//------------------------------// // Destruction // Story: A Scratch On Shining Armor // by BaeroRemedy //------------------------------// “Sometimes you hit a point where you either change or self destruct.” -Sam Stevens “Alright, Twinkle.” Vinyl read the card in her magical grasp once again just to make sure she had it down. This was for all of the marbles, they were all three in the center of the board and whoever got their last question correct won the game. It had been a brutal game of Banal Objective, with each pony coming out strong and answering each pony’s correct answer with one of their own. The only time there was an opening was when one pony slipped and trusted their gut too much. Vinyl was hoping that Twinkle would fall here and she could claim victory. “What Nineteen Eighty-Three musical featured three high school mares with the same names and followed a plot about a romance gone wrong, murder, and teen angst?” See, Vinyl and Twily had decided to attack Twinkle at his weakest subject: entertainment. He hadn’t been awful at it, but it had been the category he had struggled with the most. Especially when it came to stage shows and radio productions. Comic books and novels had been his strong points, though. “I know this!” Twinkle responded through a clenched jaw. “Aww, come on.” The stallion tapped his hoof against the coffee table. “We did this musical in high school! I was one of the jocks!” Vinyl catalogued that one away for later, those characters didn’t exactly have a happy ending. “Why can’t I remember it?!” There was genuine frustration there, like real strife. Vinyl kinda figured Twinkle was a competitive pony, but damn. “I can’t remember…” the stallion said with a sigh. “I don’t know, I give up.” “It’s ‘Feathers’, dummy.” Vinyl put the card into the holder it came from with a smile. “I love that musical.” Vinyl saw Twinkle knock his head with his hoof and groan in disappointment. “Sorry, Twinkle. Looks like you might lose this one.” Vinyl knew that they were going to come at her with a magic category question, and that she would probably get it wrong. Her main concern was getting Twily to mess up and give the two adults another go around. A knock at the door halted any thoughts of continuing with the game. At first, Twinkle stood up but Vinyl pulled herself up from the floor and motioned for him to sit back down. This was still her house, she could answer the door herself. Quickly, she crossed the living room and opened the door without even checking who it was first. The face on the other side may have been an unwelcome sight for Twinkle, but Vinyl couldn’t help but smile when she saw Twilight Velvet. Briefly, Vinyl wondered how the mare knew where she lived, but chalked it up to Twinkle needing to let her know. “Hi, Mrs. Velvet!” Vinyl said with a smile as she ushered the mare in. There was something off, something panicked about the mother of Vinyl’s guests. She looked distressed and exhausted, like she had just run a marathon while being chased by angry bulls. “What brings you here tonight?” “Mom?” Both of the ponies around the coffee table said as they rose to their hooves. Both of them rushed over to the mare and looked her over worriedly. Twinkle spoke first. “Mom, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you at the castle?” Hmm, Vinyl hadn’t really thought of that. From what Twily had told them, nopony essential was to leave the Palace. That included Twilight Velvet. So what was going on? “Twilight, dear.” Velvet looked to her daughter, forcing a strained smile. “I need you to please contact Princess Celestia for me somehow while I talk to your brother.” Twily cocked her head to the side and her lip started quivering. “M-mom what’s going on?” Velvet seemed to snap to her senses, her motherly instincts kicking in. She quickly got down on her daughter’s level and embraced her tenderly, it was a warm, yet tense moment that Vinyl knew wouldn’t last. “Mom, I’m scared…” “It’s okay. Something’s just come up and we all might need to leave Canterlot for a bit. I’ll explain everything in just a little while, first I really need you to get ahold of Princess Celestia somehow. Did she give you anything to do that with?” Velvet wiped the sweat from her brow and looked at the filly with a hopeful gaze. “She gave me a scroll that’s linked to one she keeps by her at all times.” The filly levitated her backpack over and pulled a glowing golden scroll from it. “But I can only use it once and she said to use it only if it’s an emergency.” By the way Velvet was acting, it sure seemed like an emergency. “Get everything ready for that, please. I’ll be with you in just a minute, I need to speak with your brother first.” Twily went over to the coffee table and began setting up an area to write at, moving the boardgame from its place and retrieving her ink and quill from their places. “Shiny, I really don’t think you should stick around here.” That message sent a chill up Vinyl’s spine, it was ominous and full of