When Cadance got up this day, she didn't felt quiet as cheerful as usual.
Just a few days after Shining Armors proposal, there was a threat made against Canterlot.
Random travelers had got picked up by mysterious attackers - a few of them been able to escape on their own, but only one of them apparently was set free, just to deliver an message:
"I will come back and take what is mine!"
This wasn't a good start for any marriage. Even on it self, it still was quiet bad news.
Cadance already had an vague idea who could be behind this, but right now there was still to little information to be certain about it... so many time had passed and it was sure something she would love to leave behind her once and for all.
So she hold back for now and hoped the raised security was able to deal with the problem.
She calmed her self down once again and tried to get into the spirit of things, when she sat in front of the big mirror about to tame her mane with a brush "It will be alright... soon im married and there is nothing the guards couldn't handle" she said to her self a few times.
Still it was such an awkward feeling running around in her chest, she could not help to feel watched on every step she took. Maybe she just made her self paranoid? Probably...
The alicorn sat down and took a deep breath, closing her eyes in order to get her pulse back to normal. It was off since the message, running just a little to fast, making her nervous and sensitive, which even her husband had noticed. He had summoned his strongest forcefield and did everything he could in order to keep it strong... so what was there to worry about?
"Calm down... everything is gonna be alright" she said to her self once more.
"Or isn't it?" an reply came, to see a black mare standing right behind her when she looked into the mirror - Cadance was shocked and quickly turned around, but there was nopony there and the rest of the room was empty as well...
she sat down once more and put a hoof up her face "oh... it was just my imagination".
She had to get out of here, maybe seeing her husband could calm her nerves a little better.
The alicorn made her way through the castle, luckily this time there was nothing blocking her way, she really wasn't in the mood for this anyway.
She had no idea where Shining Armor was, but since he had a quiet important role it wasn't too hard to find him in a matter of minutes, to make her way up to one of the guard towers, to be surprised once more – Twilight Sparkle was with him, the purple alicorn was jumping circles around her beloved (future) husband. It was a quiet welcome suprise.
"I hope i'm not interrupting anything important" she tried to welcome her with a small joke, but even before the unicorn could greet her back she noticed something on one of the distanced roofs, it was a familiar silhouette, observing everpony below, which made her hold on to her breath once more, to see it was gone, a moment later.
Twilight performed a small ritual they used to play as kids – but Cadance was just absolute disturbed, she didn't quite notice what the unicorn was doing, her mind was far in the distance as she walked up to her husband, to get some comforting.
Telling her husband might been a wise decision, but she could clearly see how stressed out he already was, since he not just had to hold guard day and night, but also reinforce the giant forcefield around Canterlot all few hours by himself - so raising his worries even more, for what might been her imagination? She simply could not do such a thing...
Cadance thought it may was better to stick to the act, until she had an idea of how to handle the situation best.
If it was just in her head, it wasn't important right now..
if it was something else, there was still plenty time to talk to him, since there was no way anything could get inside Canterlot as long he was around.
The least thing she could do for him, was to make sure he wasn't bothered with the marriage preparations, so she got back on track and tried to work down the list.
At first, she made her way over to the bakery, meeting Applejack first.
Cadance had talked to her husband and he had told her a quick summary about Twilight's friends and ability's, which made her a little curious, if they really could up to the praises they had received... but if Shining Armor, Twilight and Princess Celestia thought so, there was a practical no margin of error - which made her even more curious to see them in action.
As she walked in she got greeted right away from the Cowgirl, still she hold up to her act, since there was no harm doing so and she could explain her self later, to become good friends with them. It wasn't like she was rude or anything, it was just... neutral.
"Please, call me Princess Mi Amore Cadanca"
"You come here to check out whats on the menu for your big day!?" the Cowgirl asked excited.
Oh, right, she sure would had to ... eat something... she almost had forgot about this part.
"I have" trying to give her best smile, despite her worries.
The orange mare grabbed on to a small plate of apple sweets, which looked like some miniature pie. Some sweets like strawberry pie would not had been a problem - and in fact she enjoyed them... but of course it had to be apple pie... making her sigh a little inside.
Cadance hovered one of them to her and gave it a bite, since she didn't want to offend a cook in her own kitchen, let alone the effort which was obviously put into it.
The taste was not quite common for her and in fact, big potions of apples also wasn't to good for her body, still the bake goods had a lot love put into them, which was actual the most delicious part about it, so it was a good thing she tried some.
"Delicious, i love love love them" she said to express her emotions on those.
