Princess Celestia had required a meeting with the elements of harmony and Shining Armor over what they were going to do with Twilight, they knew that they had really gone too far when they rejected her, but Celestia really wanted her most faithful student back because Twilight was like her own daughter, as for Shining Armor, he couldn't really bare to watch his Twiley suffer anymore, it had been nearly two months since the changeling attack, but Twilight was still angered at them for rejecting her, which they had suddenly realized now was for no reason.
"Now everypony, I know it seems like it's been forever, but Twilight's depression has pushed us this far, her grudge over us has gone off the deep end, it's time we did something." Celestia said.
"What's the point?" Shining Armor asked, "Twilight has become too depressed, she won't even talk to me." he said hanging his head low, Celestia lifted his head.
"I know Shining, but you got to know deep in your heart that she still loves you." she said.
"Ah' know Twilight will budge, but ah' want her back in our lives." Applejack said.
Celestia then turned to the elements with a look of disapproval, "Girls, remember what happened when Twilight put that love spell on Smarty Pants?"
The five ponies nodded.
"Remember you all told me that you learned to take a friend's matters seriously."
They nodded again.
"But now we see, when we rejected her it's like...we completely forgot all about that." Rainbow Dash said.
"Oh, how could we have acted so awful like that, that changeling queen turned us against her, she's to blame for this!"
"No, well most of it, but we're more to blame for this." Pinkie Pie said, "I'm the element of laughter, but I made a pony cry."
"I'm her teacher, but I hurt her for no reason, I'm ashamed." said Celestia who had now felt disgraced over what had happened..
"Ah'm the element of honesty, but I was dishonest to all of this." Applejack said.
"I'm the element of kindess, but I was mean." said Fluttershy.
"Me, the element of generosity, but I wasn't being generous when I walked out on her." Rarity said.
"And me, the element of loyalty, the only pony I was being loyal to was myself, I was self-centered." said Rainbow Dash.
"Let's just face it we're all to blame for this, we let a dumb wedding get in the way of a threat." said Shining Armor
"But we must still find a way to apologize to Twilight, we can't just sit here and let her keep falling like this." Rainbow said.
"I think it's going to take more than an apology, maybe a small gift." Rarity said.
"Rarity we ain't bribin' her." Applejack said. "Ah' mean we must find the best way to let her know that we love her, and that we made a big mistake."
Pinkie Pie was about to say something, but Rainbow Dash quickly silenced her, "No Pinkie, a party won't solve this either."
"And most important, what will her response be when we do find the best way?" Celestia asked.
"I'll find a solution." Shining Armor said.
"Why?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Because she is my sister, and I've known her longer than the rest of you all." he said.
"But..." they tried to say, but Celestia stopped them.
"He's right you all, he's known Twilight longer than we have, maybe we should let him find the best apology, when he does he'll tell it to us, and we'll say it to Twilight."
the idea that Celestia and Luna can be impeached is insane
I thought the smarty pants incident's lesson was that friends forgive each other, after all Celestia didn't send Twilight to jail for using mind control on children, and those kids' own older siblings forgave her for it. Maybe Twilight should just say that forgiving everyone else for doubting her at the wedding squares them for everyone else forgiving her for the Smarty Pants incident?
4747173
Its not the same!!! How would you feel if you told you friends, your brother and your teacher about an evil shape-shifter, love eating queen, and nopony believe you? Even worse, your brother yells at you that he doesn't wants you at his wedding, your friends turning their backs at you AND your teather telling you that you have a lot to think about.
I would feel betrayed and extremely furious to all of them.
Finding something for Twilight to forgive her "friends", her teacher and her "BBBFF" is something SUPREMELY hard, I almost dare to say imposible.
