The apartments that the Bearers of the Elements had been assigned in Buckingham Palace had a common area that served as both dining and meeting room. After the disaster the previous day, and the aftermath, all any of them had been able to do was stagger back to their rooms and crawl into bed. Spike had ended up in Rarity's as Twilight's death had utterly destroyed the young drake. He wouldn't even look at Shining Armour, and had barely spoken to anyone until Rarity took charge of him, saying that he shouldn't be left alone, especially in the apartment he'd shared with Twilight.
There'd been no time for the histrionics she'd usually have engaged in. Spike had needed her, and she'd held him close while he cried, allowing herself a few quiet tears when he couldn't see them. Of course, she had cast a spell of fire resistance, both on herself and the bed clothes before getting in, a spell you pretty much had to know when you worked with cloth around a dragon. Now the five ponies and one dragon sat around the dining table, though none of them had touched the delicious selection of breakfast foods laid out before them.
Rarity looked around at the sleep-bagged eyes, gloomy expressions and Pinkie's ruler straight hair and sighed to herself. Someone had to do something, and it looked like she was the only someone she had available. She collected two delicately made croissants from the serving plate near her, and a butter knife which sliced far more butter than she'd normally allow herself from a block nearby. As she hoped, her activity spurred somepony into action.
"Rarity, how can you eat at a time like this?" Rainbow Dash growled, showing more animation than she had in the last hour.
"Breakfast time?" Rarity replied, spreading the butter on the neatly sliced pastries. "Because I don't want that evil bug pony to win."
"What the hay are ya on about, Rarity?" Applejack asked, frowning.
Rarity felt a slight amount of satisfaction at having a good lead in. "I feel terrible. I'm sure we all do. What happened at the Wedding yesterday was horrible, and that disgusting bug's vicious little diatribe only made things worse. She wanted to hurt us as much as possible, do whatever damage she could in the time she had left, and she did it with exquisite skill. But the part that hurts most, the part that's made us all shut ourselves away is that she had a point."
There were winces from around the table, and Spike even shrunk in on himself.
"I know I sometimes am a trifle melodramatic..." That actually got a few snorts what might have been laughter under other circumstances, "But yesterday really was 'the worst possible thing ever'. Twilight was right all along. Cadence, at least the one we met, was evil and when she came to us for help, we failed her. We _were_ all too caught up in the excitement to notice anything wrong, or listen to Twilight. Even after the Smartypants incident, where we promised we would listen to somepony's concerns, even if we thought they were..."
"Making a mountain out of a molehill?" Applejack offered. "'Scuse me Rarity, but is this supposed to be makin' us feel better? 'Cause I don't see how."
"Bear with me darling, I'm working on it. But we have to accept that there is a problem before we can do something about it, rather than staying silent and letting it fester."
Oddly enough Fluttershy spoke up, at least as much as Fluttershy ever did. "You mean like cleaning out a wound to allow it to heal?"
"Yes, exactly! The fact that we never got a chance to apologise to Twilight, to ask her to forgive us, only makes it worse. She saved all of us, despite the fact that she must have felt we hadn't lived up to our friendship, because whatever else, she was still our true friend, and wanted to protect us, and everyone else. And that's where we can start from. Twilight sacrificed herself to give us a chance to live on, and if we allow that vile insect's words to poison our minds and our lives, it makes everything Twilight did for us meaningless. I will _not_ wallow in misery and self pity. I will take the gift Twilight gave me, and I will make the most of it. Starting with this breakfast."
She paused and took a definite, if delicate bite of her croissant.
Applejack gave a deep sigh. "Well, when you put it like that, it seems downright disrespectful to be mopin'. But I figure it ain't that easy to up sticks and move on. I messed up awful bad, ignorin' Twi like I did. I'm supposed to be the Element of Honesty, I should have picked up that prissy prickly princess was a fake, and Twilight was true blue as always. But it was just so great to be invited to do the caterin' at this shindig, I weren't even thinkin' about it. 'Sides, I figured that Twi was getting possessive of Shining Armour, just like I said. Shucks, I know any mare who comes sniffin' around Big Mac is gonna have to get past me."
Rarity gave a rather wan smile. "So you made a mistake, but at least it was an _honest_ mistake. I think we all made the same one. None of us knew the real Cadence enough to have an opinion. I just thought she was being a demanding client, even the best of ponies can turn into a witch when it comes to the perfect dress, and that goes double for weddings."
Spike shifted in his seat, and Rarity heard him gulping back a lump in his throat. "But I did. Back when Princess Celestia was talking care of me, before I..." He choked on his words, but continued. "Cadence was around the palace all the time too. She was always nice to me, unlike some of the other nobles. Maybe if I'd stayed with Twilight more, met this one, I could have spotted she was fake too. But all I was interested in was goofing off and planning the bachelor party..."
He leaned into Rarity's side, and she could feel the wetness on her coat as his tears soaked into it. She put one foreleg around his shuddering shoulders. She wasn't alone, Rainbow Dash, who was sitting on the other side of Spike put a fore-hoof on his other shoulder.
"Hey Spike, I know what you're saying." The rainbow speedster's voice lacked it's usual cocky self assurance. "I was so busy getting ready to wow everypony with my Rainboom I didn't even meet Cadence till that rehearsal. I should have backed Twilight to the hilt, rather than siding with that cheap fake. Some Element of Loyalty I am!"
