An Alternate Ending to A Canterlot Wedding

by MeadowRosePony

Betrayal

Shining Armor peered around the corner. They had found what looked like a throne room. Emphasis on the evil décor. And he really wasn't liking the double thrones. He was going to have to have a serious conversation with Discord once he found him.

After sealing him in stone. And throwing him in the dungeon. And burning down the dungeon. And burying the burnt out dungeon. With 40,000 pounds of gems. And then getting a fully grown dragon to sleep on the pile. Maybe they should relocate the dungeons first...

This cavern should work. What type of paperwork would need to be filled out for permission to blow up a crystal field beneath the capital city?

Shining Armor's next few hoofsteps sounded suspiciously like stomps as he swore (almost) silently. He couldn't risk shockwaves setting off earthquakes in heavily populated civilian areas. But he really hated these caverns...

Maybe he should just start ranting now. Shining Armor was pretty sure Discord was just waiting for an opportune moment to poof in and start mocking them.

"Hey Silver Shield?"

"Yes, Rainbow Dash?"

"Have you done this sort of thing often?"

"You mean search and rescue? Or fueling my impending court-martial for disregarding orders and endangering civilians? Or are you perhaps referring to traveling under the city in search of my CO's little sister who's been brainwashed by an egomaniac supervillain?"

"Um... yeah, that one."

"More often than I'd like."

They were able to travel a while longer in peace before Rainbow's need to run her mouth killed the silence. Again. "Hey Silver Shield?"

"Yes, Rainbow Dash?" (Silver Shield was beginning to understand how Shining Armor felt dealing with Bronzewing. Of course, for this to be a truly equal comparison, that meant Applejack would have to take on Cherry Fizzy's role and shut Rainbow up. He was looking forward to it.)

"Exactly how often is more often than you'd like?"

"That's classified." Silver Shield said firmly. 'Mostly because the answer depresses me...'

Discord watched the two groups coming closer to x-marks-the-spot. On their current trajectory, they should reach the center within the hour. It was interesting that Silver Shield had allowed himself to be drawn back into the battle, especially with his orders to retreat, but it wasn't all too surprising. Those kinds were just built for playing the hero.

Oh well. Full points to him for making the game more fun. Maybe he'd even be able to get a bonus round out of this. It could be fun to break up Shining Armor's little posse.

It would be the final stone to crumble his walls.

But maybe he should wait until Twilight can join in the destruction of her brother. After all, destruction is so much sweeter when the revenge is personal.

Discord paused in his musings and looked around. Speaking of Twilight, where is she? She was missing all the fun. Discord set a few things in motion to keep his new friends busy and went to track down his young protégé.

"Ohhh... Twilight?" Discord called*, floating through the halls. "Twi~light...?"

He searched up in the sky and down on the ground
He searched inside and out and all around
He vaguely noticed the time
This had become a nursery rhyme
But Twilight was nowhere to be found

He creeped across ceilings and crawled on the floors
He peered out the windows and peeked through the doors
He dug through potted plants and looked under beds
He turned on lamps off the walls and bulbs in his head
He shifted through closets and shuffled dresser drawers

He peered inside the cupboards
And under squeaky floor boards
He tiptoed across the checkered tiles
Pole-vaulted over spice piles
He challenged the statues and dueled ceremonial swords

He removed every lid from every pan
He unfolded every folding fan
He was feeling quite confused
Don't detectives get three clues?
How come he'd drawn an empty hand?

Well technically they're called claws
Except for his front paw
And his one back hoof
He even opened his mouth
And checked in his maw

He still couldn't find her
When he combed through his fur
And he wrung out his tail
He didn't remember shrinking her down
But he wanted to be sure

He skated through the icebox
He set off all the alarm clocks
He popped into all the paintings
Caused a couple faintings
And just for fun he picked all the locks

This was getting rather ridiculous
Even for a draconaguus
Its beyond past the time
To have ended this rhyme
Sorry... just couldn't resist

Discord froze as the notes of sweet music reached his ears. It sounded like... A victory song.

An evil victory song. Discord had the urge to clap, shout and do loop-de-loops in glee. This was wonderful! He barely held back fireworks as Twilight strode down the corridor. He didn't want to miss this.

Her deep black mane fell in sleek waves around her shoulders that swayed with every step she took. Her bangs were curled and swept to one side, a dark violet stripe holding court in striking contrast to her darkened eyes. Even her smokey grey coat, instead of making her look depressed and washed out, she looked dangerous and intimidating.

It was her body language, Discord decided. Her sly smile. The calculating gleam in her turquoise eyes. Any creature can dress up and any fool can be intimidated. Just look at Nightmare Night.

But only a truly powerful being can make others bow down before them without a word spoken. Confidence, strength, regality... Twilight had it all.

Discord grinned. This was shaping up to be a perfect day indeed. Twilight was finally embracing her role as queen. He snapped his fingers and conjured up the coronation outfit he had designed for her.

...with a little help from Rarity's dairy.

