It was a race against time.
Twilight Sparkle and the real Princess Cadance have come a long way to finally see the first signs of sunlight flashing into the cave.
The muffled sounds of ponies cheering and celebrating could be heared, alluring the two mares once more.
"Hang on, Cadence, we almost made it!", Twilight called down to her former foalsitter. Her state was critical. The long way back up to the surface took its toll, but the princess refused to give in. This was supposed to be THEIR big day and no one would take her true love away from her!
"I...", she started, clenching her teeth as Twilight looked back down at her.
"I won't let her get away with this!"
Twilight nodded, still slightly confused.
"Who is 'her', actually?"
"No time to explain, Twi! We have to get up there first!"
Twilight could tell, just thinking about that horrible imposter gave Cadence a new boost of energy as she sprinted forward, catching up to her side and now leading the way out.
Again, Twilight gave a nod and followed her.
"You're not going anywhere..."
"Huh?", Twilight turned around.
"What?", Cadence turned back as well.
Three figures emerged from the darkness, each of them showing a pair of gloomy green eyes. Cadence got into a defensive state as Twilight followed suit. The three missing bridesmaids, Minuette, Lyra Heartstrings and Twinkleshine, were slowly approaching the two, each of them having an evil smile on their faces.
"We cannot harm them! She's obviously casted a spell upon them", Cadence straightened up to her full size, her wings spread wide in order to protect the younger unicorn.
"We're so close! There has to be a way... What are we going to do now?", Twilight yelled as the three mares began to close in on them...
Meanwhile, back in Canterlot, the wedding ceremony has already started long ago.
The walls and the ceilings were decorated festively with all kinds of flowers and garlands, of course only the ones with the finest combination of colours, as ordered by 'Cadence'.
The halls were filled with ponies that would never want to miss such event in their lifes. The rest of Twilight's friends were all lined up next to Princess Celestia, more or less patiently awaiting the brides arrival as she stopped right next to her future husband.
Spike had already prepared the rings that would seal the bond of marriage, still with an awkward feeling in the back of his head. Where once Twilight was supposed to stand, right next to her brother, was now an empty space which continuely reminded the little dragon and his pony friends that this day could have been better if things wouldn't have gone the way they did.
In the huge crowd of mares, stallions and fillies, there was even a certain small figure allowed to be present.
Chopper watched with glee as both bride and groom both gave their vows to each other, he clearly enjoyed not drawing all the unwanted attention at him this time.
Only noticed by few though, the groom always seemed to wear this slightly empty expression on his face.
Wether it was because of his bride's beauty or because of guilt for his sister, no one could clearly tell.
But most importantly, Princess Celestia was just about to finish her last words left to say:
"Princess Cadence, Shining Armor, it is my great pleasure to now pronounce you -"
As if on cue, the doors flung open:
"STOP!"
The entire crowd looked back to see Twilight Sparkle.
Tears formed in the bride's eyes once more.
"Ugh! Why does she have to be so possessive of her brother? Why does she have to ruin my special day?", she cried into her future husband's chest. This time however her crocodile tears would be in vain:
"Because it's not your special day!", another voice answered.
Every single pony in the hall was speechless to see another Princess Cadence entering the room.
"It's mine!"
With everyone's jaws agape, the ponies watched the two arrived mares approaching Cadence's evil duplicate.
"But how did you manage to escape my bridesmaids?", the impostor managed to ask.
Back down in the caves, the three of them were too busy fighting over a bouqet of flowers Cadence had luckily kept with her.
"Take your hooves off! It's mine!"
"Never! It's MINE!"
"No! I saw it first!"
Spell or not, they surely would be preoccupied long enough.
"Well, clever. But you still are FAR too late!"
"Ah don't understand! How can there be two of 'em?", Applejack called out, pretty much the same question everyone else had in their minds as the actual bride finally found the time to reveal the truth:
"She's a changeling. She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off your love for them!"
Cadence's evil counterpart growled in anger, her plans of taking over Canterlot in her disguise being foiled. A green aura formed around her, completely engulfing the pony within.
The green sphere of magical energy began to slowly ascend, flooding the entire hall in its light. Almost everybody had to shield their eyes at the sheer sight of it.
However, despite that, they were all still able to witness the changes within the forcefield.
Horrible changes.
Her pretty pink wings lost their feathers rapidly and eventually bursted left ones off, revealing their new shape, a pair of disgusting insect-like wings.
Her already long legs grew out to abnorm length. They also became much thinner and had lots of holes running through them,
increasing their already fragile appearance even further.
An oddly mishappened horn was what was left of the alicorn's source of magic.
And finally, her face began to change drastically:
A tiny muzzle, accompanied by thin pointed ears and a long cyan mane.
Her eyes opened, now at least twice the size as before.
