//------------------------------// // A Wedding to Remember - Part 1 // Story: Saving Equestria // by Damaged //------------------------------// Shining Armor looked down at the notes, the plans, and the maps. "Chryssi, you are going to attack Canterlot?" He looked up and saw the little nod from Chrysalis. Taking a deep breath he looked around at all the changelings he could see; working in alcoves or in the open cave they were standing in. "Chryssi Cross, I am placing you under arrest." "Shining…" Cadance rushed a look to Chrysalis but her worry melted when she saw only amusement on her friend's face. "Shining, hear her out. I know it seems… it still seems wrong at first, but Chryssi has her reasons." "You don't get it, Cady, I am a lieutenant in the royal guard, I can't just let this go." Shining looked at Chrysalis, holding the familiar stranger's eyes. "But as a friend, Chryssi, why?" "Princess Celestia is the kindest, nicest ruler any country could hope for." Chrysalis gestured to the picture of the alicorn drawn on the castle in one of the maps. "Despite loving what she has done with Equestria, how she has made it so wonderful, there are dark things looming, Shining." The description and obvious love the changeling had for Celestia disarmed a little of Shining's panic. "Dark things?" Chrysalis pulled out the files she had. "Nightmare Moon, Discord… I was doing research, remember? These are just the things I found out about. There are probably a dozen more bad things held by the Elements that can now break free. Celestia and Luna at their peak disabled and bound them." Chrysalis hated to do this, but it was her trump card. "Now, only Twilight Sparkle and her friends stand before whatever is coming at Equestria." Shining froze. "What… what do you mean?" He stared ahead, past Chrysalis, past Cadance, past even the crystal cavern wall. "Twilight Sparkle is one of the smartest ponies I know. She has defeated an alicorn without spilling a drop of blood. She recaptured Discord after less than two days of being free." Chrysalis looked at Shining, holding her words until he finally focused on her again. "I don't want to see her fail, ever." Cadance stepped forward gesturing to the plans. "None of us do. But Chryssi, are you going to take over? You are so sure you are better than Princess Celestia at running Equestria?" "Me? Run Equestria." Chrysalis gave a snorting giggle. "Could you imagine it? I wouldn't have the first clue how to do the myriad little things Princess Celestia does every day. I would have everypony miserable within a week." "So what then? Beg her to keep her old job and let you do yours?" Shining browsed through another of the contingency plans Chrysalis had made, it chilled him how perfectly designed they were. "I have a plan for the Princess, she will even have a choice. Your sister is going to try to fight me." Chrysalis gave a sigh. "I would love to invite her here for the duration, but I ran all the angles I could and she is too smart for them, too smart and too convinced Celestia is doing the right thing." "So what then? What is all this in aid of?" Shining tossed the plans down, grabbing another. With all this knowledge I could easily fend off any number of these plans. Why is she showing this to me? "So I can defend Equestria. Tell me, Shining, who would you rather have standing between the next big bad thing, Twilight, or my drones?" The argument was an easy one to win, now she had it in those words. Chrysalis shook her head. "They are my little ones, my nymphs, my grubs. If you think this is an easy thing for me to decide, then you are mistaken. I have spent over a year now Shining, trying to come up with a way to resolve this." "How many children," Cadance was still having trouble with the idea of all these creatures being her friend's foals, "do you have, will you have?" "I have nearly five hundred active drones, and the eggs for another seven hundred are… ready. I will not hatch them until after I have control." Chrysalis saw the look of horror on Shining's face. "You know my plans, Shining Armor. You are the closest thing to an equal I have when it comes to planning. If you took yourself out of the equation, how do you think I would-" Shining cut Chrysalis off. "You would win, Chryssi. You might need a contingency plan or two, but you already have those worked out." He gestured at the table. "But why tell me? Why tell us?" "What do you feed on?" Cadance cut in on her coltfriend. "You have so many of your own children down