"In fact, I don't think you should come to the wedding at all," Shining Armor said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go comfort my bride."
He said each and every word with a terrifying venom. Twilight watched in sadness as her brother walked off. Twilight knew he meant every word. But the worst part was that her own friends all glared at her as they followed. Spike didn't even look at her as he followed. Celestia walked off, disappointed.
"You have a lot to think about," she said. Twilight was left all alone. Her whole world crumbled before her. She held her head down in sadness, tears streaming down her face. She didn't notice the imposter was behind her.
Chrysalis watched her for a moment. She was contemplating on whether or not to send her down to the caves. But then she thought back to her previous conversation with the Shapeshifter King Adulon. He had insulted her saying that because she is Changeling even she could not infiltrate a grand scale event such as this one. This was Chrysalis' one chance to prove him wrong. Changelings and Shapeshifters had been rivals for centuries, and no one remembered the cause anymore. But they were always one step closer to going to war against each other.
Chrysalis walked off, teleporting back to the bride's room. She didn't care what happened to Twilight. All she knew was that she had gotten her out of the way without slipping up.
Twilight's tears ceased as she looked up in rage, hatred, anger, sadness, and betrayal. Multiple things went through her head at once that caused her to wonder if the Magic of Friendship was even real in the first place at all.
First the "Lesson Zero" Incident where Twilight was worried about getting a tardy and being sent back to Magic Kindergarten, when her friends passed it off as petty, but later promised to do better.
What a load of horseshit, Twilight thought. They promised they would do better, but now they've gone back on their word. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. And shame on me for ever believing they could ever get better. No more chances.
She then thought back to the day she first met her ex-friends. When Celestia sent the letter. When Celestia ultimately said that she had the utter most faith and trust in her. But now, Twilight was starting to think otherwise.
Clearly just words to her, Twilight thought sourly. If she had the utter most faith and trust in me, she would've stayed here. FINE! But I'm not going to be around to tell them "I told you so". Equestria, the Land of Lies and Deceit. Perfect spot for criminals. There are places outside Equestria. The chances of them finding me somewhere in the world are zero to none at all. Not like they'll miss me anyway.
She traveled over to her old ivory tower. She looked around it and saw it had lost its color and was very badly rundown. Twilight stepped on something and looked down. She saw the gift Spike had gotten for Moon Dancer's party. She used her magic to open it and saw it was a picture of her and her old friends from Canterlot, all sitting at a table eating a cupcake. All except for Twilight, who of course had her nose stuck up a book. It broke Twilight's heart knowing she wouldn't even get the chance to say goodbye to Moon Dancer ever. Twilight used her a magic to grab a nearby card, a quill, and some ink and began writing on the card.
Cadence lied down on her stomach, weak, hungry, and thirsty. She had been down there a long time, and she felt nopony would come to rescue her. As she blacked out, the last thing she saw a giant figure walking towards her and picking her up.
At Moondancer's house, Twilight had just left the picture. She took one last look at Moondancer's house, knowing she wasn't going to be seeing it for a very long time. She opened the window and escaped the house, and eventually left Canterlot. She went back to her library, packed up all the essentials, and went in the direction of the Badlands.
Not like I belonged in Ponyville or Canterlot anyways, she thought to herself. There is no such thing as the magic of Friendship. If there was, they would've stayed true to their Elements.
As she reached the border between Equestria and the Badlands, she looked back at her former home.
This is it, Twilight thought. If I take one more step, it'll be the farthest from home that I've ever been. Not like they'll miss me. They'll just find somepony to replace me.
She took a few more steps over the border and began running. As she ran, she never bothered looking back at the rabbit, sea serpent, foals, or the bear that watched her leave. She never bothered looking back at Equestria at all.
"There goes Equestria's last line of defense," the sea serpent said.
"But, what about our studies with her?" Sweetie Belle asked in tears.
"Forget that," Scootaloo replied, comforting her friend. Angel and Harry could tell she was fighting back tears of her own and failing. "Why would Twilight leave Equestria?"
Angel and Harry hugged them both in sadness. Apple Bloom just watched as Twilight disappeared into the sunset. Sadness was clear as day and night in her eyes, but she held her stoic look.
"Ah'll bet y'all anything it had somethin' ta do with our sisters," Apple Bloom suggested. "We all heard how Twilight explained that she knew the princess better than anyone. But she's also Celestia's niece, so how could Celestia not tell somethin was wrong?"