As the transformation was completed, there was no more a second Princess Cadence standing in front of them, but the true evil creature that has made the threat to all of Canterlot.
Queen Chrysalis.
The new figure descended back to the ground as she began to speak, now in her actual voice:
"Right you are, Princess. And as queen of the changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects."
She slowly walked down the few stairs between them, her shadow passing by Spike and Chopper, who instinctively hid behind the nearest column, the latter of course executing it backwards.
"Equestria has much more love to give than any place I have ever encountered. My fellow changelings will be able to devour so much of it that we will gain more power than we have ever dreamed of!"
"Changelings? What are Change-......", Rainbow Dash asked before looking outside the windows into the sky.
".....-lings..."
Through the forcefield, small dots could be seen moving around in the sky. They certainly did not look like ponies, but they weren't too far from it either. Small fangs, bug-like wings and holes running through their body structure. And thousands of them. On every side of the castle.
They have been surrounded from the very start!
But Cadence remained calm.
"That will be unlikely! Because they'll never get the chance!
Shining Armor's protection spell will keep them from ever even reaching us!", she objected.
Chrysalis now directly approached Cadence, amused by her futile hopes:
"Is that so, Princess? Because I'd highly doubt that. Isn't that right, dear?"
She gave a look back at Shining Armor, who in turn nodded in his trance-like state.
Seeing her future husband, Cadence didn't hesitate, to take the chance and run over to him. Only to be stopped by Chrysalis landing in between them:
"Ah, ah, ah. You don't want to go back to the caves, now do you?", she mocked the pink alicorn princess.
"Ever since I took your place, I have been feeding off Shining Armor's love for you. Every moment he grows weaker and so does his spell. Even now, my minions are chipping away at it."
Laughter was heard from outside the castle. Chrysalis' subjects seemed to be just as amused as their mistress.
"He may not be my husband, but he is under my total control now."
A gasp escaped Twilight and Cadence's mouths.
"And I'm sorry to say, unable to perform his duties as captain of the Royal Guard."
"Not my Shining Armor!", Cadence yelled in desperation, unable to stay away from her love.
Chrysalis then stepped forward and continued:
"Soon, my changeling army will break through! First, we take Canterlot. And then, all of Equestria!"
"No."
Chrysalis' smile vanished. She turned around to see who the response came from - Princess Celestia herself.
"You won't."
The changeling queen landed a short distance from her, the two now being face-to-face, ready for combat as Celestia spoke up:
"You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self..."
All of the sudden, the two clashed horns, a clear sign to begin their duel:
"...I CAN PROTECT MY SUBJECTS FROM YOU!"
Celestia spread her massive wings and quickly rose into the air, a beam of her powerful magic was shot from her horn.
Her opponent reacted fast enough to summon a small shield before her, reflecting the alicorns attack back at its source.
Seeing this, the princess immediately began an aerial maneuver to dodge her own beam. It hit the wall behind her, bashing an impressive hole into it. Without paying attention to that, Celestia locked her gaze on Chrysalis, intently waiting for her next move.
Now that it was the changeling queen's turn to attack, she didn't waste a second to fire a large bolt of green magical energy at the immortal being.
After evading the attack again, the white alicorn's ear twitched, alluring her to turn her head.
Instead of herself it was one of the large windows mosaic glasses that was hit by the her opponents attack.
And the now shattered pieces rained down on the paniking ponies below.
Celestia's eyes widened as she quickly conjured another shield above her subjects, causing the shards to collide with it and obliterate fully.
But Chrysalis didn't hit the window by accident. Instead, she knew Celestia would not allow herself to let any pony get harmed.
The queen smiled, now seeing her enemies major weakness.
The love for her subjets.
The changeling queen smiled, her deformed horn beginning to glow again, this time pointing directly at Celestia.
Celestia in turn watched her saved subjects get into a safe distance before turning back to Chrysalis, only for her to receive a direct hit. The impact sent her flying across the hall into a wall, smashing pieces of stone out of it.
Spike tried to get over the battlefield, over to his friends. After his ears picked up the clashing sound of the princess's fall he turned around to see a large boulder falling down towards him.
"OH NO!", he managed to call before shielding his head with his claws.
However, before the it could hit the baby dragon, he suddenly dissappeard in a purple flash.
Twilight managed to use her magic to teleport her assistant safely onto her back. Both reunited with the rest of their friends, watching the fight, as Chopper too dared to peek from his hiding spot, just in time to witness the two currently most powerful beings in Equestria in combat.
"Unbelievable...", he muttered, unable to find more words to describe what he saw.
Chrysalis descended back onto the ground, pleased with what she saw.
"It seems you have gotten old, Celestia...", she taunted with a smile of certain victory in her face.
"Silence!", Celestia's voice was heard from the emerging cloud of dust.
