ran over to his sister until he was in front of her. "Please I can't have this wedding without my best mare."

"I can forget about being the best mare, remember? In fact if I were you I wouldn't show up to the wedding at all. Weren't those your exact words?!" Twilight then walked around her brother. 

"Were those his exact words?" Cadance asked Squeaky and he simply shook his head to her shock. "Shining, how could you say something like that to your own sister?"

"I thought the fake you was the real you remember?"

"I don't care, some things you never say, no matter how angry you get."

"Well maybe if you have a problem with me getting mad at ponies that hurt the ponies I love or the ponies I think I love, maybe you just don't understand me as much as I thought!" Cadance stepped back shocked at her fiancé's last comment and then she pulled out her engagement ring and put it on the floor.

"No, I guess I don't."

"Cadance w-why are you?" Before Shining Armor could finish Cadance flew off and Shining Armor was brought to his knees as a result.


***


Princess Celestia made her to the train station to try and get Twilight to return.

"Twilight please come back, you said you wanted to hear your friends out."

"I did and they blew it! You most of all! You acted like you were the only one trying, that only you cared. Discord was right, you think you’re better than everypony.” 

"Twilight, don't you care about second chances?"

"I don't care about second chances, I don't care about this wedding, and right now I don't care if I ever see you again!" Princess Celestia was so taken back by Twilight's cruel irony she could just watch as Twilight boarded the train and left Canterlot. 

"Don't go," Celestia whispered. "I'm sorry Twilight, please come back." Princess Celestia lowered her head and cried a little. “What have I done?” 

Squeaky Clean and Swift Sweep who actually wanted to talk to Twilight saw what happened and realized they were too late. “Well, she got what she wanted,” Squeaky said.

“Yeah, but she lost what she had,” Swift Sweep added.

"Twilight left," Rainbow Dash said as she and the others caught up.

"I guess we only have ourselves to blame," Fluttershy said.

"Well that might not be right to say," Applejack said.

"But it is darling,” Rarity said. “Twilight asked for our help but we ignored her."

"I guess we might as well go home as well," Pinkie said, her mane now straight and no longer bouncy.              


***


With Twilight and Cadance gone, the wedding was canceled leaving nearly all of Canterlot in utter depression. Except for 1 creature. Discord while at the Castle of the 2 Sisters having taken that as his home and was laughing his head off. "Now I know why ponies are so happy at weddings." Discord then laughed his head off more. "I should have known friendship wasn't as strong as they made it out to be." Back at the castle a dozen or so guards were cleaning up the mess the changelings made in their attack. 

"None of this would have happened if Stone Wall was still captain," one of the 3 guards from before said while with the other 2 and cleaning up some rubble made from the changeling invasion. 

"Yeah he probably would have taken half the changelings down himself."

"He may have been hard on us at times, but he always knew what he was doing." Squeaky Clean was hard at work cleaning the halls and hearing the guards talk good about his friend brought a smile to his face. Just then Princess Celestia showed up and noticed Squeaky.

"Oh hello Squeaky would you-"

"Well then gotta clean somewhere else." Squeaky then made his way down the opposite direction Celestia wanted to go after him but stopped, thinking it would be best to leave him be for now. After a while Squeaky ran into Swift as the former's shift was ending and the latter's shift was starting and they both came across Princess Cadance.

"Hello Princess Cadance, wait you are the real one aren't you?" Swift asked.

"Yes Swift, I'm the real one." 

"Good enough for me," Swift replied. "So how Shining Armor?"

"I haven't really talked to him that much. Or at all really." 

"So are you 2 still a thing?" Squeaky asked. 

"Yes, but I refuse to marry him until Twilight agrees to be the best mare again." 

"Couldn't you just make her want to be the best mare again?" Swift asked. "Isn't that your thing spreading love and happiness?"

"No, if I use my magic to stop a couple from arguing over something trivial, that's 1 thing. But if I use my magic to force Twilight to just get over something really upsetting her, that's practically brainwashing. I'd be no better than Chrysalis."

"I see," Swift answered.

"Well I'm going home, sorry your wedding turned out to be so horrible."

"Thank you Squeaky," Cadance answered as the 3 ponies went in different directions and Cadance reflected on yesterday. "I can't believe my wedding, something I dreamed since I was small turned into such an awful day. On top of that I can't get over this feeling that I forgot something really important." 

Meanwhile beneath Canterlot 3 very lost bridesmaids were still wandering around the mines."Hello?" Minuette called out. "Is anypony there? How the heck do we get out of here?"