potential danger. “Mom, what in Celestia’s name is going on?” Shining demanded of his mother in a harsh whisper. “You can’t just come in here panicking Twily and me like that without explaining.” His glare lessened once he realized who he was talking to. With a sigh, the stallion closed his eyes for a second and calmed himself. “Please, tell me what happened.” “Cadance tried to cast a spell on me.” Vinyl’s heart nearly broke in two. After the really good talk they had earlier, she had gone and done something stupid again? Vinyl thought that the Princess was past that stuff by now, she thought that Cadance had learned from her mistake. “What.” It wasn’t a question that came from Shining Armor, it was an expression of rage. Vinyl swore that the guard was going to turn as red as a cherry if he wasn’t careful. “How…what did she do? How did you escape it?” Shakily, Velvet moved her mane to the side and pointed at a faintly glowing piece of jewelry embedded at the very base of her ear. It was golden and intricate, certainly filled with some sort of magic. “After you told me what she did to you and Vinyl, I decided to…invest in some enchantments.” Velvet shook her head, as if clearing out a thought or an idea. “It doesn’t nullify the spell, it just scrambles it and makes it less effective.” That’s what Vinyl saw in Velvet’s eyes, a fight. The mare was fighting whatever command Cadance had put in there and it was taking its toll pretty heavily. Alicorn magic couldn’t be easy to combat, even with help. “Cadance, I think she’s coming here and I don’t think she’s leaving until she’s cast a spell on everypony in this room to make them forget about what she’s done.” Velvet shook her head slightly and looked at Twilight. “I’m going to tell Celestia about this, and then take Twilight and your father out of the city until something is done about her.” “Isn’t this kinda drastic?” Vinyl wasn’t usually one to stick up for somepony who had wronged her, but this was an extenuating circumstance and she felt like she had to give Cadance some benefit of the doubt. “Cadance already apologized to both of us for what she did, we’ve already made peace with her for the most part. Maybe she overreacted when she tried to cast a spell on you, but sometimes we make mistakes. I’m sure we can just talk this out and calm everypony down.” ---- Shining was breaking on the inside. Aside from the building rage he felt at Cadance for casting a spell on his mother, now Vinyl was actually defending her! Vinyl, the one pony who had arguably been wronged by her almost as much as Shining himself! It all just really hurt, it was too much. “No, Scratch.” Shining shook his head. “I don’t think we can try to talk her out of whatever it is she wants to do.” Shining was just letting himself go on autopilot and ignoring the possible consequences. “She’s burning every bridge she comes across, and I should’ve done something about it sooner.” Shining felt profoundly guilty in that moment, the kind of existential guilt that made you question your own validity in the world around you. He was supposed to be a royal guard! Virtuous, noble, pure, uncompromising. But now, after everything that had happened, he felt…equine. He didn’t feel pure or uncompromising, he just felt like any other pony who had made a mistake. “We talked to her earlier, and my talk went okay.” Vinyl retorted. “Yours ended in a spat but, like you said, your emotions are kind of raw.” The light hoof placed on his shoulder and the pleading magenta eyes did not help him any, it did not help his conscious one little bit. Any happiness that Vinyl had derived in the past few hours was a lie, it was amplified and supplemented by something that wasn’t supposed to be in her head. It was all manufactured and she didn’t have a clue, and it was all because of him. “I’m sorry, Vinyl…” Shining fell to his haunches and closed his eyes. His ever-increasing heartbeat and flurry of thoughts brought about the onset of an anxiety attack. Everything was crumbling now, even the things he thought were safe. Every little lie and word was collapsing in on itself and suffocating him under a mountain of consequences and harsh reality. “This is…this all my fault.” He looked up at Vinyl, tears forming in his eyes. “I let this happen.” He had practically been married to power, he had been blinded to it by sheer proximity. He had allowed the truth of what Cadance could do, what she was capable of, to just pass him by at every chance. He had seen her make ponies love each other before, he had even seen her help raise the sun before. He just let that kind of raw power be near him, let it develop attachments to him. Now how was he supposed to stop it? How in the hell do you stop an impure god set on bending ponies to her will? “There was nothing you could’ve done, Shining.” He felt Vinyl’s cheek press against his own. “You broke up with her, you even tried to talk to her. What else could you have done?” Shining had to tell her now, he had to ruin