As it cleared, Chrysalis was stunned to see Celestia back on her feet, not a single scratch on her body.
Her eyes glowed in a bright yellow.
"I won't EVER let you hurt anypony!", she yelled over to the shapeshifter as she slowly began to get angry.
"We will see about that...", Chrysalis remained confident as Celestia narrowed her eyes.
With all of her strenght left, Celestia rose up into the air once more before firing a beam of magic down at her opponent as Chrysalis followed suit.
The two powerful beams clash and began struggling back and forth between the combatants.
Eventually, Celestia's beam grew stronger and stronger during the fight, slowly pushing back her enemies beam.
Chrysalis witnessed the alicorns magic approaching her in horror as she started to shut her eyes tightly, trying to concentrate to keep up her own beams power. And it seemed to work.
Against all expectations of the sun princess, Chrysalis' beam gained more and more power and started now push back her own.
Celestia's eyes widened as she watched the green beam returning to her, eventually defeating her own magical beam and colliding with her horn.
The last thing she noticed was a huge explosion of light.
Then silence. Dead silence.
A loud thud broke the period of silence, Princess Celestia slamming onto the ground, unable to get back up, accompanied by a clear clinking noise, her tiara bouncing a few times on the floor before completely stopping dead in its tracks.
"PRINCESS CELESTIA!", Twilight screamed in panic, her mentor now in defeat.
The sun goddess lied on the hard floor, smoke emerging from her damaged horn.
Gasps were heard and first signs of panic were shown in the crowd.
Even Chrysalis herself was surprised by the outcome of her love feeding.
"Hah, Shining Armor's love you for is even strong than I thought...
Consuming it has made me EVEN MORE POWERFUL THAN CELESTIA!!"
Twilight stopped by her mentors side, supporting her head in worry.
"Princess, are you alright? Please say something!", she panicked.
"I do believe this wouldn't be the best time to take a rest, dear Celestia...", Chrysalis stepped up, her confident smile grew even bigger.
"We wouldn't want the princess of Equestria to lose her royal manners."
Twilight and Celestia both looked up at her, not truly understanding what she meant.
"Especially if she awaits some visitors...", she finished, as she looked out of the windows with patience, unable to hold her devilish giggling.
Both princess and librarian took a look up as every other pony did the same to witness in horror:
The army of insectoid ponies continously crashed against the giant shield Shining Armor had summoned around the castle.
It already had massive cracks ripping through it and with each single further attack of the swarm, they grew bigger.
It would be only a matter of time until it would eventually shatter.
With their combined strenght, they started crashing into the shield together for the first time.
BOOM!
Every pony startled at the noise unable to move or even speak.
"Now, my fellow changelings...", the queen called out to her subjects.
Another combined assault against the shield was heard.
BOOM!
Hearing the second impact, Cadence quickly took the chance an ran over to the hypnotised groom as Chrysalis gave her final command to her army:
"...Let us begin..."
With one last attack, the forcefield ultimately broke into pieces, slowly desintegrating in thin air.
Mayhem broke out within the halls and pony after pony ran for its life, exiting the castle.
It was then when Chopper finally realized: "I-, I can help!"
The small reindeer quickly ran over to the nearest guard, showing him the bracelet on his wrist.
"Please, you gotta take this thing off!"
"But you won't bite me, will you?", the guard asked, still bewildered.
"Only if you don't hurry..."
Over with Twilight, she and her mentor were surrounded by several dozens of them, every single one preparing for an attack.
But Twilight refused to get out of their way, also taking a defensive low stance.
Every once in a while, some of the changelings were actually daring enough to try to attack princess, only to be shot into the distance by her students magic bolts.
"Twilight... forgive me... I doubted you..."
The unicorn turned around to meet her teacher's gaze, full of sorrow and regret.
"Please don't say that. There's no way you could have known..."
More of the queen's army have gathered around the two of them, each of them unable to wait for the attack.
One by one came lunging towards them, which Twilight effortlessly blasted off with her magic.
"Stay away from her!"
Hearing this, the changelings began to eye each other, a grin appearing on every single face. They all seemed to have the same idea in mind as they all simultaneously leaped for one big group attack.
"Twilight, Princess!", Applejack called over from the distance, her friends charging towards them in a final attempt to save their friends.
Hearing the cowmares voice, Chopper also was alerted in time. Now freed from the sea-prism bracelett, he could finally transform again and step in to help his new nakama. He too began dashing over to the two mares in trouble.
"HEAVY POINT!"
The pack of changelings was just about to swoop down on them,
With little to no strenght left, Twilight clenched her eyes shut, bracing herself for the impact...
"HEAVY GONG!"
Within the blink of an eye, the swarm received a hard punch, each member of it landing hardly on the floor, fortunately knocked out.