Then cowgirl even offered her some to go, but once again... to bad they would been literally poisons to her, so she took the bag, but had no choice other to throw them away soon after, when nopony was looking, heading for her next point on the list.
The princess finally was able to find the room, which was assigned for the tailor from Ponyville. A white mare called Rarity.
At first, she wanted to knock, but as soon she got close to the door she heard the rumoring inside. It was Twilight Sparkle ranting about her, since she wasn't quite pleased with the ruff behavior – having all right to be upset.
"Maybe i should come back later?" she thought to her self, but on the other side, she was now here and maybe it was good to interrupt, before her friend could get some wrong impression about her, so she entered, acting like she just had arrived, which was fortunately backed-up by the fact the bride maids just had caught up to her.
"Did i hear someone say my name?"
The white unicorn immediately ran to her and explained her self.
“Your highness, let me just start by saying, what an honor it is, to play a role in such a momentous occasion” bowing down afterwards.
She sure had some good manners, she thought to her self, when she noticed the unicorns work right behind her on the other side of the room.
“Is my dress ready?”
“Uh, ih, yes of course” the unicorn confirmed “i was working on ever since I got the assignment and I think you will be pleased with the results!” she almost cheered.
The princess gave the dress a close look, it sure was gorgeous she had to agree, but a minor change sure would be nice, since she want to add a personal touch to it, giving new instructions which the unicorn wrote down right away.
But the brides maids costumes didn't please her to well.
Since the moment the maids had gotten close to her, she had felt all kind of egoistic emotions going out from them, giving her more than a clue, why they tried to be a part of the marriage. Being who she was, made her aware of an wide spectrum of emotions, not just love.
Right here she didn't want to much of a scene, but later on she would tell them she knew what was going on and throw them out faster than the Canterlot Express.
So she played it subtle for a now, it was a shame... the dresses had looked great, but there was no point to let the poor unicorn waste even more time for such snakes.
“...and those should be a different color” something which hopefully would suite her new maids a little better... she would give a more detailed note later, but right now she didn't want to spend to much time in between her new friends and... them.
The trio of course had no idea what this was all about, so they tried once again to get their benefits.
“i think they are lovely” the white maid said
“me too” the blue earth mare agreed
“i love them” the green one stepped in.
This was the drop that made the barrel flow over.
“Love them? What do they know about love?” the princess thought.
So Cadance sends them an angry glance, to silence the mares.
“Make them a different color” she said and walked out.
Cadance took the trio along with her to another room and forced them to give up their charade, which they did in a matter of minutes, since there was no way to hide from her.
It wasn't to pleasant to do so, but if it wasn't honest intentions which was motivating them, how could they have them around on their marriage?
Maybe she could figure out later what to do and who to replace them with... not quite a great day until now she had to admit. Still there was so much more to do so she was heading for a pink earth pony … her name was Pinkie Pie if she remembered correctly.
She was supposed to be in charge for the party planning and hopefully a little different at that...
The other planners she had met of before, all had quiet snobby - self pleasing ideas, which all had ended up like the Royal Canterlot Gala... so everypony would had a smocking, a glass of alcoholic apple cider, while slow classic music would play in the background.
This wasn't at all how she would like to have their marriage in everypony's memory... this was a day to cheer, to make friends, to share love and happiness to everypony around – not to show off who can carry his snout the highest... no surely not.
When she came in the room, everything was extreme colorful, everywhere was balloons and confetti, as well beautiful flowers, making her a little confused. She had not expected that. To be fair, she had no idea what to expect in the first place, when suddenly the pink Partypony was right behind her – babbling away without being asked.
At first she showed some party giveaway's for every guests, hoots, paper-party cannons and other colorful and funny things.
“Let me see, we been over the key...” - by this she must mean the main-even Cadance figured, as the energetic mare run up to a corner filled with party games, doing a little demonstration- which looked like quite entertaining... just to rush to the other side of the room, “the dances!” to wind up some music and do a little chicken dance- not quite Canterlot standard, still a lot better than slow waltz... just to rush a moment back in front of her “i think the reception is gonna be perfect, don't you!?” giving her a little worried, still cheerful glance.
“Perfect” Cadance replied “If we are celebrating a six-year old's birthday party”
“Thank youuu” the pink mare replied innocent.
Somepony might could had miss understood this line, but Pinkie Pie was master in reading all kind of pony-impressions out of other pony's. Living with her older sister Maud had trained her well, to notice even the smallest mood changes in pony's... and once again she was absolute right, despite the fact:
There was no way Pinkie could have known that, where Cadance originally came from – a six year old was already a grown up adult.
