Spike and Cadance approached the castle halls, ready to put an end to their misery, once and for all.
“Oh, that’s so crazy!” Cadance said as they walked into the entrance hall of her home. “So that’s what happened to your parents. How come you or Celestia never went out to sea to look for them?”
“Well,” Spike said, “that was when we first moved to Ponyville and I couldn’t be bothered with anything that wasn’t spicy Power Ponies fanfiction. You know how it is.”
“Hehe, I get you, Spike. But, you know—” Cadance cut herself off and sniffed the air. “I feel a disturbance in the force.”
Spike tried his hoof at sniffing the room. “Uh, what? I got nothing. But somepony around here does need to take a shower. You might wanna give your guards a break sometime soon.”
“Hush,” she said, thrusting a hoof over his mouth. “There’s something going on here. Something fishy.”
Spike knocked the hoof away and smelled again. “Well, it has been awhile since you’ve taken a shower, too.” A slap to the back of the head shut him up rather quickly.
“Hold on a minute,” Cadance said, walking over to a poor, unsuspecting guard. “You!”
The guard instantly saluted. “Yes, ma’am!”
“You’re going to tell me where Shining Armor and Rarity are and you’re going to do it right now.” Cadance looked at him with a gaze would could pierce through armor. "Tell me what I need to know."
The guard took in a futile gulp of air. “Uh, well, uh…”
“Tell. Me. Now.”
The guard cowered to the ground. “I can’t say for sure, but I think I saw them head off toward the spa room, your Highness. Please don’t hurt me. I'm an accomplished fanfiction writer!”
A fire burned in Cadance’s eyes. A fire that not even the biggest pails of water and suffocation could extinguish.
“Spike, follow me!”
Spike raised a claw to protest, but found himself engulfed in an aura of magic and placed onto Cadance’s back. “I guess we’re going this way.”
Cadance couldn't see anything but red as she stormed through the room. “Heads will roll…”
Rarity hummed peacefully from underneath her cucumber eye covers.
“See, Shining. I figured that a nice relaxing day at the spa would be just what you needed with all that’s going on.” Over to her left, Shining shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He lifted his cucumber up.
“I don’t know, Rarity. I feel… this weird disturbance.” He said sniffing the air. The air smelled... staticky. Rarity laughed, and rolled over on her back, crystal spa ponies started massaging her.
“Does that feel good?” the spa pony asked her.
“It feels divine. You’ve no idea what kind of stress I’ve been going through.”
Another spa pony moved towards Shining, offering the same massage, but he waved him off. Shining ripped off the cucumbers and slid out of the spa chair. He scanned the room and found a few glasses of water on the checkout counter. He moved really close and lined his eyes against the glass.
It shook ever so slightly.
"Um. Rarity?" He called out. She sighed with delight. "Rarity, I think we should..."
Rarity shushed him, voice vibrating as the spa pony struck his hooves against her back. He turned around and checked the water again, it shook with more intensity. An employee came up behind him and urged him back to his chair.
"Wait stop," he said, "Do you... hear that?"
The chandelier above rattled suddenly, the water below splashed up the sides of the cup. He jumped to Rarity's side and started urging her to get up. Rarity smacked his hooves away.
"Shining, darling the whole point of coming to the spa today was to relax, and enjoy a little bit of alone time to think of what we'll do when Spike and Cadance return. Now sit down and—"
The entire room shook violently. Bottles of oil, perfume and other spa essentials fell to the floor from their stands. The various spa ponies were speaking with raised concern. Shining lifted Rarity from her seat and into the air.
"Rarity, there's something wro—"
The next time the room shook, Rarity panicked. She thrashed in the air and broke free of Shining's magical grip landing right on top him. They fell to the ground, Shining on his back and Rarity across his chest.
"Oh dear, Shining. I—" She couldn't finish the sentence. The door to the spa exploded, wood flying every direction. Spa ponies ducked out of the way of the debris while Shining rolled over and held his body over Rarity's to protect her. Heavy amounts of dust and smoke filled their lungs.
"What in the world?" Shining coughed. He stared at the door waiting for the smoke to clear to see who was attacking the royal spa. "Who dares—"
A sudden gust of air blew around the room and the smoke escaped into the hallway past the door. Shining gasped as it was revealed that it was his wife with Spike upon her back. The Princess emitted a mighty howl to the heavens upon finding her prey.
"RARITY??"
The cucumbers fell from Rarity's eyes and she shoved Shining off of her with a surprising amount of Strength. The prince fell back a few feet... and outside of Cadance's tunnel vision.
"Candance!" Rarity squeaked. "It's not what you think! We only were trying to relax but then the room started shaking and was totally ruining the moment of relaxation when Shining got scared and gently picked me up and..." She trailed off. Spike quickly and silently hopped off of Cadance's back, and ran towards Shining Armor who lifted himself up from the debris and dusted himself off.
"Spike, what is going on?"
From the doorway, Cadance shot a blast of pink light at Rarity, who swiftly jumped out of its way. The light hit the bed Rarity was laying on and instantly disintegrated it. Rarity in turn levitated several bottles of massaging oil and threw them at the princess, completely coating her in the slippery liquid. As Cadance took a step forward she slipped across the floor, and crashed right into Rarity.
"Spike!" Shining complained, "Can you stop your wife before she hurts Cadance!"