Twilight looked at the dress and raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow. "I think you misunderstand me." She said.
A shimmer of black engulfed the dress and ripped it from his grasp. The dress hurtled across the room before dissolving into a pile of dust that sprinkled down to the marble floor. Discord stared in disbelief at the pile of ashes, an uneasy feeing settling in his liver.

Twilight spun away from her display of destruction with her horn still glowing and smirked, clear derision dripping off her tongue with every step towards him.

Before Discord could do more than gape in disbelief, Twilight had teleported them both out of the crystal caverns. When his head had stopped spinning, aided by his tail, he tried to lift it to see around him. But before Discord could raise his head more than a few inches off the ground, he found himself stopped by a chain around his neck, trapping him to the cold stone floor. More chains were attached to shackles on each of his limbs, and his tail was trapped into some sort of complicated square lock thing.

"Twilight?" Discord frowned. This was certainly an unexpected twist in his plans, but nothing he couldn't work around. He snapped his claws and moved to get up but was yanked to the floor again.

"Wah...?" The chains hadn't vanished when he snapped his claws. He snapped his claws again, focusing on the feeling of freedom, but they still didn't budge. He tried to pull on them and when that didn't work, he tried to slither through them.

"Feeling trapped yet?"

Discord craned his eyes to see Twilight looking down at him, an exaggerated expression of pity on her face. "Poor thing. It really is quite pathetic. You think you're the only one capable of siphoning magic from another creature? All it takes is a little research and anypony could do it. Anypony powerful and as smart as I am, that is." Twilight laughed.

The sound hurt his ears. It wasn't the sweet sound of a villain's successful caper, or even the happy laugh of a delighted friend discovering her new library. This laugh was harsh, cold... and completely insane.

"It's too bad, really. You could have been useful. Oh well." Without so much as a goodbye, Twilight turned on her tail and walked away, leaving him trapped and alone in a cold, dark dungeon of his own making.

Discord fought against his chains until a new voice broke through his struggles.

"It's no use. Twilight has them enchanted, even against powerful magic."

Almost alone. Discord tried to turn to the speaker, but it was difficult with his head chained to the floor. But that voice sounded familiar. "Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, is it?"

"Just Cadance. I do believe the time for formalities has passed, seeing as we're currently in the same boat. Or dungeon, I suppose." Cadance said calmly.

"Yes, I think you're right. Temporary truce then?" Discord offered, some of his original charm showing through past the distress in his voice.

"I really don't think we have much of a choice. Truce."

They fell silent as they both pondered their situations.

It was Cadance who finally broke the silence with a dry laugh."You know, I really didn't think this was how I was going to spend my wedding day."

"At this rate, I don't think you're ever going to get married. Have you considered eloping?" Discord suggested.

"At least this time, I don't have to worry about my captor stealing my stallion."

"No. That would be weird, wouldn't it? I believe Twilight's plans include revenge and world domination, but not a wedding. That was solely a Chryssi thing. So don't worry. Your stallion may be completely and utterly destroyed and possibly wiped from the face of Equestria, but at least you won't have to worry about another mare, right?"

It really shouldn't have surprised Discord when his speech was met only with a sigh.

"Was that really your attempt at a pep talk, or are you forgetting our truce already?"

"No, I'm just naturally aggravating. Its one of my personal charms."
Discord heard jangles, which he assumed were from Cadance shaking her head. "I suppose I should only expect that."

It was much later, Discord thought, when their conversation ceased and Cadance fell asleep. They had tried everything they could think of to escape, and eventually had been driven by sheer boredom into sharing their life stories with each other. Or at least parts of them. There was only so much talking they could do in a few hours or so, and Discord had been alive for millennia.

But Cadance's tales teenage exploits were highly amusing. And possibly blackmail worthy. He might have to examine that angle if they ever got out of this dungeon.

Unless that was covered under the truce. Discord had a sneaking suspicion it was, but truthfully he wasn't too disappointed. It had been nice to have a conversation with somepony without them being trapped into it. At least, not by him. So why did he ache so much?

Power, strength, regality... Twilight had it. But it wasn't enough. Was it funny that he found that he'd rather have Cadance ruling on the thrown and Twilight talking with him? Minus the dungeon of course. Maybe... But it wasn't funny ha-ha. This was the funny that made his growing liver-ache pain him all the worse.

Twilight was broken. And she didn't even know it.

Up on the turret of the castle, Twilight Sparkle looked out across the Everfree Forest. A storm appeared to be brewing, helped of course, by her new chaotic powers. Courtesy of her newest guest. Twilight almost wished it hadn't been necessary to leave Discord trapped in the dungeon. After all, it was thanks to him that she had realized her full potential as Equestria's true ruler. But she couldn't have him interfering with her plans.

After tonight, all of Equestria would bow down before her. And the rest of the world would soon follow.

(*You might be wondering how nopony else seemed to be hearing him. The answer is simple: Magic. Yes, I did go there.)