everything he had built with Vinyl at this very instant. “I…” His words and breath caught in his throat, as if his vocal chords were fighting him to not say anything. “I let her hurt you, Vinyl.” That was it, the floodgates were open and the truth washed over the mare in front of him. “She didn’t talk to you earlier, she cast a spell on you, a very powerful mind-control one. More powerful than anything she ever used on me. I sensed it as soon as you came out of her room, I knew all day. I just…I couldn’t tell you.” The look of betrayal in Vinyl’s eyes cut Shining’s soul free from his body, emptying his lungs and leaving him feeling lifeless. It wasn’t supposed to be revealed like this, it wasn’t supposed to happen like this! “What..?” Vinyl stood up and backed away from Shining. “What-what did she do to me?” Vinyl slammed her hoof into the floor, causing the shelves on the wall to shake from the impact. “What did she do to me, Shining?!” His mother walked over to Twilight to avoid the conflict and ushered the filly into one of the bedrooms. Good, Shining didn’t want either of them to hear any of this. Especially Twilight. Twily’s perception of Cadance couldn’t be shattered by him, it had to be Cadance or Celestia to do that. “She just…she told you to be happy. She told you ignore everything that made you sad and just to be happy.” Shining shook his head. “I-I couldn’t tell you, I couldn’t. You looked…you looked so genuinely happy, you looked refreshed and free.” Shining collapsed from the weight of the truth and started to break down. “I messed up, I should’ve told you. I should’ve told Celestia. I should’ve told Galea. I just couldn’t take that happiness away from you, Vinyl. I didn’t want to be just another pony who had ripped something good away from you, even if it was done to you in a bad way.” He felt broken, he felt useless and lost. He had tried his best to make sure everything happened in the right way, he had tried. “I-” Vinyl closed her eyes and focused, trying to figure out what she was really feeling. Shining could see the internal fight laid out clearly on her exterior, the tensed posture and scrunched up face in contained anger. “I-It’s-I forgive you, Twinkle.” Shining looked at Vinyl incredulously, no way this was Vinyl talking. It had to be the spell. “Believe it or not, you're the first pony in a decade to even try and really help me. Sky, Uncle B, even my friends who all came and went, they all tried to talk, but they never tried to help. They never forced me to confront all of the bullshit in my life like you have. I think you’ve done enough for me that I can forgive a surge of shitty judgement at least once, right?” Shining stood up and wiped the tears from his eyes, he kept his gaze to the floor. He still couldn’t look her in the eyes. Not that he had a choice in the end, Vinyl used her hoof to raise his chin. Behind her eyes was the kind of inexorable sadness that Shining knew from Vinyl. It was masked by a light sheen of happiness, but it was still there. She may be a bit happier, but this was still Vinyl. She still made this decision to forgive him, it may have been influenced, but he thought that this one was one-hundred percent Vinyl. “It’ll be okay, Twinkle.” Vinyl said with a reassuring smile as she planted a kiss on his cheek. “We just have to figure out a way to get a princess bent on making you hers to stop and leave you alone forever. How hard can it be?” There was the wit Shining knew and loved, it brought a small smile to his face. “What’s the plan?” “Leave.” That was Shining’s one and only plan, just high-tail it out of the apartment and get away from this part of town. He didn’t know if Cadance could track ponies like some guards could, but he hoped that she did not have that particular skill. “We need to get as far away from this apartment as we can and hide out somewhere until Celestia can talk Cadance down.” “You really think Celestia can convince her to back down?” Vinyl asked, worry clouding her face. “I mean, what happens if she can’t?” Vinyl was worrying over nothing. If there was one pony in the entire universe that could stop Cadance from doing something, it was a much more powerful and older alicorn. “It’s Princess Celestia. She’ll see that what Cadance is doing is wrong and fix it. Celestia always does the right thing, that’s her thing.” Shining knew that Celestia was the more virtuous of the two alicorns and the more level headed. She would see Cadance corrected, as long as she got the letter before Cadance left the palace. “Well where should we go?” That question was much more difficult to answer. Shining had friends in Canterlot, but none of them were exactly the social kind who would accept guests on such a short notice. He couldn’t go to his parents’ house, that would be the next place Cadance would look. Well, there was one option that was a bit of a long shot, but Shining knew that he could never say no. “Soarin.” Shining was pretty confident with that answer. “I know the apartments