here, but what are you all eating?" "Love." Chrysalis smiled. "Love, lots of love." "Love?" Both Cadance and Shining were caught out by the answer and spoke over each other. "Love. I can taste it on the pair of you, most ponies feel it every day of their lives." Chrysalis closed her eyes and inhaled. She purposefully ran her metaphysical "tongue" down the spines of Cadance and Shining. "That is what we feed on. It doesn't harm a pony, you don't even feel it, unless we feed too much… or make you feel it." Cadance froze and her horn lit. She wove a spell that would her see the flow of love. "My goodness…" She watched the flow of love, lazy and decidedly one way, from herself and Shining, right into Chrysalis' snout. Cadance did something she didn't often do, she looked back at herself. Shining and Chrysalis both knew the spell Cadance was using, both left her to her examination. "So what are you going to do when you take over?" Shining poked the plans with a hoof. "Princess Celestia will—if I can help it—stay the ruler of Equestria. She is good at it, she is amazing at it." Chrysalis gestured upwards. "All I want is ponies to… to live. To be happy." "To feed you?" Shining gave the changeling queen a flat look. "Come on Chryssi, is this just about the food?" "When I was living with you and Cadance, I had everything I needed. I had, certainly, enough love. I had a few children with me, I kept them fed." Chrysalis gave a sigh and stared past Shining, right into the past. "But I found out about Nightmare Moon, and watched myself, what Princess Celestia did and what she risked, just to have her little sister back. Have you talked to Twilight about what happened?" Shining blushed crimson. "I… I am stuck in my job now, I have a duty to protect-" "You don't protect anything, you stand around looking proud. Twilight has to protect Equestria, it all rests on her withers, and those of her friends." Chrysalis almost spat the words, fury rising in her on the Element Bearers' behalves. "They all have families. Rarity has a little sister. Fluttershy has a brother and parents. Pinkie Pie and Applejack almost have as much family as I do!" She was panting in frustration now. "And 'she' threw them all in harm's way, just in the hope her sister was redeemable. What if Nightmare Moon had taken the artifacts for herself? She surely had a history with them." Shining felt lower than a snake's underbelly. The big guard lieutenant stared at the floor, tears coming to his cheeks. "Let me do what I must, let me be the shield of Equestria." Chrysalis felt pride pour into her, she felt more bound to her purpose than before. I just convinced myself, too. Cadance spent the intervening time checking every inch of her aura, the core of magic and emotion that was "her." There was a constant drain on it, pouring to her friend, but she couldn't spot a single patch of anything strange. Banishing her magic, she realized that both Chrysalis and Shining Armor looked at each other, both had a similar look in their eyes. "I will stand by so long as nopony is hurt. The first injury, Chryssi, and I will fight you to my last." Shining lifted his hoof, holding it up and out to the changeling queen. "And if you pull this off… I volunteer. Let me fight for Equestria." "By doing this, Shining Armor, you are already fighting for it." Chrysalis lifted her hoof and clopped the big stallion's one. "Back with us?" She turned her head to face Cadance. "Your feeding doesn't hurt, doesn't leave any marks." Cadance took a deep breath. "You have my word, I stand with Shiny in this. Wait, I am not enough to feed all of you, am I?" "I am treating the rest well. Would you like to see them?" Chrysalis shook her head. "I never could keep anything from you forever. Come on, might as well meet them." Shining was a little struck down about his choices, his mind raced with what he had done. I agreed to this, I am a traitor… a traitor or a patriot. All those plans, and all of them hinged on us giving in. "Chryssi, what if I had said 'no'?" "There are plans for that, Shining, it would have been… depending on the situation I would have had a lot of lives resting on every action. With you both there, I can do this without the mess, the pain." Chrysalis turned and gave her friend a smile. "Thank you." "Sweet Celestia…" Cadance stared out of the little cave they had been wandering through, out into a huge, brightly lit cavern. There were changelings everywhere, training, teaching. "That is them?" She pointed at a large group of