"Let's go ask them," Scootaloo suggested angrily.
"Not without somepony related to Pinkie and Fluttershy," Sweetie Belle said through tears.
"Then let's git goin," Apple Bloom said. "We can do this on our own. We don't even know where their relatives live."
The Crusaders left to go to Canterlot to go find out what had happened.
Back with Cadence, who was waking up. She saw a Unicorn wearing an undershirt, hammering something on what she recognized as an anvil. She saw she had bandages on her wounds and saw a blade weapon right next to the blacksmith. Her eyes went wide when she recognized it. As if sensing she was awake, the Unicorn stopped hammering.
"I was beginning to wonder when you would wake up, cousin," he said.
Cadence's eyes went wide when she recognized the voice of her cousin, Ash Magma. She had heard rumors from Luna that he lived under the mountain, though Celestia wrote it off as rumors as she believed he traveled to Yakyakistan for the best materials.
He walked over to her and sat her up. He then used his magic, which a had a fiery red aura, to lift a liquid in a rock to her mouth.
"Drink this," he said. "It'll make it easier for you to eat."
He helped Cadence lift it up to her lips. Cadence drank the whole thing. When she finished, she made a gagging face, but forced the liquid down her throat and coughed.
"What was that?!" she asked.
"Hot Water from the sauna just a level down, ironically the level you were at," he replied. "It has healing properties that may taste bad, but can jolt your nervous system to hyper alert in an instant. Kind of like when you went hyper as a year when Aunt Luna gave you chocolate even though mom specifically said no."
"I thought we agreed to never speak of that again," Cadence said sourly.
"I had my fingers crossed," Ash replied.
"You're a pony, you don't have any fingers," Cadence said in annoyance.
"You know what I mean," Ash replied. "Bao should be in here in a few seconds, so be ready, he may not look all that smart, but he can make a mean oatmeal with all the good stuff."
"Who's Bao?" Cadence asked.
At that moment, the door swung open. Standing there, holding a bowl of hot oatmeal was a large Panda Bear wearing a chef's hat and an apron that said The French Ponies may think their dinners are never second best, but food from the Pandas say otherwise. Ash rolled his eyes in annoyance at seeing his friend wearing those again, but also knowing he could never stop him from doing it.
"Oh good, the princess is awake," Bao said, walking in and setting the bowl down.
"Bao is actually the one who found you," Ash said. "Going on one of those evening walks he loves so much. But their not really evening walks, he just hosts the club for the spirits of the dead down in the bar."
"What bar?" Cadence asked, using her magic to levitate the bowl to her.
"The ones the dwarves hung out in whenever they had free time," Ash replied. "Do you think you'll be able to answer some questions as you eat?"
"Sure," Cadence replied. She took a bite of the oatmeal and immediately felt relaxed. "Oh my Faust, did you put strawberries in this?"
"And cherries," Bao replied. "And blueberries. And sugar. And butter. And a little bit of oregano."
"You and your oregano," Ash replied.
"I put that **it on everything," Bao said.
"First off," Ash said, ignoring the fact his friend had just cussed, "how did you get down there? I thought you were getting married to mom's personal protege's older brother. And only me and Bao know the entrance to the caverns."
"Changeling Queen," Cadence replied sourly. "When she couldn't find the entrance, she just teleported me down here."
"Chrysalis?" Ash asked in shock. He then looked at his friend. "The bitch queen was lucky we weren't around when she did that." He looked back at his cousin. "How long ago was that?"
"About a month ago," Cadence replied.
"If Chrysalis has been up there for a month, then she's doing better at blending in than last time," Ash said. "Usually Changelings don't last long in infiltration missions. What time does the wedding start?"
"In a few minutes," Cadence replied. "An hour at tops. Why?"
"Because we have a wedding to crash," Ash said, levitating the bladed weapon Cadence saw over to him. He wrapped his hoof around it as Bao put on battle armor and picked up dual wield battle axes.
Cadence got out of bed and picked up a nearby sword with her magic.
"Sting," Ash said. "The blade glows blue when enemies of Equestria are near."
"The Dwarves sure as hell knew how to make the best weapons," Cadence replied.
"Let's ride," Ash said as his mane and tail spontaneously lit on fire.