where the Wonderbolts stay when they’re training, and I don’t think he’ll refuse if I say it’s urgent.” Maybe it was imposing a little on the pegasus, but Shining knew that the Wonderbolt would agree with a smile and a joke. That was just his style. “Shining, we’ve sent the letter to Princess Celestia.” His mother and sister came out of the guest room he had been staying in. The first thing he noticed was Twilight’s hanging head and tear-filled eyes. Mom had told her about Cadance, about what her foalsitter had done. “We’re going to go home and get your father.” Velvet approached Shining and pulled him into a deep embrace. “We’re going to Baltimare for a few days to wait this out. Please please contact me when it’s all over.” Shining nodded as he hugged his mother, wondering just how long this mess would take to sort out. How long until they could come back without the fear of Cadance casting spells on them all to make things go the way she wanted. How long would it be until Shining could guarantee his family that kind of safety? The questions only made him hug his mother tighter. “Twily…” He addressed his little sister once he pulled himself away from Velvet. He put a hoof on the filly’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay, alright?” He couldn’t promise that, but he could at least try to convince her of that fact. “Princess Celestia will sort this all out and everything will go back to normal.” “No it won’t,” Twilight replied, her voice low and defeated. “How can somepony use magic like that? Magic is supposed to help us make our lives easier, not make others’ harder. How could she hurt you guys like that?” Shining’s shoulder sagged, he didn’t really have a response to that. Twilight looked to Vinyl, a faint glow of determination in her eyes. “I’m sorry for what happened to you, Vinyl. I promise that I’ll make sure it never happens to anypony else ever again.” “Don’t worry about it, Squirt.” Vinyl said, lowering herself to Twily’s level. “You focus on becoming the best magician in Equestria before you start worrying about me, alright? I’m going to have your brother worrying about me for a decade now if I’m lucky.” Vinyl smiled and stood back up and looked at Velvet. “Take care, both of you.” “You too, Vinyl Scratch,” Velvet responded as she trotted to the door with Twilight in tow. “Shining, please be careful and leave as soon as you can.” Shining nodded and followed his family to the door. He gave them both a final hug and saw them on their way. It hurt to see them so scared to the point of fleeing the only city they had called home. The question of whether he could have stopped this still raced through his head and kept the guilt flowing. “Should we get going, Twinkle?” Vinyl asked him, breaking him out of whatever stupor he had been in. “Do you need to get your armor on first?” It would take too much time, really. Plus it would make him an easier target to pick out. “No, better to go without. It would just slow me down.” Shining sighed and steeled himself. Trying to run from an alicorn for fear of being mind-controlled was not a thing he ever thought he would do. “Grab whatever you need and we’ll get going.” Tonight was going to be very stressful, Shining could feel it. ---- Cadance sat atop a roof that overlooked Vinyl’s apartment building. Pale moonlight bathed the streets in an eerie dim light and illuminated the edifices around her. Her eyes were fixed on the window she knew to be Vinyl’s. Lights were still on inside and silhouettes of ponies moved in front of the light. That wouldn’t do. Cadance had decided that a direct confrontation would be bad, Shining would be able to talk her down and guilt-trip her. She couldn’t let that happen this time, she needed to make sure she could get everything back to normal without any roadblocks. So to circumvent that, she would sneak in when they were asleep and cast spells on them then. Simple, clean, no fighting back. It would set everything right in less than an hour and everypony could go back to being happy. Lights switched off in the apartment, even the one in Vinyl’s room. Cadance waited a good ten minutes, her vision focused intently on the bedroom where Vinyl and Shining both might be. Once she was satisfied that the ponies in the house were either asleep or drifting, she alighted from her perch and glided over to the window. Cadance couldn’t see anything in the pitch black room, not even movement. As quietly as she could, she grasped the lock on the other side of the window with her magic and dislodged it. If she knew a muffling spell, it would be helpful here, but that wasn’t the case. She would just have to take it slow. So that’s what she did. With great patience and care, she slowly slid the window open until there was enough room for her to slide in with the help of some slight levitation magic. Once inside she made her way to the bed and lit her horn up once more. The room was illuminated in a soft blue light, revealing everything to Cadance. Nopony