ponies. "No, they are practicing disguises." Chrysalis giggled. "Over there." She pointed at a group of ponies, looking relaxed, talking with some changelings. Cadance energized her magic again as they approached the group. "Pony Joe?" She inspected the pony as best she could while still keeping abreast of the conversation. "Your Highness, long time no see." Joe had a changeling working their hooves into his back, helping him relax. "Uh, not to sound stupid, but you are the real princess?" It was impossible to find a fault in his auras, although Cadance could see quite a lot of love flowing from the merchant into the creature helping him relax. "I am, Joe. You want out of here?" "Out? Are you kidding? Chrysalis said she needed some help, let me train up one of her little-uns to work in my shop for a few days a week. And I get to finally have a break." Joe's eyes closed a little as more tension—and more than a little love—was worked from him by the talented drone. Chrysalis snorted at the surprise on her friends' faces. "You thought I was foalnapping ponies and what, stuffing them in pods? I like Joe, he gave me free shakes remember?" She reached out her hoof and bopped it against the one Joe had lifted lazily. "I opened a spa, ponies come to relax, I offer them a three week holiday and they jump at it." "A spa? But… your foals aren't exactly… normal… looking…" Cadance waved at the drone still working away on Joe. "They would have panicked!" "By the time they see my drones uncovered they are already relaxed, and calming further. A little nibble and the pony would give off even more love, but we don't need that, plenty are donating." Chrysalis turned and gestured to the other scattered ponies. Some relaxed and calmly stretched out, others had attendants working on them. "Now not to brag or anything, but there are going to be a lot of changelings needing food soon, it would be so much easier if a good chunk of Canterlot already are happy to be taken care of." "And after this… thing?" Cadance looked askance at the surrounding ponies. "What then?" "Then? Then I will ask everypony to just relax, to treat my little ones as any other pony. You can see that it doesn't hurt, you know that it doesn't hurt." Chrysalis gestured upwards. "The days will be perfect, you will see." ~~~~~+++++~~~~~ "Mi Amore Cadenza?" Princess Celestia's voice broke through Cadance's distraction, court had just finished and it had been a boring one for all involved. "Yes, Princess Celestia?" Cadance couldn't help thinking of all Chrysalis had told her, seeing more of her words' clarity in everything Celestia did. She is simply amazing to watch when handling internal affairs. I really hope nothing else external happens before Chryssi… am I really hoping for this now? "Please, call me Auntie." Celestia narrowed her eyes. "The nobles seem a little restless, and I think their emotions mirror the populace." She adjusted the one cushion that was a concession to the firm seat of the throne. "Auntie," Cadance gave a sigh, yet she was always sure to call me by my full name, "I can see that, they are upset about how Discord was handled, maybe…" "Luna." Celestia knew what the problem was. "I know I have… a bit of a temper when I see somepony talking about her problems, am I really that bad?" "A little. Why don't you have a parade or a party? I don't suppose Luna's birthday is soon?" It was her hope—a fervent hope—that maybe Celestia would see the light with these attacks, but all Cadance could do was nod along and try to put suggestions up. "I had one idea. You and Shining Armor have been together for quite some time now." Celestia smiled to her protegee. "Have you considered marriage?" "A royal wedding?" Cadance was brought up short, unsure how to respond. "Well, I did want to ask him, but only once he was Captain…" "Done then." Celestia grinned. "How do you feel about next month?" "N-N-Next month?" Backed into a corner, Cadance railed against the idea. "Why so soon? They would be just as delighted with an announcement that we would be married in a year… maybe more." "I think it needs to be sooner rather than later. Things are not getting any more calm. If next month is too soon, what about the month after?" Celestia blinked, although only one eye was visible to Princess Cadance. She spotted the mare's panic still riding her, "assuming you want to marry him…" "Of course I do!" Cadance felt backed into a corner, both politically and emotionally. "Two months… got it… I have so many friends to tell!"