//------------------------------//
// Canterlot is next 
// Story: Things Change 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

"Wasted years!" Luna screamed as she stormed out of the room.
Celestia and Twilight looked at each other, equally confused.
"Did she just... What happened exactly?" Twilight asked.
"We walked back in the room, Luna got angry for no apparent reason, she screamed something and then she walked out," Celestia answered.
"Is this something she does often?"
"Only when music is brought up and somepony disagrees with her."
"Oh." Twilight looked around the room. "So... What are you going to do? About Chrysalis, I mean."
Celestia got back to her chair and to her cake. "I was thinking about waiting here for them to go away. They can't stay out there forever, they'll need to eat at some point."
"So you're just going to wait? Do you think problems will just solve themselves naturally if you do nothing?"
"Historically speaking, problems have solved themselves on their own while I waited and did nothing," Celestia said, taking a bite out of her cake.
"Historically speaking, I solved your problems while you waited doing nothing. This time I can't help you, so what will save you?"
"Starlight, probably. She seems to do a much better job at being you than you. I should have picked her as my student instead, I'm sure if she was an alicorn then right now all this would have already been solved. And if she fails then Flurry will eventually be old enough to come and rescue me. I can wait for as long as I need."



"How long has it been?" Celestia asked, discomfort radiating from her body.
"Four hours," Twilight dryly replied.
"I forgot how much I hated waiting. What's Luna doing at the moment?"
Twilight walked up to the balcony. "She's down there in the middle of the crowd, singing Gamma Neigh's 'Hoof of Fate' from atop a small stage they built. She seems to be enjoying herself."
"What about the rest of the ponies out there? Still blocked outside the castle?"
"No, they got in a couple of hours ago and they've been slowly making their way through the magical barriers I put up. They won't be able to enter this room, but they should arrive outside of it in another couple of hours."
"What about the guards? Have they tried to stop them from advancing?"
"The guards joined them as soon as they understood what was happening. In fact, I'm pretty sure they opened the gates and let them in."
"Chrysalis?"
"It looks like she's playing with a bunch of foals. They're drawing over her face. She looks happy."
Celestia slumped back in her chair. "Well, at least I still have cake," she said, looking at her empty plate and starting to cast a spell with her horn.
"About that," Twilight began, walking back in.
Celestia's spell went off and a flash of light shone over the plate, but nothing appeared on it.
"They got inside the food storage and took out all the cakes. They're eating those right now, and it looks like they'll have enough for some days."
Celesatia looked up at Twilight. "So we're out of cake?"
"We are."
"Does that mean there's no more cake?"
"It does."
"So we don't have any cake left?"
"We don't."
"So I can't eat cake any more?"
"You can't."
Celestia turned back towards her plate and stared, her gaze distant and unfocused, her expression blank and her face possibly even whiter than normal. She remained like that for a few minutes, occasionally muttering out the words "no more cake", seemingly unable to process the information.
"I'll go find something to read," Twilight said as she walked out of the room.



"I met Luna on my way back, she said she'll come here in a while," Twilight said as she walked back inside the room, her vision obscured by a book she held in front of her with her magic, its condition, title and colour yet another reference to a much better story. "Have you decid- WHAT HAPPENED HERE?"
Celestia was sitting in the middle of the room, some silver-coloured scraps of metal resting on the ground below her and some more on her lips. No furniture was left in the room, the balcony had missing chunks that looked like they'd been bitten off, and all over the walls, floor and ceiling the words 'no more cake' had been obsessively written, seemingly burned into the surfaces. "Hi," Celestia calmly greeted Twilight.
The worn green copy of 'Peaceful Charms' Twilight had brought with her fell to the ground with a thud. The purple alicorn stared at the scene for a couple of seconds, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "So what are your plans for dealing with Chrysalis?" she asked, ignoring everything else.
"Because things aren't going as fast as I wish I've decided to take matters into my own hooves and do the most logical thing to do in this case."
"So you're going to talk to her?" Twilight asked, a strand of hope in her voice.
"Actually, I had something else in mind," Celestia said. The lights in the room went out, a single cone of light was projected onto Celestia from above, and a piano started to play in the background. "A musical number."
"What?"
"I wish-"
"Celestia?"
"That I could turn back time-"
"Celes-"
"'Cause now the guilt is all mine-"
"Ce-"
"Can't live without the tr-"
"CELESTIA! Stop this right now!"
The music stopped and the lights returned to normal. Celestia looked at Twilight. "But what else am I supposed to do?"
"Go out there and talk to Chrysalis! Why would you ever think that singing a song would help you now?"
"But isn't that how you reformed Starlight? Or how Spike convinced others to give Thorax a chance? I thought singing was the natural way to convince others here in Equestria. You ponies seem to have this natural tendency to be easily influenced by songs."
"You really have a poor understanding of how ponies work, you know?" Twilight said as she paced back and forth inside the room. "You're supposed to sing the song after you've talked to the ones you want to convince, not before. That way when they enter their music-induced state of trance they'll accept the suggestions implanted in their brains by your previous discourse. Singing before doesn't do much, especially if there's no one there to be mesmerized by the performance."
"So I have to go talk to them?" Celestia asked, disappointment in her tone.
"You do," Twilight said, picking her book back up.
"Isn't there some kind of spell or charm to take control of the minds of other ponies and bend their wills to my commands? Some way to put them in a passive state where I can impart a series of instructions with my voice?"
"Don't be silly," Twilight said while flicking through the pages of 'Peaceful Charms', "there's no such thing. Why would someone even create such a possibly dangerous spell in the first place?"
Celestia sighed as she walked up to the balcony and looked down. She stood there for some minutes, contemplating the situation.
After a while Luna walked through the door and into the room. "Sister, there are ponies out here who would like to talk to you. I believe they said something along the lines of having you give up your crown, apologise to the population, be deprived of your powers and then locked up in a cage and thrown in a dungeon. They were having a bit of trouble with some spells and wards someone accidentally left in the corridors, so I lent them a hoof. They're right outside this room right now, I believe the sound you hear is that of their tools banging against the door. I think they're trying to fix it, and they need to dismantle it first."
Twilight briefly stared at the lunar alicorn, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. "Is she always this clueless?" she finally asked, turning back towards Celestia.
The Princess walked back inside the room. "No, but she has a very hard time wrapping her head around the concept of someone who shares her musical tastes not being good." Celestia's horn shone with magic and a golden armour appeared over her body, the helmet resting on the ground in front of her.
"Are you preparing yourself for battle, sister?" Luna asked.
"Indeed."
Twilight buried herself and her frustration in the book.
"Marvellous!" Luna excitedly exclaimed, "It has been quite a long time since we've partaken in a proper fight. To celebrate, I will provide musical accompaniment. Do you believe 'Another Holy War' would be a fitting piece to play?"
"Luna, please," Celestia said while fastening her helmet on her head.
"I guess you're right. That song doesn't actually talk about a war. I guess 'Battlefield' would be a more appropriate choice."
"Luna."
"'Time Stands Still'?"
"Luna."
"But of course! 'The Duellists'! It should have been the most obvious choice from the start, really."