was here. The room was cluttered and messy, the bedspread tossed to one side with no Vinyl underneath them. That was not a good thing. Cadance frowned as she trudged across the room and opened the door that led to the main living space. Not a light was on, and nopony was present in this room either. Shining Armor was not sleeping on the couch, nor was Twilight. It was silent, dead and abandoned. To make sure she wasn’t missing anything, Cadance went into the guest room, or Vinyl’s parents’ room, just to make sure. Once again, she came up empty hooved and only found herself angry. “They left,” was her conclusion that did nothing but raise her ire. Somepony had tipped them off that she was coming. After the guards had tried to prevent her from leaving, Cadance could guess that it was one of Shining’s guard buddies. She stomped back to the living room with a scowl on her face and her horn glowing angrily. It was ruined now, the whole plan! It was supposed to be so easy! It was supposed to make everything better! Now she had to wait for them here or go and hunt them down. With how badly things needed to go back to normal, Cadance needed to get this done tonight. It had to be done while Velvet was out of the picture and she could get all three of them in one night. Everypony just had to go and ruin things! They had to make things so complicated when she had the answer for how to fix it! If everypony just treated her like Celestia and let her do what she knew was best, it would make this whole predicament a lot easier. Instead, now she had to find them and do it the hard way. Cadance was still very mad and felt the need to break something, an indulgence she had not given into in a very long time. For years it had been up to her to act proper and keep her poise in every situation. That kind of stress of always being perfect was starting to wear on her. Why was it that she was bound to that kind of pageantry? Celestia had said they were above the regular ponies, that they could do things without repercussions if they didn’t get caught. But why did it matter if they were caught? What could anypony do to them? What punishment could they face? Why were they held to such high standards if no single creature on the planet could hold them to it? It was ridiculous. They could control the sun and moon! It was obvious that they had enough power to do whatever they wanted. Even Celestia had admitted that they knew better than the rest of the world, that they were free t intervene and make decisions without consequence. Well, now Cadance was going to exercise that freedom of power. She knew what Shining needed to be happy, whether he agreed or not. They needed each other for all to be right in the world, she knew that deep down and wanted to make it back to that kind of right. “Don’t worry, Shiny. I’ll find you,” Cadance said to herself as she exited through the window she had entered through. Once outside she opened her wings and took to the skies, her eyes trained on the streets below. Not many ponies were out at this time of night, so the two brilliantly white unicorns with blue manes would be easy to see at a distance. In any situation they would stand out in a crowd if they were side by side. Now in the dead streets of Canterlot at night, they would be easy prey. Cadance knew they had about a ten minute head start, and if they were truly trying to evade her, they would not gallop through the streets. Instead, she had to look down alleys and pay close attention to the shadows to look for any sign of the duo. It wasn’t until Cadance was above the city center that she saw the pair of ponies plodding patiently around the outskirts of the rounded open-air market. Perhaps she beat her wings too heavily, or maybe she cast a shadow, but the two were alerted to her presence. Two pairs of eyes, one magenta and one cobalt, shot up and locked onto her position. “Shiny! I need to talk to you,” she called down to the stalled ponies. ---- Shining Armor threw up a shimmering pink bubble as soon as Cadance started to descend. He didn’t know if the princess knew any spells for specifically breaking his barriers, but it would at least buy them time. “Scratch, I’m going to try and distract her,” Shining said quietly and without turning as Cadance crept ever closer. “When I tell you to, I want you to run. Just run to Soarin’s place and I’ll meet you there. It’s a block and a half away.” It was a supremely dumb idea, because if anypony found out what he was about to do it would lead to him being in a dungeon by sunrise. It was necessary, though. “Okay, I’m going to trust you here, Twinkle. Just don’t get yourself killed or mind controlled, alright?” There was genuine worry and distress in Vinyl’s voice, something that just reminded Shining of everything he had done. He was going to make this right by the end of the night if it cost him everything he held dear. “I promise I’ll be fine, Vinyl.” A hollow promise to be sure, but one that needed to be given. After the