She slammed her free hoof into the table, and contrary to narrative expectation, didn't flip some plate of foodstuffs into the air to land on her in a humorous fashion.
"Or maybe it was your loyalty that caused you to act as you did." Rarity suggested. "After all, everyone else, even Princess Celestia seemed to think Twilight was just having one of her.... episodes. Who were you being loyal to? Cadence? Or the rest of us?"
Rainbow's brow furrowed in thought. "Maybe... but I still feel like horseapples over not doing anything afterwards. Even if Twi had been freaking out over nothing, I should have been there to catch her before she crashed."
"As do we all, darling." Rarity sighed. "But we can't turn back time. What you have to decide is what you are going to do from now on."
"I bet Twilight could have. She was the egghead incarnation of awesome. She'd find some time travel spell by that Starbeard character in an ancient scroll so she could zap herself back in time with some awesome special effects." Rainbow's voice took on some of it's old animation.
Then she sagged back down. "But I guess since she isn't here, I've got to do what I can to see that what she fought for doesn't die. Maybe I wasn't loyal enough to her, but I can be loyal to the friendships she left behind. And buck any changelings that poke their bug-eyed faces into Ponyville to the badlands."
"Um... Maybe not all changlings are like the Queen?" Fluttershy's voice was barely audible. She shrank in on herself as the others turned their attention to her. "or not... forget i said anything... meeep!"
Rarity said kindly. "It's alright, Fluttershy dear. If you have any ideas about them, it could help."
Fluttershy looked around the table, everyone except Rainbow and Spike looked sympathetic, and neither of them looked angry at her. "It sounded like she was controlling them. They left as soon as she couldn't any more. Maybe they're like grasshoppers and locusts."
"Huh, you think so?" Applejack asked, curiously.
"Whatya mean Flutters?" Rainbow added.
Fluttershy's voice gained confidence as she started talking about wildlife. "Grasshoppers normally live as individuals, coming together only to mate and lay eggs. But sometimes, when the population grows too large, they swarm and change into locusts, stripping all the food as they pass through an area. Maybe for Changelings it's the appearance of a Queen that causes them to swarm. It would explain why nopony knows of them.
"They might normally just live quietly among ponies, feeding off the ambient love, maybe even helping it along. After all, the happier ponies are, the better the feeding. The Queen's plan didn't really make sense, she was destroying the very thing she hoped to use, and it's a stupid parasite that destroys it's host. I think there was something wrong with her, something sick."
"Huh, well don't expect me to shed any tears for her." Rainbow harumphed with folded forelegs. "You really think that's how they work?"
"It's only a guess." Fluttershy's reply was timid. "But I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure that's what Twilight would do. Remember Zecora? It's just so terrible what happened, and there's nothing I can do to help!" She started sobbing.
"You're helping just by being yourself dear." Rarity moved around the table to hug her, quickly followed by the others, even Pinkie, who'd been silent the whole time. There were more than a few tears from each of them, even Rainbow, her muttering of 'Still have sleep sand in my eyes.' fooling nopony.
It was Applejack that spoke as they separated, looking over at the silent pink pony. "If we're gonna do right by Twilight, we've gotta start somewhere. When my maw and paw passed on, I was just a little bit of a filly, younger than Apple Bloom, and it pretty much tore my heart out, just like right now. But Granny Smith was smart, she called in all our kinfolk and held a wake for them."
"Awake?" Rainbow asked. "I thought she needed her sleep."
"No, a wake, a party to celebrate their lives, who they were, what they meant to ponies. A chance to remember all the good times. It didn't take the pain away, but it helped some. I figure we need to hold one for Twilight, to remember all the good stuff about her. Pinkie, you reckon you could put together a shindig like that? For Twilight?"
"For Twilight?" Pinkie Pie looked back at her, then nodded. "I'm sorry I haven't been making everypony feel better. It's hard to put smiles on other ponies faces when you've got none to give. That Queen Crock-roach took them all. But I'll try, for Twilight. She'd want her party to be the bestest one in all Equestria."
As she thought about it, some measure of poofiness returned to her mane. "We've got to invite all of Twilight's friends and family, they've got to be feeling rotten too."
"I'm not sure we should have her big brother. He was awful mean to Twilight, worse than we were. I don't know if I could forgive Big Mac if'n he did that to me, at least not easily."
Rarity quickly responded. "Applejack! You heard the bug, she had him under her control. He must feel worse about what he said than anyone. The one I'm not sure I can face is Princess Celestia. She knew Cadence better than any of us, Twilight too. She even knew there was a threat, but she acted like Twilight was some naughty filly who needed to be sent to her room without supper. I've always looked up to her, now I don't know what to think."
"Well, after the way Twilight pulled her grits off the griddle and saved the day, she's gotta be feeling lower than a snake's belly in a diamond dog cave."
"Yeah, so she should too!"
Now it was Fluttershy reprimanding Rainbow, for a given, very mild value of reprimand. "Um, that isn't very nice. She did try to fight once the Queen revealed herself. Twilight wanted to protect her too. Twilight loved her like a second mother, and I think she would want us to forgive her mistakes, just as she'd forgive us."
"Okay, for Twilight." Rainbow finally allowed.
Rarity finished off her croissant and passed Spike one with a thick spread of strawberry jam and ruby dust. He set to it as the other ponies around the table started to eat too. It wasn't going to be easy; their group of friends had just had a pretty big hole bucked in it, but at least the remaining friendships were still strong. That was at least a starting place to begin the slow process of healing.