To be honest (as much as the Twilight-Fan inside me screams otherwise), I think the punishments of the Mane 6 (especially Rainbow Dash) were unjustified and too harsh. Yes, they betrayed Twilight, but they are plenty sorry and suffering for it as it is; having outside punishments from friends, family and so-forth is both overly-cruel and unrealistic (except for maybe Rarity's; that one's a bit believable)...especially when Applejack being criticized by her family, Fluttershy being dumped by her animals, and Rainbow Dash gets banned from the Wonderbolts...why? Why would all those other ponies even care? They all had absolutely nothing to do with the wedding; it's not their problem or business, especially when they probably would've fallen for the fake Cadence just as much as they did. Especially animals; why would animals even care for such matters?
Everyone makes mistakes (MISTAKES); their lives shouldn't have to be ruined because of it.
Unless it's all some sort of big plot-twist in the future, then it's clear: this story is nothing more than just another poorly-done Canterlot Wedding Rage-Fic; just the work of a raging Twilight Fan that's clearly just for someone to vent their emotions out with, and thus doesn't put any true work and passion into the story.
We don't need anymore of those.
4747310 agreed
4747310 Except that Twilight didn't know she was a changeling. I dare say she did not have the slightest idea this was a fake Cadence. She just thought Cadence had turned evil. And, if you don't remember, Shining Armor could give an extremely plausible explanation as for why she used magic on him. Headaches caused by the strain of keeping up the shield, something Twilight herself had witnessed. And guess what? TWILIGHT BOUGHT IT! She was convinced by the exact same justifications Shining Armor gave her friends. She was remorseful, she thought she had acted too harshly. If Chrysalis han't provided hard evidence right here and there, I think the wedding would have gone as planned after Twilight had apologized for her behavior. So why should the others be held up to a higher standard? Hmmmmmm?
Twilight holding a grudge over this is ridiculous. It would make her an incredibly petty friend. What's even worse is how everyone else is reacting. This honestly is not a concern of anyone in Ponyville. They weren't there, and it was not their friendship at stake, and it's even less their business. None of those mares are kids. None of them have to answer to random ponies about how they deal with their friends when they screw up.
What's is just sad about this fic is how much it stretches suspension of disbelief for the sake of catharsis. Someone just happened to hear about in the Wonderbolts and Rainbow is suddenly banned for life? Oh sure, Spitfire would do that to the mare that saved their lives. Great moral there, kid. Fluttershy's animals? Oh my Discord, someone is buying that garbage? Let me get this straight: animals have somehow heard that Fluttershy did not listen to one of her friends somewhere else, and now they are turning their back on the one that feeds, heals, nurtures them? Yeah, right . The only one I could remotely buy is Celestia, as politics are always kind of vapid like that. Even then though, it makes no sense. Celestia has guided ponykind to an age of prosperity and peace for a thousand years. Anyone that is ungrateful toward her is a freaking bastard. Someone asked her if she expected the Elements to take care of any problem, well, the answer is yes, obviously. They have been shown to be the ultimate magic of ponykind, capable of stopping reality warping beings like Discord without even a struggle. And really, the thing about their politics being like ours? Doesn't work. Royalty is never elected, it is not 'disbarred' or anything like that. Even the monarchies on Earth still keep the system of royals till death, just look at England.
All in all, I just think this fic doesn't work due to the glaring self-centered and improbable focus on Twilight's problems alone, regardless of anything anyone else ever did. The Universe spontaneously decided to get revenge for her, and that's just not a good read, in my opinion.
4747357
Rainbow Dash turned her back on Twilight just for the chance to perform a Sonic Rainboom at the wedding. What sort of team would want someone willing to turn their back those close to them for the chance to show off/boost their own importance? Doesn't really seem like someone any team would want. And since this happens well before the events of Rainbow Falls, those don't count here. Also, Soarin was attending the wedding, so the Wonderbolts WERE involved to an extent.
As for Applejack. Remember Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000? Where the other Mane 6, Including Twilight, were considered family enough to help in Applejack and her family in that competition? In fact if I remember right, they were considered honorary Apples. Applejack turned her back on family pretty much going by that. I doubt the rest of the Apple Family looks too kindly on that.