promise was made, he turned his full attention back to the alicorn who was now approaching the bubble on hoof. “Shiny, please put down the bubble,” Cadance said, rolling her eyes as if he had made a bad joke. “I just want to talk.” All three of them knew that was a lie, a rather bold one at that. Why did Cadance think they were running if they didn’t know her motives? “You and I must have a different definition of ‘talk’, Cadance. I don’t seem to think that intending to cast a spell on myself, Vinyl, and Twilight counts as talking.” He lowered his stance and put himself between Cadance and Vinyl. “Now I’m only going to tell you once, Cadance. Leave.” He did his best to sound authoritative and menacing, but it was thrown back in his face with a dismissive laugh. “Or what, Shiny?” Cadance asked, a bright smile crossing her features. “Are you going to call the guards on me? Are you going to overpower and try to hurt me?” Every word was dripping with overconfidence, oozing with an air of superiority that Shining had never heard from Cadance before. Something had switched in the alicorn, something had either broken or clicked. For his part, he stayed silent. “Just drop the bubble, Shiny. Drop it and everything can go back to the way it should be, all of this will just be a bad dream you hardly remember.” “What if I don’t want to forget it?” Shining fired back. “Why don’t you think I can be happy without you? What makes you think I would even want you back if you put a spell on me? What you did was wrong, it was sick and I should’ve never let you get away with any of it. I told you before, I’m not ever going to forgive you. I can’t.” Shining narrowed his eyes. “You won’t make me happy now, and I don’t know if you ever really did.” “How dare you.” Cadance stepped closer, her eyes going wide and tears forming at the corners. “I love you, Shiny. I’ve always loved you as much as you loved me. Think back, think of the time we spent together and tell me it wasn’t real.” “I don’t know if it was!” Shining screamed at the top of his lungs. “I don’t know if I was under open of your spells any time I looked at you and thought how beautiful you were! I don’t know if I ever meant it when I said I loved you! I don’t know if anything I ever did when I was around you was because I wanted to do it or because you wanted me to!” Shining was pouring all of his hurt out now, all of his sorrow and disappointment. “That’s all I’ve been thinking about since I figured out what you did to me. How much of it was real? How much of it was genuine and how much was just something you cooked up to make yourself happy? Until I figure it out, I’m just going to assume it was all fake, it was all just some sort of sick control fantasy you’ve been playing out for years.” “It was real to me, Shiny.” Cadance responded quietly, giving no sense of confidence to Shining. Of course it was real to her, she made it real. She conformed all of it to her ideals and made it reality. “Vinyl, when this bubble goes down. Run.” He spoke so quietly that only Vinyl could possibly hear him. He felt a hoof touch his flank, hopefully a signal of affirmation. Shining focused all of his magical energy to the exterior of the barrier, supercharging it with a spell he had learned in crowd control class in the academy. Cadance, in all of her overconfidence, did not back up or even flinch, giving Shining the perfect opportunity. All at once, he made the interior of the bubble go completely dark and detonated the outer shell he had been charging. He heard the ringing of the flashbang spell even from inside of the protective spell, but couldn’t witness the effects. He knew what it did to a pony though, and assuming Cadance had been incapacitated, he dropped the bubble. He didn’t turn, but he heard Vinyl’s hooves as they struck pavement in rapid succession. Now he was too focused on the princess that was on the ground a few feet away, her eyes closed and hooves over her ears. Her wings were flared out as well, each feather standing on end in a display of anger and intimidation. “I can’t-I can’t see!” Cadance cried out as she attempted to clear out her sight by blinking rapidly. Her pupils were the size of pin pricks and not getting any bigger to adjust to the light level. Shining felt something in his gut, something he could not shake. It was pity, it was pain over the thing he had to do. “You’ll be fine, Cadance.” Shining reassured the stunned alicorn. “It will only last a couple of minutes, and you’ll be back to normal.” He sighed and approached Cadance, kneeling just in front of her. “You need to let me go. You need to just move on and accept your mistakes, because you can’t keep this up forever.” He wanted to have some semblance of a friendly relationship with Cadance, even after all of this. He knew that deep down she was a good pony who only made mistakes, just like Vinyl. With time and help she could make amends and rectify her actions. He was willing to help, even if he wasn’t willing to love