//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Reconciliations and Regrets // Story: Apologies After the Love Wave // by SamSwordsman123 //------------------------------// “I was afraid she might have hurt you… or worse! Are you alright?” Shining Armor asked worriedly as he broke the hug and ran his hooves over his sister looking for wounds. “I’m fine… now that I have you back!” Twilight wept as she pulled him back into the hug. "Cadance probably suffered more than me." "Not sure about that, from the sound of it you had things just as bad if not worse. I can't imagine the pain you must have felt," Cadance said. Shining Amor held Twilight's forelegs in one of his while using his other to stroke her mane while still sobbing. “I’m sorry Twilie! I was so stupid! You’re my little sister and I swear I will always be your BBBFF, no matter what. I was angry, but I could never stop loving you.” “The same goes for us,” Applejack said. “We would have forgiven you if you’d been wrong and apologized.” “I forgave my sister for what she did. I would have forgiven you as well.” Celestia promised. Twilight smiled and looked at her brother and other loved ones. “Thanks, you’re all my best friends. I love you all.” Shining broke the hug but still kept his hooves around her. “I love you too, sis. If it weren’t for you, I’d be married to that monster right now. You saved me, thank you.” He wiped his sister’s tears off her face with a weak smile. “Will… will you be my Best Mare again at the real wedding? Please? Nopony else deserves it more than you, Twilight.” “Nothing would make me happier,” she said with a full smile. “Good,” he said before wiping his own tears. Twilight looked around at her mentor, former foal sitter, and friends. All of them were smiling at the sight of the reconciled siblings. “You’re right back where you belong, Twilight!” Pinkie squealed in happiness. Rarity smiled but her eyes were still sad. “I’m happy for you, Darling. I’d best get you that dress I meant for you to wear at the initial wedding. But after this I… oh I simply don’t deserve to be a royal bridesmaid! Not after failing as a friend like this.” All the others nodded, they looked at Princess Cadance. “We’d like to resign from our position as Bridesmaids. I’m sure you can find ponies that deserve the honor more. In fact, I’d say we don’t deserve to even be in this wedding at all!” Applejack said, her head falling. Twilight’s mouth fell open at these words which slightly mirrored the ones her brother had spoken to her. Her five friends began to walk toward the door, looking at the floor in shame. “Girls wait!” Twilight called. “Don’t leave me again!” They stopped and looked back. “We’re not leaving you Twilight. We’re leaving this wedding. Well- we’ll still help put it together -” Applejack started. “Girls! You don’t have to leave!” Twilight said. “I know you feel guilty! I did too after you left me.” “You got nothing to feel guilty about Twilight! You were right! You were the awesome one today!” Rainbow Dash said. Twilight shook her head. “The way I delivered it was terrible, and like I said nopony would believe Cadance could ever be like that. I should have known it wasn’t her by the magic… I should have been calmer and not acted the way I did! The way I shoved your hat on your face, Applejack! That was mean! Even though I was trying to protect my brother I acted like a jealous foal! A jerk!” The orange Earth Pony looked up at her hat. “I might as well have had it over my eyes the entire time to be so blind! It’s okay, Sugarcube. You may have been a bit of a jerk at the rehearsal, but I was by far the worst jerk when I told them all to check on the imposter and leave you.” “Where did my Pinkie Sense go when I needed it?” Pinkie Pie asked hitting her head and sobbing. “I said Royal Weddings brought out the strangest of ponies. Well this one certainly brought out the worst in us. This is just like when I tried to impress the Canterlot Upperclass and chose to be at their party instead of yours, Twilight.” Rarity wept. “Or when we fought over who got to go with you to the Grand Galloping Gala,” Fluttershy said. “We’ve been terrible friends,” Rainbow Dash said. “No, you’ve just made a lot of mistakes. I have too,” Twilight said. “Remember that time I went crazy because of a deadline for a paper? Or that time travel incident? None of us are perfect. Besides, if our positions had been reversed… I would have walked out on all of you for accusing Cadance of being evil!” This caused them to open their mouths in shock. “But… how could you possibly have been fooled, Darling?” Rarity asked. “You’re the smartest pony of all of us, except Princess Celestia, perhaps.” The monarch shook her head. “Today, Twilight was the smartest. I was focused on a threat I thought to be outside, but all along it was inside. Afraid the Princess of the Sun was not very bright today.” Twilight thought for a moment, wondering what sort of things could have happened to allow the queen to fool her. “Well, who knows? Maybe if… she’d said loud enough for me to hear what she was doing to my brother was a