After a period of silence, Twilight dared to slowly open an eye.
And she was fairly surprised at what she saw.
The bunch of changelings that were about to attack them was beaten to the ground, unable to get back up. And in between the them and the librarian had appeared a new creature:
The tall figure had a large and bulky torso, Its arms were packed with muscles and upon its furry neck was a relatively small head.
The overall image almost reminded her of some kind of oversized ape, yet some details seemed oddly familiar to her.
It wore the same clothing as the reindeer they met a couple of days ago and in the middle of its face was an unnatural blue nose.
Eventually, Twilight's friends joined the scene. They were about to ask her and the princess if the were alright before they too froze.
"Whoa! What is that thing?!", Rainbow Dash called out, her eyes widened while the rest gathered around Twilight and Celestia.
The monster turned around and began to talk:
"Twilight, are you okay?"
Finally the purple unicorn mare managed to respond:
"Ch-...Chopper?! Is that you?"
The reindeer looked at them with a slight smile. He knew he had some explaining to do.
Rainbow Dash landend by her friends side as she was the first to speak up:
"Hey Chops, I know you told us you were a reindeer, but I gotta ask again:
"What the heck are you?!"
Chopper thought for a moment how to sum it up, but then his smile now grew even wider. He used one of his large palms to give a thumb up and simply said:
"I'm a monster."
The group of mares and their little dragon friend couldn't help but stare at the hulking creature.
"I-I guess you've seen me my not-so-gentle side now, didn't you?", Chopper finally continued nervously.
"Are you kidding me? That's totally awesome!", Rainbow Dash was the first to react
"Indeed. It seems that although you look like a brute, there seems to be tender heart beneath those muscles!" Rarity agreed.
"Yes, and you saved Twilight and the Princess too.", Fluttershy mumbled. "You really are the nicest and kindest monster I've ever met... Uhm, I mean, not that I have ever met a monster before."
"What about that dragon?", Rainbow Dash asked her fellow pegasus friend.
"Eek!", Fluttershy was caught off guard.
"And the hydra?", Applejack went on.
"Eek!"
"And what about Discord?", Spike pointed out.
"EEK! Please stop it!"
At this point, the poor pegasus had covered her ears with her hooves tightly, not wanting to recall any of those moments ever again.
"Whatever...", Twilight tried to wrap this topic up, "What matters is that it's really great that we've got us a new friend."
"Oh, don't call me that, jerk! Your gratitude doesn't mean ANYTHING to me!", Chopper bashfully rubbed the back of his head with his large palm.
Suddenly, the group heard a loud buzzing noise, causing everyone to snap back to their serious tone. They turned to see Queen Chrysalis landing close beside them, mocking her defeated enemy.
"Face it, Celestia, your days as a ruler are over. Now comes the era of the changelings!", Chrysalis looked down at her with no mercy.
"You damn bug!", Chopper clenched his fist and ran over to her, trying to strike her with his large fist. Before he could hit her, she vanished in a green flash, reappearing behind him.
"My apologies, but I don't have time for the likes of you.", she spoke calmly before using her magic telekinesis to send him flying into a wall.
"My new kingdom awaits me.", she finished.
Her wings began to flap rapidly again, allowing her to fly out of the exit with insane laughter as the friends watched her leave with worry.
"Chopper!", Fluttershy called over to the transformed reindeer. With the exception of Twilight, who was still holding her teacher with care, they all ran up to their friend.
"Hey, Chops, are you okay?", Rainbow Dash asked as she hovered above him. The large humanoid slowly got back up before shaking his head rapidly, recomposing himself.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry.", he explained to them.
As the ponies watched him get back onto his feet their ears picked up a familar voice:
"There is still a chance..."
They all turned to see Celestia, laying weakly in her students arms:
"The elements of harmony. You must get to them. And use their power to defeat the queen!", she spoke with all her strenght that was left.
"Alright, then let's go!", Twilight said as she led the way to the gates before turning her head back at Chopper.
"Chopper, are you coming?", she asked her new friend.
"I can't. I have to take care of her first. Go ahead, I'll catch up with you as soon as I can!", he explained, walking over to Celestia's injured figure.
"Okay then, lets do this, girls!", Twilight turned back to her five pony friends, all of them answering with a firm nod.
They all threw off their pretty dresses, ready to get into action again, all of them charging out of the castle heading for the Canterlot
Tower where the Elements Of Harmony were stored.
As Rarity instinctively catched one by another, the thought of her work being ruined was unbearable to her.
All of them called for their missing friend:
"Rarity!"
After carefully laying the dresses aside she too followed her friends, unaware what would await them.
"But I swear, if my mane gets ruined, then so help me!", the white unicorn warned her friends as they all ran off into the great changeling invasion.
TO BE CONTINUED