"Uh, dude... can you?" Spike said, pointing at Cadance as she stood up and shot another beam at Rarity. She ducked and the light collided with a crystal pony, turning him into a chocolate bar.
"Yeah... I'm going to sit this one out." Shining whispered.
Rarity rolled away from another one of Cadance's blasts, throwing out insults.
"It would appear your aim is just as good as your confidence in Shining Armor, Cadance!" She yelled whilst throwing a hair dryer at Cadance who swatted it away with ease.
"I don't know why I was so mad at Shining Armor. I should've known he wouldn't go for an airhead, ragged dress designing floozy from Ponyville! It's not the Saphirum thing causing this discord in my home, it's you!" She answered back, shooting a small arc of pink lightning that Rarity had to dive behind the checkout counter to avoid.
“Did somepony call for me?” Discord appeared in a flash of bright light, smiling. He then took one moment to survey the war going on. “Yeah, you two look buys. I’ll just come back later.” He then disappeared into the same flash of light from whence he came.
Rarity poked her head up from behind the counter. "Ragged?" she pouted. Cadance blasted the counter into dust.
Spike was still hiding in the corner of the room with Shining, who was eating from a small bag of complimentary popcorn that the Spa was giving out that day. Spike snatched it from Shining's grip.
"Really? Come on, man we need to stop Cadance before she kills Rarity," Spike said. Shining ripped the back away from Spike and threw a hoof full of popcorn into his mouth.
"Look, when I'm scared I eat, alright! I have a problem!" Shining mumbled between chews. Spike slapped his claw against his forehead. He started to charge forward, calling Cadance's name and ordering her to stop. Cadance turned at the outburst and glared at Spike, her eyes were glowing with a pink aura, her voice in response sounded doubled.
"Stay back!"
Spike jumped backwards and turned to Shining.
"Gimme some of that popcorn," he said voice cracking.
Rarity threw some contests from a nearby trash can at Cadance, then threw the trash can itself. It bounced off her head and Cadance belted out a vicious snarl with rage.
"Get out of my empire!!"
She grabbed hold of Rarity and lifted her high into the air. Rarity winced and fidgeted, crying out for Spike's help. The dragon snapped out of his fear and threw his popcorn aside. He jumped on Cadance's back and grabbed her horn in claw, as soon he made contact there was sizzling sound and Rarity was released from her grip. He wailed in pain.
"Cadance, stop this! That voice... that isn't you! That's Saphirum, you can't let her gain control."
Cadance reared upwards, throwing Spike from her back. She turned to face Spike and her husband who jumped at her sudden attention. Her voice was heavy with unnatural distortion.
"You will free me, Shining Armor. And we can be together forever." Her horn illuminated with a dark pink light and the entire castle started to shake. Spike ran to Rarity's side and brushed some of her hair away from her face. She was unconscious, but still breathing. Shining was being pulled into Cadance completely encased in the pink glow. He was attempting to shield himself but the demonic Goddess’ power was too much.
"Free me, Shining Armor! Bring me back and witness my power over love and dominance. We will rule all, feeding off their love and jealousy, in turn becoming strong enough that even the old gods couldn't stop us!" Shining blasted her horn with a beam of light but it bounced off, hitting the bar of chocolate on the ground and reverting it back to a crystal pony who screamed and ran away.
"Cadance, yo-you aren't yourself. Please!" He was suddenly lifted off his hooves yanked towards the door. Encased in a magenta light.
"ENOUGH" Twilight Sparkle yelled, flashing an immense blinding light at Cadance. Cadance collapsed as the spell was broken. Twilight dropped her brother, and ran to Cadance's side.
"No no no no," Twilight cried out, checking for a pulse. When she found it she breathed a sigh of relief. She then took a quick look around the room before shooting out another beam of magic into the middle of the room. After a moment everything that was destroyed started to revert back to the way it was before Cadance's rampage. She nodded at Spike who was carrying Rarity and then pleaded to Shining. "We need to get her down into the Saphirum. Right now!”
Shining took a moment to rub his head. “Wait, will somepony please tell me what’s happening! All I know is my wife just tried to butcher Rarity and almost myself in the crossfire, and now you’re trying to tell us we need to take her to that stupid room that might be causing all of this!”
“Shining,” Twilight said, placing a hoof on her brother’s shoulder. “The thing inside of your wife is beginning to take full control of her. But, if we can destroy that crystal remnant in that room, we might be able to set things straight. There’s no guarantees about anything right now, but it’s our best bet. So, unless you want to wake up as stallion flambe with a side of Rarity sauce in the near future, you need to trust me! Okay?”
Shining shook his head before taking a deep breath. “Okay, let’s try it.” He looked at his wife, the mare he once felt so in love with, the mare he hardly recognized at the moment. “Let’s wreck that bitch!”
“That’s the spirit!” Twilight said. “Profane, but spirited. I can tell you love her, Shining. Please, just trust that this is for the best. We’ll find a way to fix her.”
“That’s nice and all,” Spike said from the doorway of the room, “but can we please save the inspirational chit-chat for when we get there? You know, before Ms. Menstrual Rage and her twin sister come to and kill us all!”
Twilight and Shining nodded. Shining grabbed his wife and Twilight led the way. They were going to where it all started, and with any luck and little magic, everything might go back to normal.
Or so they hoped....