Pinkie and Fluttershy I can't think of any reasons for. And Rarity's own Punishment seems legit to me.
4747457: Read this comment here: 4747429
Like I said and this said before: It's NONE OF THEIR CONCERN. It doesn't involve them at all.
4747386 Ditto
4747429: Agreed in every way; this fic is just another poorly-done Canterlot Wedding Rage-Fic written by a raging Twilight-Fan. I enjoyed up until chapter 3, when it started becoming unrealistic and petty, and then things started going downhill...
4747310 You're right it's not the same, Twilight's friends didn't believe her when she said Cadance was evil, whereas Twilight only used mind control magic on the little sisters of her friends to get them to fight each other and damage their friendship with each other, but instead she caused the entire town to descend into a violent brawl. At the conclusion of said brawl, Twilight's friends took the rap for her so Celestia wouldn't take Twilight from Ponyville.
Clearly it's the other five who are selfishly abusing Twilight's friendship.
4747429
This is something far too many fans miss. Twilight didn't know - or even suspect - that "Cadance" was other than she claimed to be.
There's also the matter of the mind control spell; that's the key piece of hard evidence that could be tested. But many a fan wants to throw a rock at Shining (who is a victim of mind control!) and so want to gloss over that point as lightly as possible. Which glosses over that Twilight's friends are accepting testimony from Chrysalis's sock puppet. I rarely see anyone point out that Shining (who's been accused of being mind controlled!) is the very last pony anyone should be accepting an explanation from.
I'd also a posit a certain amount of self-loathing in Twilight. She'd ignored the threat as much as anyone else in this wedding fiasco. Even when she uncovered that something shady was going on and had some reason to challenge Cadance, she didn't make the connection to the bigger picture. And that's a failing close to her heart. She also allowed herself to effectively be railroaded into ultimately rejecting the evidence right in front of her face. At the end, she was ready to throw it all away and do whatever it took to be allowed to rejoin the herd, only to discover at that very moment how right she'd been. She has to be aware that she'd been ready to - despite everything - allow Chrysalis to take her brother and do whatever she wanted with him. That has to burn.
Didn't Twilight forgive Celestia and Shining Armor in the last chapter? Or was it changed, and I don't know about it?
As for what I think is happening in this story, I think some of the punishments aren't fitting the crime. Applejack should get chewed out by her family for turning her back on a friend, but she doesn't need to be grounded. Rainbow Dash should have gotten a lifetime ban from the Wonderbolts. Put on notice that she needs to prove her morals and priorities, yes, but not a lifetime ban. Pinkie Pie should have been banned from sweets for a couple of days but that's it. Fluttershy's animals friends leaving her completely, no. Giving her the 'silent treatment' would have been enough. Rarity's punishment was self-imposed, yet it fits. Celestia and Luna being brought before a council of some sort, I agree with. She rely too much on the Elements solving every problem and when she had to fight herself, she got her flank kicked. Shining Armor's punishment is also self-imposed.
As for the wedding itself, I said it once and I'll say it again...the invasion failed because Chrysalis made mistakes. If she hadn't of taunted Twilight in the caves or not imprisoned her in the first place, she would have married Shining Armor and she would have won. On a side note, Shining was NOT brainwashed when he told Twilight not to bother showing up for the wedding, but was brainwashed at the wedding. That tells me Shining might have realized he was wrong with how he treated his sister and was going to look for her, but 'Cadance' had to put a stop to it for the wedding to continue.
4749901 the chapter was rewritten.
Well I don't expect any miracle's.
4734206 Well at this Pont there's no hope for them even I Don't expect any Deus ex machinas in this Fic.
4750009 Thank you. I did not know that.
I have a question though. If it has already been two months:
1. How is Shining's relationship with Cadance (if there even is a relationship)?
2. Hasn't the Crystal Empire, as well as Sombra, shown back up yet?
I would love to see what would happen when Sombra sets his sights on Equestria after taking back his kingdom. That will get Twilight out of her depression.