her anymore. “Why won’t you let me fix this?!” Cadance slammed her hoof into the ground. “Why won’t you let me make this right, Shiny?!” Tears streamed from the alicorn’s currently non-functioning eyes. “Fix it by doing what? Casting a spell on me to make me forget all of this?” Shining shook his head. “It’s too late. My mom knows, Twilight knows, Vinyl knows and is going to tell more ponies. Even Princess Celestia knows. Are you going to cast spells on everypony just to get what you want?” Shining sighed and sat on his haunches, hoping that by just talking to her he could get through. “I-if I have to!” Now Shining wasn’t sure if he could. How do you convince a pony that has had everything they could ever want given to them that there was something they couldn’t ever have? It wasn’t impossible, but it was far too difficult for him. “Go back to the palace, Cadance.” Shining said with a sigh as he stood and turned around. “I can’t help you get past this if you won’t even admit you did something wrong.” Shining took a step, trying to block out the soft sobs coming from the alicorn. “Sh-shiny…?” He did something he knew he would regret, Shining Armor turned to face Cadance. Before he could react, a surge of magic encased him and immobilized every part of his body. “I don’t need my eyes to cast spells…” Shining struggled and fought, even lighting his own horn in an attempt to brute force his way out. Cadance’s aura wouldn’t give, though. Instead of retreating, it only advanced. Tendrils of magic seeped into his body, weaving their way through every vessel and muscle until he felt them worm their way into his mind. The tendrils prodded his memories, searching for specific ones. As they did, each one flashed vividly through his mind and brought back all of the emotions associated with it. His first kiss, first day of training, breaking his leg, meeting Vinyl Scratch. Each one came and went, obviously unimportant to their mistress’ tasks. It wasn’t until he felt one of the tendrils wrap itself tightly around one of his memories and rip it free that he knew what was happening. Whatever memory it was, Shining didn’t know. It didn’t exist anymore. It was a moment, a tender one he would never see again. Now for every moment that passed, another one was taken away and ripped free. “CADENZA!” A voice rang through the streets of Canterlot, booming and dangerous. The light of the moon was replaced with one comparable to that of the sun, as night turned to day in an instant. Shining opened his eyes, tears slipping away from them over the pain of losing something he would never remember. Coming down from the very heavens was the most welcoming sight he had ever seen. Princess Celestia, her wings spread wide and horn generating more light than Shining ever thought possible, descended from on high and hovered above the city center, her eyes burning bright. It was at that moment that every door and window in or near the center were thrown open and ponies streamed out into the open to witness the spectacle of Celestia’s peak power. Cadance looked around, taking in everything that was happening, and dropped Shining Armor from her grasp. Shining collapsed, grasping at things that he knew were important. He came here with someone, he had-he had told them to do something. He had been running from Cadance because she had…done something. Something bad, right? What was it, though? Who was he running from her with? The name was a blank spot, a hole in the fabric of his memories. Cadance had not been gentle nor precise, instead ripping out whatever mention of this other pony she could, and that was terrifying. “Get back to the castle and do not leave your room until I get back.” Celestia touched down, the pavement around her hooves scorching and sizzling from heat. Cadance did not move, instead she cowered away from the monarch before her. “Now.” There was no yelling now, only simple commands spoken in a level tone, which was far more terrifying given the raw output of energy Celestia was exhibiting. “Now.” “I-I-I was just...I was doing what you said, I was trying to do a good thing with my position, my power! I was trying to set it all right! I was trying to stop Shining from self-destructing just like Luna did.” Cadance’s plea was not met with patience and understanding like expected, instead it was met with the most frightening scowl cross Celestia’s place. “Do not even dare compare anything to her.” Celestia spoke slowly. “I never told you to violate every ethics law we have. I never instructed you to take away Vinyl Scratch’s free will and attempt to mind control Twilight Velvet. I never directed you to hunt two innocent ponies down like they were prey so you could rewrite them.” Each word Celestia spoke only raised the volume and intensity in her voice. “Now go back to the castle and wait for me to get you.” Cadance opened her mouth to speak again, but closed it and instead bowed to the older alicorn. Celestia’s eyes tracked Cadance as she flew away towards