One of the last two on her list was Fluttershy. A yellow pegasus in charge of the music for the main-ceremony.
The alicorn was surprised to find her outside and at first what seems alone,
was she maybe the bad apple in the group and a little lazy?
It was a really important task ahead and she spent her time outside, playing in the garden... hopefully she would not had to replace her like the bride maids.
“Hello, how are the preparations going... ?” she asked carefully.
The yellow pegasus shrunk a little in size “Oh.. um … your highness, I haven't expected your visit”.
She sure seemed quite nervous, which could had been a give away for most, but Cadance felt it wasn't only because of her, so she tried it once more a little more careful.
“Please, don't be afraid, I just want to know why you are outside and not practicing with the royal band?”
“Uhm, well. In fact I am practicing with my band... your highness” she said shyly.
There was nopony else around, which was mildly confusing.
“Here... is nopony else?” she said a little worried.
“Oh, I don't need nopony else, my little friends promised to help me” with that the yellow mare pointed on a empty tree-branch “oh... it seems we scared them off...”
Cadance could not help to raise an eyebrow at her - maybe she was a little... confused?.
but before she could say something, the mare began to hum a small melody and a group of birds flew onto the branch from before and started to chirp along.
It was amazing to watch, those birds looked nothing alike and probably never had been trained in their life before to sing together, but they did like a real chorus would and it sounded really good and gracefully like she had hoped.
One more really unique detail she thought and a lovely one at that, but as the pegasus reached a certain point in her melody, one of the birds got a little overconfident and chirped way to high, which was hurting Cadance's sensible ears.
“Ouch, make it stop!” she said, covering her ears and the bird quire stopped alongside the mare.
“Oh i'm so sorry...” Fluttershy said right away “...he accidentally must got a little of key there”
“Its... its okay... please just avoid those high notes...” she tried to bring her self to a smile.
“W-we sure will, don't you worry, on the wedding everything is gonna be perfect”
“That's all I ask for, thank you” she said and walked off, leaving behind the bird quire and her leader.
The only pony remaining to check for was a pegasus pony named Rainbow Dash, which should perform some show act by her self, which was odd since the Wonderbolt's still been around and could probably add even more to the show, or not?
The search turned out to run into sand for a while, so she had to ask a little around until she finally knew where to look and visited the guest house of the Wonderbolt's, which of course just let her talk to her leader right away. Still, it was kinda odd, usually the Wonderbolt's would not let some outsiders ...or better put “amateurs”... into their airspace.
“Rainbow Dash?” Spitfire said thoughtful “ye I seen her” pointing towards the sky, on which Cadance found a blue pegasus with rainbow colored mane, performing incredible flight maneuvers in a quick and sharp follow up, to repeat them a few times like a warm up.
“If I may add, she sure knows her flying mam, I would not worry about her performing as promised” with that said she put out some sun glasses and hoofed Cadance an extra pair as well “here it comes!”.
Cadance had no idea what she meant by that, but put on the glasses anyway, just before the blue pegasus got into a high velocity dive, racing towards the ground with an shock-cone forming around her and moments before the impact, seeming to bounce of the air to split somehow the color spectrum it self – leaving behind an spectacular Sonic Rainboom.
“Told ya... she s quiet amazing” Spitfire said proudly.
Cadance knew, this pegasus sure gave a hundred-twenty percent.
The only state of concern was her husband.
Shining Armor was a good stallion and loved her, but the last few days he could not help to insist to wear this old emblem his uncle had given to him.
The emblem itself wasn't bad or anything – it just looked like it was made yesterday; being a bright silver shield, with a magic star on it, which was strapped onto his chest.
The only problem about it was, that his uncle had once fought her when she was younger and received it afterward by Princess Celestia to honor his heroism in battle...
this is why his uncle was an idol for Shining Armor, somepony he had looked upon always since... but on her side, it brought back too many bad memories she could not get past.
She never had told him about this fight, since she still felt guilty about it and also she didn't want ruin his youth idol for no reason, since his uncle was also the pony to make him join the royal guard in the first place... for which she kinda, indirectly, had to thank him for that, since they never had met otherwise in the first place.
Still, Cadance hopped he would give in at some point and wear something else instead.
This was also why she wasn't quiet pleased to see him still wearing it, as he talked to Twilight, which wasn't to pleased to see her either, after she made them aware of her present.
“Could I speak to you for a moment?”
Her husband followed her next door, in order to keep it private, but he still insisted and the conversation boil up a little, when suddenly Shining Armor had an bad case of migraine.
“Oh dear, are you getting another one of your headaches?” she said worried.