4750785 Yes. But how? I know that Crystal Empire will reappear after 1000 years. And you did remember Twilight did quit as Celestia's student.
4751418 The Crystal Empire is still going to show up. Whether Twilight is Celestia's student or not. Celestia is going to have to try stopping Sombra and saving the Crystal Empire without Twilight. To do that, the Crystal Heart must be found and I don't think neither Celestia nor Luna will be able to do so.
4752538 isn't that the authors decision.
4754559 What? The Crystal Empire showing up? Isn't that a given, unless this whole thing is resolved before that happens. Seeing that it has been two months already and Twilight hasn't changed yet, I don't see that happening.
Huh, turns out the author deleted my critique instead of replying or trying to refute my points.
Gotta love thin-skinned authors who delete anything that isn't praise.
Good luck in the real world.
4754610 look I think that Crystal empire plot Shouldn't be in this Fic its better to focus on the Fics Plot alright.
4754644 Okay, fine. You have your opinion, and I have mine. Let's just leave at that and wait to read what happens next. Agreed?
4754764 That's why I said earlier this is the authors decision .
4754868 All you had to say was 'agreed'.
Maybe have cadence reveal hidden feelings for twilight, and they get married. I like yuri couples. It doesn't help that Equistria has more mares than stallions either.
4759090 Oddly enough, there is a parody alternative ending called 'Wedding Bell Blues' which has Cadance revealing her shocking crush on Twilight. Its really funny to read, its just a shame that is not been updated for a long time. ^^;
4760687 there was the freaky degeneration of rainbow dash to her generation 3 self though, and gaining the powers of Agent Smith.
4750148 Neither does Black Kyurem.
There can be no salvation! Let there be suffering!
4747310 This is the best comment ever! Black Kyurem agrees 100%
4830378 at this point im not reading anymore of this Fic its Too Depressing for me but some like it and that's Fine this isn't the Fic for me.
4830647 Black Kyurem would as long as there is... suffering!
so when there be a new chapter
4868284 Sorry, but I've just started schools it may be a while.
4754610 That's because this takes place about a few months before the Crystal Empire.
4747357
Well, for one, they weren't there to help either. There's a little shame there, buried down. Consciously or subconsciously, the most obvious way to remain a part of the herd - a good, faithful citizen - is to perform acts symbolically supporting the country. Like abusing traitors. Remember that they weren't there. They didn't see the false Cadance. In retrospect, it seems to them that the Mane Five knowingly opted for Cheeselegs despite Twilight telling them outright that she was a Changeling. That's not what happened, but people want someone to blame to crush down their own inadequacy in the wake of a disaster and Twilight's friends are the most vulnerable targets. I find targetting them believable; Celestia, not so much.
I'll try and help! (I already know that someone, those who read this, already did that and possibly is going to be used in the next chapter or later on.)
It's 100% true that Shining known Twilight then any of them for a long time! If I remember correctly, when I first watch the episode, Twilight explained to them that they both where real close -- No, REALLY close -- to each other (Not in a Romance like feeled (Shining Sparkle/Twilight Armor [Shipping name for Twilight X Shining])), and where BBBFF! So it's up to me to find out what happens next! Plus as I said before, every story (mainly) ends with a happy and heroic ending, so I'm sure Twilight WILL forgive Shining Armor first before getting with the rest of the Mane 5 and Celestia too.
And Outstanding Job, bro!
Got to love these comments. Half of them are defending the main 5 for what they did. The other half are defending Twilights side.
All I can say to that is...
Never forget, but always forgive.
5114440 Celestia is just stupid.
5114440
well Celestia is the leader which means if things go wrong she one the people who gets looked at. And considering she knew there was a threat and yet ignored twilight when she tried to warn her and hasn't been actively protecting the country and been using twilight and her friends and the elements to protect the country when they aren't even soldiers that would say she been avoiding her responsibilities in one area.