the palace, then her gaze refocused on Shining Armor. He was still battling with the inescapable gaps left in his memory. Each one only left him feeling more and more confused, more lost and alone. It was like he had lost one of his senses and was now stumbling around blind in his own head. There was a pony shaped hole in his mind, one that only left him anxious and sad. “Shining Armor…” A gentle heat encompassed him, cradling him and helping the stallion to his hooves. “Are you alright?” Shining Armor looked up to the monarch, his eyes wide with worry. “I’m so sorry, Princess.” He mumbled out. “I-I didn’t-I failed. I forgot about…something. Something important.” Shining knocked his head with his hoof. “You told me to do something with somepony, and I-I can’t remember.” That was the worst of it, the sense of failure coming from it all, like he hadn’t protected something he was supposed to. “Shhh…” He felt more magic seep into his mind, this kind much more gentle than the last. It pulsed softly and began to lull him to sleep. “It will all be alright, I will fix this.” With those last words, Shining was pulled into the darkness of unconsciousness. ---- Vinyl stood at the entrance of the Wonderbolts’ apartment building. She had ignored all of the sounds coming from the direction she had left from and tried to push every image of Twinkle out of her head. He could handle himself, he knew what he was doing. She had to keep reminding herself of that. He was a guard after all, nothing could take him down. Right? She sighed and trotted inside of the building. Inside was a simple entryway, a locked elevator on the other side. Between the door and the elevator was a box mounted on the wall with names next to buttons. Vinyl approached the box, found Soarin’s name and pressed the button next to it, eliciting a buzz from the box. “Hello, Soarin speaking.” The voice came from the little box almost immediately. It was the same smooth, almost joking voice that she knew belonged to the stallion who would have to offer her refuge. “Soarin, It’s Vinyl Scratch.” Vinyl spoke into the box. “It’s-It’s an emergency. Shining Armor sent me here and told me you could help.” There was a pause when she was done talking before Soarin spoke again. “Come on up.” The voice lost its mirth instantly as it spoke. Once the connection was terminated, the elevator door opened and allowed Vinyl to enter. Wanting to get safely to her destination as quickly as possible, Vinyl entered the elevator and allowed it to carry her upwards. Once it stopped, she exited and found herself face to face with a single door. As far as she could tell, it was the only door on this entire floor. At least the Wonderbolts were never left wanting anything, she supposed. Approaching the solitary door, she reached out and prepared to knock only to be intercepted by the door opening itself. On the other side was the bluish gray pegasus she knew as Soarin, his usual smile was gone and bags weighed heavily under his eyes. “Is everything okay? Where’s Shining Armor?” The pegasus pulled Vinyl into his very luxurious apartment. She only had a moment or two to observe the rich golden carpets and seemingly real leather furniture before Soarin dominated her line of sight. “Is he okay?” “I hope.” That did nothing but cause the stallion to breathe in sharply. “We think Cadance has lost it. She cast a spell on me earlier, apparently and Velvet, and now we think that she wants to try to mind-control Shining into loving her again.” That was the very short and very sloppy answer. “He distracted her with some kind of flash spell and I think he ran away.” “You think?” Soarin questioned. “I didn’t stay around, alright?” Vinyl responded, guilt creeping into her heart. “He told me to run here while he distracted her, so I did.” Vinyl didn’t like the look Soarin was giving her, it made her feel small and insecure. “What was I supposed to do? I’m just some grade D unicorn, not a super powerful royal guard or an alicorn princess.” “I’m sorry.” Soarin said, putting a hoof to his face. “That was rude of me, I-I’m just worried now is all.” Soarin ushered Vinyl over to one of his sofas, of which he had two, that faced the giant floor-to-ceiling windows that stretched the length of the room. “Join the club…” Vinyl sighed. “I didn’t want to leave him, but he promised me he would be okay. He promised he would get away.” That was the only small comfort she had, a promise. Something she had put no stock in for years, but now she was clinging to. “Well you can stay here.” Soarin said with a smile. “If Shining isn’t back by morning, we’ll go looking. I have a feeling he’ll be at the palace if nothing else.” Well, if he didn’t show, that would mean Cadance had gotten him. So the palace would be the safest bet. She would wait for Shining Armor regardless of the outcome. If Cadance had him, she would wait until something could be done. For now, she would wait for him to come and get her. She would wait for however long it took.