It was hard at times. If she wasn't careful, bad emotions could be reflected back on pony's, without her wanting to, causing all kind of side effects, one of them being sudden bursts like this. Only way around was to spread love when ever she could, which worked fine every time – she was the Princess of Love after all.
Giving some love and receiving some back was a lot better for sure.
She used right away one of her spells, in order to banish her own magic effect upon him, so his mind would be free of this copied swarm of emotions, clearing the headache along side with it.
Little did she know, Twilight had seen all of this...
Later this evening, when the ceremony-rehearsal was going on.
After seeing Rainbow Dash performing and all the others doing their no less to make everything special, she had decided to make them the new bride-maids, who else could be more qualified? It was a great idea... not just could she make up for some of their behavior, it was also a great way to thank them and let them have take part on this important day.
Everything was going as planned and everypony was right in place, it seemed, until Shining Armor noticed Twilight was missing “Where is Twilight?” he asked around, which just arrived moments later, bursting into the ceremony and shouting at that.
“I'm here and i'm not standing next to her and neither should you” she started, while walking up to the couple.
“I'm sorry, I don't know why she is acting like this” her future-husband said.
“Maybe we just should ignore her” Cadance suggested, bringing up another debate was the last thing she could need today, but the mare continued.
“You have to listen to me!” she shouted, as her friends Fluttershy and Applejack tried to calm her down, without any success, when she suddenly pointed hoof upon Cadance, declaring “She is evil!” causing a lot of mumbling in the room, before she continued her mislead accusations.
“She has been horrible to my friends, she has obviously done something to her bride-maids and if that wasn't enough, I saw her put a spell onto my brother, which made his eye go all...” and with this she performed a spinning eye motion.
Cadance knew she might wasn't quite a sunshine today, but she hadn't done anything to be treated like this! Let alone from Twilight...
This was when the last bit of good spirit cracked up in her and she began to cry “Why are you doing this to me!?”
She tried to run away, unable to handle the situation anymore, but Twilight even got after her for a moment, shouting again and again “your are evil! Evil! After her.
The teared-up alicorn ran down the corridor, leaving behind the ceremony group,
straight heading for her room. She just wanted to get some space between her and Twilight.
She already had a lot of stress because of the wedding... the threat against them... and her husband getting sick... but then all this hate is thrown at her in the blink of an eye, by somepony she loved in her youth... in front of all the pony's which just was about to become her new friends and to put a cherry onto it - in front of Celestia, in the middle of the ceremony-rehearsal!?
This was just to much at once... and painful to the core.
The alicorn ran into her room and shut the door close and let herself fall on the bed, still shivering and crying out loud, trying to handle the pain.
She was alone and the room was silent, except for the noise she made herself... until a soothing voice came to her ear.
“Oh... my dear... why so upset?... everything will be gonna alright...”
The princess still sobbed, as she looked around her self, to find nothing else than an empty room.
“Why don't we talk about this... i'm sure Twilight didn't mean it...” the voice once more spoke up. It was a familiar voice indeed, since it just sounded like her own, making her wonder if the stress now finally had got to her head completely.
“Come to me my dear... i'm there for you...” the voice lured her again.
Cadance whipped away some of the tears and walked around in the room, looking for the source of the voice, when the big mirror caught her eye.
Her reflection obviously didn't mimic her movement. While she was walking up to it, her reflection just sat there and gave an comforting smile.
“Am... I insane?” she asked right away, feeling odd to talk to her reflection.
“Oh no... I assure you everything is fine with you... and there is nothing you have to worry about...” she smiled.
“But... Twilight and the others, they sure think i'm a monster...” the original said sadly.
“Don't worry about them either... you ain't a monster...” she said in a warm tone, which kinda cheered Cadance up.
Suddenly, the room got dark, despite the fact the sun was still shining in through the big windows and while her double-stepped out of the mirror, causing her to back of in a state of shock.
“You ain't a monster” the reflection said once more when her smile turned into an evil grin “the monster... is ME!”
With that said green flames burst from the ground all around the alicorn princess, which slowly sunk into the ground, there was no way to fight it, not even flapping her wings could help her to escape this trap and despite her trying to call for help, her voice was nothing more than a far echo in nowhere all of a sudden...
… later, when she would wake up, she found herself in some dark cage, which was obviously reinforced with a special kind of magic, which not just would hold back her regular magic abilities, but also shut her away from all emotions above her, leaving her behind barely strong enough to get up.
To make things even worse, little did she know, her double just had taken her place and would do the same thing to Twilight.