healing spell I might have believed her. That was the moment when I got concerned for my brother and knew she was evil. But if I’d thought it was healing, I probably would have assumed she was stressed out. Who knows?” Her friends managed a smile. “Well… we’re glad you forgive us,” Applejack said. “But we really don’t belong in the wedding after our mistake today.” They turned again as Twilight looked after them sadly. Cadance then came forward, stomping the floor. “Stop right there!" The force of the youngest's alicorn princesses voice rang through the room. The five exiting mares stopped and slowly turned around nervously. "Now listen to me! What you all did was a terrible thing, but I can see how far you are willing to go for a friend in order to make it up to them when you make a mistake. I may not have chosen you as my new bridesmaids, but I’m glad the queen did. You’ve all helped Twilight save Equestria twice before. And Twilight is right, we all make mistakes. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t let ponies settle arguments on their own rather than force them to resolve it. I would be honored to have ponies like you as my bridesmaids. Besides, I’m sure it would hurt Twilight to be in the wedding without all of you there.” Twilight nodded. The others looked at her, then each other and turned back in her direction. “Well, we certainly don’t want to hurt our Twilight anymore today. Alright, we’ll stay.” Applejack said. “For her.” Shining Armor walked up to Cadance and whispered something in her ear. The pink alicorn nodded with a smile. “I think you guys should still be bridesmaids," he said. "You’ve been around to protect my sister when I wasn’t. We’ll let you be bridesmaids if you can promise me something." “What’s that?” Rainbow Dash asked. “That you will never abandon my sister again,” Shining Armor said. “You will stay at her side and protect her. What happened today, it could have been a lot worse. I was afraid Twilight had been badly hurt when I learned the truth. It's always been my responsibility to protect her as the elder sibling. But today I got all her other friends to leave her alone and helpless. When I first found out she’d faced Nightmare Moon and decided to move to Ponyville I nearly went there to bring her back to Canterlot.” Twilight frowned. “Shining Armor! I’m not a filly anymore! I may have acted like one at the rehearsal, but I don’t need you to protect me all the time!” “I know, Twilie!” Her brother sighed. “I’ve been treating you like for a while, haven’t I? I look at you and I still see the little foal that followed me everywhere and only had me as a friend.” He then smiled. “But now look at you! You wield the Element of Magic and have become a Protector of Equestria. Still, you need your friends to do that.” Twilight shook her head. “It wasn’t the Magic of Friendship that saved Equestria today. It was your and Cadance’s love. I could feel the strength of it. And I know you two are meant for each other.” “We only defeated the Changelings because of you, sis,” Shining said, ruffling her mane before turning back to her friends. “So… you hear me? Take care of my sister when she needs it.” They nodded. “You can count on us. Whenever she’s in danger we’ll be there for her!” Applejack said. "Good," Cadance said with a smile before turning serious. "But when the wedding is over, you all have some community service. Canterlot will need a good clean up after the attack." "Yeah. It's because of us not listening to Twilight this invasion happened. We'll be glad to clean up all we can, even if takes a month!" Rainbow Dash said. Twilight smiled and looked at Celestia. “Now I have a real wedding to put together!” The princess nodded. “Um… Twilight?” She looked and saw Spike had approached her. The baby dragon looked up at his best friend with a pair of sad eyes. “I’m sorry too. I was really hurt when I left you… I just didn’t want to miss the wedding.” “It’s okay Spike. I forgive you too.” Twilight nuzzled his head. “It’s only natural for all of you to want to be part of such a happy and important occasion. I would have been thrilled too if not for the fact my brother hadn’t told me he was getting married before.” Shining let out a weak chuckle. "Yeah, I should have done that. Stayed up late for a few minutes and written a letter to you once my shift was done." Twilight looked at her brother and friends. “I guess… I really was jealous at first. It’s no wonder you guys thought that. Maybe some part of that jealousy remained. But it's gone now! I saw Cadance’s determination to save you when we were trapped in the caverns, I felt the strength of her love for you! You two have my full unconditional blessing.” Shining Armor smiled as Cadance walked up by his side and they both hugged Twilight. “Thank you, Twilight,” they said together. The rest of Twilight's friends as well as Celestia joined in the hug. Twilight smiled, letting her loved ones embrace her, when they broke apart, she said, “Now let's get something happy going on! I think I need to have this wedding today after all the heartbreak that’s come.”