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// (11-4) Finding Her 
// Story: The Ruler of Ponies and Men 
// by Boopy Doopy 
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“Twilight!” Alex suddenly yelled as he burst into the room she liked to stay in during her time in Canterlot. She jumped out of her bed with a start and her book flew across the room when he appeared, just about having a heart attack at the scare.
“Where is Cadance?” he asked desperately, catching her off guard.
“I- I don’t know,” she answered quickly, blinking at him in confusion. “Why do you-”
“Follow me,” he commanded as he quickly ran back out. Twilight took a breath and got up quickly to follow him, deciding not to ask questions until they stopped again. The two of them ran through the castle before she realized he was leading them to the room that Starlight had been staying in lately with Trixie. She looked up from her own book as they entered and Alex asked her the same question.
The pink mare shook her head quickly, asking, “Why? Did something happen? I can’t imagine that she would try something so quickly, or at all, really. We made so much progress with her!”
“She has-” the stallion started before being interrupted by the heavy breathing of another stallion slowly entering the room.
“I… ugh… sorry… I’m not as… fit as you both…” 
“Who is that?” Starlight and Twilight asked completely confused, the latter continuing, “What’s going on?”
“Cadance has Grogar’s bewitching bell,” Alex said immediately, receiving gasps from both mares in the room.
“What! How in the world did she manage that?” Starlight asked, Twilight’s mouth hanging open silently. “What in the world happened?”
“This stallion happened,” Alex replied with deep frustration in his voice as he looked down at him. Brimstone shrank back as the eyes of the room fell on him, and he looked at his hooves shamefully.
“I… I’m not as smart as I think I am,” he replied quietly, blushing in embarrassment. “I’m sorry.”
“What did you do?” Starlight asked as she got out of her bed to make her way up to him.
“I, um… I… may have given Cadance the bewitching bell... “ He could see Starlight scowl immediately at that and quickly added, “But- but I wasn’t trying to! I just wanted to, you know…”
“This isn’t good,” Starlight decided. “We need to find her and contain her. If she starts using that thing, we won’t have any semblance of a chance against her. We need to find her now. I thought she was over this already!”
“Do you have any idea where she would be at? Is there a chance she’s somewhere nearby?”
“Well, does she know that we know yet?” Starlight asked. “Cause if not, we could try and wait for her to come back. If she does, then it’s probably best if we started defense planning now. Either way, having us all together and being here would be the best idea."
Starlight was already in strategy mode, which Alex appreciated seeing. He turned to Twilight to ask her for a comment, but watched instead as her head was hung low, her tears dripping onto the floor.
“Hey, it’s not your fault that she’s acting like this,” the stallion tried to tell her sympathetically so she would focus on the task at hand. “It’s my fault really for even taking the ring off of her.”
“Why do they all act like this though?” the alicorn asked desperately as she looked up at him. “All three of them acted like this, and… it’s just… I don’t know why!”
“I can’t say why either,” the stallion lied, really wanting to say that the power and status of being alicorn made them think they could act however they wanted to.
“It hurts…” she said tearfully, bending her head down again. “They all talked about friendship and helped me learn about it but they all act like this. Is that gonna happen to me, too? I don’t want to be like them…”
“I’m sure you’ll be different,” Alex responded kindly, stepping up to put a hoof on her shoulder. “I can already see a difference between now and when I first met you, so even if you thought you were going to be them, you have the capacity to change. But we have to put that aside for now and find Cadance, okay? You’re too helpful to us to be able to be distracted right now. We need you.”
“I… I’m sorry. Just… I need a minute…” she told him, closing her eyes tightly. Alex gave her exactly that, giving her time to wipe her eyes with her hooves before politely saying, “We need you Twilight.”
“I know, I know,” she assured him, closing her eyes to take a breath to calm herself down. “Okay. Let me think. She has Grogar’s bell. I don’t think she’d go to the Crystal Empire because that’s where Flurry Heart is. I can’t see her going to Ponyville either, so that would mean she’s somewhere around Canterlot. Ummmm….”
“She talked to me about wanting to bring back Celestia,” Alex commented. “You don’t think she’s trying to do that now, do you?”
“I… maybe? That would make sense, but… I don’t think Prin- I mean, Celestia is somepony who would succumb to her, even with Grogar’s bell.”
“Do you think she’s out stealing other ponies' magic?” the stallion asked. “If I were in her position, that’s what I would do.”
“Well that depends on if she knows we know,” Starlight explained. “I mean, if I were in her position, and I thought we didn’t know, I would try and steal the magic of someone powerful.”
“Who else is there?” Alex asked. “We have Luna and I here, and you two here, and Amore is in the Crystal Empire, but how much magic can she have after missing the last mellenium? I cannot see how it could be anyone but Cele-”
Suddenly, Twilight eyes went wide, and before anypony could ask her what she was thinking, she teleported away.



“Fluttershy, can I talk to you?” Cadance asked as she went up to her. She caught the look she gave her and internally scowled, but forced herself to keep a downcast expression.
“I just wanted to apologize to you for what happened,” she said. “I… I’ve come to realize that my actions were… inappropriate, to say the least.”
“Yes, to say the least,” the yellow pegasus agreed, not ready to just forgive her quite yet.
Cadance sighed and continued, “I’m sorry. I hope you can forgive me. If not, I understand why.” She forced herself to make eye contact with her and not look around the room, waiting for a certain creature’s appearance.
“Well… I appreciate the apology Cadance,” Fluttershy responded, “but it’s going to take me time before I forgive you. I’m just not ready for that yet.”
“Come on, come on, come on,” the alicorn thought to herself impatiently. “Where in Equestria is he? I can't wait on this.”
“I do hope one day you can,” she said, trying to keep the conversation going. “I know it’s what I deserve, but it does hurt to not be forgiven…”
“And it should,” Discord said, suddenly appearing beside his friend, much to Cadance’s relief and joy. “After all, you interfered with plans I had, too, and yet you never gave me-”
Cadance cut him off suddenly as she reached for the bell and stole his magic, leaving him stunned and wide eyed. To her own surprise though, Twilight appeared behind her a second later.